A league of their own

This article, which went up on UnHerd recently, tackles the less than impressive performance of heterodox, anti-woke institutions like the University of Austin. It's a rich enough analysis to be worth reading a couple of times. 

The fact that it never mentions Israel, Palestine, or Iran does slightly give the article the feel of a game of taboo. It might not be the immediate cause of the downfall, but it's a factor. UATX was cofounded by Bari Weiss, who founded The Free Press before being hired to run CBS News (into the ground). FP, like Tablet Magazine, Quillette, and Spiked!, were part of a new wave of―to go back to that word―heterodox media outlets that promised to host lively debate and challenge stale liberal pieties. But since 10/7/23 and the start of the Gaza War, they've shown less interest in challenging orthodoxy than imposing one, and a rather extreme one at that. It tends to discredit the whole enterprise.

The other thing to look at is that, just like Rome, academia wasn't built in a day. Oxford University is over 900 years old. Harvard already had moss on its foundations when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Some of these schools have indeed squandered their integrity and reputation in recent years, among other problems. But it took a lot of patient effort to get them to where they were at their heights. It's not likely to be matched by pundits and investors with an ax to grind.