Academic Cohort Capture

When an activist student cohort ages into faculty positions en masse, their norms and tactical habits can become entrenched institutional practices decades later. Paul Graham attributes the rise of political correctness in the late 20th century to exactly this pipeline: 1960s activists became 1970s–80s humanities professors and gradually shifted department norms toward performative enforcement. — Identifying 'cohort capture' as an institutional mechanism reframes culture‑war disputes: reformers should focus on faculty pipelines, hiring timings, and professional incentives rather than only debating abstract ideas.