Frank Lechner

Sociology professor at Emory University. Substack commentary on political and social issues:

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@jmc_fire "we would all be damaged" How can a group more concerned about being damaged for correctly calling BS on a member at same time claim "What we have been demanding is to be treated equally." Few on "the right" oppose equal treatment; but is that the "racial equality" in headline?

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@phl43 "even a partial retreat feels like it's completely over" As the post implies, it isn't, and won't be. https://t.co/5vUIMhRzl3

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@xwanyex "Mail-in voting is absurd. Early voting is absurd." Yes. Early voting means different voters act on different information. Mail-in voting inherently undermines secret ballot. Stealing is other matter. But does any party in West defend voting absurdities like US Dems?

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@ComAcFreedom "Institutional EDI has been hollowed out by neoliberalism...substituting for meaningful structural change. This is a left-wing critique" Typical example of not letting crisis go to waste but give it a leftist twist. As already suggested here: https://t.co/RqrZfLIJaR

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@LeeKuanYimby "handed to the private sector for competence and results" Possible, not certain. But basic point remains: if $44k (to take that #) doesn't buy improvement + basics of skills & citizenship, then costs should come down. Of course, outcomes don't drive spending, esp. not in Chicago.

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@redrumlisa "who isn't represented" Yes, and this could be the left's next big push, if trying to use debacle, though race still has more traction, as "box" and rhetorical weapon. https://t.co/RqrZfLIJaR

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@timurkuran "faculty and administrators who hired them under DEI rules have faced zero accountability" True, but applies generally to bad appointments. Sometimes departments get fewer lines but costs of error are low, so no incentives. Tenured prof accountability in teaching also minimal.

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@Vanessid Why should the federal government be in the business of issuing student loans at all? What is the benefit to taxpayers of subsidizing study in fields whose grads earn less and are therefore greater credit risks?

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@CapelLofft @unherd "the Jesus College angle of the Arday scandal" Ideological capture is not whole story but big part. Reform will require political critique, resisting move left. https://t.co/dH2C3vuKPh

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

Has everything been said about the Arday affair? Maybe not. Here's a Substack post on Arday and the left: https://t.co/dH2C3vuKPh

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@KemtrupTweets "Universities should pare down admin bloat" So even fewer job opportunities for under-employed PhDs? "convert most adjuncts to professors" With tenure, hence unmovable if underperforming? "[no] rec centers and gyms" You mean, customers should only attend for intellectual reasons?

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@Tyler_A_Harper "Elite higher ed is a system in which individualistic, laissez-faire market fundamentalism on the right..." How so? It's hardly laissez-faire, heavily regulated & subsidized, subject to accreditation, dependent on state in many ways, and of course much of higher ed is state insti

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@Tyler_A_Harper "If you think my case—that the collapse of tenure paved the way for a progressive monoculture—is wrong..." At least incomplete. Monoculture trend precedes collapse of tenure. Progressivism has ideological dynamic distinct from material conditions. Other factors weed out non-left.

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@MsMelChen @Tyler_A_Harper "thereapy speak...psychic comfort" Since sociology is being targeted in the Arday affair, let's recall: Philip Rieff did write The Triumph of the Therapeutic back in the 60s. Prophetic in more ways than one. Not congenial for self-professed Marxists though.

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@PhilWMagness "tabulate the ideological leaning" As I replied to another X post: this should apply more generally. Require authors of such articles to use AI as informed critic, habituate students & public to prompting AI for leftist bias & progressive default esp. in seemingly neutral places.

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@IMurtazashvili "GenAI could do a nice job reviewing an article" This applies more generally. AI poses risks in higher ed but habituating students & public to prompting AI to check leftist bias & progressive default esp. in seemingly neutral places could be healthy, encourage "critical thinking"

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@biggsag "neither tax increases nor benefit cuts" The problem is us: https://t.co/VG8RHaq4gx

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@DavidAstinWalsh @Tyler_A_Harper "employed diversity as a labor-disciplining mechanism" It's an incomplete argument. Ex.: the diversity push in the curriculum and TAH's treatment as diversity token didn't discipline labor--they expressed progressive ideological commitments, which have a dynamic of their own.

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@DominicJPino "making a Marxist argument" Story is revealing but "Marxist" argument doesn't go far. Ex.: as long as there is reserve army of underemployed PhDs, wages for adjuncts will stay low. Bourgeois econ missing: when demand for high-price academic services drops, providers must adjust.

[Frank Lechner @FrankJLechner]

@phl43 "a tool that would boost liberalism" Or at least, in the West, the progressive version of it. Resisting free speech as threat to hegemony means old support was conditional in the first place, not principled. Were (and are) so-called liberals actually, you know, liberal?