Nathan Cofnas points out that the modern university has become an almost total institution of woke, with even once scholarly journals rejecting papers that do not fit the regime’s narrative. The Covid issue is a good example of this, where most of the critical research has been done outside of the received university, or in countries other than the US and Australia, where woke is not so oppressive. And, faced with this, the Heterodox Academy (HxA) arose to promote “ideological diversity” in academia, with cofounder, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt prominent social psychologist who is now chair of the board of directors. Haidt had been a critic of the rot that had been flowing over academic culture for some time. But, according to Cofnas, this project too has failed: “Seven years later, you can count HxA’s accomplishments in promoting heterodoxy on the fingers of zero hands. It has focused mainly on aggrandizing celebrity academics who hold conventional leftist views, and giving a platform to liberals to engage in empty virtue signaling about their alleged commitment to free inquiry. Scholars whose work is genuinely heterodox have been systematically marginalized. In at least one instance, a psychologist known for his work on race differences (Helmuth Nyborg) was denied membership.”
As I see it, this is to be expected, since HxA still operated s within the framework of a traditional university. But, in terms of continuing the “conversation of humanity,” these corporate institutions are a necessary failure, being always open to supporting the status quo, however evil it is, because, that is where the money is.