For years, conservatives have railed against the suppression of free speech and increasing authoritarianism on college campuses — and they’ve been largely written off by the liberal establishment in academia.
But now, the culture that has been cultivated by liberal ideologues has turned against them, and they’re fighting back.
The latest example comes from professor Edward Schlosser (a pseudonym), who wrote an article titled: “I’m a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me.”
“The student-teacher dynamic has been re-envisioned along a line that’s simultaneously consumerist and hyper-protective, giving each and every student the ability to claim Grievous Harm in nearly any circumstance, after any affront, and a teacher’s formal ability to respond to these claims is limited at best,” Schlosser wrote.
Schlosser’s decision to come forward (at least anonymously) comes after Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis was accused of violating a federal discrimination law for writing about the sensitivities of today’s college students. Kipnis wrote about the process in which she was investigated, and was cleared of wrongdoing shortly thereafter.
Schlosser’s fear and Kipnis’ reality come at a time when colleges are swimming in “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces,” which have become necessary to protect students so sensitive that they can’t bear to have their worldview challenged or face anything that might remind them of some difficult past experience. It is no longer the responsibility of the student to get herself help for trauma so severe she can’t read classic literature; no, the current culture puts the onus on everyone else to tiptoe around for fear that someone, somewhere will be offended.
He also links to other liberal professors, including University of Warwick political philosopher Rebecca Reilly Cooper. Cooper argued that “particular experiences can never legitimately speak for any one other than ourselves, and personal narrative and testimony are elevated to such a degree that there can be no objective standpoint from which to examine their veracity.”
Schlosser notes that such personal experiences have now replaced due process and the scientific method as acceptable analyses. “All that matters is that people are allowed to speak, that their narratives are accepted without question, and that the bad feelings go away.”
Speaking of due process, Schlosser is joined by dozens of law professors in decrying the expulsion of one of the basic tenets of the judicial system. Twenty-eight Harvard professors — most of them liberals — and nearly one-third of the University of Pennsylvania’s law professors wrote in defense of due process on college campuses, especially when it concerns the very serious charge of rape.
Schlosser links to the story of Joe Murphy, a librarian accused by two female “professors of library science” of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Without relaying the entire case, I’ll just say that the two women eventually admitted that they lied and had never been sexually abused by Murphy.
In bringing up that story, Schlosser discusses how accusations of grievance are now all that’s needed to indict someone.
“But part of the female professors’ shtick was the strong insistence that harassment victims should never be asked for proof, that an enunciation of an accusation is all it should ever take to secure a guilty verdict,” Schlosser wrote. “The identity of the victims overrides the identity of the harasser, and that’s all the proof they need.”
“This,” Schlosser wrote, “is terrifying. No one will ever accept that. And if that becomes a salient part of liberal politics, liberals are going to suffer tremendous electoral defeat.”
At this point I have to ask: Where has Schlosser been the past year? He talks about the erosion of professors’ abilities to teach their students topics that may challenge their worldview. But how has he missed that liberal politicians have already adopted the position that an accusation is all the evidence one needs?
California passed “yes means yes” last year, a law that makes it far easier to accuse someone of sexual assault and provides no due process rights to those accused. States across the country have introduced similar bills. U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Claire McCaskill are pushing for a national law that also erodes due process rights.
And the same people pushing for trigger warnings and safe spaces are pushing the “terrifying” policy that accusations equal guilt.
It’s great that Schlosser and others have finally realized the problems on college campuses, but they still have a lot to learn.
