Thanks to everyone who engaged with this, I& #39;m pretty overwhelmed and very grateful.

Colleagues have raised important points/challenges in discussion, so I& #39;ll just clarify one or two things: https://twitter.com/tmbejan/status/1379788706685550597">https://twitter.com/tmbejan/s...
1) I wasn& #39;t defending any of the particular policies being put forward under the rubric of & #39;viewpoint diversity,& #39; I& #39;m simply enjoining colleagues to consider that there might be (and I& #39;m sure, at least, there is) a genuine problem here that they& #39;re (dis-)missing.
2) The major take-away may indeed simply be don& #39;t be an assh*le and remember that the people we impact most when we mouth off on here or elsewhere are our students and junior colleagues.

I& #39;v see some more really sad examples in the thread and via DMs https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Weinendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Weinendes Gesicht">
3) As I said in the thread, there are huge differences between different departments and different countries on this issue. A specific example:

UK universities are cripplingly over-regulated AND underfunded already--proposals for a & #39;free speech tsar& #39; are frankly dystopian
4) Public universities in the US are coming under similar pressure from Republican legislatures all over. This is Really Bad News.

But I might suggest--gently--that if you& #39;re worried about this scorning "conservatives" is not really strategic under the circumstances.
5) For concrete proposals, @conor64, I& #39;m pessimistic. I& #39;m of the view that private universities in the US with endowments or property holdings over a certain threshold should not be state tax-exempt.

But I don& #39;t know if that& #39;s actually going to fix THIS problem.
6) I& #39;ve learned from @Musa_alGharbi @asymmetricinfo @JeffreyASachs @DissentientOne @AsheeshKSi and @WestLondonMan and @JonHaidt on this issue and I agree that the precarity of academic employment makes it difficult to address anything else at the moment
6a) But I would also observe that when there are No Jobs, ideologically homophily in hiring becomes more and more of an issue.

As I pointed out in Mere Civility: there is a reason "agreeable" is a synonym for pleasant.
7) I also agree with @ashwinivasantha that the labels "conservative," "right," "left," and especially "L/liberal" are basically unfit for purpose and the framing unhelpful.

"liberal" esp. because American conservatives are (used to be?) ideologically liberal (h/t: Hartz)
7 cont.) ...and the academic establishment in our field has been for decades Liberal, not Left (also thanks @lea_ypi), which I should have been clearer on

BUT like any categories, one cannot think or communicate without them, so we do our best!
8) And that& #39;s it I guess. We& #39;re all just doing our best. But we can also do better.

Here, I should clarify that I don& #39;t actually see the issues I described as ones of "civility" at all, but of decorum, kindness, and professional ethics.
9) But if you want to hear more about what I think about "civility" proper (it may surprise you), join me @sullydish and @CornelWest via Zoom at noon EST tomorrow!

Register here: https://www.baylor.edu/washington/index.php?id=965521">https://www.baylor.edu/washingto...
P.S. I also learned that not everyone on Twitter is engaging in good faith. My innocence!

But I also have wonderful colleagues, so thank you all.
You can follow @tmbejan.
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