Commentary: Assaults on academia follow a familiar pattern

January 14, 2024 1 min read

Times Union
Barbara DeMille

Excerpt: When dealing in the arts of propaganda and thought control, you must always, first, dishonor the intellectuals. And in the insidious process of disgracing independent thought, those who think — and have the temerity to speak and publish what they think — will always be prime targets.

Faced with aggressive questioning from U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik in a congressional hearing last month, college presidents stumbled through answers about antisemitism on campus. Stefanik claims it as a vital victory to be rid of these instances of “deep institutional rot.” And what do the Republican congresswoman and her colleagues plan to do once they have cleansed our institutional rot?  Her North Star, Donald Trump, offers clues.

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