Censorship over philosophy is nonsensical.

To say "there are some topics you may not think or talk about" is literally the death of philosophy.

But that is the fucking *point*, of course.

I have complicated feelings about philosophy as an academic discipline. Philosophy is incredibly important though, especially when it comes to *ethics*. Thinking about & articulating that shit does fucking matter. A lot.

So yeah, they are willing to ban Plato from the classroom. They would ban *thought* itself if they could.

@artemis
The scary thing to me is that as near as I can tell, 30% of people, or at least Americans, *literally don't want to think*, and therefore would find a ban on thought a *relief*.

How much of that is actually natural? How much of it is a reaction to a world that hurts to think about? How much is people being trained that thinking is a side-effect of original sin or the like?

When women, queer people, people of color,, etc. gain access to that knowledge & can employ it to point out inequalities or argue against injustices, philosophy is over, as far as the ruling class is concerned.

The destruction of education in this country is absolutely related to the fact that the "wrong" people now have access to that education & can use it for their own purposes.

I do think part of the current wave of anti-intellectualism is that academic knowledge was supposed to be gatekept. It was supposed to be used as a tool for people with power.

When white men filled every philosophy department, many of them spewing out rationalizations for colonial violence & oppression, they could tolerate philosophy, even saw its uses.