# Should Plato Be Banned from University Courses? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 8, 2026, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-plato-be-banned-from-university-courses/1026460 "2026-01-08T04:19:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-plato-be-banned-from-university-courses/1026460/21 "2026-01-19T18:22:16Z")
“Mickey Mouse’s dog was _ **gay** _?!?” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8yKAKFOisYA/maxresdefault.jpg "Soap 0210 - Mickey Mouse Had A Gay Dog?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yKAKFOisYA) ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-plato-be-banned-from-university-courses/1026460/22 "2026-01-19T18:40:22Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > What surprises me is that anyone in Texas knows who Plato was. Maybe they confused him with Plano. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-plato-be-banned-from-university-courses/1026460/23 "2026-01-19T19:12:02Z")
See also > [@Plato banned in Texas university, Also: how come his gender ideology survived the Middle Ages?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plato-banned-in-texas-university-also-how-come-his-gender-ideology-survived-the-middle-ages/1026823): > > Today, Texas A&M resumes classes for the spring semester—but a number of canonized texts will not be welcomed back to school. The public research university has lately been caught in the crossfire between state and stupid. As [The Texas Tribune has reported](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/07/texas-am-race-gender-courses/), faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences were informed just last week that “a new system policy restricting classroom discussions of race and gender” is set to take effect today. The policy, engineered and approved by the Texas A&M Un… and > [@Reluctantly — Fuck Texas](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reluctantly-fuck-texas/933289/1041): > > And of course, it covers such new age woke nonsense as 2400 year old Greek philosophers, i.e. A&M bans selected readings from Plato: ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2026, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-plato-be-banned-from-university-courses/1026460/24 "2026-03-31T17:51:12Z")
The _Chronicle of Higher Education_’s “College Matters” podcast just did an interview with the professor, Martin Peterson. Some interesting takeaways: – He is the chair of his university’s Academic Freedom Council, and did, in fact, pick a provocative title for that unit of the course with the full intention of offering himself up as a test case, and told the provost beforehand that he was going to do this. However, I was wrong about his department chair being in on it. (He described her message as “not a friendly e-mail,” and the university administration as being unwilling to suggest compromises or agree that there might be some wiggle room or ambiguity about what constitutes “gender ideology” in general – they just censored it all. He said they haven’t, however, threatened his job or tenure status in any way, despite being very unhappy about the publicity.) – He was expecting everything in that section of his syllabus _except_ the Plato reading to be censored, and it he was surprised that university admin was so cautious that they _also_ went for Plato. He doesn’t think this would have blown up into a national story if they hadn’t. (Sort of akin to the Streisand effect, I guess.) – He had been in the US on a green card for many years but only recently became a citizen “as kind of a precautionary measure.” And immediately decided that this meant he had both the ability and the obligation to speak out: “I felt I didn’t have to be fully responsible for all the crazy politics … Now I am fully responsible and that’s part of the reason why I’m willing to speak up. I get to vote, I’m a citizen. I should do something about what I consider to be absolutely crazy.” – He sees self-censorship as part of the “grand plan”: faculty deciding that they just don’t want the fight with the administration, and people being hypercautious because they’re perpetually unsure what is and isn’t allowed. – Currently, he’s running his PowerPoint slides past lawyers, and still making his mind up about whether to keep the version he used back in 2024 or engage in some of that self-censorship himself. He’s also been told he has to submit his fall syllabus for review by today, March 31. (For context: normal faculty members, in normal times, are usually tinkering with their syllabi right up until the first day of classes.) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2026, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-plato-be-banned-from-university-courses/1026460/25 "2026-03-31T22:39:22Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Maybe they confused him with Plano. Ugh, memories of _those_ racist jokes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-plato-be-banned-from-university-courses/1026460.md?page=1)