The Heretics Have Taken Over the Universities

Nov 15, 2026

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On November 6, 1970, at a National Security Council meeting and without any sense of literary elegance, President Richard Nixon said:

“I will never agree with the policy of undermining the military in Latin America. They are centers of power subject to our influence. The others—the intellectuals—are not subject to our influence.”

Declassified documents also reveal that, two years later, on December 14, 1972, in the Oval Office, Nixon told the powerful National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and General Alexander Haig—who would later serve as Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan—:

“Professors are the enemy. “Professors are the enemy. Write that on the blackboard a hundred times and never forget it.”

Half a century later, at a libertarian rally in 2021, future Vice President J.D. Vance titled a speech “Colleges Are the Enemy.” He called for “aggressively attacking colleges” and capped it off by quoting Nixon: “Professors are the enemy.”

The Holy Office shed its habit but retained its craft. It never needed evidence. Cheap suspicion or baseless accusations were always enough. The bells of the Inquisition never stopped ringing. The same inquisitions continue to repeat themselves in the most remote corners:

“Why are professors, artists, and scientists leftists?”

No, not all of them, but there are at least ten reasons that confirm this veiled accusation.

Look where the radical intellectuals are, and then look the other way. That’s where the power lies.
Those who love money and power do not devote themselves to research or teaching. They devote themselves to business and investments.
When ideas are free, they are neither bought nor sold. The fact that there is a social group that does not sell them is a serious problem for capital.
Anti-intellectualism is a right-wing phenomenon. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a feudal, monarchist, or free-market right.
No one calls for ideological balance in corporations, churches, or the media. They love free markets, but academic freedom makes them nervous. If they were to start studying, they might have to compete.
Left-wing professors do not indoctrinate adults. Right-wing sects indoctrinate children.
Common sense is the sense of the ruling class.
Capitalism without capital is a faith in what exists; thought is the doubt that questions and creates possible futures.
To think is to disobey. Thought that isn’t radical is a domesticated animal.
Teachers, artists, and scientists are on the left because the right is busy justifying genocides in every media outlet around the world.

Jorge Majfud, November 12, 2026.