At EconLog, Brian Caplan posts some disturbing results from a survey of professors at American universities: 18% of the social scientists in general, and 25% of sociologists in particular, described themselves as “Marxists.” As Brian notes:

If 18% of biologists believed in creationism, that would be a big deal. Why? Because creationism is nonsense. Similarly, if 18% of social scientists believe in Marxism, that too is a big deal. Why? Because Marxism is nonsense. Furthermore, if 18% of a discipline fully embrace a body of nonsense, there is also probably a large bloc of nonsense sympathizers – people who won’t swallow the nonsense whole, but nevertheless see great value in it. Suppose, plausibly, that there is one fellow traveler for every true believer. That would bring the share of abject intellectual corruption to fully 35% – and 51% in sociology.

I knew the professoriate was disproportionately left-leaning, but this is ridiculous.