Nicholas Kristoff: The Dangers of Echo Chambers on Campus

[brooklynite]

The New York Times:

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.

My College House leader was a great person to have talks with, threw wild parties...and was a virulent pro-Reagan/anti-Soviet Union advocate in the 1980s. I was never afraid of engaging with people I disagreed with on campus.

[SamKnause]

1. ....10 percent of professors in the social sciences or the humanities

are Republicans.

The reason, they don't believe in social issues and they have no humanity.

I am surprised there are any Republican professors.

They seem to deny science and facts.

What they hell do they teach ???

[cwydro]

2. I like Kristof.

That's a good read, and he has a point.

[ck4829]

3. "That's your education talking"

Will be the universal response by Republicans to any attempt to reach out to them.

Your College House leader isn't the person who brought the White House to Trump, the ones who did will be the people who will say your disagreement with them alone means you were indoctrinated by the liberals, gays, and Muslims.

Their echo chamber was bigger and it beats any echo chamber the left has.