
In Defence of 'Academic Freedom' - DanBC
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/04/rightwing-academic-freedom-policy-exchange-thinktank
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zepto
The biggest problem with this article is the sneering and sarcastic tone.

The problems the author outlines are legitimate - in particular the issue of
quality.

It can simultaneously be the case that being known for ‘right wing views’
causes career damage, _and_ that the solution proposed by the think tanks
would make things worse.

Because of the sarcasm, it’s hard to actually evaluate whether the statement
that 32% of right wing academics only evaluates to 10 individuals.

If this is true, then it’s clearly the case that academia is completely
unrepresentative of the general politics of the country.

Perhaps there are good reasons for this and it’s not a problem, but the
sarcastic and dismissive tone of the author indicates that he doesn’t take it
seriously, which ends up confirming the charge of bias.

If he can’t see this, that’s a problem. If he can see it, it’s also a problem.

