Liberal Intolerance

Francois Huyghe and Sharon Bach

Nicholas Kristof stepped in it a couple weeks ago in The New York Times with his op-ed, A Confession of Liberal Intolerance. This Sunday he's gone knee deep with a follow-up op-ed, The Liberal Blind Spot.

Excerpts:

"In a column a few weeks ago, I offered 'a confession of liberal intolerance,' criticizing my fellow progressives for promoting all kinds of diversity on campuses -- except ideological. I argued that universities risk becoming liberal echo chambers and hostile environments for conservatives, and especially for evangelical Christians.

"As I see it, we are hypocritical: We welcome people who don't look like us, as long as they think like us.

"It's rare for a column to inspire widespread agreement, but that one led to a consensus: Almost every liberal agreed I was dead wrong.

" 'You don't diversify with idiots,' asserted the reader comment on the Times's website that was most recommended by readers (1,099 of them). Another: Conservatives 'are narrow-minded and are sure they have the right answers.'

"Finally, this one recommended by readers: 'I am grossly disappointed in you for this essay, Mr. Kristof. You have spent so much time in troubled places seemingly calling out misogyny and bigotry. And yet here you are, scolding and shaming progressives for not mindlessly accepting patriarchy, misogyny, complementarianism, and hateful bigotry against the LGBTQ community into the academy.' "

"There are no quick solutions to the ideological homogeneity on campuses, but shouldn't we at least acknowledge that this is a shortcoming, rather than celebrate our sameness?

"Can't we be a bit more self-aware when we dismiss conservatives as so cocky and narrow-minded that they should be excluded from large swaths of higher education?

"Cocky? Narrow-minded? I suggest that we look in the mirror."