Amity ShlaesCompte certifié

"Professors are role models" is a super cool way of beginning a statement that tells us we shouldn't make jokes or challenge people's ideas and then ends with the nonsensical belief that we spend our time brainwashing students so they'll believe whatever nefarious stuff we do.

No, it means what it says. There's more to model in the world than First Amendment rights. Civility, bipartisanship, a spirit of inquiry rather than dirt-slinging....Professors who show respect for inquiry are more respected.

You’ve set up an absolute strawman here. Joking on Twitter isn’t disrespect for inquiry. You said that professors are teaching their students to ignore facts. That’s why they’re being bad role models. That’s plainly not the case.

But we can also look at all the calls for civility and all the tone policing, and see how that’s actually shaking out in the real world. It’s all coming from one side, the Right, and it’s all just a screen for “*I* get to say what I want but *you* must be civil.”

I missed the civility police when there was a white supremacist student in my classroom posting online to his buddies about his (((professor))) and how he wants to drive his car into a Black Lives Matter group. Where were they then?

All of my Congressmen can’t talk enough about civility and respectful dialogue. And not a single one of them has one word to say about the leader of their party, the President of the United States, calling the loyalty of American Jews into question if they don’t vote Republican.