Why We Don’t Hear About Most Cases of Academic Persecution
There’s a lot more PC suppression of academic scholarship out there than we see– far, far more.
I realize this because a young academic on the job market just showed me a referee report on one of his papers which openly criticized him for presenting a balanced view on policy when one of them– the current policy, presumably endorsed by the public– was so bad in the referee’s leftwing view that it doesn’t deserve to be treated with respect.
Why am I so vague? Because I am afraid that if I were not, the young academic might suffer on the job market. And if I waited till he got a job, he might not get tenure. Thus, you do not get to hear the details which would make my story much more convincing and hard-hitting, and might shame the referee or journal (the editor, after all, did pass along the referee report).
Other people who know about such cases– the victims, their sympathizers, and the perpetrators– would also keep quiet, for various reasons. Such is the fate of most of the important kind of PC oppression– the intimidation of young scholars or would-be scholars. It would never be publicized.
And remember, my story is just about someone who presented a balanced view of policy. Someone who supported the current policy, instead of a more leftwing one, would be in worse trouble. Someone who supported a more rightwing policy than the current one would be in worse trouble still.