Two decades ago, I wrote a book titled “The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education.” Two decades later, the myth continues. Today, the proponent is Jonathan Chait, who warns us in New York Magazine of this dire evil resurrected from the distant past: Political correctness. According to Chait, “Political correctness is…
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently issued a new report on disinvitations, which claims that conservatives are almost three times as likely as those on the left to encounter attempts at disinvitation of a campus speaker since 2000 based on an analysis of 192 incidents. Trying to document all the disinvitation attempts…
It’s Valentine’s Day, and time once again for right-wing Catholic groups to denounce academic freedom at Catholic colleges. But it’s also time for them to celebrate a victory in making The Vagina Monologues the most-censored play in America. The far-right Cardinal Newman Society reports that nine Catholic colleges will be presenting the play this year:…
Today is the beginning of Banned Books Week, and so it’s an appropriate time to report on speakers who are banned by colleges because of their past writings. This week, Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania decided to disinvite Ellen Goodman from giving a speech on campus next month. The right-wing Cardinal Newman Society celebrated the…