Thread by @magi_jay

I wrote for @johnastoehr about the trope that colleges are descending into a kind of authoritarian conformity of social liberalism. The reality is academia is hardly “monocultural” & certain GOP ideas are antithetical to the project of education itself. editorialboard.com/p/theres-room-…

Writers from across the political spectrum love to opine about the death of "debate" on campuses, especially when it comes to conservative ideology.

But no one ever tells us which conservative views are being omitted & why exactly they are worthy of intellectual inquiry

Let’s be clear about a few things:
1. Certain forms of “intellectual conformity” are not actually bad
2. Coherent non-batshit conservative belief is well-represented in academia
3. A lot of current GOP *political* thought is antithetical to the entire project of education

We see these terms like "ideological conformity" batted around a lot--including by many liberals! And sure, "intellectual conformity" sounds 1984-level-terrifying

But there are some kinds of intellectual conformity that are actually good

Conformity *can* be the result of truth

It’s good that we can agree our physical world is subject to gravity & not magic
That the Holocaust happened
That cigarettes cause cancer
That the Tooth Fairy does not exist & the earth is round. That A=12bh

This is us “ideologically conforming” around descriptive facts

It’s also true that we can—and perhaps should—ideologically conform around normative propositions

Such as
Slavery is bad
Or genocide is bad
Or rape is bad
Or murder is bad

“Ideological conformity” in a lot of cases is actually a good thing & forms the basis for a lot education

Which brings me to the next issue, the fearsome ideological conformity that’s crowding out conservative thought on campuses. People love to talk about this but they never really describe 1. What the bad ideological conformity is & 2. What conservative thought is being suppressed

So what *is* the bad ideological conformity on college campuses?

What's the conservative thought that's being so egregiously and illiberally omitted from education?

I suspect this "conservative thought" boils down to "racism: yes? no?" or "LGBTQ people? Human? No? Let's chat!"

Colleges should be maximally permissive in terms of speech. But if a history professor is ranting about Q-anon & blood cabals or a biology professor is telling people that COVID is fake, they’re not actually fulfilling the basic requirement of their profession: educating people

They’re also violating the basic tenants of their profession if they discriminate against students based on race, religion, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

At this point, asking for greater representation of conservative thought in higher ed is like if I wanted to be an electrician and said "What are all these wires and switches for? I use unicorn dandruff and hippo sperm. That's how lights work."

So, on the one hand, there is plenty of reasonable conservative thought that is represented on college campuses, so what's missing?

Racism?
Science denial?
Transphobia?

Is this what's needed to make higher education a less terrifying “monoculture?” editorialboard.com/p/theres-room-…

To be clear: I think Trump supporters should be able to teach in higher ed just as readily as Biden supporters can. I also think professors should endeavor to distance their political beliefs from their students. No one should be like, this is My Queen:

It's also true that a lot of conservative "thought" is not prevalent on campuses because it is opposed to the fundamental goal of education: the pursuit of truth. If the GOP wants to be better represented in education, maybe they should stop lying. editorialboard.com/p/theres-room-…