We all know it would be absurd to say that a person was racist or classist for speaking English on grounds that English is often spoken in racist, classist ways. Isn t it clear that it is equally absurd to say that a person is imperial or sexist because they use evidence, logic, reproducibility, and prediction which are often used to further colonial and sexist ends. Of course I know the real PC on campuses is in economics and political science departments where the constraints impeding investigation into the nature of corporate structure and its human implications, for example, are powerful and vile. And I know that the main anti-activist impetus on campus comes from conformity coerced by an oppressively designed and run context, from competition to attain corrupted roles, etc. But in a discussion of pomo and activism, other things come to the fore as well.
Many young folks arrive at campuses.
Some, for whatever reasons, bring considerable predilection toward social concern and left insight. For the most part, these are the students who provide the initial energy and force that first gets campus activism going. I think that on many campuses these young people find the faculty who call themselves leftists and who espouse leftist values and take their courses and become pals with them. My generation did this with people like Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, and many others who were lesser known, but had similar orientations and commitments. But nowadays I think that in many places connecting with left faculty means jumping into pomo.