Punch A Nazi For Academia!

Stop falling for Christopher Rufo’s framing. Tell the world that higher education is about making the world a better place. About extending our individual worlds beyond mere self-interest. About enjoying our minds through discovery.

Rufo is explicit about what he is doing. Here’s an unpaywalled link to his latest. Those of us on the side of education must be explicit about what we’re doing. If you think he’s a clown (and he is), then stop falling for his clownishness.

I have read pages and pages about what is or isn’t plagiarism. That’s energy wasted that could have gone into discussing the big money behind Rufo and the Republican war on education.

Just. Stop. It.

Be as explicit as he is. Use his tactics against him. Don’t start out with your misgivings about DEI or the higher-education bureaucracy. When you do, you’ve already lost. You’re wasting time and exacerbating the divisions.

I recognize that the habits of higher education are hard to break. I have to almost physically restrain myself from responding to the lies in Rufo’s piece. But that’s a fool’s errand. The point of the piece, stated in the dek, is to rally his people to further attack education. Let’s talk about that instead.

Let’s talk about why the people who call themselves conservatives hate diversity and why they want to destroy the American educational system. Let’s talk about all the good that system has done and why it should be extended.

Let’s attack on multiple fronts. There’s no need to decide (another academic habit) on what is most important. It’s all useful.

Punch a Nazi for academia!