The idea that universities have brought this on themselves by partiality implies that this is fundamentally about the institutional stances universities have taken. But these are rarely even examined; it's student and faculty speech that gets the press and sustains the image of woke academia. - ThreadSky

tedmccormick.bsky.social • 1 day ago

The idea that universities have brought this on themselves by partiality implies that this is fundamentally about the institutional stances universities have taken. But these are rarely even examined; it's student and faculty speech that gets the press and sustains the image of woke academia.

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tedmccormick.bsky.social•1 day ago

It also forgets that the people driving this campaign have been candid about their misrepresentation of neutral analytical terms (e.g. postmodermism, intersectionality, CRT) as political *movements*. This trick has been used repeatedly and constantly shifts the goalposts of "neutrality" rightward.

tedmccormick.bsky.social•1 day ago

It is not so much that I think neutrality is not valuable in some senses and some contexts, but for anyone who has been paying attention to how universities actually work and what universities have actually been doing, it is a red herring here.

tedmccormick.bsky.social•1 day ago

We are dealing with people who have been open about their intent to destroy institutions and disciplines. They see the study of things like gender, race, empire, slavery as inherently "political." "Neutrality" is not a meaningful response to people who believe your existence is a political affront.

tedmccormick.bsky.social•1 day ago

Note that "your existence" above refers to the existence as going concerns of institutions and disciplines that engage in the study of the subjects noted. But it should be recognized that for the far right, the affront they represent is not different in kind to that represented by groups of people.

tedmccormick.bsky.social•1 day ago

The university being most dramatically targeted at the moment *invited the police onto campus to clear out the offending protests* and is now *keeping mum while one of its students is deported at the request of one of its faculty members.*

Is this what we're going for? Because it isn't working.

mattfarish.bsky.social•1 day ago

Michael Roth (Wesleyan president): to pretend at neutrality is "an educational disservice at best, and cowardice at worst."

tedmccormick.bsky.social•1 day ago

a very definite outlier

mattfarish.bsky.social•1 day ago

Indeed, but Roth is correct: as you note, we and many others recognize how hard this is, but "neutrality" is not a useful response (maybe beyond the very short-term), and relatedly it's a fiction. It's up to us collectively to work out alternatives.

mattfarish.bsky.social•1 day ago

Speaking of Michael Roth: https://slate.com/life/2025/03/mahmoud-khalil-trump-columbia-student-ice-green-card.html

bityz.bsky.social•22 hours ago

The answer: because half the country thinks "i don't care about any one but myself. if it happens to me, I'll care"

(And the underlying reason for that is: over a century of conditioning that self interest is the best organizing principle, and free markets are the best manifestation of it. )

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