Elsewhere (155)
Madsen Pirie on the power of our fluffy and benign state broadcaster:
The BBC is responsible for more than one in 10 criminal prosecutions. Culture Secretary Sajid Javid reports that 10% of magistrate court cases are for non-payment of the BBC licence fee. Non-payment is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £1,000. Every week about 3,000 people are fined for non-payment, and about one person a week is jailed for non-payment of the fine. Women make up about 70% of those prosecuted and convicted, and half of those jailed for not paying the fine. When people fail to pay other utilities, such as energy companies, they are guilty of a civil offence, not a criminal one, and they cannot be prosecuted and fined for falling behind with their payments. Civil action can be taken for recovery, but without fines and jail terms.
Heather Mac Donald on “rape culture” hysteria:
The most common statistic thrown out these days by President Obama, Vice President Biden, on down is that one in five women will be the victims of sexual assault during their college careers. Detroit is America’s most violent city. Its violent crime rate for all four violent felonies — that’s rape, murder, aggravated assault, and robbery — is 2%. Its rape rate is 0.05%. A 20% crime rate for any crime, much less one as serious as rape, is virtually unheard of… And yet despite a rape rate that is allegedly 400 times that of Detroit’s, sophisticated, highly educated baby boomer mothers are beating down the doors of campuses to try to get their daughters in. […] If the rape epidemic was going on as claimed… there would be no more campuses. You would have had a massive exodus of girls from college campuses years ago, and a demand to create actually safe environments for student learning. Why hasn’t that happened? Because the campus rape epidemic does not exist.
And Steven Hayward quotes several academics who tire of feminist melodrama and the politics of the mob:
Personally, liberal [i.e., leftist] students scare the shit out of me. I know how to get conservative students to question their beliefs and confront awful truths, and I know that, should one of these conservative students make a Facebook page calling me a communist… the university would have my back. I would not get fired for pissing off a Republican… The same cannot be said of liberal students. All it takes is one slip — not even an outright challenging of their beliefs, but even momentarily exposing them to any uncomfortable thought or imagery — and that’s it, your classroom is triggering, you are insensitive, kids are bringing mattresses to your office hours and there’s a Twitter petition out demanding you chop off your hand in repentance.
But remember, you mustn’t say no to them. Because that one tiny word is now “violent language,” for which you will be “held accountable.”
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
The Diversity Scam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g60ON91ClLA
Meanwhile, the frontiers of academic discourse are extended further:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11489856/University-lecturer-plays-students-X-rated-video-of-herself.html
I’m mailing Heather Mac Donald her long overdue Guild of Evil™ amulet.
Meanwhile, in other campus news…
Meanwhile, I have just received the following guidance from my son’s school concerning school uniform.
The following dress is acceptable for all students during the warmer summer months.
* Tailored, plain navy or black knee length shorts, without logos.
* Tailored, plain navy or black knee length skirt.
* Tailored, plain navy or black trousers.
Is it OK to giggle at the thought of offering my strapping 14-year-old son a tailored plain navy or black knee length skirt? Or should I report myself for re-education? I think I’m getting old.
A campus rape rate of 20% is, as pointed out in the link, far, far higher than in the country as a whole. University campuses are widely acknowledged to be notably more liberal than the country as a whole. Maybe the next time one of our leftist friends brings up the 1-in-5 statistic, we should just ask them what it is about liberalism that apparently makes liberal environments so appallingly dangerous for young women.
Or should I report myself for re-education?
I’ve fired up the correction booth. 300 cycles of heavy scolding should do it.
Speaking of school, I recently learned that my five-year-old nephew’s packed lunch was a cause of great concern. Stern letters were written and much tutting ensued. Apparently, jam sandwiches are forbidden, even when accompanied by a banana.
we should just ask them what it is about liberalism that apparently makes liberal environments so appallingly dangerous for young women.
Because oppression. Or patriarchy. Or sports clubs. Or something.
Speaking of school, I recently learned that my five-year-old nephew’s packed lunch was a cause of great concern. Stern letters were written and much tutting ensued. Apparently, jam sandwiches are forbidden, even when accompanied by a banana.
They’d have to prise the jam sandwich from my cold, dead hands.
But then that one article shits on itself when the academic claims he’s afraid to teach “Victorian holocausts” and “global warming.” I thought that was all they DID teach. So confusing.
“several academics who tire of feminist melodrama and the politics of the mob”
You made the bed, you lie in it.
The most common statistic thrown out these days … is that one in five women will be the victims of sexual assault during their college careers
That the statistic is blatantly untrue* is almost beside the point to most of the people who perpetuate it. How they are using it is as the rhetorical equivalent of a Chinese finger puzzle:
A says there is a 1 in 5 sexual assault rate on university campuses.
B then objects that this cannot be true.
A then accuses B (falsely of course) of being a perfect part of the problem – that rape victims are never believed because there are so many complaisant bastards around like B continually silencing the voices of vulnerable women – that there are women out there being raped and murdered and all B wants to do is callously argue about how many there are and what the actual rate is like the worst kind of unfeeling and bloodless bureaucrat.
If B is in any way a decent and reasonable person, they will immediately be thrown on to the back foot, and try to protest that not once did they say that rape didn’t ever happen, but simply that it could not possibly occur on so massive a …
But B is in the trap by that point, furiously pulling away to get out of it while unwittingly just sticking themselves in it all the more tightly. A meanwhile can sit back smugly and bask in the glow of their own self-righteoussness and moral superiority.
To say that A‘s behaviour is a tad annoying is something of an understatement.
*Blatantly untrue, unless that is, you are willing to go along with the idea that the category of sexual assault should actually encompass a wide spectrum of behaviours and actions, both criminal and not criminal, such as both cat calling and rape with violence, and then from there conclude that every reported instance of all sexual assaults (using that extremely broad definition) is as serious a matter as the most violent crimes in the same category.
The Powerline link ‘Could Liberal Disgust With Campus Brownshirts Be Reaching Critical Mass’ was interesting.
On the same lines we have a New Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html
The fact that ‘liberals’ are now coming out of the woodwork to condemn this behaviour is heartening, if a little hypercritical.
A campus rape rate of 20% is, as pointed out in the link, far, far higher than in the country as a whole.
“Campus rape” isn’t the same as actual “rape”. “Campus rape” is all about getting pissed, then waking up next to someone you really ought not to have shagged and feeling really quite remorseful.
On that basis I reckon I got “raped” loads of times.
Reclaim the night! Where do I sign up?
TDK: Indeed. Maybe some of them are actually liberal.
PS. Kipnes:
“If you wanted to produce a pacified, cowering citizenry, this would be the method.”
Yup.
A says there is a 1 in 5 sexual assault rate on university campuses.
B says why are you lying?
A says Blah!
B Behave like an adult
The secret is to treat lefties like the wailing children they are.
Old but http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/04/i-married-myself-wedding
Old but
The line that jumped out for me was “when I was at university and studying performance art…” This was soon followed by, “I’d been on a journey of personal development using meditation, dance and performance to increase my self-awareness.”
Honey, you’re going to need a bigger boat.
Regarding the good Dr Cromarty’s link above to the article in The Telegraph, as you value your eyes and/or sanity, do not make the mistake I did and google the name of the “artist” and “lecturer” in question.
The secret is to treat lefties like the wailing children they are.
ac1
Apparently the secret to getting out of a Chinese finger puzzle is not to pull away, but to push further into it.
Likewise, I wonder if the best response is to actually treat what they say as if it were absolutely true and then draw appropriate conclusions from it, a bit like MacDonald does above.
A There’s a 1 in 5 chance that women on campus will be raped!
B Jesus, really? When are you brining your daughter home then? / God I know – so you’re going to sign this petition I’ve got here to shut down every university in the country then aren’t you?
A Women are paid 77 cents for every dollar a man earns!
B Wow! So you’ll be quitting your job immediately then? / Wow! So obviously you are going on strike tomorrow then?
News from Charlottesville: 4-month police investigation at UVA concludes that despite being fairly certain something happened, they don’t know what it was. It probably wasn’t what everybody thought it was, but you can’t be certain, really.
I’m glad that report didn’t come out of my taxes.
This is all based on the premise that western society is brutally oppressive, so that by the time students enter college they are traumatized victims in need of support and therapy. Except, of course, for straight white males, who are the oppressors, maintaining their hold on power through privilege and rape.
And as ludicrous and over-the-top as the above statement seems, I swear to God more than a few buy into it.
Just spent the morning reading through your archives after a friend recommended your blog. Good stuff. Your tip jar has been hit.
Your tip jar has been hit.
Bless you, kind sir. The donation will appear on your bank statement as a subscription to The International Journal of Eproctophilia.
I had the bogus sexual assault statistic (don’t recall if it was the “1 in 5” as that specific one was out of context and may not have existed at the time) along with the bogus “women earn 72% of men’s wages” thrown at me by two marriage counselors, one a PhD in psychology the other a PhD in psychiatry, 20 years ago. I’ve had employers send the whole lot of us off to diversity training where much of this sh*t was shoved at us. No one objected…openly. I was personally kept after one class for rolling my eyes and squirming in my chair with each urban legend/lie that was presented. They wanted me to seek special counseling to correct my “obvious discomfort”. There’s no arguing this sh*t. You people are basically crazy to question it. Thus has been common knowledge for decades. It’s not just academia anymore. The academia problem started 40 years ago. Granted it was small then but the capacity for education to replicate exponentially is a double edged sword.
Nik: Kafkatrapping Model S.
Yes, Kafkatrapping. Actual conversation with counselor with PhD in mind-thinkology:
PhD guy: Are you an alcoholic?
Me (having known and spent time with a few in my youth): No
PhD guy (in all seriousness): Denial is one of the signs, you know.
This was 20 years ago. PhD guy was educated 20 years before that. Why should we expect at this late date that things should have gotten better?
“Honey, you’re going to need a bigger boat.” I laughed so hard I scared the cat! Thanks, David!
Fortunately, I’m known as an old-school irascible feminist–old-school meaning, “I’m as tough as any man and yet I wear eye shadow. Don’t question me!” (Thank you, Patsy.) So when someone starts prattling like a crybaby over this nonsense, I snarl, “Bullshit.” A lot of people, I swear, get too nervous to push it with me. Or I say, “Yes, yes, everyone gets raped. I thought we all knew that by now,” and they think I’m crazy, ditto.
“Indeed. Maybe some of them are actually liberal.”
There are some actual “classic” liberals and reasonable moderates in the academic humanities, but I suspect they mostly keep their heads down, especially if one doesn’t yet have tenure (at least that is my situation).
It’s amazing how quickly things have devolved from the difficulties of being a conservative in the humanities to the difficulties of even being an actual liberal…
The academic progressive left has begun to eat its own tail (which is inevitable given their modus operandi) and we can only hope that this creates an opportunity for change. But I’m not holding my breath…
It is a sobering thought that watching EastBenders might just land you in jail.
If mixing alcohol and casual sex on campus creates such frightening rape statistics, perhaps our universities will see their way clear to ban all booze from their premises and if anyone (student, tutor, or authority figure) is found with even the faintest whiff of alcohol about them then they will be instantly dismissed.
I know, I know… I live in a fantasy world…
As I understand it, the 1-in-5 statistic is grown by including such items of demeanor as “unwanted touching or kissing”. I wouldn’t really class that as “sexual assault” which it might be only under the broadest possible interpretation.
Women give consent, or withhold it, in more ways than the verbal, folks. Body language, largely ocular/facial, in my experience. The human face is very mobile for a reason.
If the male fails to read that signal correctly, she may upgrade to verbal, or even physical objection. A dressing-down for presumption. A slapped face.
But socially, it is HER choice, and that choice will generally be enforced, if needed, by most males in the vicinity.
Journalism student wants racial segregation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/aeman-ansari/ethnic-safe-spaces_b_6897176.html
How progressive!
Journalism student wants racial segregation.
It’s hard to say which is more discouraging – the low standard of argument that’s enabled by educators (for instance, the claim that white people cannot experience racism) or the broader, institutional retreat from reality, of which the above is just another example.
We’re supposed to believe that a journalism student at Ryerson University, one of the most cossetting environments on the planet and where tuition can cost $25,000 a year, isn’t at all “privileged.” Unlike “individuals who have power,” by which Ms Ansari means all white people. Even when these poor put-upon souls, the ones who claim to have no power or privilege, can bend faculty and administrators to their will, indulge in double standards with impunity, and exclude from campus spaces anyone they wish, based solely on their pigmentation and regardless of logic, evidence or reciprocity.
Poor little her.
Somewhat Ephemera, somewhat Elsewhere . . .
NASA’s Abandoned Launch Facilities
No worries. New NASA space program, via Ace of Spades…
https://youtu.be/pD_yQZ4iNjY
New NASA space program,
It’ll never get off the grou… Holy crap.
“If you wanted to produce a pacified, cowering citizenry, this would be the method.”
Speaking of which – exciting things are happening in the world of encouraging everyone to be unbelievably pathetic:
http://twitchy.com/2015/03/24/epic-mocking-in-progress-of-feminist-groups-call-to-replace-clapping-with-jazz-hands-to-prevent-anxiety/
How they are using it is as the rhetorical equivalent of a Chinese finger puzzle:
Kafkatrapping.
based on the premise that western society is brutally oppressive
They should all be forced to spend a summer in the Burmese uplands, dodging armed skirmishes and sex slavers.
Then they can talk to us about Western Oppression: not before.
perhaps our universities will see their way clear to ban all booze from their premises
Sex-segregated dorms with armed DMZs twixt them. Curfews. No men allowed on the floor.
You know: the 1950s but with Nazi fervor.
Also via Ace, we have this from the UK. Scroll down for “jazz hands.”
Must read up thread before commenting. Sorry for the double reference, Bart.
But in this case one voice, that of a person of colour, is louder and my conscience does not allow me to be impartial. I have to take a side… Their embarrassment isn’t as important as the other issues involved here.
Trans: “Because of my DNA, I am better than you”.
Racialized people experience systemic discrimination on a daily basis, on many levels, and in ways that white people may never encounter. The whole point of these safe spaces is to remove that power dynamic. That’s partly what makes them spaces for healing.
Trans: “Apartheid, but done our way”.
The presence of any kind of privilege puts unnecessary pressure on the people of colour to defend any anger or frustrations they have, to fear the outcome of sharing their stories. The attendees are trying to move forward by supporting each other and they should not have to defend themselves, they should not fear the consequences of raising their voices.
Trans: “Whitey, you’re agin us. Even when you think you’re on our side, you’re not. Just having you here scares the shit out of us people of colour. Even if you came in naked I’d be worried you had your KKK hood taped up jailhouse style underneath your scrotum or something, so stay away”.
White people may experience occasional and unacceptable prejudice.
Trans: “What you just said”.
Racism is not personal, it is structural. Unlike the arena of mainstream media, the educational system, religious institutions and judicial systems that reinforce hurtful stereotypes, these spaces remind the oppressed that they are human, that they deserve respect.
Let me guess- you never did grasp that Kantian thing in Ethics 101* did you?
And, as an aside, quite where Asians are supposed to fit into this mess is beyond me. Maybe they’re going to have “neutral” seats- “OK, you can come in and watch, but just don’t say anything because we’ll be doing a regular attitude check just to see which side you guys are on”. “OK- maybe I’ll go and give that algebraic thing another once-over because the doctorate at CalTech is beginning to look very inviting”.
* American academic grading stuff. Creeps into everything these days. Needs must I suppose.
Racialized people experience systemic discrimination on a daily basis, on many levels, and in ways that white people may never encounter.
It’s such a tragedy that non-white people are forced to live among us against their will.
http://hollylisle.com/open-letter-to-sfwa-upon-my-resignation/
I’m mailing Heather Mac Donald her long overdue Guild of Evil™ amulet.
Given that there already is “The Evil League of Evil,” as I’ve gathered from following the on-going SFWA and Hugo awards drama, perhaps a merger is worth considering?
Where do you stand on the issue of Puppy Related Sadness?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzGKlOkQsxY