BILL QUICK says that there’s a sea change going on in the academic world, partly as a result of 9/11. Josh Chafetz wrote something similar a while back.

I think they’re both right. The interesting thing is that the true PC loonies — often perceived to be running campuses — are a minority almost everywhere. But they’re loud, and they know how to pressure the Administration, and they stick together, and they’re not afraid to call anyone who disagrees with them names. Oh, and most of them aren’t much as scholars, so they have plenty of time to serve on the committees that do a lot of the behind-the-scenes direction setting in academia.

But they’re still a minority. And even before 9/11 people were waking up to that, not least because they were managing to marginalize themselves through absurd behavior. (You can call people who disagree with you racists, but after you’ve called enough people racist, the term loses its sting, and you lose your credibility). I believe that 9/11 triggered a cascade of people realizing just how out of touch the campus left had become, and how morally and intellectually bankrupt it was.