ACADEMICALLY SPEAKING: 'Read' like a professor to argue against gender ideology
To argue with a professor, it is necessary to read like a professor. Leftist scholars camouflage their contorted worldviews with big words, hoping others will mistake rhetorical inaccessibility for profound truth.
”Academically Speaking” is a series by Campus Reform Editor in Chief Zachary Marschall that, drawing on his firsthand experience working with other scholars across the globe, reveals how radical ideas originating in academia impact Americans’ daily lives.
There is a disconnect between widespread criticism of gender ideology in schools and the support it gets from rarefied circles in the ivory tower. The national debate can feel lopsided because the general public and the activist scholars pushing leftist causes talk past one another.
The inescapable truth is that scholars in the humanities and social sciences have a shared approach to the study and discussion of their research that transcends the differences in academic disciplines. When gender ideology opponents rightly argue against men in women’s bathrooms or sports, many academics dismiss the criticism because the rhetoric and logic do not mimic their own, or that which appears in peer-reviewed analysis.
Recently, I spoke on a panel where Steven McGuire, a fellow at American Council of Trustees & Alumni, argued that leftist academics routinely mistake their ideology for expertise. McGuire is 100 percent right– and that conflation accounts for so much of the dense academic jargon in peer-review journals and other academic discussions. Leftist scholars camouflage their contorted worldviews with big words, hoping others will mistake rhetorical inaccessibility for profound truth.
That is a problem, but the fact remains that there is no substitute for doctoral-level training on how to analyze or interpret cultural events, debates, phenomena, or works. This enduring truth presents a paradox: higher education is vital but its promises are denied to those who cannot work within the leftist orthodoxies that dominate research, advancement, employment, and publication opportunities.
To argue with a professor about the falsehoods of gender ideology – as an example tenet of leftist beliefs being imposed across the country – it is necessary to read like a professor.
In academia, reading is not confined to text. Any research object, whether a film, social media practice, or ritual, can be read to interpret, analyze, or reveal the way it influences others or is influenced by external factors. Scholars arrive at these conclusions by applying a theory or framework of knowledge to the “thing” they are observing.
Below is an example of how reading a film can help those opposed to leftist domination of higher education argue against radical academics. This example is not built out enough to ever considered scholarly, but it contains the foundational structures of how scholars read, theorize, and argue.
Film Review: Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate
Editorials and op-eds reflect the opinion of the authors and not necessarily that of Campus Reform or the Leadership Institute.
