I think a key distinction here is any of this only helps if people care more about the truth of the issue at hand than whatever realpolitik considerations the issue has tangentially gotten pulled into. And yeah, absent “unreasonable levels of political savvy”, academics are mostly relying on academic issues usually being far enough from the icky world of politics to be openly discussed, at least outside of a few seriously diseased disciplines where the rot is well and truly set in. The powers that be seem to only care about the truth of an issue when it starts directly impinging on their day to day; people seem to find it noteworthy when this isn’t true of a given leader.
I don’t think this will ever be fully predictable. E.g. in the US I don’t think anyone really saw the magnitude of the backlash against election workers, academics, and security folks coming until it became headline news. And arguably that’s what a near-miss looks like.
I think a key distinction here is any of this only helps if people care more about the truth of the issue at hand than whatever realpolitik considerations the issue has tangentially gotten pulled into. And yeah, absent “unreasonable levels of political savvy”, academics are mostly relying on academic issues usually being far enough from the icky world of politics to be openly discussed, at least outside of a few seriously diseased disciplines where the rot is well and truly set in. The powers that be seem to only care about the truth of an issue when it starts directly impinging on their day to day; people seem to find it noteworthy when this isn’t true of a given leader.
I don’t think this will ever be fully predictable. E.g. in the US I don’t think anyone really saw the magnitude of the backlash against election workers, academics, and security folks coming until it became headline news. And arguably that’s what a near-miss looks like.