This morning, the Morning Joe crew praised Nicholas Kristof's column in The New York Times. The praise is well-deserved. Kristof offers an honest examination of the Left's increasing intolerance and insularity, especially in academia. Unfortunately, Kristof's rational argument will likely be rejected in favour of the species 'fake news' promulgated by Leftist luminaries and their calls for either an electoral college coup or an absolute refusal to recognise the legitimate results of a free and fair election. I'm afraid that in this left-centric intramural fight, Paul Krugman, Joy Behar, and Keith Olberman will always beat Nicholas Kristof because the former makes the Left feel good whilst the latter demands some self-introspection.
Anyhoo, some snippets from Kristof's column:
After Donald Trump’s election, some universities echoed with primal howls. Faculty members canceled classes for weeping, terrified students who asked: How could this possibly be happening?
I share apprehensions about President-elect Trump, but I also fear the reaction was evidence of how insular universities have become. When students inhabit liberal bubbles, they’re not learning much about their own country. To be fully educated, students should encounter not only Plato, but also Republicans.
We liberals are adept at pointing out the hypocrisies of Trump, but we should also address our own hypocrisy in terrain we govern, such as most universities: Too often, we embrace diversity of all kinds except for ideological. Repeated studies have found that about 10 percent of professors in the social sciences or the humanities are Republicans.
We champion tolerance, except for conservatives and evangelical Christians. We want to be inclusive of people who don’t look like us — so long as they think like us.
...
I fear that liberal outrage at Trump’s presidency will exacerbate the problem of liberal echo chambers, by creating a more hostile environment for conservatives and evangelicals. Already, the lack of ideological diversity on campuses is a disservice to the students and to liberalism itself, with liberalism collapsing on some campuses into self-parody.
Some of you are saying that it’s O.K. to be intolerant of intolerance, to discriminate against bigots who acquiesce in Trump’s record of racism and misogyny. By all means, stand up to the bigots. But do we really want to caricature half of Americans, some of whom voted for President Obama twice, as racist bigots? Maybe if we knew more Trump voters we’d be less inclined to stereotype them.
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When universities are echo chambers, they become conservative punch lines, and liberal hand-wringing may be one reason Trump’s popularity has jumped since his election.
It’s ineffably sad that today “that’s academic” often means “that’s irrelevant.” One step to correcting that is for us liberals to embrace the diversity we supposedly champion.
Fat chance the Left will abandon its bigoted stereotyping and 'basket of deplorables' excuse for Democrats' electoral disasters for true diversity, tolerance, and reason.
Well, some might...
Of course, Hillary's stormtroopers never will...
Talk about 'Fake News'...
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