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March 26, 2006
Fighting The Fascist Tenured Professors
David Horowitz ably responds to John K. Wilson's questions challenging Horowitz's (undeniably correct) assessment of the Leftist takeover of the liberal arts academy. Wilson's questions arose specifically in response to Horowitz's new book The Professors. Here's a typical exchange:
Wilson: Which of these 101 professors do you think should be fired, and why? Can you estimate how many of the 30,000 radical professors you would like to have fired from American colleges for expressing their political beliefs?Horowitz: Thanks for the loaded question, but I have never called for the firing of any professor on ideological grounds. Ever. I defended Ward Churchill at the height of the scandal. I did so in the Denver Rocky Mountain News, and criticized my friend Governor Bill Owens who was calling for Churchill’s head over his notorious Internet article. I would like to see universities enforce their existing academic freedom policies and professional standards. If faculty members continue to defy them, it is up to the universities to decide what action they will take. If any professor is fired for his political beliefs, I will be there defending him (or her).
Here's a little more of Horowitz explaining his book:
Q: Give us a quick synopsis of your book.A: It’s about [Marxist cultural anthropologist] Diane Nelson -- and 50,000 professors like her. My book is a collection of profiles to show a pattern that exists in the universities: the pattern of hiring radical extremists to faculties, the pattern in which they are powers in the profession -- department chairs, heads of professional associations, like the American Historical Association and, of course, the American Anthropological Association.
Another pattern I show is professors who are promoted beyond their scholarly output; they don't have the credentials for teaching what they teach -- a professor of saxophone who’s the director of peace studies at Ball State; an animal biologist, who has written the most widely used text in peace studies, on war and peace; people who are just completely unqualified. If you have the right politics, you get promoted.
As usual, Horowitz's enemies strive to label him as a right wing fascist, yet he is scrupulously careful in insisting that he wants no one fired for their beliefs; he wants simply to have both sides presented. And he knows full well that presenting an alternate view is poison to the Left.
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