Bloomberg slams liberal "culture of censorship" in Ivy League

[Simfan34]

Michael Bloomberg Blasts Ivy League For Liberal 'Censorship'
http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-bloomberg-blasts-ivy-league-for-liberal-censorship-2014-5#ixzz33FcKGdbE

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Bloomie, how truly we miss you. Although I would have liked to have heard this sort of stuff when you were in office, it is the truth, and I'm glad he's telling. We really do miss you.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

What a load of rubbish. Conservatism isn't persecuted in universities nor is it censored. Conservative academics are no more likely than liberal academics to believe that they're persecuted for their political beliefs. Bloomberg is just butthurt because his policies have been systematically discredited by the academy and his most prominent critics reside in the academy, which is no excuse to spread slander.

Is it just me or does this resemble McCarthyism?

[bedstuy]

I agree with the spirit of what he's saying, but he lost me when he compared the treatment of conservatives to McCarthyism.  That's a gross exaggeration.

[All Along The Watchtower]

lol.

[IceSpear]

Does anyone actually care what Bloomberg thinks anymore?

[Maxwell]

Doesn't Bloomberg like censorship?

[Torie]

I think it the natural human condition to censor speech which it makes one uncomfortable to hear. That impulse knows no boundaries, be it of class, wealth or erudition. It's just too powerful a human impulse. That is why the uniquely robust application of the Free Speech right in the US, is truly its most gleaming jewel in its crown. Thank heavens that the quads within the Ivory Tower are not co-extensive with the public square. Were it, the Fruited Plain would be something nearer to a wasteland, and farther away from any sort of Shining City on the Hill, than it is - at least to me.

I do find the hubris of the academy irritating, and found it so when I was there, and challenged it, and did not hesitate to go after academics, no matter what their station or prestige, whom I thought failed to parse the competing considerations in any fair or balanced way, and were just too comfortable in their ways. As a Magistrate in Hong Kong once told me when we were sharing bread, and then drinks together, on my legal junket to the place, it is in the folk culture of the Anglosphere to challenge authority, and do so with relish, in a way that does not obtain in most of the planet outside it.  It certainly does not in Chinese culture, which was the magistrate's point - that he needed to be more careful in exercising his authority, knowing all too well it would not be subject to challenge if he got it wrong, in the way it would in the Welsh culture in which he grew up.

[PiMp DaDdy FitzGerald]

I think it the natural human condition to censor speech which it makes one uncomfortable to hear. That impulse knows no boundaries, be it of class, wealth or erudition. It's just too powerful a human impulse. That is why the uniquely robust application of the Free Speech right in the US, is truly its most gleaming jewel in its crown. Thank heavens that the quads within the Ivory Tower are not co-extensive with the public square. Were it, the Fruited Plain would be something nearer to a wasteland, and farther away from any sort of Shining City on the Hill, than it is - at least to me.
snip

I've always thought of the Anglosphere as having a sort of Sonderweg on the issue of free speech and authority: we aren't dictatorships like China or Venezuela but we aren't habitual revolutionaries/anarchists like the French and the Somalis.

[Mr. Illini]

He brings up a good point, but the conservative censorship at universities is grossly overstated by the right-wing.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I'm surprised that people take the conservative persecution complex seriously. Does anyone honestly believe that liberal censorship exists at universities?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

LOL, if universities were censoring conservatives, UC Berkeley would have fired John Yoo long ago.

Stanford once fired a tenured professor for being too liberal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Bruce_Franklin

Bloomberg is 100% wrong here.

[dead0man]

I'm surprised that people take the conservative persecution complex seriously. Does anyone honestly believe that liberal censorship exists at universities?

Are you funking kidding me?  Not that this will change much but....
Tom Tancredo not allowed to speak at UNC by angry crowd
Don Feder not allowed to speak at University of Massachusetts at Amherst by mob
Canadian lefties suck too, anti-abortion speaker was physically blocked from the stage
Ehud Olmert shouted off stage at U of Chicago
Ray Kelly forced off stage at Brown

I could do this for days.  So either you don't consider that "liberal censorship" (which would be moronic) or don't pay attention to things very well because this happens a LOT.

[Antonio the Sixth]

lolbloomberg

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Does anyone actually care what Bloomberg thinks anymore?

Walter Mitty?

[Franzl]

Well of course American acedemia has a "liberal" bias. So does reality. You can't expect intelligent, educated people to take the majority of American conservatism seriously.

[SWE]

Does anyone actually care what Bloomberg thinks anymore?

Did anyone ever?

[Brittain33]

Bloomberg arrested and jailed hundreds of demonstrators during the 2004 RNC, and didn't give a damn about the first amendment or censorship when he wanted to put on a good show for the Republicans. He only cares when people like him are affected.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Interesting perspective here:

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snip:

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More:http://www.salon.com/2013/06/18/is_there_a_liberal_bias_in_academia_partner/

[AggregateDemand]

Well of course American acedemia has a "liberal" bias. So does reality. You can't expect intelligent, educated people to take the majority of American conservatism seriously.

Americans take conservatism seriously because we have the most incompetent liberals in the developed world. If Democrats did something other than waste our money, they would never have lost power in the 1980s.

[Franzl]

Well of course American acedemia has a "liberal" bias. So does reality. You can't expect intelligent, educated people to take the majority of American conservatism seriously.

Americans take conservatism seriously because we have the most incompetent liberals in the developed world. If Democrats did something other than waste our money, they would never have lost power in the 1980s.

The GOP has wasted more of your money than the Democrats could ever dream of doing. And truly wasted it, not just put it into state programs that you may think are suboptimal.

[King]

Some of the most conservative economists I've read are from Harvard.

[Phony Moderate]

we have the most incompetent liberals in the developed world.

American liberals are very competent. Look at how they've prevented any meaningful change to the health care system or to the economic system at large.

[AggregateDemand]

The GOP has wasted more of your money than the Democrats could ever dream of doing. And truly wasted it, not just put it into state programs that you may think are suboptimal.

Look at spending growth in the United States. A lion's share is mandatory entitlement spending.

[Franzl]

The GOP has wasted more of your money than the Democrats could ever dream of doing. And truly wasted it, not just put it into state programs that you may think are suboptimal.

Look at spending growth in the United States. A lion's share is mandatory entitlement spending.

Looking solely at spending growth doesn't give you the full picture on wastefulness. Not by far.

[IceSpear]

Does anyone actually care what Bloomberg thinks anymore?

Did anyone ever?

Touche