THE STRANGE ATTACK ON BLIND REVIEWING OF ACADEMIC PAPERS. In my years at FIRE, one thing I learned is that the best way to judge what academic institutions of any sort are up to is to determine what they would do if they were the moustache-twirling villain caricatures right-wingers think they are, and assume they are doing that. (With the important modification that, while it happens less often, they’re happy to steamroll left-leaning dissenters as well.)