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The Ideological Imbalance in the Academy is Even Worse than Many Critics Believe

David Bernstein | 7.20.2026 1:23 PM

Tyler Austin Harper of the Atlantic has a recent X thread in which he challenges progressives to recognize that academia is often closed to people with perspectives that diverge from progressive orthodoxy:

Here's the brass tacks question progressive academics seem to want to avoid answering: does anyone seriously believe that a geographer critical of immigration would be likely to be hired by an elite American university? Or would those views put them at a profound disadvantage?

What about a pro-life ethicist whose work argues that abortion is murder, and who believes that bodily autonomy arguments do not override moral duties to the fetus? Would they be hirable in any Gender Studies department at any elite (non-religious) university in America? ….

Even in recognizing the........

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