Elsewhere (234)
Further to this sorry episode, Seth Barron on the rise of the Mao-lings (and their enablers-turned-victims):
Videos from Evergreen State College show mobs of students —mostly but not only black— haranguing their professors and accusing them of racist abuse. The college president, George Bridges, is heckled, insulted, mocked, and ordered to stand with his arms firmly at his sides because his gestures are considered threatening to the students, who have invaded his office and refused to leave. Bridges complies meekly with all demands, including buying gumbo for his captors.
It’s tempting… to view the outrage at Evergreen (and Middlebury, and Berkeley, and Claremont McKenna, ad nauseam) as an American recurrence of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when students were encouraged by the ruling class to torment any teachers suspected of reactionary deviance. But the modern college campus is staffed and led by progressives, who have created the conditions for, and invited, students’ PC tantrums. In Marx’s classic formulation, history is repeating itself, but as farce…
In the Evergreen videos, we see Bridges [an advocate of “critical race theory,”] struggling to be as passive and compliant as possible with the crowd of angry students occupying his office. When he is yelled at for saying “Please,” he apologises. When he admits to having a claustrophobia-induced panic attack, he is derided and told to “get to work” transcribing the mob’s demands. Bridges could have called the campus police at any time to end the illegal occupation of his office and his imprisonment, but he ordered them to stand down — presumably because, according to his own academic doctrine, police intervention is necessarily fascist and racist.
See also this display of prostration. Because the intimidation of staff and the screeching of racist epithets must be rewarded, at least in academia, as “exemplary leadership in enhancing race relations.”
Peter Wood on the adolescent vanities of campus administrators:
[Middlebury president, Laurie] Patton the other presidents who stand by and do nothing are not just appeasers of the student mobs; they are diffident admirers. They dare not say outright that the raw authenticity of black students tearing the place up with the connivance of white “allies” gladdens their progressive hearts. They know the alumni wouldn’t like that. But these presidents will do all in their considerable power to protect their cohort of mischievous social justice warriors. Those mobs threatening conservative speakers and insufficiently enthusiastic progressive professors are a badge of honour for the college presidents whose greatest fear is that they will be left out of the Great Historical Moment.
And Phil Magness on the Children of Marcuse and their selective intolerance:
The underlying argument — that certain ideas are too “dangerous” to be tolerated on campus, thereby making them “exempt” from the principles of free speech and academic freedom alike — is an increasingly common one among campus radicals. Following recent events at Berkeley, the editor of a student paper ran an entire series of political editorials in this vein espousing the use of violence to shut down controversial speakers and ideas. The logic of this claim is symptomatic of a frenzied paranoia afflicting the illiberal campus left. It is also deeply ingrained in the pseudo-scholarly fever swamp of Critical Theory… [However,] if one admits the principle that academia is obliged to deny a platform to specific ideas on account of their demonstrated propensity to do harmful and horrendous things, then one must necessarily exclude Marxists from that platform on account of Marxism’s track record of murder and devastation, which is empirically unparalleled in all of human history.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Everything is racist.
“When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But when all you have is a hammer and sickle, everything looks like a fascist.”
We’ve reached a point where it’s becoming difficult to overstate the dysfunction of academia, its Clown Quarter at least. Where the message being sent by such indulgence is, “If you behave hysterically, bullyingly, and act like a sociopath, you’ll be given whatever you want.”
I can’t help thinking that’s not an ideal message to send.
“Administrators at a Long Island high school forced a student to sign a contract barring her from changing her gender identity because she had switched it twice already”
http://nypost.com/2017/05/31/school-made-me-sign-contract-i-wouldnt-change-gender-identity-again-teen/
I’m happy to have a chuckle at academics and administrators on the receiving end of leftist ire, but how can we protect students at University to actually learn? They are caught in a situation not of their making.
Do we have to have a separate system – one for science, engineering and medicine and another for all the rest? It’s heartbreaking to think that decent people are exposed to this fuckwittery in their formative years.
So when does the pushback begin? Because it must at some point.
Do we have to have a separate system – one for science, engineering and medicine and another for all the rest?
While I have heard that SJW idiocy is creeping into STEM subjects, I don’t think they’ve made much ground. My engineering colleagues are a fairly intolerant lot, and combined with our lectures starting at 9am the SJWs left us well alone. Maybe things have changed, but I couldn’t see the STEM lot putting up with this – mainly because the blacks and other minority STEM students wouldn’t put up with it. The African engineers I know would have chucked this lot out on their ears.
Robert Bidinotto, via Samizdata.
The African engineers I know would have chucked this lot out on their ears.
That’s good to hear, but would they survive in a western university with a leadership comprised of leftists and a whole administrative department devoted to ‘diversity’?
I think it’s beginning, and here is a sign of the times.
That’s good to hear, but would they survive in a western university with a leadership comprised of leftists and a whole administrative department devoted to ‘diversity’
I think so. One of the things I’ve noticed about engineers is that they are engineers first and something else second. Chinese, black, Middle Eastern, female, and any other engineer would be there to study, usually at great expense, and that would be their priority loooooooong before stupid identity politics. The black engineers would simply tell the black SJWs to stop talking shite.
I was listening to the Q&A with Jordan Peterson at Harvard and one of his responses was that one way to have controversial, read normal, speakers on campus these days was to hold the lectures early. He mentions a lecture held at a Canadian college by someone who would normally raise the ire of SJWs that was entirely peaceful because it began at 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning. He said there were no protesters because they’re not the type of industrious people who’d be up and out that early.
Security through obscurity, I envision an entire productive society existing during the periods when SJWs are too lazy to be up and about!
So when does the pushback begin?
November 8, 2016
So when does the pushback begin?
November 8, 2016
Not quite. It was actually the 4th of March 2017.
(Still warms the cockles.)
One of the things I’ve noticed about engineers is that they are engineers first and something else second.
Of course, we should remember that Prof. Weinstein at Evergreen is a Biology professor – not an instructor in a field where this sort of thing seems to be the new normal, unless Biology is now controversial. If teaching staff can be literally driven off campus by violent SJW’s, what hope for their students?
Security through obscurity, I envision an entire productive society existing during the periods when SJWs are too lazy to be up and about!
When I arrived in Manchester uni in 1996 they laid on a policeman to come and talk to us about sensible habits, Manchester being a city full of thieving scallies. One of the things he said was that none of the scumbags get out of bed before 1pm, so walking the streets in the mornings was perfectly safe.
Apologies I should have included the link to that Jordan Peterson talk:
Postmodernism & the Mask of Compassion
Long Island high school solution
Being made to sign a contract to quit flip-flopping gender apparently brings (belated) insight:
“I just came to the realization that gender is not a big deal either way,” she said. “People can think of me however they want. It’s not important.”
If only others would reach that conclusion!
Jeremy Corbyn, prophet and visionary:
Via Kristian Niemietz.
I hadn’t heard of this incident before, but SJW’s have infected Iceland too.
Via Takimag.
Jeremy Corbyn, prophet and visionary
Every. Single. Time.
Every. Single. Time.
If only they had the capacity, and decency, to register the obvious – that instead of enlightened beings, our self-imagined leaders-to-be, they are, at best, preening fools. And often much worse.
When I arrived in Manchester uni in 1996 …
As a sixth-former in the late 70s I applied to Salford University (allegedly a former Brylcreem factory, but I never found out if that was true). On interview day I learned that a journey of any length across the campus or beyond should begin at one of the designated ‘gathering points’ where students would congregate until they were sufficient in number to deter muggers.
I didn’t go there.
If only they had the capacity, and decency, to register the obvious
That’s why they call him Shameless Milne.
“Jeremy Corbyn, prophet and visionary”
“Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
Steve Sailer – “Have you ever noticed how most student protests these days have two fundamental points: 1) This campus is a racist hellhole. 2) Please don’t make us ever have to leave this campus! Please give us jobs! We demand to grow old and die on this campus!”
Camille Paglia and Christina Hoff Sommers – PC was so transparently ridiculous in the 1990’s that we thought our mockery was sufficient to kill it. We won the argument, they won the assistant professorships.
Christina Hoff Sommers again – The Title IX’ing of academic science, which has up to now has got off lightly from the SJW entryism that has destroyed other subjects.
Bearded, moustachioed bloke-like being with male name complains about cab drivers assuming he’s male.
Because hey, what are the odds?
@Jonathon –
unless Biology is now controversial. Now? Read up on Professor E.O. Wilson, Harvard Professor whose work on the biological basis of behavior was shouted down in the ’70s. Read up on scientific hoaxer Stephen Jay Gould, who faked data to support his narrative on race and intelligence, and whose supporters shouted down any question of his work with cries of Racism.
The African engineers I know would have chucked this lot out on their ears.
During the kerfuffle at Mizzou, my son’s STEM university about ninety miles away from the madness was remarkably calm. During a lecture, one of my son’s professors commented on that fact, to which one of the black students replied, “We’re engineers; we don’t have time for that shit.”
I found an earlier comment of David’s very insightful and it explains a lot:
“A certain kind of eternal adolescent never stops getting a thrill out of scandalizing his retrograde Lutheran grandmother.”
I believe this is another:
“It must be strange to spend so much time acting out a contrarian adolescence, always in search of some parent-dismaying posture. “
Only the second one is mine.
[However,] if one admits the principle that academia is obliged to deny a platform to specific ideas on account of their demonstrated propensity to do harmful and horrendous things, then one must necessarily exclude Marxists from that platform on account of Marxism’s track record of murder and devastation, which is empirically unparalleled in all of human history.
That.
Bearded, moustachioed bloke-like being with male name complains about cab drivers assuming he’s male.
‘They’ is being a dick.
A portion of the narrative takes a hit:
The first ever genetic analysis of mummies found that ancient Egyptian kings were more closely related to West Asians than Africans, according to a study published Tuesday by scientists at the Max Planck Institute.
The research found that ancient Egyptians were most closely related to Neolithic Levantine, Anatolian and European populations. The mummies tested did not share strong genetic links to Africa often found in modern Egyptians.
‘They’ is being a dick.
It does seem precious and contrarian. Given his – sorry, their – male clothes and appearance, and the male name, and the beard, it’s rather impractical to expect random strangers to pre-emptively assume, based on nothing, that they’re in the presence of an ungendered entity.
Being civil to people who are unusual is one thing. Jumping through moving mental hoops is something else.
Talking of being a dick: here is a pen portrait of the egregious Seumas Milne.
The African engineers I know would have chucked this lot out on their ears.
During the kerfuffle at Mizzou, my son’s STEM university about ninety miles away from the madness was remarkably calm. During a lecture, one of my son’s professors commented on that fact, to which one of the black students replied, “We’re engineers; we don’t have time for that shit.”
Same for stats as well. I transferred into stats from a less-STEMy major halfway through college. Pre-transfer, many of my fellow students were lackadaisical, entitled types who seemed to not really think about future employment, and would have been ripe for SJW shenanigans had those been a thing. Post-transfer, my stats classes were 1/3 white, 1/3 black (almost all women), and 1/3 international students, all of whom were there to GET JOBS. Period. Smartest move I ever made.
Ehn. The essence is that hipsters demanding to do psychodrama will do psychodrama and be the peons that contrast with patricians. As for the patricians, actual practice over psychodrama does get done and will occur elsewhere.
“In Marx’s classic formulation, history is repeating itself, but as farce…”
Just what I was thinking as I read the first paragraph. It’s probably the only thing the old phoney ever got right. How ironic that it’s his own followers who are proving it.
But Barron makes a good point: it’s not that these mobs have power that is difficult to resist, as in 1960s-’70s China. It’s that nobody in a position of power is trying to resist them.
“It’s called social justice.”
I’ve never been able to see that term in the same way since discovering that Father Coughlin, the American Nazi sympathiser, used it for the title of his newspaper. He, or one of his associates, may even have coined it.
And it bears repeating: actual justice holds you responsible for the actions you take. “Social justice” holds you responsible for actions taken, without your knowledge or consent, by people you do not know and have never met. It’s guilt by association, and a perversion of true justice. No liberal democracy worthy of the name should countenance advocates of such a poisonous idea getting anywhere near elected office.
I understand it also turns up in the recent “Conservative” manifesto.
actual justice holds you responsible for the actions you take. “Social justice” holds you responsible for actions taken, without your knowledge or consent, by people you do not know and have never met. It’s guilt by association, and a perversion of true justice.
That.
“Social justice” holds you responsible for actions taken, without your knowledge or consent, by people you do not know and have never met. It’s guilt by association, and a perversion of true justice.
Absolutely. And as illustrated by Mr Bridges, for a person of pallor, “critical race theory” is a kind of moral castration.
David,
Because hey, what are the odds?
From the first comment at the link:
Well, it works for me…
That’s the first link (The Science Advice Goddess), I meant.
[ signing off before I get carried away… 😉 ]
Hey, Sam.
“Social justice” holds you responsible for actions taken, without your knowledge or consent, by people you do not know and have never met.
A friend opined once about advertising that any adjective meant “not”. The same applies to politics and sociology.
While I have heard that SJW idiocy is creeping into STEM subjects, I don’t think they’ve made much ground.
I don’t know – in the wake of the “Montreal Massacre“, the engineering school at my alma mater was pressured into changing the name of its mascot and then memory-holing the reason: campus feminists were scalp-hunting the engineering faculty, long held as the bete noir of campus niceness (we don’t have fraternities quite the way US universities do, so the Usual Suspects were unavailable).
The engineering school has been engaged in all manner of programs, scholarships and special mentorships to combat the alleged systemic sexism that keeps women out of engineering. The result is that female enrollment in engineering has dropped by about 10-15% over the last 25 years.
So I don’t think they’re immune, although for now the curriculum seems uncorrupted.
unless Biology is now controversial.
Um….
BTW, Evergreen state has closed due to campus unrest.
No liberal democracy worthy of the name should countenance advocates of such a poisonous idea getting anywhere near elected office.
I understand it also turns up in the recent “Conservative” manifesto.
When’s the last time the popular American rightist currently enjoying an enormous, rather unprecedented political majority and a juggernaut of social resurgence demanded of his putative representatives, for example, that public education be defunded, hotbed of this social justice that it professionally is?
How about a majority of such constituents? Or are they more commonly found shrieking at images of a Clinton, of a pop star, of a vegan, or directly at an actual classical liberal audacious enough to paraphrase a Founder on the thoroughly Orwellian and constitutionally hostile corporate state? Because at some point those tentacles of social theory and federal power directly intertwine.
Ergo: Social justice, the great cancerous diversion of all forms of sanity, left and right.
The right, such as it is, is as much or more to blame for the decayed status quo as the psycho left it’s perpetually taking its cues from.
BTW, Evergreen state has closed due to campus unrest.
May they never reopen it.
“Bearded, moustachioed bloke-like being with male name”
That story reminded me of that famous Python Dennis/Old Woman scene…
https://streamable.com/cjtzo
Today’s word is unsustainable.
“Hey, Sam.”
Cripes. Fame at last.
Seriously though, I’m glad people agree.
But these presidents will do all in their considerable power to protect their cohort of mischievous social justice warriors.
Using the “socially friendly” urkas to cudgel the zeks into line…you’d think that after all this time, they’d have been able to come up with something original.