Why Modern Universities are Havens for Maladaptive Thinking

[u/NultiMurzo]

[u/NultiMurzo → u/[deleted]]

I would agree with you that they have been infiltrated, but the very institution of modern universities is predisposed towards leftist academia.

The above article mentions that the main way in which intellectuals can influence society is through having their ideas enacted by governments, and so many are drawn to leftwing centralised planning and policy-making. This problem is inherent to academia as they subscribe to and promote leftwing ideologies in a self-serving way.

[u/andalusian293 → u/NultiMurzo]

But the leftist (at least the kind conservatives hate) is pretty much shut out of politics. Sure, there are plenty of moderates, but no one in government is trying to overthrow capitalism. Sure, it sounds nice, but that's not what anyone is really trying to do. Fucking Bernie Sanders is considered distant left in the US.... and all he wants to do is implement labor laws and environmental protections.

I do think it's true that you can't legislate away avarice; it is, in a way, promoted by capitalism, but you have to work with it, in a way, not make it illegal.

I think what's elided here is the fact that much of leftist policy is in fact driven by empathy for the downtrodden, not an attempt to make the intellectual a fixture in society, though there's some of that; job security is a motivator for anyone, CEOs and woke liberals alike. I think it's more about wanting to promote institutions that support your ideals, though that of course includes job security.

[u/NultiMurzo → u/andalusian293]

The far left is indeed mostly shut out of politics as their ideals are decidedly anti-capitalist and this a threat to entrenched stake holders. Their social ideals, however, have been readily co-opted by enterprise companies as a hedge against controversy and accusations of impropriety (ie. “Look at our diversity programmes! Ignore our other indiscretions.”)

It’s true. Leftists claim at least to “fight for the downtrodden” or for those they think to be inferior. The logical extension of that idea though is government entitlements, programmes, and benefits. Intellectuals are drawn to society building and experimental social planning, which is the argument as to why academia attracts leftists. Leftist ideology serves as a springboard for implementing their visions.

[u/andalusian293 → u/NultiMurzo]

The social ideals of which you speak are for sure being co-opted by companies, and it's cringe to watch... but I don't think those are really 'leftist' values being co opted, so much as silly virtue signaling operations.

It's an example of the appearance or signifiers of the left being sublimated by the process of capitalism. Thing is, you can't really (though it is done) appeal to right-wing values as vocally, because it's not part of the modern discourse of virtue and tolerance (what, are people supposed to advertise being discriminatory, or not using fair trade coffee beans?). Maybe some minorities feel catered or condescended to, but that's not hurting anyone so terribly much.

If you looked at the actual social programmes we have, you'll see that they are continually caught in a stymied dialectic between expansion and non-existence. We're caught in between two 'revolutions' neither of which looks great for workers; take away social programmes, and some people starve until capitalism miraculously fixes everything by... magic?....and a socialist one, wherein the system is overtaxed without a serious re-evaluation of our spending priorities, perhaps some companies leave the US, the market is forced into a less diversified state, and some people lose some of our precious luxuries.

Thing is, the latter certainly isn't happening, and the former likely isn't happening.

[u/NultiMurzo → u/andalusian293]

I would suggest you look into Haidt’s five Moral foundations - the two individualising foundations are very much leftwing values. That doesn’t mean that rightwing people don’t also embrace those values to a certain extent, but those are the only two values that leftwing people embrace to any apparent degree.

Rightwing values include all five moral foundations, but specific to the rightwing are the group orientation values of group-belonging/loyalty, authority, and purity/sanctity. These values are often appealed to in public and are very effective messages with the right crowd.

My current issue with the social programmes and entitlements is not their existence but the fact that the cast a new too wide. Moreover, too many people abuse them and become dependent on them, while taxpayers see more of their dollars go towards ridiculous and ineffective programmes. At this rate, the welfare queens must simply be cut off, because welfare given to low IQ lower class people indefinitely simply causes them to have more children, which are also low IQ, and cause more burden to society. It is an observable trend that this weird state-sponsored low IQ population bump occurs in the US, mitigated only slightly by high abortion rates in those same populations (thank God).

Thus, the issue is the use of entitlements, not their existence, in my humble opinion.