Thoughtful and well-written piece. I think there is a real gap between the portrayals of how conservative faculty are treated on campus vs the reality, where institutions and faculty often go our of their way to include them. Roberts claimed he faced hostility, but the evidence is different.
Finally got around to reading this profile of Kevin Roberts, the former history professor behind Project 2025. Roberts’s 2005 book African American Issues...included the statement that the “abolition of slavery aggravated the pervasive racism across the country.”🗃️ lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
Samuel G. Freedman traces the long and contradictory intellectual journey of the man behind Project 2025.
Dramatically different. It really says something that a conservative, given a chance to thrive in academia, choses the path of prominent public lying instead. It's not that conservatives have nothing to contribute to academic knowledge. They seemingly have no interest. They have active hostility.
Imagine facing hostility for promoting the view that slavery was better than freedom because freedom made the enslavers booty-tickled.
In prior institutions, I've seen conservative faculty being elevated to leadership positions precisely because of a desire for more conservative representation (the flow of money for "intellectual diversity" centers makes this easier) while still complaining about the hostility to conservative views