Jonah Goldberg over at NRO makes an interesting argument regarding the "chilling effect" of the current assault on "academic freedom." Arguments to the effect that outside pressure will limit speech depend on the assumption that in the absence of such pressure speech will be uninhibited. Any observer of academia knows that the opposite is the case. Left to themselves academic communities have imposed severe formal and informal limitations on what is acceptable speech. Punitive action against extravagent frauds like Ward Churchill would at least serve notice on the academic left that such hegemonic bias can no longer reign unchallenged. He writes:
[W]hile I understand the worries of a "chilling-effect" backlash, I think academic freedom would actually be better served if [Professor Churchill] were fired in the long run. Right now the left chills speech it doesn't like with impunity and there is no sign that they see any reason to stop. Perhaps if they realized that this is a two way street we might get some more appreciation for real ideological diversity.
Read it
here.
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