The Actually "Marginalized Voices" On Campus
Jonathan Haidt has written and discussed this -- how academics are, by and large, politically liberal and not accepting of conservative colleagues or conservative views.
There's a piece in TIME by Tai Fortgang that originally ran on The College Fix about the ways students enjoy "left-wing privilege" on campus.
(In case you're wondering, I'm neither left nor right but a fiscally conservative libertarian who believes in gay marriage and that you have a right to use drugs and engage in prostitution with other consenting adults.)
Fortgang writes:
Among the great ironies surrounding the state of academia is the continued insistence on hearing more and more "marginalized voices" and increasing "diversity" on campus, as if there is some kind of archaic conservative establishment making that difficult to do.One would likely be hard-pressed to find a more left-leaning group than college professors and admissions officers, who prioritize pulling marginalized groups out of their marginalization and adding people of diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to campus conversations.
Yet in their efforts to achieve a more egalitarian conversation, left-wing academics and their students completely ignore (at best) and marginalize (at worst) students and the rare colleague who disagree with them politically.
And therein lies the ultimate irony: The very voices that decry inequality in all its manifestations either accept or turn a blind eye to the stunning dearth of conservative academics and the de facto censorship of right-wing students on overwhelmingly left-wing campuses.
Were it some other group suffering such a marginalization, there is no doubt that the left would be up in arms, crying discrimination and demanding rectification.
Some might even call such a monopoly on prevailing campus orthodoxy a type of "privilege," defined as an asset "of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to," to quote Peggy McIntosh, the matriarch of privilege's modern construction.
As LibertarianHome tweeted:
@LibertarianHome
Left-wing privilege: never choosing "between writing what I believe and writing what will get a good grade"
Funny how the voices they want to silence in order to create more room for the "marginalized" voices are voices that disagree with them politically - when, in reality, the voices making the most noise and drowning out other voices are usually the ones that agree with them politically.
Conan the Grammarian at July 21, 2015 9:02 AM
That tweet says a lot:
Left-wing privilege: never choosing "between writing what I believe and writing what will get a good grade"
This is very true, many on the left in college never have to really defend their political stance. They just have to say whatever it is and their professors will just nod approvingly and pat them on the head.
Those on the right, who voice their opinion, will have to defend every sentence they make - and their defense had better be a good one or the professor will give them a bad grade.
Which leads me to believe that politically conservative students might some how or other come out ahead. They will have learned to think critically in trying to defend their position or fail. While the students just parroting whatever tripe they are fed don't learn a whole lot.
charles at July 21, 2015 3:18 PM
"While the students just parroting whatever tripe they are fed don't learn a whole lot."
They already know everything. Just ask them.
They're only there to get a credential.
dee nile at July 21, 2015 4:07 PM
Charles has a point that I've heard discussed elsewhere: that the conservative/libertarian students learn to reason and debate better because they have to, where leftist students can just slide because nothing they say will be challenged. That does, however raise the question of how valuable those reasoning and debate skills are out in the real world. When the government is dangling subsidies and welfare and free swag in front of people, for a lot of them, that overcomes reason. Thinking is hard; cashing a government check is easy.
Cousin Dave at July 22, 2015 10:46 AM
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