Harvard Law Profs Explain Conservative Dislike for Elite Colleges

Continuing the evening's trend, here's a WaPo article by two Harvard Law professors about why conservatives dislike elite universities. They offer four reasons:

First is the obvious progressive tilt in universities, especially elite universities ...

Second, the distinctive progressive ideology of elite universities is relentlessly critical of, to the point of being intolerant of, traditions and moral values widely seen as legitimate in the outside world ...

Third is the rise of anti-conservative “mobs,” “shout-downs” and “illiberal behavior” on campus ...

Fourth is the public contempt of so many university academics for those who fund their subsidies ...

Not bad.

2 comments:

Gringo said...

I would add another reason: that graduates of elite colleges are often insufferable sorts who assume that they are among God's gifts to the earth. My grandmother, who lived in a small town in Oklahoma, had a GP who was a Harvard graduate. She told me her GP had that attitude.

One time when I took the night train from Boston to New York, I overheard a conversation involving a Harvard Law student. The Harvard Law student was gushing about how Harvard Law people were such GOOD people. Of course, I thought to myself. Harvard only admits those who fit the "going to be a saint" profile- and only the modest.

But this is not universal. The girl who was my primary babysitter when I was a child married a Harvard grad-who was also a Harvard Law faculty brat. When I was a hippie dropout eco-activist in Berserkeley, I visited them every week or two. He wasn't an arrogant sort.

Similarly, the brightest kid in my high school class went on to Yale- and worked for a while in the Obama White House. He had no false modesty- he was certainly aware of his status- but he treated us underlings with respect. A classmate who was decidedly not in his intellectual class visited him at the Obama White House.

Not all elite college grads are insufferable sorts, but enough are.

Gringo said...

The most-liked comments to the article disagree with the authors, with statements like conservatives are against knowledge, against science, etc. The authors might reply that the mos-liked comments rather prove their points.

We on the right may not like the Bezos-funded "progressive" behemoth that is the WaPo, but there is definitely a market for "progressive" oriented articles.