Quote of the Day: Jonah Goldberg on the left’s definition of “diversity”

Jonah Goldberg
National Review’s Jonah Goldberg.

It’s getting bad out there, folks:

Cancel the philosophy courses, people. Oh, and we’re going to be shuttering the political science, religion, and pre-law departments too. We’ll keep some of the English and history folks on for a while longer, but they should probably keep their rΓ©sumΓ©s handy.

Because, you see, they are of no use anymore. We have the answers to the big questions, so why keep pretending there’s anything left to discuss?

At least that’s where Erin Ching, a student at Swarthmore College, seems to be coming down. Her school invited a famous left-wing Princeton professor, Cornel West, and a famous right-wing Princeton professor, Robert George, to have a debate. The two men are friends, and by all accounts they had an utterly civil exchange of ideas. But that only made the whole thing even more outrageous.

β€œWhat really bothered me is, the whole idea is that at a liberal arts college, we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion,” Ching told theΒ Daily Gazette, the school’s newspaper. β€œI don’t think we should be tolerating [George’s] conservative views because that dominant culture embeds these deep inequalities in our society.”

Swarthmore must be so proud.

Over at Harvard, another young lady has similar views.Β Harvard CrimsonΒ editorial writer Sandra Y. L. Korn recently called for getting rid of academic freedom in favor of something called β€œacademic justice.”

β€œIf our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of β€˜academic freedom’?” Korn asks.

Goldberg goes on to add more examples of this fascistic train of thought, and finishes with this:

More pernicious, however, is that they believe the question of justice is a settled matter. We know what justice is, so why let serious people debate it anymore? The millennia-old dialogue between Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Rawls, Rorty, Hayek et al.? Shut it down, people. Or at least if the conversation heads in a direction where the Korns, Chings, and Streisands smell β€œoppression” β€” as defined solely by the Left β€” then it must not be β€œput up with.” Diversity demands that diversity of opinion not be tolerated anymore.

Indeed.

I’ve noted here and elsewhere numerous times (and have included examples) about how modern liberals are some of the most intolerant, closed-minded people you will ever come across – in spite of popular myth (as routinely and eagerly perpetuated by their allies in the mainstream press) to the contrary. Β  And as Goldberg pointed out, some of the worst of it comes from our institutions of “higher learning” – you know, the places you’re supposed to go to learn how to think outside of the box? Β And once they graduate, they move on to bigger and better attempts at shutting down debate by declaring any attempts you make at preserving your right to speak out, think differently,observe your religious beliefs, and hold on to more of the money you earn as the equivalent to “racism, homophobia, sexism”, etc – as we’re seeing play out in states like Kansas and right here in NC.

In a nutshell: “diversity” to the left is not diversity at all. Was having a bit of a discussion with a friend here in NC about this, and her comment to me was that unfortunately this type of thing will never change – and in fact appears to be getting worse, but as I told her, that doesn’t mean we should ever stop raising hell about it. Β You know what they say about sunlight …

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