March 8, 2007
Return of the Campus Witch Hunts
David Horowitz and the Thought Police
By DANA CLOUD
“David Horowitz is a self-appointed general of the right-wing thought police. In 2006, he published The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. In it, he named me and 100 other professors as threats to national security akin to terrorists.”
“Many of my colleagues say that we ought not “take Horowitz’s bait.” Among scholars and activists, he is regarded as something of a kook and a windbag. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has argued the weak line that disciplining faculty for supposed transgressions against academic freedom should be left up to university administrators, not politicians.”
“Then there are the organizations and professors who have devoted themselves to refuting Horowitz’s “facts” about their publications and activism. I believe this also is a wrong approach, because his “facts” about faculty syllabi and political affiliations are not in question. It is urgent that we challenge Horowitz politically.”
“Horowitz’s theatrics and demagoguery mask a very serious agenda: to discredit, harass and censor critical intellectuals and activists on our campuses. He knows that universities have historically been spaces of critical thinking and dissent. Students and professors have been organizing against the war and against the greed and hypocrisy of the right, and he would like nothing more than to hound us from our jobs.”
projection.