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Telling the truth is now a ‘professional hazard to American scholars’: op-ed

A dean at the Catholic University of America was suspended “for the crime of being observant” about one of Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers, Sohrab Amari writes in Commentary Magazine. William Rainford was suspended for a tweet from his official dean’s account criticizing Julie Swetnick, Kavanaugh’s third accuser, who accused Kavanaugh of running a gang-rape ring while in high school.

Amari relays Rainford’s tweet questioning the allegations:

“Swetnick is 55 [years old],” he wrote. “Kavanaugh is 52 [years old]. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys? If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with [and] by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim [and] she the perp!”

Amari points out that the allegations never actually accuse Kavanaugh of any direct wrongdoing, but rather “place Kavanaugh in proximity of grave wrongdoings.” He also points out that Swetnick never explains “why she kept going back—at least 10 times—to parties where the drinks were allegedly spiked and the girls allegedly gang-raped,” along with the age disparities Rainford observed.

Rainford had admitted that using his official account was a mistake, and that he should have used his personal account to espouse his beliefs. He took responsibility for this oversight and accepted his punishment, which was a suspension for the remainder of the semester. But he still could not save himself from a campus mob. Amari writes:

But the activists won’t relent. Campus sources describe a concerted, systematic campaign to push Rainford out of the dean’s job, using every procedural trick afforded by the campus administrative code to force Garvey’s hand. The activists, mainly in the social-work school, have lined up testimonials and petitions suggesting that Rainford’s single tweet has permanently and irrevocably damaged their career prospects. They’ve also drawn up resolutions arguing that Rainford’s tweet somehow violated the social worker’s code. The real aim seems to be to send a message to every conservative on campus about the ideological balance of power.

Amari concludes by contending that “liberalism is the least liberal force in American academic life.” The ideology that seeks to destroy Rainford is “a mean-spirited, insecure, Nurse-Ratched-style ideology that forgives no offense against its precepts, even after the offender has repented.”

Telling the truth is now a “professional hazard to American scholars.”

Read the full article.

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