If you care about the education of your children, your grandchildren, and your nieces and nephews; if you attend secondary school or later; or if you work in the field of education, then make time to watch this short video (11:32):
Overall I found it alarming how many of the letters sound as if they were written from Stalinist Russia or Maoist China. A history professor reports that at his school, the administration is seriously considering setting up an anonymous reporting system for students and professors to report “bias” that they have perceived. One professor committed the sin of “privileging the white male perspective” in giving a lecture on the philosophy of one of the Founding Fathers, even though Frederick Douglass sang that Founder’s praises. The administration tried to make him sit in a “listening circle,” in which his job was to stay silent while students explained how he had hurt them—in other words, a 21st-century-American version of a struggle session straight out of the Cultural Revolution.
I wouldn't call it a sin, but wouldn't you agree that it's an error to "naturalise the common sense intuitions of the most privileged class as objective knowledge"? (Phrase yoinked from https://youtu.be/Kr3quGh7pJA Adam Neely's video about history of music theory - bound to infuriate some of you, but imo really interesting!)
I hear you, and understand what you are saying, but that is a distinct issue. This post is about academics being muzzled and in fear of losing their jobs for deviating from the orthodoxy.
I have been saying for awhile that if this pernicious and anti-American cancel culture and political correctness is to be defeated, it will have to be good liberals who do it.
Capone wasn’t sent to jail as a punishment for all the murders he ordered, or for the mayhem he created in “enlightened” Chicago —he was sent to jail for income tax evasion. Any employer who forces an employee to endure hazing in any form has probably violated a dozen or more state and federal labor statutes.
A citizen who gives it any thought at all will probably assume that college and university settings are enclaves of intellectual thought and discourse, but that has not been my experience. Universities, particularly the more liberal among them, harbor small cabals of Nazis (a wide assortment of them, actually) who spend an extraordinary amount of time devising ways to backstab and discredit anyone who disagrees with them. Deans and presidents are constantly assaulted by groups of competing academics trying to curry favor and convince the dean or president that his or her best course of action (on a wide assortment of issues) is to side with them and help them screw their opponent. Childish is another word for this.
It is bad within the University of Texas ... but much worse at St. Mary’s University where the entire institution is run by seditionistas. Now why would any parent send their kids to such environments where tuition is extremely high ($43,000/annually-$58,000/annually), where their only claim to fame is that they’ve been producing mediocre graduates since the mid-1800s, and where their second largest source of revenue comes from selling Che Guevara t-shits?
A society that lacks comity and allows people to be shamed or intimidated into self-censorship of their ideas and considered judgments will not survive for long. As Americans, we desire a flourishing, open marketplace of ideas, knowing that it is the fairest and most effective way to separate falsehood from truth. Accordingly, dissenting and unpopular voices—be they of the left or the right—must be afforded the opportunity to be heard. They have often guided our society toward more just positions, which is why Frederick Douglass said freedom of speech is the “great moral renovator of society and government.”
I was just listening to a recording I made Sunday of Operation Freedom with Dave Janda. There should be a Youtube, lemme look. Nope, not posted yet. Dr. Robin McCutcheon of Marshall University was interviewed. She used university policy to push back against a department head who was trying to force her to change her curriculum on Ayn Rand. She has been successful. She is also encouraging other professors to stand up and push back. This is not the story of that, but it is related. https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1150&context=parthenon
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I wouldn't call it a sin, but wouldn't you agree that it's an error to "naturalise the common sense intuitions of the most privileged class as objective knowledge"? (Phrase yoinked from https://youtu.be/Kr3quGh7pJA Adam Neely's video about history of music theory - bound to infuriate some of you, but imo really interesting!)
ReplyDeleteI hear you, and understand what you are saying, but that is a distinct issue. This post is about academics being muzzled and in fear of losing their jobs for deviating from the orthodoxy.
DeleteI have been saying for awhile that if this pernicious and anti-American cancel culture and political correctness is to be defeated, it will have to be good liberals who do it.
ReplyDeleteYuri Brezmanov tells us it will be too late when they finally figure it out.
DeletePersonally I can't wait until all these idiots are living in the hell hole they are creating.
Capone wasn’t sent to jail as a punishment for all the murders he ordered, or for the mayhem he created in “enlightened” Chicago —he was sent to jail for income tax evasion. Any employer who forces an employee to endure hazing in any form has probably violated a dozen or more state and federal labor statutes.
ReplyDeleteA citizen who gives it any thought at all will probably assume that college and university settings are enclaves of intellectual thought and discourse, but that has not been my experience. Universities, particularly the more liberal among them, harbor small cabals of Nazis (a wide assortment of them, actually) who spend an extraordinary amount of time devising ways to backstab and discredit anyone who disagrees with them. Deans and presidents are constantly assaulted by groups of competing academics trying to curry favor and convince the dean or president that his or her best course of action (on a wide assortment of issues) is to side with them and help them screw their opponent. Childish is another word for this.
It is bad within the University of Texas ... but much worse at St. Mary’s University where the entire institution is run by seditionistas. Now why would any parent send their kids to such environments where tuition is extremely high ($43,000/annually-$58,000/annually), where their only claim to fame is that they’ve been producing mediocre graduates since the mid-1800s, and where their second largest source of revenue comes from selling Che Guevara t-shits?
Good point.
DeleteRelated:
ReplyDeleteMore Than 10,000 Academics and Scholars Sign 'The Philadelphia Statement' Against Cancel Culture.
Excerpt:
A society that lacks comity and allows people to be shamed or intimidated into self-censorship of their ideas and considered judgments will not survive for long. As Americans, we desire a flourishing, open marketplace of ideas, knowing that it is the fairest and most effective way to separate falsehood from truth. Accordingly, dissenting and unpopular voices—be they of the left or the right—must be afforded the opportunity to be heard. They have often guided our society toward more just positions, which is why Frederick Douglass said freedom of speech is the “great moral renovator of society and government.”
God bless them. This is a creature of the left, and liberals will have to lead the nation in killing it.
DeleteI was just listening to a recording I made Sunday of Operation Freedom with Dave Janda. There should be a Youtube, lemme look.
ReplyDeleteNope, not posted yet.
Dr. Robin McCutcheon of Marshall University was interviewed.
She used university policy to push back against a department head who was trying to force her to change her curriculum on Ayn Rand.
She has been successful.
She is also encouraging other professors to stand up and push back.
This is not the story of that, but it is related.
https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1150&context=parthenon
I'll fight these Maoists all the way. At every level.
ReplyDeleteWhen did students' feelings become the litmus?
ReplyDeleteI asked that question as well. Academia is cracked.
DeleteSF,
DeleteBeyond cracked, IMO!
Duck,
DeleteWith over the top child-centered education!
They're competing to attract fee-paying students. Why wouldn't they pander to them?
DeleteJez,
DeleteValid point.
Otherwise known as letting the inmates run the asylum.
ReplyDelete"Listening circles" have become akin to being invited to be the star of the show for a gang rape.
ReplyDeleteInstitutionalization of snitching on others is Marxism.