David Decosimo (@DavidDecosimo) / X

David Decosimo

2,674 posts

David Decosimo

@DavidDecosimo

Philosopher & A̶s̶s̶o̶c̶i̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶D̶e̶a̶n̶ @UNC School for Civic Life & Leadership. Ethics, religion, & politics. Academic freedom. RT≠endorse; opinions own

Durham

Joined July 2020

Pinned
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Aug 18, 2023
I’ve been off this platform almost entirely. That’s because three months ago, I almost died. I’ve wrestled with what to say or whether to say anything at all. But what happened has so profoundly impacted my family & me that silence would be false.
1.3M
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Dec 3, 2022
OK, everyone, all at once: “PR work for the world’s richest man!”
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Jul 31, 2025
On my first day at BU, a colleague took me to lunch & said: “Do you know what the real miracle of your hire is? You’re a white male. Do you know how much better than every other candidate you have to be to get hired here as a white man?" I couldn't believe he'd said it out loud.
1.3M
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Aug 18, 2022
Replying to @DavidDecosimo
To clarify: Harris thinks he’s debunking Christianity (& all religions w/ an idea of heaven), in virtue of the fact that telescopes have not spotted heaven. Yes. He’s actually that incredibly mistaken & confused. He thinks people believe heaven is some place in outer space.
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Sep 22, 2023
The BU Center for Antiracist Research debacle is about far more than Kendi. It's about a university, caught in cultural hysteria, subordinating every norm of oversight, inquiry, & excellence to ideology. It was entirely predictable. I said as much to BU's President in fall 2020.
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David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Aug 24, 2022
Support cancelling student loan debt if you like but don’t claim for a second to be progressive, for the poor, on the side of workers, lol. Go tell someone who pursued a trade, chose a cheap school, or joined the army how their paying your NYU debt is actually solidarity, comrade
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Jul 31, 2025
Replying to @DavidDecosimo
More recently, I was denied a key opportunity explicitly because it would upset the "gender balance." This sort of overt race & sex discrimination has been absolutely commonplace in academia for years now. But there is immense stigma & social pressure around not talking about it.
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David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Jul 31, 2025
Replying to @DavidDecosimo
At least 3 times, I've been *explicitly told by someone involved in a search* that my identity as a white male was disqualifying. In one BU search, student comments saying "Don't hire another white man!" were read aloud approvingly as part of the faculty hiring decision.
126K
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Aug 18, 2022
Replying to @DavidDecosimo
In all seriousness, this is what happens when you don’t have around you & don’t listen & engage w/ smart, thoughtful people who deeply disagree with you about the most important things. As Harris is w/ religion, so are many highly educated folks when it comes to ethics & politics
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Jul 31, 2025
Replying to @DavidDecosimo
If you are subject to discrimination in hiring, tenure, or promotion because you are white or male or, worse, white and male - no matter how blatant & egregious - you know you are not supposed to say anything. That it's a bad look & will only damage your prospects still further.
87K
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Mar 11, 2023
Let’s be real. If a group of conservative Stanford law students shouted down a federal judge w/ obscenities & mocked their sex life while a Dean watched & praised them, there’d be front page stories on fascism, the Dean would be fired, & they’d be expelled & banished from big law
David Lat
@DavidLat
Mar 11, 2023
1/ 🧵If you are willing to get down into the weeds, here is my deep dive into the disruptive protest of Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan at Stanford Law School (originally reported on by @EdWhelanEPPC). bit.ly/42606dy
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David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Aug 18, 2023
Replying to @DavidDecosimo
I'm still figuring this gift out. But, as a Christian scholar, I feel deeper clarity in my vocation, more freedom from the fear, status-seeking, & unworthy devotion that can corrupt academia, & firmer resolve to love, seek, & stand for what is beautiful, good, & true. Dei gratia.
117K
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Oct 24, 2023
If you are a university donor, this is a key moment. You're seeing the bad fruit of 2 related things: 1. Years of faculty searches that have been explicitly ideological & partisan, prizing & hiring for the illiberal radicalism on display in the Kendi debacle & Hamas-praise alike.
660K
David Decosimo
@DavidDecosimo
Jul 31, 2025
Replying to @DavidDecosimo
I no longer care about the stigma, nor the views of those who impose it. Nothing will change unless people speak up & say, 'No, it's actually not okay to remove people from a search or hold them to a different, higher standard because they're white or, worse, white & male."
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