University Insanity
Why are conservatives fed up with colleges?
“A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (58%) now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on the country, up from 45% last year.” Such was one headline finding of a recent survey by Pew regarding attitudes towards national institutions.
Some of the feedback I saw from my peers in response to this finding struck me as downright ridiculous. The general sentiment was along the lines of “conservatives don’t want critical thinkers; they want people to be ignorant and mindlessly obedient.” I’m not even Republican, but I still think there are very good reasons for being skeptical of where universities are headed. In this essay, I will articulate why.
Much of the contemporary criticism I’ve heard directed at universities — especially from conservatives — focuses on perceived hostility towards students or invited speakers whose views aren’t in line with the majority of students, or perhaps the views of professors and administration. So why is that an issue?
I think we would all agree that universities groom tomorrow’s leaders, and as such, should be a place where students learn to challenge and defend ideas. Yet in a number of high-profile cases, they have failed to achieve that goal. Universities are increasingly becoming places where groupthink rules and dissent is quashed — effectively becoming indoctrination centers for today’s youth. The prevailing ideology has routinely been described as a postmodernist or Marxist quasi-religion.
It sounds too crazy to be true, right? While conservatives have been complaining about this for years, as of late, professors from all sorts of political backgrounds have also noticed and started raising objections. In support of this claim, I want to relay the story of a professor whom I believe my progressive friends will be very sympathetic towards — for he is also very progressive. Enter Bret Weinstein.
Up until just a few weeks ago, Bret Weinstein was a professor of biology at The Evergreen State College, a small liberal arts college in Washington. One of the school’s traditions is an event called the Day of Absence, apparently inspired by a play of the same name. The idea is to “[have] white students… consider the importance of their fellow community members by sensing the real loss of their presence.”
This year, the event’s organizers decided to change the format of the Day of Absence. Whereas in the past, black students voluntarily left the campus for the day, this time around, white students, staff, and faculty were asked to leave. Weinstein objected to this change in an open letter (a screenshot of which is included in the article linked here), calling it “an act of oppression.” I thought Weinstein’s response was very measured and reasonable — but don’t take my word for it. Read it and decide for yourself.
For taking a public stance against the new Day of Absence protocol, students confronted Weinstein. In a video embedded in the article linked in the previous paragraph, you can hear students yelling and angrily accusing Weinstein of having “said some racist shit.” That’s a serious accusation, but I haven’t seen a single bit of evidence to back up that claim.
If you want to get a good sense of what Weinstein believes, take a few hours and listen to his interview on the Joe Rogan experience — that’s how I originally learned about this whole incident. Weinstein strikes me as a calm, educated man, and a dedicated progressive. Early in the interview, he sings praises of the civil rights movement, and while I can’t find the exact timestamp, I also distinctly remember him admitting he’s “not a big fan of capitalism.”
Yet none of the progressive credentials seemed to matter to Weinstein’s most vocal critics. They continued to defame him in public and demand his dismissal. Weinstein recently announced his resignation after settling a lawsuit with Evergreen over this entire episode, and I’ll admit, I feel bad for the guy. Even though it’s clear we have some major political differences, I think he was treated totally unfairly and didn’t deserve what happened to him.
Had the events at Evergreen been an isolated incident, I wouldn’t have a very good case here, but as mentioned back in the introduction, there are plenty of other professors railing against university insanity. A growing number of them aren’t even conservative. Still don’t believe me? Here are a few other eminent names you might be interested in reading about if you want to hear other accounts.
- Nadine Strossen, professor of law at New York Law School. She also used to be the president of a little nonprofit organization you might have heard of. It’s called the American Civil Liberties Union. Two years ago, Strossen gave a speech decrying the proliferation of safe spaces at universities. More recently, she testified before Congress on the issue of campus free speech, although I haven’t been able to find a video of her entire testimony. Given what happened to Weinstein, I have a hard time imagining she would say things have gotten better since then.
- Jonathan Haidt, professor of business ethics at NYU and author. Haidt started Heterodox Academy to draw attention to and counteract the disproportionate representation of left-leaning views among university faculty. In a single interview, Haidt simultaneously expressed his disdain for the Republican Party, and later outlined and criticized the social justice warrior mindset that has gained tremendous traction among students — and even some professors.
- Peter Boghossian, professor of philosophy at Portland State University. Boghossian is probably best known as an outspoken atheist. He even wrote a book called A Manual for Creating Atheists. But aside of that, Boghossian has also argued “…there are departments in the universities that are making a mockery of our institutions.” He specifically lays the blame on the influence of postmodernism in humanities and social sciences.
When one sees professors all over the political spectrum claiming there is a big problem on college campuses, we would do well to take notice. I don’t think one can reasonably argue this is some crackpot conservative conspiracy theory anymore; there is good reason for concern. It’s time to push back against this university insanity, lest we allow radical activists (and I use that descriptor in a literal sense) to take over and destroy one of our society’s most valuable institutions.
