Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who now presses for nationwide gun control via his Mayors Against Illegal Guns group, took to the commencement podium at Harvard University’s graduation ceremonies to issue some scathing criticism about the politics of academia, circa 2014: The atmosphere is way too liberally charged, he said.
“In the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas,” Mr. Bloomberg said, Reuters reported. “Today, on many college campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas even as conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species.”
He chided educators to return to the real reasons for a university education — to “teach students how to think,” he said.
“A university’s obligation is not to teach students what to think, but … how to think,” Mr. Bloomberg said, Reuters reported. “That requires listening to the other side, weighing arguments without prejudice.”
He also pointed to the 2012 election cycle as proof of his point about liberal bias, reminding that reports have shown that 96 percent of political contributions from Ivy League staff and faculty went to support then-candidate Barack Obama, not former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Mr. Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican, switched political affiliations yet again — to independent — after he became the mayor of New York. He’s perhaps most famous for launching a concerted nationwide lobby effort to curb Second Amendment freedoms, via his multimillion Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
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• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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