But Work Is So Hard And Indignation Is Easy
Lifted from the comments following this and somewhat pertinent, from the pages of the student newspaper of Brown University:
“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” said David, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity. Throughout the year, he has worked to confront issues of racism and diversity on campus. His role as a student activist has taken a toll on his mental, physical and emotional health… David spent numerous hours organising demonstrations with fellow activists. Meanwhile, he struggled to balance his classes and social life with the activism to which he feels so dedicated. Stressors and triggers flooded his life constantly, he said.
Poor lamb. All those triggers. Perhaps someone should take our stressed-out little warrior to one side and explain to him, quite firmly, that neither his parents nor the taxpayer are forking out $60,000 a year for a narcissistic clown to piss about playing activist by railing against phantom “oppression” and non-existent “violence” in one of the most cosseting environments in human history.
Update:
Speaking of students who’d rather be acting out fantasies of oppression than preparing for exams, let’s not forget the Oberlin student activist Della Kurzer-Zlotnick, who was emotionally devastated by a two-letter word that was apparently unknown to her, and which she later described as “violent and triggering language.”
The word, by the way, was no.
railing against phantom “oppression” and non-existent “violence” in one of the most cosseting environments in human history.
I bet millionaire actress Emma Watson chose Brown because it’s so rough and violent.
When you’re so determined to appear oppressed that you’re reduced to denouncing a magazine article as “violence,” the parody horizon has truly been crossed. These wretched little pseuds are inadequate to the task of living.
A collective of 21 Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander student organizations, along with 82 individual signatories..
21 student organisations for Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islanders? There’s part of the problem right there.
The other part is that I bet most of the student ‘activists’ are beneficiaries of affirmative action who shouldn’t really be at University and struggle with their classes. Obviously, this is the result of Racism or The Patriarchy, so demonstrations must be organised and white men held accountable.
[Pseudonym] turned to CAPS and reached out to deans for notes that extended his deadlines for assignments. These were helpful, he said, but acted only as “bandages” for the underlying causes of stress.
Oh, they’re really fighting the man, aren’t they? No wonder the protesters at Oberlin wanted a stipend. At Brown, it’s an unpaid internship in brainwashing yourself with full university support.
These were helpful, he said, but acted only as “bandages” for the underlying causes of stress.
What if the “underlying cause of stress” is that he’s a spoiled wanker with no grip on reality?
“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,”
It’s all due to Eurocentric notions of time that colonise our academic lives.
21 student organisations for Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islanders? There’s part of the problem right there.
Indeed. it is interesting to look at some of these “organizations”.
The Hmong and Miao Association – somehow I think that if these petunias are at Brown they missed that whole real violence by the Vietnam People’s Army thing their parents went through, and I am guessing living in Providence is not quite as oppressive as scratching for a living in the hills of Laos (though one wonders if their parents are a tad embarrassed by them). Same thing for the Vietnamese Students Association.
Filipino Alliance – I am guessing these fruitcakes have never been to Zamboanga, Jolo, any of the myriad impoverished areas of the islands, (or even the seedier parts of Manila) if they get to go to Brown, so their “oppression” fails to impress me. Same with the Taiwan and Hindu students, though regarding the latter it would be interesting to see how many are actual Hindus versus Persons of Pallor claiming it to shock their parents and generally be trendy.
Of course there is the Hapa Club, which is a Hawaiian term for a half cracker, half Asian or Polynesian, so I guess they are only half oppressed.
A poor confused young lady has formed her own club, the Jews of Mixed Identity, though to be charitable I suppose there could be another Chinese Jew at Brown.
The idiocy is palpable in this “oppressed” people of color nonsense. Melanin is a brown pigment everyone has (except pure albinos) so in the giant Munsell color scheme of life, everyone is brown, only the hue, value, and chroma differ, and everyone has ancestors who were oppressed by someone of a different hue, value, and chroma, so let us all have a “die in”. I, for one, know that those bassard dusky Romans had it in for those Muldoons who wandered over to Scotland and hung around with that lot, and I am triggered every time I hear a Sinatra song.
Obviously, this is the result of Racism or The Patriarchy, so demonstrations must be organised and white men held accountable.
The students who wanted to work hard and earn a useful qualification, and who very likely had higher SAT scores but were nonetheless denied a place at Brown due to affirmative action policies and “diversity” voodoo, could not be reached for comment.
And speaking of students who’d rather be acting out fantasies of oppression than preparing for exams, let’s not forget the Oberlin student activist Della Kurzer-Zlotnick, who was emotionally devastated by a two-letter word that was apparently unknown to her, and which she later described as “violent and triggering language.”
The word, by the way, was no.
The word, by the way, was no.
Perfect.
Re the above.
An example of the “work” keeping “David” from his studies at Brown:
“We rebuke the BDH, its editorial board and M. Dzhali Maier (’17) for propagating and proliferating racist opinions and erasure, delegitimizing the emotions and trauma of oppressed people and for issuing a subpar statement,” the students wrote in the statement.
From what I can gather, the injustices referred to included disagreeing that there is such a thing as “white privilege” and objecting to changing “Fall Weekend” to “Indigenous Peoples’ Weekend” or something. I have no idea, however, what a “subpar” statement is.
Mark Steyn has a good piece here.
Despite the hardships that students take on in their activism, the University does not want to discourage them from contributing to change on campus.
This work is an “important part of the academic learning experience,” Ferranti said. She was present at the Brown/RISD Hillel-sponsored lecture that was protested by Students for Justice in Palestine earlier this semester, offering academic and emotional support for the protestors.
The University sends deans to activism events not only to monitor students but also to offer support for those involved. “For example, if a student is at a sexual assault event, and the student is a victim him or herself, that student might talk to me about it,” Ferranti said.
Students “might be impacted, something might be triggered or they might suddenly remember more at that event they were protesting,” she added.
Ferranti said she is “proud to work in a place where students come together over important social issues.”
If I were the parent of one of these over-indulged student activists, I would be very angry with the university, because protests and activism are definitely not “part of the academic learning experience”. I sense the ghastly Ferranti is manipulating these young people. She doubtless sees universities as ‘centres of resistance’ to capitalism, patriarchy, the West etc. By encouraging and supporting student activism, she imagines she is creating the revolutionary cadres of the future, as that demented windbag Marcuse recommended. And, nauseatingly, she cloaks her disreputable intentions with displays of unctuous concern for her pawns.
As my mother used to say: “Some people will do anything but work.”
she cloaks her disreputable intentions with displays of unctuous concern for her pawns.
This John Ellis quote, first posted here, seems relevant:
But hey. Mediocre hustlers gotta have prey.
I have no idea, however, what a “subpar” statement is.
An interesting question; no one in their right mind would ever confuse me with any where near the same country code as a competent golfer, but I was always under the impression, never having been there, that being subpar was a good thing.
More on the story here. If you think these poor dear protestors are absurd and contemptible now…
If you think these poor dear protestors are absurd and contemptible now…
These poor dears obviously believe that they are heroically standing up for first principles in the face of great adversity. Fine. It’s been done before. Perhaps the students at Brown could learn something about how “speaking truth to power” is really done.
More on the story here.
Shame these fool administrators haven’t learned that if you give them what they want they always want more.
Shame these fool administrators haven’t learned that if you give them what they want they always want more.
Because the Mao-lings, being narcissists, aren’t actually interested in fairness or whatever principles they profess. What they like, and now have a taste for, is the thrill of exerting power over others. And so when their absurd demands are met by cowardly administrators, this leads to more shouting, louder shouting, and more demands, demands that are even more divorced from reality.
The fantasy of being oppressed – by “violent” articles in a student newspaper – is a pretext, a license, for a fantasy of power. Power over others.
Ah, yes, RS, the White Rose. What a poignant contrast to Ashley Ferranti’s acolytes – who most probably want to see Israel erased from the map, Islam being another ‘centre of resistance’ to the West, capitalism…but, er, not patriarchy…
“If science could cross breed a jellyfish with a parrot, it could create academic administrators.” – T. Sowell
It’s not surprising that few if any of these protesters are majoring in math or science.
In mathematics, science, and engineering, there are the basic concepts of equivalence, and commutativity. If a equals b, then b equals a. By equating actual historical horrors and injustices with trifles, it leaves them wholly unprepared to deal with actual injustices, if and when they occur.
To say nothing of having cried wolf so many times that when the wolf finally does appear, no one is listening.
Many women in Europe now are upset about the number of gang rapes taking place. Of course, when the same women have been claiming that US Universities are “rape culture”, and that one in every four women in university has been sexually assaulted, then statistically, that means that Cologne is actually safer than a university campus.
Of course, in the real world, being dragged down by a group of men, having your clothes torn off so they can have intercourse with you, and being left with a beating as a parting gift isn’t comparable to being given a sideways glance that makes you feel “uncomfortable”. But, having defined that as being an assault, they’re shocked to discover that real assaults are treated with the same lack of seriousness.
Young Davvy-me-lad needs a lesson on economics applied firmly to his backside by whoever is footing the bill. “Think of it as ‘complete economic freedom’, son” his long-suffering dad might chortle as he cuts up the credit cards.
In other news, I’m trying to imagine what makes this ungrammatical blather worth anyone’s attention and tens of thousands of dollars.
I was always under the impression, never having been there, that being subpar was a good thing.
In Golf, the object is to minimize strokes. Consequently, taking more than the average number of strokes is “below par”.
I blame the Scots, personally.
“In the beginning, God created idiots. This was for practice. He then created school boards.”
— Sam Clemmons
In other news, I’m trying to imagine what makes this ungrammatical blather worth anyone’s attention and tens of thousands of dollars.
Evidently “Race” and “science” are both social constructs developed through colonization……
In Golf, the object is to minimize strokes. Consequently, taking more than the average number of strokes is “below par”.
No, that is above par, par is average, a birdie is one below par, an eagle two below, a bogey above par, speaking of blaming the Scots.
Given the statistics, and that David is male, it’s a wonder he finds time for both SJW’ing and contributing to the campus-wide epidemic of sexual assault. How on earth could you fit homework into such a crowded schedule?
“Par” is “standard”. In financial language, it was traditional to issue many instruments with a nominal value of $100 each. If the price was higher or lower, it was above or below par, and below (“sub-par”) was deficient.
Mark Twain once wrote: “The timid man yearns for full value and settles for a tenth. The bold man strikes for double value and compromises on par.”
Justice Gaines ’16, who uses the pronouns xe, xem and xyr
This sentence contains five things I don’t understand.
The Internet can be very tricky at times and it’s entirely possible this has been faked using actors, but …
I actually think this might be real.
It’s under two minutes in length, but the truly astonishing part starts from 00’50”.
but the truly astonishing part starts from 00’50”.
The psychology of identitarian leftism defaults to ugly. And of course there’s the textbook projection, in which an incompetent and dogmatic teacher abuses her authority and browbeats a polite student while telling him he’s the “privileged” one.
These are not good people. They can’t be good people.
but the truly astonishing part starts from 00’50”.
If your political persona and career – your precious status as a supposedly put-upon “minority woman” – depends in large part on captiousness and dogmatic reactiveness – say, whenever a student questions some dubious identitarian assertion – then normal civility and reciprocation will take a back seat. Each needless fit of chippiness isn’t just a way to defend weak thinking by short-circuiting the discussion; it’s also an assertion of who you are, who you want people to think you are, and why you think they should defer to you despite obvious incompetence.
but the truly astonishing part starts from 00’50”.
I suppose you have to marvel at the dishonesty of it, the inversion, the sheer bloody nerve. In a modern PC classroom, it would be socially improper, even scandalous, for a white male student to suggest that his teacher, a “minority woman,” was relying much too heavily on identitarian politics in her teaching and thereby begging questions, or to suggest that she’s using her favoured status – her race and gender – to shut down discussions she can’t handle. And yet it’s perfectly acceptable, even fashionable, for a “minority woman” teacher to single out a white male student’s race and gender as somehow self-invalidating.
And so the teacher is exploiting her advantage as a “minority woman” to browbeat a student, telling him that he’s the one with all the advantage, all the “privilege,” and should therefore shut up and feel guilty. But she’s the one with the socially sanctioned Get Out Of Everything Free Card. She’s the one in a position of status and authority. And she’s the one who instantly resorts to racially charged browbeating, presumably on the basis that it’s always worked before. It’s despicable.
I’ve had 25 years of people with disfiguring illness, stabbings, terminal end-stage disease and psychitric distress. All from the word go. The first cadaver I saw on day one of med school had been bandsawed longitudinally to show midline structures.
I’ve had enough of these ‘triggered’ little flowers. They need to shut the fuck up. Come with me on a ward round and see how fucknut ‘triggered’ they feel. Let them tell one of my 50 year olds with end stage cancer how hard and unjust life is.
Wankers.
Let them tell one of my 50 year olds with end stage cancer how hard and unjust life is.
The fashion among students for feigning victimhood, theatrically, pretentiously, even in the most cosseting of environments, isn’t just insulting in its dishonesty. It has a moral flavour that’s not unlike stealing from a church poor box or hiding a blind man’s keys just because you can.
Meanwhile, in the same general vein as all the above, getting a facial (no not that kind, get your minds out of the gutter) is racist at the U of Wisconsin if you post a photo of it.
Of course it was.
Of course it is.
Trigger warning ! Photo of the offensively offensive miscreants here.
I am triggered by the idea of a guy getting a facial. Also, I’m hoping that out of all this bs including the “appropriation” bs, it will again become socially stigmatizing for men to wear pink. Can I at least have that? In the name of consistency? I don’t think that is too much to ask.
And so the teacher is exploiting her advantage as a “minority woman” to browbeat a student, telling him that he’s the one with all the advantage, all the “privilege,” and should therefore shut up and feel guilty. But she’s the one with the socially sanctioned Get Out Of Everything Free Card.
That.
I want to see a reality show where our host spends a month as a student doing an Angry Studies course.
I want to see a reality show where our host spends a month as a student doing an Angry Studies course.
I think it would be taken off air after the second suspicious electrical fire.
“An investigation was launched and the two students were questioned by college authorities”
Turnabout is fair play: Let the college authorities now be questioned by grim-faced men carrying guns.
That class sounds like fun. Can you just imagine the entertainment value sitting in the back row and putting up your hand and all innocently asking the “teacher” to “womansplain” something for you, or offer to “mansplain” something for her, or asking her how she sees something from her very privileged position as a teacher?
“I want to see a reality show where our host spends a month as a student doing an Angry Studies course.”
I think there is plenty of material for a one hour show. Surprised no one has done it given no lack of material.
More from Brown. Students traumatized by having to listen to Soviet Labor Camp survivor Natan Sharansky and actor Michael Douglas discuss their perspectives on Judaism, Israel and current-day anti-Semitism.
Students traumatized by having to listen to Soviet Labor Camp survivor Natan Sharansky…
From commenter ErnieGJr at Instapundit:
I have a simpler explanation. Their sympathies were not with Natan Sharansky, but with the Soviets who ran the Gulag. He was the bad guy and they were the good guys.
Yeah, I’d wager they think Sharansky deserved to be in the Gulag — because their bearded Marxist professors told them so.
Linked from Milo’s twitter feed, a real world bleeding heart gripes about academic leftists: https://medium.com/@UptheCypherPunx/why-this-radical-leftist-is-disillusioned-by-leftist-culture-63419aa85a58
Confirmation that analyzing and discussing all the ways some homeless white guy is and isn’t oppressed bothers pretty much everyone else too.
Not being able to hold a racially exclusive meeting in a public library is apparently proof of “white supremacy.”
Laws against racially-segregated events held on public property are so obviously racist. >_<
Students traumatized by having to listen to Soviet Labor Camp survivor Natan Sharansky
According to the protestors, having an opportunity to hear views they disagree with, including the experiences of a Soviet prison camp survivor, is “an affront to academic freedom.”
And again, note the complicity of faculty – providing “emotional support” to people who think their opponents shouldn’t be allowed to speak.
‘I sense the ghastly Ferranti is manipulating these young people. She doubtless sees universities as ‘centres of resistance’ to capitalism, patriarchy, the West etc. By encouraging and supporting student activism, she imagines she is creating the revolutionary cadres of the future, as that demented windbag Marcuse recommended. And, nauseatingly, she cloaks her disreputable intentions with displays of unctuous concern for her pawns’.
The thing is, when the Little Red Guards go beserk on campus and start looking for people to purge, who’s going to be the first to get it in the neck?
Hmm….I trigger my son many times a day with “no”.
Usually around critical subjects like having an extra 10 minutes playing minecraft or being allowed to stay up a while longer.
I’m training him you see……..