CASEY HUBER
Special to The Leader
Philosophy professor Stephen Kershnar has been lambasted by many, but for varying reasons.
His views on pedophilia are being lumped together with his political ideology, but you will get different perspectives on what exactly Kershnar believes depending on where you go.
Twitter is a toxic cesspool and I hate it, but it is the place to go to find different points of view on the Kershnar scandal.
Unfortunately, it is not hard to find defenders for Kershnar.
“He’s a professional philosopher playing Devil’s Advocate — that’s what philosophers do,” verified Twitter user @clairlemon posted (Clair Lehmann was suspended from Twitter). Important to note, Lehmann is apparently part of the intellectual darkweb, a group who reject the alleged leftist agenda.
From what I have found, Kershnar is being defended on the grounds of free speech, not for what he actually said (or for that matter, believes).
In some cases, there is an odd focus on Kershnar being Jewish.
“Stephen Kershnar, a Jewish professor who has written books in support of pedophilia, abortion, slavery and much more on purely ethical grounds,” Twitter user @PunishedMaajid posted.
Posts like these are concerning, as the anti-semetic undertones are bad in their own right but also tend to shift responsibility of the content that Kershnar says toward that group.
However, Twitter is not the only place to find opinions on the Kershnar scandal.
Mainstream media across the globe have also jumped on the Kershnar scandal. What is particularly interesting is how Fox News has handled the situation.
A comment on one of the Fox articles published on the Kershnar scandal reads: “Don’t be fooled. THIS is where unchallenged progressive views have led, and conservatives can no longer ignore these perverse opinions. Get in touch with your local and state representatives now.” This perception that Kershnar is another ‘left-leaning wacko’ is being cultivated by outlets like Fox, and this idea is dangerous but not new.
While Fox may not have explicitly called Kershnar and his reprehensible ideas leftist, they have not dissuaded the commenters from thinking this way.
If you’ve taken a class where there was a discussion of the impact of fake news in the media, you probably already know where I’m going with this. In the event that Fox News is your only source of news, you may not like what is about to be discussed.
Before we talk about Fox, we should talk about misinformation in general. Misinformation is important to understand because of how pervasive it is in our society. It’s hardly a new concept, with yellow journalism being prevalent in the 19th century. The Spanish-American War is argued by historians to have been spurred on by sensationalist headlines and disinformation campaigns.
Misinformation is different from disinformation in terms of context. Misinformation is information that is inaccurate on its own, often due to being taken out of context. Disinformation is intentionally wrong and often is used to further a political agenda. Both forms are designed to mislead the reader.
During the 2016 election, much of the disinformation that spread through the U.S. was born in Russia in order to “sow distrust in American democracy overall,” according to TIME magazine.
So, if Fox is to be accused of spreading misinformation, or even disinformation, do they have a motive? Short answer: yes. Long answer: Fox is a business-first entity, and thus prioritizes making money over all else. Fox makes money by selling eyeballs, specifically the eyeballs of conservatives.
Fox being a business must cultivate its viewership to maintain it. Conservative eyeballs are best cultivated by content that is both familiar to them and perpetuates beliefs they have already accepted.
It is easier for people to believe information that aligns with pre-existing beliefs in a phenomenon called confirmation bias. Everyone is prone to this effect, but how heavily you rely on your daily dose of confirmation bias correlates to how hard it is to see new points of view objectively.
There is a capital “T” Truth to information — what happened is what happened, nothing more or less. That being said, the way we communicate information is inherently flawed by means of internal bias. Everyone has a bias, but how (or if) we control it says a lot about how we value information.
Fox has a bias and the way the news outlet controls it tells me that it values information like a commodity: something that is a means to an end, the end being money.
Bringing it back to the Kershnar scandal, we can analyze the perception that Kershnar is a ‘left-leaning wacko’ who is symptomatic of the liberal agenda through a liberal arts college.
Is he? No.
Kershnar, with all the evidence I’ve gathered, seems to align with libertarian ideology. Contrary to popular belief, libertarians are not necessarily left-leaning, according to SUNY Fredonia political science professor Raymond Rushboldt.
Rushboldt defined the general libertarian belief as the idea that “the government shouldn’t interfere with your expression of individual rights, however most people would agree that the government has a role for protecting individuals from the consequences of dangerous behaviors,” Rushboldt said.
On Kershnar’s blog titled Objectivist v. Constructivist v. Theist, he published articles in favor of student-professor sexual relationships from 2010 to 2016 as well as articles like “Against Diversity,” where he argues that racial diversity “does not correlate with wealth, happiness, peace or other indicators of human flourishing.”
More evidence that Kershnar is a libertarian lies in another blog post titled “National Disgrace #1: Massive Incarceration,” where he argues against government drug prohibition and suggests that drugs such as crack cocaine should be legal.
So when conservatives claim that Kershnar is a leftist, look at the evidence for yourself. From what I have found, Kershnar seems to be a libertarian, likely right-wing given his view on race (see “Against Diversity” above).
“Look at the evidence yourself” being said, Kershnar’s blog is horrific to me. Prepare yourself for an experience if you plan on reading his work.