Conservative Reactions to Professor’s Autism Comments Are Hypocritical

Conservative students display the very immaturity they accuse liberal students of. Duke University conservatives, the same people frequently advocating on behalf of “free speech,” demand a professor be punished for using language they find offensive.

A controversial academic whose work has faced serious criticism from peers is giving a talk on a book tour that’s been mired in controversy. The speaker answers a question from the audience, calling the other side of the aisle feeble-minded. Outraged, a student group calls for punishment.

For some on the right, it might seem easy to fill in the roles in a story like this: the antagonized conservative thinker, fighting for intellectual freedom, the hypersensitive SJW college kids, incapable of interacting with the opposing point of view. But what would the response be if those roles were reversed?

That hypothetical was a reality this week, as Duke University history and sociology professor Nancy MacLean fueled outrage after making an absurd claim at a New York book talk linking autism, antisocial behavior and libertarian political leanings. She was posed a question about James Buchanan, an economist and Nobel prize winner who exerted a strong influence on the beginnings of the modern American libertarian movement.

“It’s striking to me how many of the architects of [the libertarian movement] seem to be on the autism spectrum,” Dr. MacLean said. “You know, people who don’t feel solidarity or empathy with others, and who have difficult human relationships sometimes.”

Putting aside the bizarre, totally unscientific comparison between autism and libertarianism, it’s difficult to imagine how Dr. MacLean could have worded her response any more poorly. In essence, she cast every person with autism as a sociopath — a claim anyone should be able to see is dangerous and irresponsible.