Things Are Very Bad At A University With Which I Am Extremely Familiar

It's no longer all that clear what one can be fired for in academia. At the University With Which I Am Currently Most Familiar (henceforth UWWIACMF), professors have been told to make sure that we always clearly identify our publicly-expressed opinions as our own, as distinct from those of the university. Pretty standard practice. And on this score, they seem to generally be on our side. Apropos of nothing: clearly all my opinions are merely my own--realistically, who else's would they be? Certainly no UWWIACMF, as I have not even said that I have any sort of formal relationship with it.

   Things are bad at UWWIACMF, and there's reason to fear they'll get worse. There is currently an attempt to institutionalize an extreme form of progressive identity politics and make the advancement of "anti-racism" a criterion for evaluation with respect to...well...basically everything. It seems to say that "anti-racism" (which doesn't just mean what it sounds like--it is, of course, a term of art on the left) has become the guiding ideal of UWWIACMF. Its new policy seems to say that "anti-racism" will now become a criterion in evaluating faculty, their teaching and even their research. It will, apparently, be a consideration in promotion decisions. It also seems to say--but this part is even less clear--that that it will be a criterion in evaluating students' academic performance. This policy was announced--without faculty input--over the summer. The policy says that the enthusiastic cooperation of everyone is required. (Note: not the exact wording.) Until two weeks ago, I was the only faculty-member I know of who expressed criticisms of the thing in public. Now two or three have. One would think that a philosophy department, especially, would blow its stack at such a thing. One would, apparently, be wrong.

   Academia is being taken over by a quasi-religious political cult. Faculty are complicit. Complicit, hell--they're the most evangelical of the cultists. This is yet another step down the road of the politicization of universities--which is tantamount to their destruction. 

   When people like me started complaining about the rise of neo-PC several years back, progressives in the chattering class said...well...first they denied that it was a real phenomenon, even at universities. Gaslighting being one of their go-to moves, of course. Then they deployed their Everything is always political and always has been so what are you complaining about? defense. Then they really pushed the This is all confined to campus, it doesn't affect the real world, so what are you complaining about? response. 

   I responded, here, that all of those responses were insane--as they are. But with respect to the third one: since when are universities not part of the world? And: you've got to be nuts to think that what happens on campus doesn't affect the rest of the country. It's a bottleneck through which most of the most influential people pass. Secure the ability to brainwash kids and you win. (As Lenin knew.)

   Anyway.

   I was right. The progressives were full of shit. And now the evil genie is out of the academic bottle. 

   And things are getting worse on campus. 

   So they'll likely get worse everywhere else. 

   Trump and DeVos were pushing back. Biden has reversed that.