"Students are being taught by these postmodern professors that there is no truth, that science and empirical facts are tools of oppression by the white patriarchy, and that nearly everyone in America is racist and bigoted, including their own professors, most of whom are liberals or progressives devoted to fighting these social ills."<p>What's the source for this? Why should I take this article more seriously than a random screed on social media?
I find myself thinking how much technology has had an influence on polarisation of viewpoints, particularly political ones (conservative vs liberal).<p>There is a correlation between young adults coming of age in the era of "Recommended for you" playlists and "People who bought this also bought" recommendations. I feel that these algorithms followed for long enough cause you to end up in one extreme or another.<p>We have young students who are exposed to a single viewpoint for such a long time that it becomes part of their identity. Either for the right or the left.<p>Now at university these two sides sometimes clash. Neither side is willing to hear the other argument as listening to them will invalidate a core part of their identity.<p>This all seems to be a side effect of technology companies trying to maximise profit. The longer a user stays on the site the more money they make (ads, products, etc).<p>As techies, how can we be socially responsible while also profiting? Is it possible as a public company?
Richard Spencer held a rally at UF last week, and they had to arrest 3 of his supporters for firing shots at protesters. I don’t have much sympathy for this “college kids are overreacting” argument these days.
"In response, an angry mob of 50 students disrupted his biology class, surrounded him, called him a racist and insisted that he resign."<p>Students have been doing that for thousands of years. This isn't about racism or post-modernism. This is about longstanding mob dynamics. Communists in pre-revolution Russia and asia. Religious zealots in Scotland. Romans in their ancient senate. This is simply a group of young people storming an office to shout down an established member of an older generation. Once discovered, this power feeds upon itself. It may be how revolutions start but more often than not the young people get older/bored or things burn out as the movement grows and internal power structures destroy themselves. You cannot stop the movement by arguing its politics because those politics are beside the point. You stop them by redirecting their energy towards something new, something more cool than yesterday's politics.
This is a fine opinion piece but for learning anything substantive on this subject it’s absolutely devoid of any facts or sourcing for any of its claims. Also seems woefully, out of touch given recent profiles on Milo Yiannopoulos and the arrest of three white supremacists on attempted murder charges for firing guns on student protesters following a campus speech.<p>It’s possible the situation is slightly more nuanced then “college students hate facts/white people”.
The author should tread carefully... I think the crisis of irreproducibility and the publishing bubble extends to the heart of scientific disciplines as well.<p>Like a lot of things in life, reality is probably more complex than the postmodern humanities scholars or the realist scientific scholars would suggest. There is some level of reality underlying discourse, but it's also filtered through social processes at every step.
> Students are being taught by these postmodern professors that there is no truth, that science and empirical facts are tools of oppression by the white patriarchy<p>Oh brother. Here we go again with another rant that cherry-picks a few instances and pads them out with Orwell quotes and shrill claims like this. I'm a current college student, and compared to my experience and the experiences of my peers, the author is describing another reality. Very "kids these days, get off my lawn".
Much better article on postmodernism in USA.<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how-america-lost-its-mind/534231/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how-ame...</a>
Ok but... While reading that, did you at any point wonder the ethnicity, gender and approximate age of the author? Because I was less than surprised when I saw him at the end of the article.
The dissident right holds that this is a good thing - we can't get segregation and a very comprehensive freedom of association from Constitutional conservatives, but progressive leftists are more than happy to do the legwork to erode protections around the 'protected classes'.<p>But it's something we see playing out across the anglo world - left learning "right thinkers" break down some boundry and hand the keys to people who lean right. Obama took the imperial Presidency to new heights and now Trump gets to reap the rewards. Trump really wouldn't have been possible without Obama.<p>The sad irony is that leftists need the rule of law and impartial justice much more than right wingers.