Last week, I defended the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) from Scott Alexander’s charge that it is “all about the right seeking greater fairness in mainstream institutions.” I wrote:
Actually the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is not “all about” the right seeking greater fairness in mainstream institutions. It’s all about defending freedom of speech on campuses.
To his credit, Scott Alexander came on as a commenter and stated that FIRE deserves support. He didn’t, however, directly address my defense of FIRE. Here’s his entire comment:
I agree FIRE is great and that we should support it. I don’t think that’s incompatible with it being part of an attempt to combat what was seen to be an unfair bias and attempt to enforce liberal orthodoxy in mainstream institutions.
Now, also to his credit, he has admitted his error. He writes:
In a previous post, I described FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) as related to conservatives fighting liberal dominance of academia. FIRE has asked me to correct the record and specify that they are a politically neutral organization fighting for everyone’s rights within academia. I regret the error.
Good for him.
READER COMMENTS
Jacob Egner
May 8 2017 at 1:42pm
Yep, not only is Scott an excellent writer with a lot of wonderful insight, he also seems to be committed to the truth and is very fair/charitable to “the other side”. Someone who will admit the shortcomings of his own arguments and the strengths of the opposing arguments is rare and valuable (and might actually be correct on occasion!).
This abnormally high amount of fairness and intellectual honesty is something you two share. I wish for more writers to be like you two (well, three, as I feel compelled mention at the very least David D Friedman).
Ever read some of Scott’s fictional Unsong story?
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