The right-wing's idea of free speech/thought/ideas really just boils down to 'everyone else should be forced to listen to my views, but not vice versa'. That's it. That's the whole of it.

Aside: Mike Lind cannot write worth a figurative or literal shit. FFS. Someone get that man into a high school-level writing class. Introduce him to some punctuation while he's there. But I digress.

"Because so many of its leaders lean conservative, UATX has been portrayed in some quarters as having been a right-wing project from the start. However, the truth is vastly more complex."

Hard disagree. It seems to loudly quack just like a bog-standard billionaire-owned duck with no left wing. Ferguson, Heather 'ivermectin anti-vax' Heying, Lonsdale, Bari fucking Weiss... Summers, Steven 'also an Epstein pal' Pinker... if it were a ship it would list to the right and sink after it burnt through the libertarians it used as cord wood ballast to prop itself up.

#UATX

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/01/16/civil-war-university-of-austin-bari-weiss-00729688

“According to Niall, under the constitution of #UATX Joe Lonsdale, as chair of the board, had no authority to tell those of us at the meeting:

“That all staff and faculty of UATX must subscribe to the four principles of anti-communism, anti-socialism, identity politics, and anti-Islamism (this is the first time I heard of these four principles); (1/2)

Bari Weiss’ Tiny Fake Austin College Sees Mass Staff, Advisor Exodus

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2025/12/31/bari-weiss-tiny-fake-austin-college-sees-mass-staff-advisor-exodus/

Reactionary speech police in U.S. Academia: What else is new?

"That morning, I got onto what I thought was a casual call with a senior colleague, someone who spoke with me regularly in order to keep the university updated on Mill Institute activities. Once we were past the opening pleasantries, it immediately became clear that something was wrong.

My colleague told me that we needed to talk about a social-media post of mine that “had become a big problem.” I rarely post anything online, so I was confused about what he meant. Apparently, it had something to do with DEI, and had angered a major funder. “We’re trying to slow things down,” my colleague told me. I got the impression that he was upset about the message he was delivering.

I dimly recalled that I’d written something about DEI on LinkedIn. But I was still confused, because it had seemed like such an innocuous post (to me, anyway); and I couldn’t imagine how it would upset anyone in the UATX community, let alone lead to this ominous phone call.

In that post (reproduced below), I’d thanked writer and Yale professor Michael J. Strambler for mentioning the Mill Institute in a magazine article titled The False Binary of the DEI Debate. The piece, which struck a liberal tone, walked readers through the pros and cons of DEI programs, concluding that regardless of one’s position on DEI, none of us should lose respect for those who hold different opinions."

https://quillette.com/2025/05/16/is-the-university-of-austin-betraying-its-founding-principles/

#USA #DEI #Universities #HigherEd #Academia #UATX #Texas #FreedomOfExpression #FreedomOfSpeech

Sadly but not surprisingly, the University of Austin has turned out to be nothing but a culture war vehicle for US conservatives.

https://quillette.com/2025/05/16/is-the-university-of-austin-betraying-its-founding-principles/

#UniversityOfAustin #Texas #HigherEducation #Universities #UATX