The Spirit of David Souter Lives On!

Anonymous mildly famous law guy who's too cowardly to show their face.
Hate fascists, love the the First Amendment.
Big Souter fan (yes I know he's not dead!)

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@ijbailey The thing about Cofnas is that he's not a scientist, he's a philosopher. Yet his current research is focused on race and IQ, a subject he's entirely unqualified to teach on.

[ettingermentum @ettingermentum]

I’ve seen enough. We should just get rid of the primary process and let this man personally pick who the nominee is.

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@QueenMab87 @BrandondelPozo @CallLikeISeeIt1 The idea that a professor focused on criminal justice would support policing - a necessary part of any criminal justice system - you would treat as strange, weird, or a challenge again showcases how far left the academe is.

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@DavidAstinWalsh Another way of conceptualising this distinction is that left wing politics holds enormous informal social power over individual academics while the right holds significant formal structural power over institutions.

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@DavidAstinWalsh Often the village tyrant plays a greater role in our lives than actual tyrants. What my line manager thinks about Israel-Palestine is more important to me than what my boss thinks. Is this rational? Maybe, maybe not.

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@DavidAstinWalsh For example, if I say something pro-Israel I'm scared of not getting promoted, not getting to present a paper at a conference, not being considered for small grants. But if I say something pro-Palestine, I'm afraid of getting fired, but being seen as a hero by my colleagues.

[Tyler Austin Harper @Tyler_A_Harper]

This is a helpful and dispassionate summary of the data around the public’s views on higher ed. The recent Gallup poll clearly shows that confidence has imploded over the last 10 years among all political parties, and politics is cited as the top concern with cost a close second.

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@QueenMab87 @JeffreyASachs https://t.co/9RejiyT3jz

[Jeffrey Sachs @JeffreyASachs]

I was recently challenged to produce examples of profs who faced significant punishment for having views (or were perceived to have views) critics associated with conservatism. The implication was that these examples don't exist.

I'll give you an incomplete list in a sec, but...

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@QueenMab87 See @JeffreyASachs thread on this, he gives multiple examples. Some may be justified, some not, but you can't deny this wasn't happening from 2020-20204

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@im_PULSE Did you even read the examples?

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

"Safety" is fundamentally different from being made to feel uncomfortable some of the views being expressed by your teacher. What examples of censorship given by @JeffreyASachs would you defend?

[Christopher Deutsch @dr_cdeutsch]

Making most students feel unsafe in your classroom is your choice of you are a professor, but don't be surprised of most students say that they feel unsafe and use what little power they have to feel safe.

[Jeffrey Sachs @JeffreyASachs]

I was recently challenged to produce examples of profs who faced significant punishment for having views (or were perceived to have views) critics associated with conservatism. The implication was that these examples don't exist.

I'll give you an incomplete list in a sec, but...

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@dr_cdeutsch A lot of the 'bigoted' views that got professors in trouble which @JeffreyASachs cites occurred outside the classroom, often expressing views that are (I'm sorry) mainstream outside of left-wing circles.

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@timgill924 Don't take political views of the candidate into account when making hiring decisions. Don't fire them, or threaten to fire them because of statements made on social media. Ask yourself, does this research produce truth rather then does this research help advance a policy goal?

[The Spirit of David Souter Lives On! @SouterFanBoy]

@Jerry_Ratcliffe And that's bad, but I don't think the solution is to think conservatives will be inherently more tolerant than liberals.

[Ben Dreyfuss @bendreyfuss]

Conversations about academia being too left wing always seem a bit like a category error to me. I don’t give a fuck what the professors believe. What I do think is bad is the illiberal tendencies to stifle dissent and values judgment instruction, which I read about a lot, but never personally experienced. I had lots of professors who were like socialists or whatever and they exposed me to interesting thoughts that I often disagreed with and they were fine with that and graded me fairly and never told me what to think. You’re not supposed to agree with your professors about everything. If you do, you’re a bad student and they’re a bad teacher. But if the other thing is happening and they’re telling you what to believe and demanding you agree with them, then I think that’s bad, but it’s not really a “left wing” complaint.