Why Academics Leftists and Elitists Need to Treat Ordinary Americans With Respect

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/12/mit-trump-education-universities/

Finally, it is almost sublimely hilarious that Trump’s compact forbids universities to “belittle” — wait for it — “conservative ideas.” Such as? Civility? Free trade? Fiscal continence? The separation of powers? The rule of law? Keeping the public and private sectors distinct by not conscripting corporations (Intel, U.S. Steel and others) into the public sector? Government too modest to decree that universities must be “safe spaces” for conservatives (who used to be proud of not being snowflakes)?

The Trump administration is today’s comprehensive belittler of conservative ideas.
 
https://jamesgmartin.center/2025/12/a-much-needed-expose-of-academic-fraud/

The proliferation of fraud and deception in research causes Bazerman distress. He writes, “When researchers make up their data, they may publish more easily and gain an unfair advantage as they seek job opportunities and move up the academic ladder.” Undoubtedly that’s true, but Bazerman misses the root of the problem, which is that we have far too many wanna-be professors desperately trying to climb academic ladders in the first place. Because we vastly subsidize higher education generally and academic research, we create the conditions making it inevitable that we will get reams and reams of useless research, some of it fraudulent and much more of it pointless.

Prior to the higher-education explosion beginning with the 1965 Higher Education Act, academic research was a small-scale affair. The country had far fewer “research” institutions where the main occupation of faculty members was doing research, and there were far fewer academic departments where up-and-coming professors were obligated to crank out publications if they wanted to get hired and then make tenure. Academic research was done by dedicated scholars pursuing serious lines of inquiry, and submissions were carefully scrutinized.

But with the big higher-education push starting in 1965, “publish or perish” became a mass phenomenon, and the huge numbers of aspiring academics overwhelmed the system. Hundreds of new journals sprang up, frequently with very lax standards for screening out dubious work. That laxity was hilariously exposed by Alan Sokal in an article stating that gravity is merely a social construct, written in fashionable academic gibberish that fooled the editors into taking it seriously.

Moreover, colleges and universities created many new academic “disciplines” where rigor took a backseat to publishing ideologically correct papers on topics like “implicit bias.” Our institutions were employing an army of professors whose main job was not to teach a body of knowledge but, rather, to produce research in avant-garde fields such as Women’s Studies. The result was an outpouring of extremely dubious scholarship—a prodigious waste of resources.
 
Its pretty amazing. The people on the left OBSESSED about race and discrimination, and who claim to want immigrants because they are ballers, have been silent about this obvious truth. Im reminded how upset our own phd was about a teenager standing silently in the face of an obnoxious fraud

Our universities and corporations are not only discriminating based on race but actively making our institutions worse by lowering the bar. Say hi, katanji brown Jackson

 
News flash: Many schools admit a higher proportion of male applicants. Because there are fewer of them and the schools are trying to maintain something close to parity between male and female students.

For example, Brown accepts 7% of its male applicants and 4% of its female applicants.
 
It's quite common. Brown admits 7% of male applicants and 4% of female applicants.

I don't have a view as to whether this is sane or not. Just making an observation.
 
No I posted about the agreed upon rule that white men would not be selected for certain positions

You posted further discrimination data and acceptance not tied to merit

And Im supposed to take academics seriously?
 
There are undoubtedly situations where being a white male works to someone's disadvantage.

And some where it works to their advantage. Such as Brown's attempts to keep parity between male and female students.

A remedy to both kinds of situations would have my approval.
 
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