Bloomberg slams liberal "culture of censorship" in Ivy League

[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?

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

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

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Commencement speeches are ceremonial and should rightfully be tailored to the preferences of students. Obviously a significant function of the commence speech is imparting some kind of timeless wisdom to students and students could certainly benefit from a different perspective but this function is destroyed if the speaker is perceived to be a craven hack. Considering that the event is for students and their family, it makes no sense to subject them to a speech from a political figure they despise. They're footing the (oftentimes astronomical) speaker bill via their tuition dollars.

Let's get this straight: censorship is not students expressing their preference for a commence speaker that is better suited for them. Censorship is not students protesting prominent conservative figures being hired as professors for outrageous sums of money. The claim that any of this constitutes censorship is designed to discredit the academy, which serves the political objective of conservatives.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

So you're still not admitting that censorship goes on and now you're claiming that all this is part of a plan by the "others" to make the uni's look bad?

Those are small outliers that happened when very, very controversial public figures spoke. However the idea that this constitutes censorship is part of a broader conservative narrative against student culture and the academy that has existed since the 60s but has taken a new form in the present. If you can successfully paint the university system as a training ground for radical deadbeats who learn nothing useful, it's easier to defund them.

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http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/from-master-plan-to-no-plan-the-slow-death-of-public-higher-education