Look, Rawls's approach to politics was deeply flawed, but this story is a little fishy. Rawls signed many petitions and was active in campus politics. In the 60s, he organized Harvard faculty opposition to US draft policies during the Vietnam war ( https://thecrimson.com/article/1967/1/11/faculty-shelves-draft-resolution-after-debating/) 1/ https://twitter.com/JimGoldgeier/status/1352379882433609733
Rawls made the formal proposal for Harvard to start an African American Studies program ( https://thecrimson.com/article/1974/4/15/black-militancy-a-special-case-pbabnyone/) and is remembered by activists for personally bailing students out of jail during a 1969 student strike ( https://thenation.com/article/archive/harvard-strike-sds-vietnam/) 2/
In the 1970s and 80s, he signed petitions in favor of affirmative action ( https://thecrimson.com/article/1975/3/1/five-professors-sign-petition-supporting-affirmative/) and petitions against the Reagan administration's funding for death squads in Central America ( https://thecrimson.com/article/1981/1/19/professors-ask-us-to-stop-latin/) 3/
Again, I agree Rawls's approach to politics and political philosophy are profoundly flawed - my book is partly about those problems! - but I'd be careful drawing conclusions from a dubious anecdote that serves as such a convenient synecdoche. 4/
Also, this is not the main point of the thread but the last few paragraphs of @thecrimson’s “Professors Ask U.S. to Stop Latin American Military Aid” story linked above are gold.