Nothing new.
Unfortunately, human science is the subject most prone to left-winged tribal community. It also true for other communities like maths or physics, but more notably for human science. Having worked personnaly in these circles, mostly in the maths field, I can confirm that the dogma "Be left, or you won't be clever" is widely spread. This is somehow a paradox when it comes to think that these people are considered, and often consider themselves, as "clever" or "bright", and they are just unable to stick out of left oriented dogmas, even when they do not apply or do not work.
A quick look at France, for instance, gives a good picture. A government willing to pass some justified and long awaited reforms (even by academicians) on important subjects like research, autonomy of universities, education competitiveness and access to knowledge for everyone, and a massive opposition resulting in long delays and an excessive pain to make these reforms workable. With two differences compared to the US:
- first, in France academicians often use left oriented moral values as an excuse to protect their own welfare and the privileges they have acquired in years of laxist policies. In that respect, even if they seem moral, our academicians are much less moral than their US or anglosaxon peers, for the simple reason that morality has become an excuse and not a reason.
- second, the subject the article Mr Nuke points out may have much more impact on anglosaxon societies where this is not an issue as widespread as in countries like France or Italy, for example, where everyone knows that but no one is allowed to talk about it.