September 12, 2022
Periodically, the Chronicle of Higher Education trundles out a dupe from the academic Left to lambaste an imaginary threat to academic freedom from “the Right,” even as there exists no meaningful “Right” on any college campus in the United States.
The Chronicle recently published a standard scare article on the topic by an extraordinary fabulist named Silke-Maria Weineck. Weineck is a professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. She describes herself as a “metaphorologist.”
Weineck is no stranger to the pages of the Chronicle, and in her typical shtick piece, Weineck perpetuates the myth of an embattled faculty atop the barricades, battling the “right,” which is embodied in this piece as the Republican Party.
Here’s the setup . . .
Weineck recounts the recent tale of a Michigan professor who tweeted an obscenity about “Republicans” and then received some blowback. What was the offending tweet? Dr. Weineck is coy.
Weineck adopts an uncharacteristic prudery as she offers us a euphemism for the professor’s tweet, which suggested that “the Republican Party engage in an auto-erotic act.” With this, Weineck’s sympathetic audience enjoys some delicious naughtiness as the euphemism is easily translated as “Republicans should go F*** themselves.” But not everyone enjoys such thigh-slapping bawdiness, especially if they’re footing the bill in the form of taxes and tuition.
A parent of a student in the professor’s class took exception to this tweet and penned a harsh email of protest to the university president that her conservative student likely might not get a fair shake in the class. The university quickly took the professor’s side and informed him that he was in the clear. End of story, right?
Not for Weineck.