On the other hand, this thread is very fair. What this gets at is that the issue is the social acceptability of expressions of personal contempt, in face-to-face, or professional settings. https://twitter.com/tmbejan/status/1379788706685550597

It isn't that she's obviously right about everything, but 'don't sneer at people and certainly don't sneer at students' is more intelligible advice than 'cultivate viewpoint diversity so as to include conservative viewpoints.' 2/

it is not a priori true that every viewpoint current in partisan politics needs to have a professor-advocate in the department. The ideas might be too dumb. But it is true there is no strict, pedagogical need for expressions of personal contempt, in the classroom. 3/

Generally they do more potential harm than potential good - even if directed at persons not present in the classroom - so there should be a norm of avoiding them in that context. This isn't just true of politics, it's true of competing academic viewpoints. 4/

You shouldn't talk about Hegel the way Schopenhauer did, even if you think Schopenhauer is right and Hegel is not just wrong but silly nonsense - even culpably silly nonsense. Even if you think Hegel is so bad at philosophy that he is a bad person to have philosophized so! 5/

The reason is that things go worse whether you are wrong or right. If you are wrong, it obviously makes things worse that you have been mouthing off, abusively. But even if you are right, just stringing out insults won't help. (Arguing is another matter.) 6/

Some people richly deserve to be sneered at, but sneering in the classroom is such a moral hazard that you pretty much never should. (I imagine if I taught US history and politics this would get tricky for me, biting my tongue not to ever be too snarky.) 7/

Speaking of Schopenhauer on Hegel. 8/ https://twitter.com/lastpositivist/status/1380416875411210240?s=20

It IS terribly funny, watching Schopenhauer roar about Hegel. Really, that second-hand Popper report pales in comparison to the real, longform strong stuff from "Parerga & Paralipomena". 9/

Still, one probably shouldn't imitate, in an academic setting. 10/