8/Conservatives and rightists also see a (very selective) sampling of (usually fringe) social science and humanities papers via social media outlets like @RealPeerReview, which seem to confirm their worst fears about what social science does.
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9/And they know that social science faculty tend to lean strongly to the left: https://heterodoxacademy.org/2015/09/14/bbs-paper-on-lack-of-political-diversity/ …
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10/This combination of anecdotal and rigorous evidence has created a gestalt impression on the Right that social science is a locus of leftist ideas, energy, and bias - an intellectual handmaiden of the Social Justice movement.
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Noah Smith 🐇 🇺🇦 Retweeted Ben Sasse
11/This negative gestalt impression is clearly visible in the pronouncements of conservatives: https://twitter.com/BenSasse/status/938963583924424704 … And friends on the Right send me links to lefty-sounding sociology and humanities papers all day long.
Noah Smith 🐇 🇺🇦 added,
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12/This is a very dangerous situation for our nation and our economy. Though the GOP shied away from it at the last minute, it came very close to attacking universities wholesale in the recent tax reform bill.https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-28/republican-tax-plan-for-colleges-is-a-self-inflicted-wound …
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13/The Right simply feels that it has no other way of fighting back against the real or perceived flow of cultural-Left ideas that it thinks are flowing out of sociology/humanities departments.
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14/The paper above is interesting not because it accurately diagnoses the CAUSE of conservative fear of social science, but because it suggests a way of addressing the problem without smashing our invaluable university system.
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15/If university administrators and sociology/humanities departments were to explicitly and officially discourage the blending of activism and research, it wouldn't change much of substance...
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16/...but it would send an important SIGNAL that academic institutions are still committed to objectivity. That universities are devoted to the advancement of knowledge rather than ideology.
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17/Therefore, I suggest that both university administrators and sociology/humanities departments explicitly call for research to be kept separate from activism. This would be a good way to help quiet conservative fears. (end)
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What about Economic Departments? Should the political activities of Hayek & Friedman have been banned by their departments?
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Replying to @HeerJeet @Noahpinion
I mean, the phenomenon of people who don't actually know what economists do all day assuming all economists are right wing shills because Milton is.... A good illustration of Noah's point?
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