What Goes Viral

Of course, the well-researched, nuanced article I linked in my preceding post will never go viral. Nobody is interested in long, detailed analytical pieces. Snappy soundbites are in vogue.

The article about Vojtko that did go viral was built around a fake outrage over her making 3 times less than a tenured professor. The pesky reality that Vojtko did not have a PhD and hence wasn’t qualified for a tenure-track position was too boring to be explored. Vojtko’s mental illness that prevented her from engaging in any meaningful form of research and service was not mentioned in the viral piece either. The suffering of the students who, instead of being taught French, were being subjected to hate speech in the classroom was of no interest of anybody. There was cheap outrage to be stoked and easy popularity to be gained, so nobody cared about facts. 

What is even more appalling is that, yet again, academia was blamed for what is supposed to be the duty of the state. Universities should not be attacked for not providing a social safety net for the disabled, the mnetally ill, the elderly, etc. We have a state that takes our taxes and polices us all day and every day. It is time we demanded that some of that money and effort went to taking care of the most vulnerable members of our society.

It is easy, popular and profitable to bash academia. Resisting this trend and realizing that the very forces responsible for destroying the welfare state are now invested into destroying higher education seems sadly out of reach for many academics.