> "Students, prisoners, pacifists and whistle-blowers"---at least two of these, students and whistle-blowers, have been primarily attacked by the leftist university administrations and the current American executive, also on the left.

What you call "left" in this argument is actually centre right. Sorry but the left barely exists in the US, compared to other nations. Your confusion is probably due to the binary party system where, interestingly, 0 = 1.

Anyhow, though they share some common grounds, the left is not and cannot be "liberal". (For example, no leftist would argue for the corporatization of free speech in their right minds, as you did in your liberalist comment, excusing it as "not perfectly ideal".)

For classical leftism, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism

For modern leftism, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Left

> leftist university administrations and the current American executive, also on the left

Leftist university administrators do not exist in the US. No leftist university administrator would take an active (pro/supporting) role in a system that depends on the exploitation of adjunct faculty, the active sabotaging of unions by universities, and the overall commodification[1] of education.

The current American executive is not leftist either, as demonstrated by their trend towards building a surveillance system for elitist / corporate US dictatorship.

In light of the above, you are in no position to call any article "idiotic."

edit: [1] http://www.randalolson.com/2014/03/29/its-impossible-to-work... is an interesting read.