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Tangential: I have a loved one who is not and has never been in U.S. academia and also is not up on social media/entertainment/pop culture…but has very firm, if lacking specifics, beliefs about U.S. ivory tower liberal bias and cancel culture… https://twitter.com/graceishuman/status/1326735045571325954
Among other things they have little connection to. I've been astonished to hear them raise things like the "canceling" of "Baby It's Cold Outside"—a song they don't know, couldn't remember the name of, and would hate the content of (bc sex). I was like…why do you even care?
I was equally astonished to hear this person, who would never own a gun and was not raised in a culture of personal, civilian gun ownership, criticize I'm-not-sure-who for wanting to deny people their right to choose to own guns. Me: Harpo who dis?????
They've been sold and have internalized this whole intricately connected universe of half truths, omissions, and outright lies and now suddenly (in a matter of years) have heated opinions about things they never seemed to care about before. It has been alarming.
I dread even asking them what they think about the current situation for fear that they'll say something distressingly conspiratorial about tons of votes not being counted or being lost or being fraudulent.
I just think so many people at all points left-of-center have no idea how powerful these ideas are or how far they have penetrated. And how incredibly difficult they are to budge once they've taken root. This is someone with resources at their disposal to see through this.
Like I literally cannot convince them that I, someone who has spent my entire adult life either in US academia or in close community with academics, might have some insight into academia that they, with little exp in US academic contexts (not none, misspoke above) might not have.
