Excellent article. I’m at an age where my daughters were lucky enough upon entering university to be at the very beginning of the loss of free speech and critical thinking on campus, not to mention a dearth of the ability to reason coupled with a lack of courage on the part of faculty. They emerged relatively unscathed and still with strong skills to discern for themselves how to think and learn. I consider us all very fortunate.
Watching as we have since from afar the descent into madness of universities across the world, it’s heartening to read about UATX. I’ll be recommending exploring it to as many younger parents and prospective students as I can, and I’m sure my daughters will do the same with their younger aquaintances.
What I didn’t see here was a way to donate to this fine and budding enterprise. Did I miss that?
I was beginning to think that all universities were nothing but cesspools filled with progressive borderline fascist professors, but looks like there may be a ray of hope for students to learn how to think instead of being told what they are allowed to think. Well done. I applaud your dedication.
Found your channel by complete chance, and I have to say. It is a pleasure to be able to see you doing genuine and interesting work regarding free speech. To challenge the comfort and "safe space" people have divulged themselves into and also inciting genuine and inciteful conversations while teaching how to discuss and argue opposing topics fruitfully. I must say, exceptional work.
I'm a Berkeley alumnus from the 1980s, so it pains me deeply to read of my beloved alma mater becoming a very un-Berkeley, illiberal place. At the same time, I am skeptical that Berkeley has changed as much as reported. Not only does the campus continue to attract curious free thinkers such as Max Keating—and I could point to many other examples including wonderful students of my own who recently have transferred to Cal—but in your recent campus-tour videos, Peter, I was struck by how much I enjoyed the ones filmed at Berkeley. Both outside on Sproul Plaza, and what appeared to be inside a lecture room in Dwinelle Hall, you attracted a really interesting mix of thoughtful and articulate participants—exactly the sort of students I fondly recall as classmates from decades ago. Small and self-selected sample size, I know, but my suspicion (and certainly my hope) is that these street epistemologists you gathered, along with Keating, are much more representative of the larger student body than the small-but-loud censorious cohort that gets most of the attention.
Is this consistent with your own impression? I would love to read a reflection, Peter, on your tour. Are you more optimistic now about the future for a liberal learning environment on American campuses, whether new ones like Austin's or old ones like Berkeley's? Or did the experience leave you even more deflated about where higher ed is headed?
Thanks to the author - uatx is needed in this landscape of unmoderated cancel culture, I hope it will focus not just on being ideologically neutral, and supportive of discourse on topics that might not align to the “liberal” viewpoint but on studies that equip a student for a productive life. My niece was a “social” studies student 20 years ago. A bank teller now And grateful for it after walking a gauntlet of jobs with a multitude of agencies That equipped her with all the terminology of victim hood but ultimately frustrated her because their goals seemed less about launching people into healthy productive lives and more about promoting their causes.
I have one child left to attend college. It would be a dream for him to benefit from the education offered by UATX. Even though I completed my Master’s degree in Education from an ivy back in the early 90s, the pressure to conform to groupthink was pervasive even back then. I recall only one professor who did not tow the politically correct party line. Of course, students naturally labeled him as “racist.” I am disappointed my first two college-educated children were never instructed how to think. But they were certainly told what to think.
I have followed UATX nearly from inception, am a huge fan of Bari Weiss, and am seeing glimmers of hope that freedom will prevail. But they are just glimmers and they can easily be darkened.
One of the interesting juxtapositions is the depiction of the "extremes" on both sides by the left. The left likes to portray the "extreme" right as huge, powerful, and a threat to the country when it is none of those. (in the oft cited attempt to kidnap the Gov. of MI, there were more FBI agents involved in the plot than there were participants) The left likes to portray its extreme as small, weak, and irrelevant when it is none of those. The last two years have shown us that the "extreme" left, those who want forced vaccines, lockdowns, suppression of speech, marginalization (and if they were honest - jailing) of their political opponents, are in power in the federal government, control social media, academia, and mainstream media.
I'm glad UATX is working so far, but the survey evidence provided indicates that we are dealing with a generation of largely fanatical and often violent youngsters. This is a recipe for war.
I can't even imagine teaching a classroom with so many angry little monsters.
There's hope for the world, as, clearly, some of the kids are alright! This is an elegant article!
Thank you for this account, it gave me a dose of optimism — a rarity these days.
Good luck with this endeavour, which gives me hope, as a secondary teacher in the UK.
Excellent article. I’m at an age where my daughters were lucky enough upon entering university to be at the very beginning of the loss of free speech and critical thinking on campus, not to mention a dearth of the ability to reason coupled with a lack of courage on the part of faculty. They emerged relatively unscathed and still with strong skills to discern for themselves how to think and learn. I consider us all very fortunate.
Watching as we have since from afar the descent into madness of universities across the world, it’s heartening to read about UATX. I’ll be recommending exploring it to as many younger parents and prospective students as I can, and I’m sure my daughters will do the same with their younger aquaintances.
What I didn’t see here was a way to donate to this fine and budding enterprise. Did I miss that?
I was beginning to think that all universities were nothing but cesspools filled with progressive borderline fascist professors, but looks like there may be a ray of hope for students to learn how to think instead of being told what they are allowed to think. Well done. I applaud your dedication.
Found your channel by complete chance, and I have to say. It is a pleasure to be able to see you doing genuine and interesting work regarding free speech. To challenge the comfort and "safe space" people have divulged themselves into and also inciting genuine and inciteful conversations while teaching how to discuss and argue opposing topics fruitfully. I must say, exceptional work.
I'm a Berkeley alumnus from the 1980s, so it pains me deeply to read of my beloved alma mater becoming a very un-Berkeley, illiberal place. At the same time, I am skeptical that Berkeley has changed as much as reported. Not only does the campus continue to attract curious free thinkers such as Max Keating—and I could point to many other examples including wonderful students of my own who recently have transferred to Cal—but in your recent campus-tour videos, Peter, I was struck by how much I enjoyed the ones filmed at Berkeley. Both outside on Sproul Plaza, and what appeared to be inside a lecture room in Dwinelle Hall, you attracted a really interesting mix of thoughtful and articulate participants—exactly the sort of students I fondly recall as classmates from decades ago. Small and self-selected sample size, I know, but my suspicion (and certainly my hope) is that these street epistemologists you gathered, along with Keating, are much more representative of the larger student body than the small-but-loud censorious cohort that gets most of the attention.
Is this consistent with your own impression? I would love to read a reflection, Peter, on your tour. Are you more optimistic now about the future for a liberal learning environment on American campuses, whether new ones like Austin's or old ones like Berkeley's? Or did the experience leave you even more deflated about where higher ed is headed?
Thanks to the author - uatx is needed in this landscape of unmoderated cancel culture, I hope it will focus not just on being ideologically neutral, and supportive of discourse on topics that might not align to the “liberal” viewpoint but on studies that equip a student for a productive life. My niece was a “social” studies student 20 years ago. A bank teller now And grateful for it after walking a gauntlet of jobs with a multitude of agencies That equipped her with all the terminology of victim hood but ultimately frustrated her because their goals seemed less about launching people into healthy productive lives and more about promoting their causes.
Revoke all degrees including my own until there is scientific verification that the degree holders actually have knowledge.
I have one child left to attend college. It would be a dream for him to benefit from the education offered by UATX. Even though I completed my Master’s degree in Education from an ivy back in the early 90s, the pressure to conform to groupthink was pervasive even back then. I recall only one professor who did not tow the politically correct party line. Of course, students naturally labeled him as “racist.” I am disappointed my first two college-educated children were never instructed how to think. But they were certainly told what to think.
Nicely done, Max.
I have followed UATX nearly from inception, am a huge fan of Bari Weiss, and am seeing glimmers of hope that freedom will prevail. But they are just glimmers and they can easily be darkened.
One of the interesting juxtapositions is the depiction of the "extremes" on both sides by the left. The left likes to portray the "extreme" right as huge, powerful, and a threat to the country when it is none of those. (in the oft cited attempt to kidnap the Gov. of MI, there were more FBI agents involved in the plot than there were participants) The left likes to portray its extreme as small, weak, and irrelevant when it is none of those. The last two years have shown us that the "extreme" left, those who want forced vaccines, lockdowns, suppression of speech, marginalization (and if they were honest - jailing) of their political opponents, are in power in the federal government, control social media, academia, and mainstream media.
I'm glad UATX is working so far, but the survey evidence provided indicates that we are dealing with a generation of largely fanatical and often violent youngsters. This is a recipe for war.
I can't even imagine teaching a classroom with so many angry little monsters.