The Conservative argument is over 70 years old. The only thing that changed is using Blacks as scapegoats for the deterioration of the university.
William F Buckley wrote about the sad state of affairs at the elite university in 1951. Read “God and Man at Yale”. Bucket even named offending professors.
In STEM disciplines (excluding economics) we can do empirical experiments to establish the truth of a theory. In social sciences we cannot generally perform such experiments. Marxists have a theory about the development of society based on class struggle. One could claim that the USSR and China in contrast with the US and Europe are experiments which could prove or disprove this theory. However, the influencing factors -- degree of economic development, prior histories of empire or colonial subjugation, war, etc. -- make it impossible to evaluate the truth of the theory. There are too many influencing factors. So, by scientific standards Marxist theory is not "falsifiable" and is not really a theory -- just a belief system. This is generally true for all the social sciences. For this reason, social science departments always need to teach the major prevailing systems of thought. They need to teach Marxist theory, free market theory, Keynesianism, etc. The answer to the question "Is Israel Committing Genocide" cannot be answered in any scientific sense. There are political and moral arguments on both sides. Both sides need to be taught so that students can use their critical faculties to determine their own viewpoints. The approach of X-Studies departments in American Universities is generally hyper-partisan and authoritarian. They push a particular political line and censure others. This is OK for a political party but not for a University department. For this reason they should be reformed. It is difficult to see how this reform will take place from inside the University. This is why extolling the virtues of Academic Freedom and free speech is hypocritical. The communists during the McCarthy witch hunts were similarly hypocritical. They stood behind the Bill of Rights while at the same time supporting Stalin. The difference now is that the American communists in the 40s and 50s did not have nearly as much power as the current X-Studies departments in the Academy.
Science is absent from these discussions of the university. The drastic cuts done by Trump and DOGE has done serious damage to the role of the United States in the world. We have a Secretary of HHS who has done irreparable damage to cancer and infectious disease research. Glenn and his guests ignore this aspect of the problem.
The Conservative argument is over 70 years old. The only thing that changed is using Blacks as scapegoats for the deterioration of the university.
William F Buckley wrote about the sad state of affairs at the elite university in 1951. Read “God and Man at Yale”. Bucket even named offending professors.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_and_Man_at_Yale
Conservatives have a concrete thought process.
This was *such* a good conversation!
In STEM disciplines (excluding economics) we can do empirical experiments to establish the truth of a theory. In social sciences we cannot generally perform such experiments. Marxists have a theory about the development of society based on class struggle. One could claim that the USSR and China in contrast with the US and Europe are experiments which could prove or disprove this theory. However, the influencing factors -- degree of economic development, prior histories of empire or colonial subjugation, war, etc. -- make it impossible to evaluate the truth of the theory. There are too many influencing factors. So, by scientific standards Marxist theory is not "falsifiable" and is not really a theory -- just a belief system. This is generally true for all the social sciences. For this reason, social science departments always need to teach the major prevailing systems of thought. They need to teach Marxist theory, free market theory, Keynesianism, etc. The answer to the question "Is Israel Committing Genocide" cannot be answered in any scientific sense. There are political and moral arguments on both sides. Both sides need to be taught so that students can use their critical faculties to determine their own viewpoints. The approach of X-Studies departments in American Universities is generally hyper-partisan and authoritarian. They push a particular political line and censure others. This is OK for a political party but not for a University department. For this reason they should be reformed. It is difficult to see how this reform will take place from inside the University. This is why extolling the virtues of Academic Freedom and free speech is hypocritical. The communists during the McCarthy witch hunts were similarly hypocritical. They stood behind the Bill of Rights while at the same time supporting Stalin. The difference now is that the American communists in the 40s and 50s did not have nearly as much power as the current X-Studies departments in the Academy.
Science is absent from these discussions of the university. The drastic cuts done by Trump and DOGE has done serious damage to the role of the United States in the world. We have a Secretary of HHS who has done irreparable damage to cancer and infectious disease research. Glenn and his guests ignore this aspect of the problem.
Universities have been searching for the truth for over a thousand years. If they haven't found it by now, they aren't going to.
They can't handle the truth. It goes against everything they've been preaching for decades.