The academia needed to be shaken up — but how will the pieces fall?
I cannot defend Donald Trump. He is an immoral, corrupt, bullying narcissist who has laid claim to the country I’m from (Canada) and has also slandered the brave Ukrainians who stood up to Putin — a dictator with blood on his hands. Trump is intent on tearing up our rules-based international order, a dispensation that has led to peace and prosperity since World War II, something I have not been shy to point out.
However, we are not here to debate Trump’s character or broader suite of policies, but rather to assess his impact on academic freedom. On this issue, the effects are mixed — some negative, some positive — yet, on balance, the positives outweigh the negatives.
A wrecking ball may destroy valuable structures, but it can also knock down rotten ones. The primary rotten timber that the Trump administration is challenging is the cultural left’s capture of the modern western university. This ideological dominance lies at the heart of the problem of progressive illiberalism, which is the primary threat to academic freedom on campus.
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Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London and an adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute.
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