I don’t want to sound like I think all of academia is “liberal indoctrination.” (I have traditional engineers’ views on liberal arts majors, but that’s a separate issue.) But the liberal outlook is pervasive. Even when people are trying to be even handed, ideology just tends to give you different perspectives on the same facts, or makes it so you find different facts compelling. Let’s face it—you’re not going to have a robust discussion of religious freedom in your typical political science class, unless maybe if you invoke Muslims as the avatar for your argument.

I also don’t want to imply that o think liberals can’t be good scholars or do good research. But I think the overwhelming liberalness of academia, of the social sciences in particular, creates an echo chamber that makes people intellectually lazy.

To circle back to my colonialism example, there is a desperate need for political theory to help former colonies develop their societies and institutions. And the academic work in this area just isn’t helpful to anyone. Luckily nobody takes it seriously, and the actual work of developing post colonial societies has been ceded to economists and public health experts. But that’s sad. Academia used to matter in this area. The American framers relied heavily on the work of academic writers and philosophers in creating our system of government.