Bloomberg slams liberal "culture of censorship" in Ivy League

[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.

[Torie]

Nate Silver confirms that right of center politicians are almost totally absent these days as graduation speakers in the Ivory Tower. Lots of lip service is given to tolerance and a preference for diversity. That's the PC thing to do, particularly among those who like to think they are enlightened. The reality is very different. Click on the poll on that which Nate links in his article.

[Torie]

Harvard awarded George H.W. Bush, a Republican President, an honorary degree this year.

It's an absolute travesty that liberal universities aren't inviting Joe the Plumber, the Duck Dynasty guy, or Donald Trump to address them for equal time.

Is the Duck Dynasty guy a "conservative?" I would submit that the only real ideology of the other two guys is "opportunism," but that's just me.

Honorary degrees are different that commencement speakers, which I believe in fact is something Nate Silver himself alluded to.

[Torie]

Nate Silver confirms that right of center politicians are almost totally absent these days as graduation speakers in the Ivory Tower. Lots of lip service is given to tolerance and a preference for diversity. That's the PC thing to do, particularly among those who like to think they are enlightened. The reality is very different. Click on the poll on that which Nate links in his article.

But remember, conservatives are wrong, and wrong viewpoints don't deserve to be listened to.

Doesn't Silver's analysis suggest that the current lack of conservative speakers has more to with a Democrat controlling the White House and changes within the Republican Party? Almost every Republican speaker that Silver lists is either a former member of the Bush administration or someone who is now derided as a 'moderate.'

I think he said that was a part of it, but not most of it. Btw, Senator Leahy gave a fantastic commencement speech this month, e.g., bashing in a most compelling way the manner in which fundamentalist Islamics abuse women, and Senator Collins gave such a poor one that my partner Dan requested that we change the channel, a request to which I readily assented. So it is not as if liberal speakers all suck.