The 2016-2017 school year isn’t inspiring confidence in higher education’s ability to repair itself.
Writing in The Weekly Standard, Ben Shapiro zeroed in on one instructive (and stunning) case study in academia’s intolerance for viewpoint diversity worth highlighting. In an article published Wednesday, Shapiro told the story of Boise State University professor Scott Yenor, whose conservative writings on transgenderism inspired from students and faculty an all-out character assassination this August.
Yenor distilled a 2016 report he produced for the Heritage Foundation into, as Shapiro described it, “a shorter, less jargon-y” article for the Daily Signal that was published in early August. The article, titled “Transgender Activists Are Seeking to Undermine Parental Rights,” was a reasonable and fairminded expression of mainstream conservative thought on the dangers of enabling state actors to intervene in cases of “gender identity” involving children. “Respecting the sexual and gender ‘choices’ of ever-younger children erodes parental rights and compromises the integrity of the family as an independent unit,” Yenor wrote.
The school’s dean, initially supportive, said Yenor’s article violated Boise State’s “core values” after there was a backlash.
“Not every person who agrees with Yenor’s piece is likely to become an espoused Neo-Nazi, but likely every Neo-Nazi would agree with the substance of Yenor’s piece,” wrote the university’s director of Student Diversity of Inclusion.
This was all playing out in the context of the mid-August violence in Charlottesville, Va., and as Shapiro wrote, “A flyer suddenly began appearing around campus, reading ‘YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS SCOTT YENOR.'”
Like dutiful bureaucrats, the faculty senate created a committee to draft a statement “repudiat[ing]” the ideas in Yenor’s Daily Signal article, and took up a measure to investigate him for misconduct.
Yenor has since had to hire an attorney, according to Shapiro.
In academia, not only is the simple act of being conservative unacceptable, but any expression of conservative ideas (not alt-right garbage) is treated like a radioactive explosion of unadulterated bigotry, rather than a viewpoint shared by millions of decent people around the country.
If you or your viewpoint on any given issue is not progressive, in academia, you are the equivalent of Richard Spencer. For opposing a day of racial segregation, “deeply progressive” Evergreen State professor Bret Weinstein was chased off campus earlier this year. There is no room for reasonable disagreement because all disagreement is tantamount to hate.
This culture is obviously unhealthy — just don’t say that on a college campus.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
