Intellectual freedom in the United States?

[Rubber Duck]

A few days ago Purdue University president and former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels had some emails leaked to the public stating that Howard Zinn's book "A people's History of the United States" should be banned.

It really does not surprise me that a reactionary like Mr. Daniels would want to see this book not be taught in universities. To me it seems like yet another display of how the bourgeoisie want to limit critical thinking skills amongst working class students.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Universities were an area where a broader range of political thought were able to survive through the 80s and 90s to a degree and many new left activists ended up as academics when the struggles declined. But even this rather disconnected and insular space for left and sometimes radical ideas is too much for the right and there has been a steady attack on educational gains of the 60s/70s just like the refom and social gains: attacking the legitimacy and actual programs of ethnic studies, McCarthyist attempts to intimidate left-instructors/programs/student groups, etc.

Part of this is ideological from the right that just doesn't want any critical alternatives to pro-market pro-US politics, but it's also I think part of a larger push to condition future labor to have lower expectations (through eliminating "frivolous" study which includes everything from literature and art to ethnic studies in the view of the mainstream) and to be "competative" i.e. to reshape universities more strictly around the direct needs of specific capitalist institutions and industries: lean education for the socially lean neoliberal era.

[ZenTaoist]

Of course....we can't allow the disease of free thought to spread. Ever heard of thought crimes?

[Teacher]

Saw this on the news today. Can't say I'm surprised. There is no intellectual freedom in the U.S.

Academia is one of the most insular places I've ever had the displeasure of being. The state doesn't even need to ban Marxism, the professors police themselves.

[TaylorS]

On a related note, I have noticed that those who criticize the whole "Evolutionary Psychology" pseudoscience are dismissed as "politically correct Leftists who put ideology ahead of science". Stephen J. Gould was called a Marxist because he attacked IQ testing as racist and because he was a friend of Richard Lewontin.

Repression of intellectual freedom in the US is usually not overt, but is based on excluding points of view that challenge bourgeois ideology.

[Consistent.Surprise]

Saw this on the news today. Can't say I'm surprised. There is no intellectual freedom in the U.S.

Academia is one of the most insular places I've ever had the displeasure of being. The state doesn't even need to ban Marxism, the professors police themselves.

I agree about the US but the departments are the ones that hinder profs & adjunct; I deal with this every semester.

I also know a PhD who is ISO & have yet to hear her complain about not being able to use Marxist leaning (I don't know for sure that they are Marxist) texts.

As a librarian I have issue with Intellectual Freedom. I have found though that the biggest resource for Marxist texts in Michigan are housed at Michigan State, which I find interesting; U of M is the "liberal" thought school in the state.