progressive liberals since the dawn of higher education are …. Still run by progressive liberals?

Sorry, but that is a bunch of silly, dorm room stoner nonsense. It’s not “totalitarian” to have conservative schools like BYU, Notre Dame, U of Chicago, and Liberty either.

You just don’t seem to want to accept this for what it is: an opportunity for the right, including pseudo-intellectual assholes like Niall Ferguson, to attack academia with a fresh new tool, exactly as Chuck said. You claim its somehow shallow of him for seeing reality for what it is — I’d say the opposite is more likely true.

Fact is, politics in this country IS a “zero sum game,” and Republicans relentlessly and shamelessly play to win. They attack the media, academics, students, etc. just like any other authoritarian movement has in history. It’s all a way of discrediting their political opponents and justifying their end game which, sadly, seems very clearly to be ab actual authoritarian takeover since they know very well they either already don’t have the votes to win fair national elections or soon will not.