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Dave Johnson of the Commonweal Institute writes an article on who is behind right-wing attacks on academics:

...the majority of the conservative experts and scholars writing newspaper op-ed pieces, books and magazine articles, and even the organizations that generate the "talking points" and position papers used by TV pundits and radio talk show hosts, are directly funded by, or work for organizations supported by this core group of funders.

[...]

It turns out that many of the most important attacks [on academic freedom] are part of a campaign organized by conservative foundations, as a study by report by the National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) found. In a section entitled, "Targeting the Academy" the report discusses right-wing attacks on academia, including "political correctness" campaigns, efforts to use alumni contributions to advance a conservative agenda, efforts to take over or de-fund the National Endowment for the Humanities and to de-fund the National Endowment for the Arts. These attacks follow the pattern outlined in the [influential 1971] Powell memo -- attack the patriotism of liberals and attempt to convince trustees of colleges and universities to remove them, replacing them with ideological "conservatives."

The attacks on academics is part of a larger pattern of replacing qualified and competent people with ideologically compliant mouthpieces.

Dave's article is heavily linked and footnoted for all the backstory you could want. Link via skippy via Thinking It Through.

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