Elsewhere (230)
Alex Southwell, a pseudonym, on “diversity” hires and the deskilling of academia:
I mentioned that I had received an email from one of the candidates and shared it with the committee members. After reading the email aloud, I argued that the missive effectively disqualified the candidate. The writing was riddled with awkward expression, malapropisms, misplaced punctuation, and other conceptual and formal problems… I asked my fellow committee members how we could possibly hire someone to teach writing who had written such an email. The candidate could not write. I also pointed to her application letter, which was similarly awkward and error-laden. My committee colleagues argued that “we do not teach grammar” in our writing classes.
Further to the above, Amy Alkon has identified the unnamed beneficiary of these piously lowered standards, and shares some student feedback. As even basic grammar and punctuation are apparently deemed superfluous, even among faculty, and even in official documents, I suspect the “Liberal Studies” department at NYU is probably best avoided.
For more on the Clown Quarter’s disdain for competence, see also this and this.
Noah Rothman on the delusional excuses of campus Mao-lings:
Georgetown’s student paper The Hoya endorsed Oberlin’s assessment of the threat posed by Christina Hoff Sommers – and thus, critical statistical analysis – by asserting that her invitation to speak at the university amounted to endorsing “a harmful conversation.” The notion that one is under physical assault eventually legitimises — even demands — a preventative response. The editors at Wellesley College’s student newspaper inadvertently endorsed this grim totalitarianism in an editorial advocating the use of “appropriate measures” against those who support those they deem to be irresponsible politicians or lecturers. “[I]f people are given the resources to learn and either continue to speak hate speech or refuse to adapt their beliefs, then hostility may be warranted,” the piece read. Amid laborious prose that read as though an algorithm translated it from the original Mandarin, these students articulated the logical foundations of fascism: We, the victimised, are owed reparative justice. And here it comes.
And Theodore Dalrymple on vanity as policy:
The Swedish government agreed to take 160,000 refugees or migrants from the Middle East in a single year (who did not want to claim asylum in Denmark, where the social security payments were lower). The government did this because it (and its supporters) wanted Sweden to be an ethical superpower, a country responsible to and for the whole world, rather than to and for itself… Even these ethical narcissists soon realised, however, that if they proceeded in this fashion for, say, ten years, Sweden would have become, with the aid of a little family reunification and a higher birthrate, a semi–Middle Eastern country stuck in the Baltic, and they promptly closed the borders… Since they were motivated not so much by the desire for change as the desire to preen themselves like ducks at the edge of a pond, they suddenly realised the danger they were in. Their desire to be good was much shallower than their desire to appear good.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
So Black and Brown people are not impervious to pain. That could be useful information.
I would use those words to describe the thugs’ apologists.
What comes to mind is the number of times various Guardian contributors have agonised at length over the quality of prison toothbrushes, or have airily dismissed burglary – the violation and robbery of someone’s home – as “really quite inconsequential,” before dismissing anger at that violation as plebeian and unsophisticated.
And so these pious little lefties pretend to feel sympathy for working class criminals – typically habitual criminals who prey on their neighbours for years – while denouncing any remotely commensurate punishment, and while disdaining the criminals’ equally working class victims, whose expectations of lawfulness and quality of life are not considered important.
The HuffPo article on denying whitey the franchise was a hoax.
File this one under “Who the hell can tell anymore?”
Poe’s Law strikes again.
And so these pious little lefties pretend to feel sympathy for working class criminals… while disdaining the criminals’ equally working class victims, whose expectations of lawfulness and quality of life are not considered important.
That.
That.
It’s a strange thing to behold, and yet you’ll see it in said newspaper as a matter of routine. I can’t offhand think of another supposedly serious national publication that spends so much time contriving to excuse the perpetrators of vandalism, thuggery and criminal predation. And so we get Guardian articles assuring us that “crime against property is not real crime,” or that “problem families” who ruin their neighbours’ lives and throw pets from tenth floor windows are the real victims and are being “shunted out of society for not being rich enough.” Or that the vandalism of trains and tube platforms is emotionally liberating and a chance for young people to define themselves.
In the world of leftist moral preening, the obnoxious and dysfunctional poor are more deserving of fake solidarity and fake compassion than the functional and law-abiding poor.
In other Equality related news, always remember: ‘Diversity is Strength‘
… Nationwide, according to the Computing Research Assn., more than 84% of undergraduates who major in computer science are men.
Not so at Harvey Mudd, where more than half — 55% — of the latest class of computer science graduates were women, compared to roughly 10% a decade ago. …
To help female students feel like they belonged, professors found ways to remove the so-called “macho effect” by which more-experienced students — usually male — intimidated others by answering all the questions. They pulled those students aside privately and asked them to let others speak.
… Today, more than 40% of the school’s computer science faculty is female.
Result?
… Monday and Tuesday this week, the California college will not hold classes, the cancellation following a student sit-in last week at the campus, where minority students issued demands to administration — among them to funnel more money into counseling services, specifically geared toward students of color, and to prioritize minority student groups with funding and other perks.
Some faculty members, meanwhile, told the interviewers that students were not prepared for their classes, and that they’d observed deterioration in the quality of students accepted to Harvey Mudd over the years. They described students as wed to their phones and not committed to the sciences. …
Nobody could have foreseen this…..
Incidentally, the post on the riotous students at Middlebury and their attempts to assault Charles Murray has been updated.
Incidentally, the post on the riotous students at Middlebury and their attempts to assault Charles Murray has been updated.
Speaking of riotous students, in the free state of Alabama, Auburn shows Berkeley how it is supposed to be done with the Antifa snotflakes.
Auburn shows Berkeley how it is supposed to be done with the Antifa snotflakes.
Still chuckling at the girl at the end of the clip who throws down her pole in a strop.
…the girl at the end of the clip…
It does rather sum up the mental age of these goons, but speaking of Berkeley, this has been making the innerweb rounds, the Berkeley 5-0 Protest Guide.
Among the highlights, after filing your protest request with the department of recreation, you need to advise the rozzers if you want “symbolic arrests”, and if so, when and where you want them.
Department of recreation, symbolic arrests, it is almost as if rioting is the only tourist activity Berkeley has.
Footnote to the update, David: in one of your own comments to that post you wrote
I followed that link, vaguely recalling that I commented there and wondering if anything had happened. I found that at the bottom of the Free Inquiry page, there were no comments and my comment submission of over a month ago was displayed as still “awaiting moderation”. Meaning I only see it because my browser still has the cookie, I believe, because I don’t see the comment in another browser or from another machine.
An amusing coda of sorts to the tune of nothing happening.
if “truth” is a mere phantom, conjured by “white supremacists,” how can the Mao-lings be so sure, so vehemently confident, in their own claims?
The replacement for TRVTH is “narrative,” which means “competing narratives,’ which means that the winning narrative isn’t measured by some objective standards but rather by the vehemence of the proponents of the narrative, meaning that extralinguistic means of intimidation win the day.
To encourage the others, that is.
The replacement for TRVTH is “narrative…”
Ecce est mea veritas!
Or, perhaps, “correctness”. In their framework, they decry the use of the word “truth” and the thought of objectivity, but there remains an overarching *substitute* for truth which is absolute – the current standards set of What Must Be Said, What Must Not Be Said, and Who Must Say It, To Whom. A “lie” is now nothing more than a violation of the standards, but it would be a mistake to think they feel it any less transgressive.
Their leftism is so holistic that any of its elements are simple common fact, even if they were different yesterday. Anyone daring to contest What Everybody Knows is a “liar” because their “lies” fall outside the Many Accepted Truths and Who May Espouse Them. It’s okay to claim that red is the best color for something, but you – you’re off claiming the sky is brown or something. Therefore, it is morally wrong for you to enter a color as best for anything. Whatsoever. You shouldn’t even have a favorite one, bigot. Don’t you know about the history of red in oppression?
The replacement for TRVTH is “narrative,” which means “competing narratives,” which means that the winning narrative isn’t measured by some objective standards but rather by the vehemence of the proponents of the narrative,
And so the zenith of the left’s identitarian philosophy is a shrieking competition. Enlivened with shoving.
#TheCleverOnes
Anyone daring to contest What Everybody Knows is a “liar” because their “lies” fall outside the Many Accepted Truths and Who May Espouse Them.
Their “truths” are truths because, like works of fiction, things that never really happened, they tell a greater truth. A man who teaches ethics at a one of the top major black colleges explained this to me. He was serious. This is what we pay taxes for.
“Everybody Knows” that cops are especially racist toward blacks. Individual (who is coincidentally an activist) reports being hassled for being black – his truth, fits within what is Correct, what Everybody Knows, and the Narrative. The Story of Us.
Actual truth, that he was doing something markedly stupid or illegal, is in conflict with all these and the Greater Truth and can therefore fuck right off.
Over and over and over…
There’s your problem.
Somewhat related.
General election declared, Guardian, ah, reacts . . .
General election declared,
I’ll just leave this here.
“Everybody Knows” that cops are especially racist toward blacks…
From the aftermath of an actual crime: “Momma! Why did he shoot me! I was only robbing him!” (after which the Momma rages against the racist cop who shot him.)
Meanwhile, back in Alabama, “antifa” snotflakes were punked by Based Barrot Man, who clearly had more fans than the snotflakes and the autistic howling of Leotard Drummer Boy. Clearly Auburn leads Berkeley in the humor department.
Meanwhile, back at the Claremont Colleges
Heather Mac Donald pokes through the mental wreckage of the Mao-lings at Pomona College. And their assaults on basic grammar.
Well, they’re starting to admit the truth.
Berkeley’s cancelled Ann Coulter’s upcoming speech because they’re afraid, after the recent escalation of violence there, that someone might actually be killed.
As our host has said, this is what you would expect when no one was punished for the fiasco at Middlebury, or the riots at Berkely for Milo, or any one of a handful of incidents where lunatics were given full reign to shout down anyone slightly to the right of Stalin, because ‘feels’.
The problem with ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’ is that I can always change the channel when it’s on TV, that’s not possible when it’s actually real life.
Sheesh.
Ann Coulter is going to show up anyway and give a speech, just not coordinated with Berkeley. I don’t think this will materially affect the resulting degree of violence.
I had read that but those kind of things are iffy at best. Her sponsors, the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), would then have to find a venue and absorb the cost of security and insurance which would not be cheap. There is always the First Amendment angle as UC Berkely is a public institution and receives tax money.
I don’t particularly like Coulter, her stridency can be a bit over the top sometimes, but I’d love to see the bumbling commies of the UC system hoist by their own petard in a federal court.
Janice Fiamengo on dumb academia.