[aaplok]

> it’s common knowledge that most faculty today are de facto activists.

Whose common knowledge? I have never heard the argument that most faculties are activists.

This argument is a classic ad populum fallacy [0]. Using it to characterise (and discredit) and entire group is not a honorable thing to do.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum

[2devnull]

Listen to the recent pinker mearsheimer debate. Pinker would be a good person to advocate for the triumph of enlightenment values and where else would those values be most evident than the academy, and yet Jewish students are made to cower in fear at the student mobs tolerated, if not in effect manufactured by the educators at the nations’ highest institutions, Harvard, Penn, MIT… I know people who were in forced out of grad school for not engaging in activism, let alone committing the ultimate sin, having heterodox views. Perhaps that’s less common in STEM, where politics are non-essential, but it’s de rigeur in social sciences and I’d imagine much of the humanities. It’s common knowledge in many circles that you’ll get different education at Claremont vs berkeley.

[rKarpinski]

> It’s common knowledge in many circles that you’ll get different education at Claremont vs berkeley.

Out of curiosity, whats the difference? Both sound like disconnected ivory towers to me...

[gnicholas]

CMC is one of the least-left-leaning schools, among elite colleges.

[rKarpinski]

Interesting I didn't know the reputation.

Berkeley has had the left leaning historical reputation from the days of the free speech movement and Vietnam protests. But these days (it-least from an outsiders view) it actually seems more grounded since it's a public school & doesn't do race based admissions (Berkeley is 35% asian & 20% white vs CMC is 16% asian and 35% white)[1][2]

[1] https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/colleges/university-of-ca... [2] https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/colleges/claremont-mckenn...

[gnicholas]

> Berkeley is 35% asian & 20% white vs CMC is 16% asian and 35% white

My guess is that this is at least in part due to the different racial makeup of their respective applicant pools. Going to Cal is a dream of many Asian high schoolers; CMC is not revered in the same way.

[2devnull]

I guess it’s only common knowledge for people who read book reviews.

[rKarpinski]

Also... CMC's free speech is only rated average and sits at 73/248 schools [1] and is the same free speech score as Oberlin which has had some infamous recent incidents[2].

[1] https://rankings.thefire.org/rank

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson%27s_Bakery_v._Oberlin_C...

[rKarpinski]

CMC is a private liberal arts school that costs 60k in tuition/yr and only has only 13 hundred students... But I guess in some circles it's well known that it's not as left leaning as it's peers like Amherst or Oberlin.

Berkeley vs U Chicago or Berkeley vs U Virginia would have clicked.

[enterprise_cog]

What were those forced out in grad school for? What activism did they abstain from?

Also, why are those Jewish students cowering? Has there been violence against them on campus?

[BriggyDwiggs42]

“I know people who were in forced out of grad school for not engaging in activism” Really?

I also don’t think the school needs to manufacture student mobs. People get these opinions from the internet far more than school imo. Furthermore, if Jewish students were cowering, which I doubt, it wouldn’t invalidate the mob’s reason for forming, which is in response to an ongoing genocide. I’m glad the school doesn’t crack down on opposition to such.