Why are Fox News's victims so easily-grifted with respect to making them scared of liberal universities?: Jacob T. Levy: "I’ve made a lot of arguments in my life to people who didn’t want to hear them. I argued about sodomy laws and Bowers vs Hardwick with my grandmother when I was 15...
...Drug legalization, open borders, rejection of ideal theory, rejection of methodological individualism, &c &c. I’ve defended Black Lives Matter and attacked white supremacy in front of post-2016 mostly-GOP audiences. I don’t think there’s anything—anything—on which I’ve gotten so much disbelief-that-becomes-near-anger as when I contradict the post-2014 Fox narrative about campus life.
“You’re a university professor? How interesting! How brave you must be! Do the terrible students attack you like they do that nice young Milo?” “No, it’s not at all like that. Not even a little. Here are some numbers, here’s some evidence, here’s how availability bias works...” This REALLY SERIOUSLY bothers people. Like, I can see them trying to be restrained and civil with me even though as far as they’re concerned I’ve just emptied my bowels on the floor or something.
It happens when I write, too— my Chronicle essay about free speech on campus got angrier feedback (and from off-campus people even though the Chronicle has a mostly on-campus audience) than my LAT op-ed describing Trump as a moral nihilist. It’s worrisome...
#shouldread
