Some aged, but still active professors at my college staged a 60’s-style “teach-in” about the war in Iraq a couple of years ago. An argument they repeated over and over was that Western democracy was an unnatural governmental form to Middle East/Muslim culture and constituted a new chapter in Cultural Imperialism. I wanted to ask, given that premise, “then why are we letting them into this country?” But I knew I would probably just be accused of racism, xenophobia, or somthing.
Asking obvious questions to academics is a ‘verbal attack’ in their book. Academics are open minded until they are challenged beyond their ability to respond. Then they turn nasty.