Hoppe’s Non-Apology for Anti-Gay Remarks
So here’s how UNLV professor and lewrockwell.com pin-up boy Hans-Hermann Hoppe tries to crawl out of his self-dug homophobic hole (for background see this post):
In March of 2004, during a 75-minute lecture in my Money and Banking class on time preference, interest, and capital, I presented numerous examples designed to illustrate the concept of time preference (or in the terminology of the sociologist Edward Banfield of “present- and future-orientation”). As one brief example, I referred to homosexuals as a group which, because they typically do not have children, tend to have a higher degree of time preference and are more present-oriented. I also noted — as have many other scholars — that J.M Keynes, whose economic theories were the subject of some upcoming lectures, had been a homosexual and that this might be useful to know when considering his short-run economic policy recommendation and his famous dictum “in the long run we are all dead.”
…
In my next lecture I explained that when I say that Italians eat more Spaghetti than Germans for instance this does not mean that every Italian eats more Spaghetti than every German. It means that on the average Italians eat more Spaghetti than Germans.
So let’s review. According to Hoppe:
(1) “Academic freedom” includes the privilege of telling statistically unproven and unprovable stereotypes (not only about gays but about all childless adults).
(2) “Academic freedom” includes the privilege to be linguistically sloppy (“Well of course I meant ‘on average’ — sheesh!”).
(3) “Academic freedom” includes the privilege of selectively omitting critical facts (i.e., nowhere in his non-apology does he mention the “gays engage in riskier lifestyles” remark that he also made at that lecture).
(4) “Academic freedom” includes the privilege to argue “My straw man can beat up your straw man…” (i.e., since Keynes was gay, all gays must be hedonists?).
He may be selling, but I’m not buying.
I see no reason to overturn my previous verdict:
“Academic freedom” does not include the freedom to lie or to “make stuff up.” If you want to be politically (sociologically?) incorrect in the spirit of Charles Murray, then be my guest and more power to you. But you better damn well have some numbers to back it up. Otherwise you’re just another bigot.
(Via GayandRight, who unfortunately falls for Hoppe’s con job.)
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