Don’t Care if Amy Wax Is Politically Incorrect; I Do Care that She’s Empirically Incorrect
https://heterodoxacademy.org/2017/09/03/i-dont-care-if-amy-w...
All they care is that she is "Politically Incorrect" -- they could not care less about the facts.
Not to mention that when someone is wrong about facts you correct them, you don't fire them or ask for their condemnation. Professors are not supposed to be correct, just to probe for what's correct. In fact they should be encouraged to be boldly inquisitive and incorrect in that pursuit, and use dialog to sort out the ultimate answer.
And of course even "incorrect" ideas can be considered correct in an era -- in the 19th and up to the mid-20th century there were all kinds of facts and studies showing how some races were genetically inferior available to racists (that is: almost everybody).
Now we laugh at them, but how many similar (or even in the reverse direction) BS we take as fact because social "scientists" just put things under the rug and only give facts and statistics that are compatible with current cultural norms?
It is strange and disturbing to see academia joining the alt-right in its attempt to resurrect a pre-enlightenment age of dogma and allegations of heresy. For academia, it is a losing proposition.
Remember the saying "perception is reality"? Keep that in the back of your mind, I predict it is going to become increasingly indispensable to understand events going forward in Western nations.
And being a professor is not about only presenting raw factoids. It's also about drawing conclusions from the data and pointing to the bigger picture the way you interpret them -- a bigger picture that no data are going to give you by themselves alone. Informing the public opinion is not about being a glorified statistician.
Of course nobody would have batted an eye if a processor had done exactly the same kind of "stating of facts" for opinions they like (and that goes for "righteous indignation" both sides, left and right).
I would understand, but not be happy for, that professors are called for not being politically correct. I can't understand denouncing for not being correct by someone's argumentation.
I believe more and more that social justice and seeking for truth are not compatible.
Universities must choose between TRUTH or Social Justice, not both: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaQ-ZF9S3uk
You can certainly walk around town telling everyone they are stupid, but you shouldn't be surprised when everyone hates you afterward. "It's just my opinion" is a weak excuse.
Examples of opinions include:
The color red is beautiful. I'm sad that sharks are being hunted. I hate poor people.
None of the following are opinions:
This rose is red. My landlord poisoned my dog. Poor people do more drugs than rich people.
In particular, a statement is not an opinion simply because it is presented without evidence. It is only an opinion if it can't possess any in the first place.
But it's hard to see the linked article as anything but a fig-leaf, when the centre of the actual controversy is an attempt to sack Prof Wax, on the grounds that her arguments are morally unacceptable.
Could you please quote the part of the article that makes that assertion?