Hacker News Reader

Comment by Sin2x | Hacker News Reader

Your example has nothing to do with academic freedom whatsoever.

The ability to engage with unfashionable topics in an academic context has nothing to do with academic freedom?

There is no academic context here in the parent comment, only social context. This example would fit the topic if it were about writing a thesis on reparations that was rejected or if the author was actively dissuaded from writing it.

If we exclude the social context in which academic discussions occur from "academic context" then I guess there won't be very many cases where academic freedom is infringed upon.

The original commenter did not mention being banned from any academic discussions -- his freedom was not infringed. It is the other people's freedom to ignore him that he wanted to infringe. He wanted to force other people to engage with him. That's the opposite of freedom.

And now for a case of real infringement of academic freedom:

https://quillette.com/2018/09/07/academic-activists-send-a-p...

No, I just wanted to paint a broad picture. Maybe I failed in that regard for you specifically, but I think other people got it.

The broad picture you painted is that society nowadays is somehow more free because less people disagree with your views. That's absolutely incorrect and has nothing to do with the concept of academic freedom to boot. I'm getting tired of reiterating.

You started with an argument-free assertion and your point seems to rely (as far as I can tell) on a pretty specific meaning of "academic freedom," which you've only defined by telling us that various aspects which one might expect to fall under "academic freedom" don't quite qualify. So it isn't that surprising that you've had to "reiterate" a bit.

I think we'll probably all agree that the juice isn't really worth the squeeze here, though.

Academic freedom is a relatively well-defined term, and requiring other people to acknowledge you and your ideas is not a part of it. Forcing your ideas onto others is fascist and the opposite of freedom.

It has everything to do with academic freedom because "academic freedom" is never in a vacuum. You're just showing that you're insulated from it. Be smarter, please.

What am I insulated from? Academic freedom? Vacuum? Social derision? Mayhap I am indeed dumb, but I don't follow your line of reasoning. What your original comment distills to is that you were socially shunned for holding certain opinions -- and yes, this has nothing to do with academic freedom. You were not censored or cancelled -- that's what's important. And you can't just force others to accept your views. Trying to is fascist.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com