A Malevolent Hysteria
In the video below, Janice Fiamengo reports on recent events at the University of Chicago, where Rachel Fulton Brown, a professor of Medieval history, dared to suggest, briefly, that, as a notional group, white men aren’t entirely awful, and that Western civilisation isn’t wholly without merit. The professor has consequently been denounced by her peers as a “fascist white supremacist” and a “violent” menace to the wellbeing of anyone whose skin is heroically brown. And do note the number – 1,300, cited towards the end of the video – the significance of which will, I think, become apparent.
Professor Fulton Brown’s supposedly scandalous and fascistic blog posts can be found here, here, and here.
There’s hope. A Harvard business professor has a prediction about many of these indoctrination camps:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/hbs-prof-says-half-of-us-colleges-will-be-bankrupt-in-10-to-15-years.html
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
(via Instapundit)
Has anyone told these people they’re working in a madhouse?
Has anyone told these people they’re working in a madhouse?
It does have an air of bedlam. Needless to say, the woke-lings’ claims of a pale-and-omnipresent fascism have not been inhibited by any flickering of self-awareness.
And again, 1,300 of them.
A helpful quote from Mr Blair (not that one, the good one):
The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies “something not desirable”
It won’t be too long before all white people, except those who loudly and repeatedly condemn their fellow whites, are called fascists or worse.
What may follow from such mass demonisation and dehumanisation, I’ll leave to your imagination.
Sleep well…..
Has anyone told these people they’re working in a madhouse?
According to Dr Kim and her associates, if you aren’t willing, indeed eager, to denounce this supposedly crushing and all-pervasive “white supremacy,” in which even jovial disagreement constitutes harrowing “violence,” and if you aren’t willing to jump through whatever bizarre mental hoops Dr Kim and her fellow woke-lings care to devise, now and in the future, then you must also be a racist, a fascist and a white supremacist. You see, if you don’t defer to the fever-dreams of ideologues and bedlamites, then, obviously, you’re trying to “harm people of colour.”
This is academia in the twenty-first century.
Of course, Brown’s opponents are rather coy about their proposed cure for this “problem” in studying medieval European history, other than to stop studying medieval European history and purge it completely from memory.
I’m impressed by Professor Kim’s achievement. It takes a lot of work for an Asian to get that fat.
It takes a lot of work for an Asian to get that fat.
Not on the White Man’s diet it’s not. Because #Hegemony. Or is it #CultualAppropriation on her part? Wait, no it’s #Hegemony. Because reasons.
and if you aren’t willing to jump through whatever bizarre mental hoops Dr Kim and her fellow woke-lings care to devise, now and in the future, then you must also be a racist, a fascist and a white supremacist.
That.
That.
As we’ve seen repeatedly, that does seem to be the most likely motive, the most obvious continuity in all of the similar examples we’ve seen here over the years. In short, to browbeat and coerce, to spitefully jeopardise someone’s prospects or their employment, to lie, and lie again, and to do harm because it pleases you. And there’s a word for people like that.
In short, to browbeat and coerce, to spitefully jeopardise someone’s prospects or their employment, to lie, and lie again, and to do harm because it pleases you. And there’s a word for people like that.
I was gonna say college professors, but that’s wrong on a couple of points, a bit whiny, recursive in regards to the OP, and an over generalization that really isn’t completely fair. So I’ll go with journalists. It’s journalists, right?
As Jim Goad said a few years ago,
And I think this gets near the nub of it. By and large, these are people who’ve found an inexhaustible pretext to indulge their innate obnoxiousness, and to act out with impunity every nasty little urge that’s ever crossed their nasty little minds. And which in turn would explain why “social justice” posturing is often difficult to distinguish from spite, petty malice, and even outright sociopathy.
Is it sadist?
Is it sadist?
Let’s just say it would be unwise to assume that these are people who mean well.
OK, not necessarily journalists. My next guess would be corporate human resources personnel. No? I sense I’m getting warmer.
“People with bad personalities seem to have a built-in defence mechanism that makes them believe you actually hate them for any other possible reason besides their bad personalities.”
Recent case in point.
From the Sunday Bulletin:
PETA wants Aretha Franklin’s family to give her furs to animal shelters for bedding.
Jesse Jackson wants lobsters to vote in the midterms as reparations for the slaughter of thousands of lobsters in a recent trucking accident. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes has the voter registration forms on her website.
Al Sharpton wants animal shelters to re-gift any furs that might be donated to them to his charity, the Clothe the Naked Al Sharpton Fund for Impoverished Quasi-Preachers. Any available lobsters can also find temporary shelter in Al Sharpton’s Soup Kitchen and Seafood Buffet.
Oh my God, is this stupid academic bun fight still going on? I remember this from years ago.
IMHO it’s not something to be terribly concerned about. Yes, lots of academics are losing their sh*t on Twitter, but they do that all the time anyway. Notably absent from the list of signatories are significant academics in Brown’s actual field (what English professors and divinity school seminarians think isn’t influential), UChicago is doing its best to ignore the whole thing, and Brown is still teaching and writing unimpeded.
Y’all must first understand I am a Canadian and after serving Five Years (5) in the Royal Canadian Navy returned to my Roots in the Niagara Peninsula (now also identified as Regional Niagara).
The reason for this bumf is to show I have been well travelled and entitled to express an Opinion even through a White-Married-Male with Children in a Monogamous pairing with a Female for over Fifty (50) years.
High school drop-out__ see RCN__ Self Post Secondary Educated University level; founder of three (3) small business; Municipal Politician; Appointed Board member at several Municipal & Provincial Boards of Inquiry and Decisions.
Sooo? What am I?– Not American–Bearded pre-Baby-boomer; who prefers the Community of small-business owners; primary & secondary school educators; continues to travel and will for as long as the ability to pedal a Bicycle continues.
Soo? What am I in today’s continuum of the once-preferred existence of the Baby-Boomer Generation(s)? Oh well really do not Give a Damn-Scarlet.
IMHO it’s not something to be terribly concerned about.
I’d imagine that for most of us, having over 1,300 people heatedly complain about us, to our employer, wouldn’t be a trivial thing. In this case, however, it’s not so much a matter of effectiveness or ineffectiveness, but that the recreationally outraged are so eager to try, shamelessly, and are evidently quite organised.
Y’all must first understand…
I was hoping you were building up to some kind of point.
IMHO it’s not something to be terribly concerned about. Yes, lots of academics are losing their sh*t on Twitter, but they do that all the time anyway.
Yeah…disagree. IMNSHO If we were talking about 1300 preachers or 1300 union activists or 1300 fubar manufacturers, I would agree. But these academics work outside of the free market, sucking up our tax dollars (i.e. we’re paying for this sh*t) with zero pushback from our political class. Which in itself is bad enough but they are also “educating” future generations on whom the future depends.
Recent case in point.
Shorter Wil Wheaton: “I don’t deserve to be treated this badly; I deserve to treat others this badly.”
I saw that, somewhere. Will Wheaton! Wasn’t he in “Stand By Me” and “Star Trek”? So what’s he up to now—
Oh, for heaven’s sake, I said halfway through, and went off to do clean the toilet, which proved more interesting.
Er, to go clean the toilet, sorry.
I wonder if, having peaked long ago as an actor … and having pocketed good coin in the process, so he doesn’t have to get out and wait tables or anything … Wheaton isn’t just desperate for attention, as in his salad days, but isn’t smart enough or talented enough to come up with anything better than snotty insults at this point.
Not an excuse for his behaviour, of course, just a thought.
Which in itself is bad enough but they are also “educating” future generations on whom the future depends.
Seconded.
As I alluded to above, the goal is not to educate but to eliminate entire swaths of knowledge from memory. I’m certainly not a Medievalist by any stretch, but a mere three decades ago, I was required to learn Middle High German in order to actually read medieval German poetry and history. Now, not so much for people whose degrees will say the same thing mine do.
This pisses me off, if for no other reason than 1300 English profs get to determine what is appropriate for study in a different discipline. It’s absurd, and the fact that people are buying it or even giving it legitimacy instead of telling these idiots of “‘F’ off and die” is beyond my comprehension.
To calm down, I’m going to retire and listen to this.
if for no other reason than 1300 English profs get to determine what is appropriate for study in a different discipline.
That’s the part that I couldn’t wrap my head around. Who, where, what the hell?
I can’t help but giggle that the Maolings are condemning Brown for not knowing all aspects of “race theory”…
It’s like condemning an chemical engineer for not knowing all aspects of alchemy.
It’s like condemning a chemical engineer for not knowing all aspects of alchemy.
Even the word theory is misused. So-called “critical race theory” is just a series of assertions, excuses, double standards and begged questions – a pernicious anti-rational contrivance, in which all roads invariably, by design, lead to white guilt. Under what circumstances can you imagine the peddlers of such hokum admitting they were wrong?
I forgot to mention, I envy skinny Asians. Both my aunts can pack away huge plates of food and I bet the two of them together don’t weigh as much as my white son; he and I just have to LOOK at a bowl of rice and we gain weight. Likewise my skinny Filipino
doctor and his skinny Filipina wife. Grumble. When Kipling talked about the white man’s burden I think he was really talking about the extra 30 pounds…
Speaking of medieval history and Kipling, Professor Brown might have usefully quoted a bit of this:
Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.
I can’t help but giggle that the Maolings are condemning Brown for not knowing all aspects of “race theory”…
Which assumes without proving that contemporary “critical race theory” has some pertinence to life in the court of Charles the Fat. (Assuming critical race theory is not “a series of assertions, excuses, double standards and begged questions” to begin with.) Ever her antagonist Dr. Kim fails to specifically explain its relevance to the subject. Her only real criticism which I can discern is the fear that someone might “misuse” the knowledge of medieval Europe in some fashion, a concern which would warrant–to steal Darleen’s analogy–refusing to teach chemistry for someone will make something dangerous.
In truth, for the likes of Dr. Kim, her fear is that the study of medieval Europe made lead students to realize that Dr. Kim and her ilk are full of shit.
It takes a lot of work for an Asian to get that fat.
Not on the White Man’s diet it’s not.
Alas, WTP, you are behind the times, wypipo food is healthy food.
Unless, that is, unless you have hypertension, then it is the fault of all the sodium in unhealthy wypipo fast food which is the only food in the hood.
wypipo food is healthy food.
I stared at the HuffPo graphic and am still wondering what nimrod they have in their graphics department who put fried chicken and french fries at the BASE of a Food Pyramid.
BTW, “Juice & avocado”????
BTW, “Juice & avocado”????
Well, it is HuffingPaint Post, so expecting something logical is a bit much to hope for, but I think what is being implied is that juice and avocado are the epitome of healthy wypipo food, and that the black grasping arms can’t reach it because all they have is fried chicken, french fries, and elbow macaroni, which, come to think of it, is a pretty racist streotype not that their staff has any real idea about PoCs or what they eat for real.
Farnsworth: “Alas, WTP, you are behind the times, wypipo food is healthy food.”
It is? Then you’re doin’ it wrong! *pours more double cream into the cheese sauce*
it is HuffingPaint Post
I think this is the best retort to that photo.
1300 English profs get to determine what is appropriate for study in a different discipline
Except they don’t, though. Brown is still teaching and blogging unimpeded, and UChicago is doing sweet f-all in response to the outrage mob (aside from some anodyne boilerplate). As I’ve mentioned before, nothing that happens on Twitter actually matters in the real world. The real problem, as Fiamengo so aptly put it, is “timorous academics” who acquiesce to the mob and un-career someone in their department out of sheer cowardice, despite the fact that none of the shrieking twits actually have any power to affect their target. As Hobby Lobby, Chick-Fil-A, Whataburger and In-N-Out have handily demonstrated, if you just ignore these idiots they can’t do anything to you.
I wonder if, having peaked long ago as an actor […] Wheaton isn’t just desperate for attention
He’s always been a bit of an emo prick. After TNG and before he jumped on the gamer geek bandwagon with his YouTube show, he used to blog and a constant refrain was how he couldn’t get any work, how all his scenes from Generations ended up on the cutting room floor, etc., etc. This despite the fact that by his own admission he was independently wealthy, happily married with a kid and never needed to work again. He got to write a book for O’Reilly (the computer book publisher) about learning how to build web sites from zero knowledge because that was hot in the 90’s and lots of people with no prior technical skill wanted to get into it.
Other than that he’s had a handful of stunt casting bit parts in various c-list syndicated cable shows, which have mostly served to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a terribly wooden and unsympathetic actor. Unlike, say, Frankie Muniz, all his side projects seem to involve trying to get front of a camera again; his YouTube show is cringe-inducing to watch. So yes, I think there’s no small amount of desperate attention-seeking going on here, but then again it’s hard to go wrong if you assume any actor is in the business because they’re pathologically insecure and need constant validation from an appreciative audience.
One thing always struck me about that HuffPo photo: never mind race or sex, how many of them are even thirty? I think the biggest reason for the shitshow we’re living through is that the media, and especially the internet, is largely the work of twenty three year olds whose only life experience is negotiating the popularity games of high school and college.
Anyway, interesting Twitter thread about why lefties think everyone else is Nazis and white supremacists. Briefly, the left is intersectional – if you believe in one leftist cause, you have to believe in all of them, or you’ll be shunned as a deplorable – and they think the right is too – just as, if you believe in gender equality to any degree you must also support Antifa and abortion on demand, they think if you believe in balanced budgets, you must also believe in white nationalism.
HuffingPaint Post
Still funny.
The real problem, as Fiamengo so aptly put it, is “timorous academics” who acquiesce to the mob and un-career someone in their department out of sheer cowardice,
I wonder how many of the 1,300-plus academics who chose to denounce Dr Brown – as doing “grievous damage” to her employer’s reputation and putting “scholars of colour” and minorities generally “in harm’s way” – know anything at all about what she actually wrote, and therefore know how absurd, and immoral, their accusations are. How many of them, I wonder, signed the letter in ignorance, or despite knowing better, simply because they sensed that not to do so would, by the logic of the same letter, mark them as next in line to be denounced?
I think you know the answer to the question you pose Mr Thompson. It’s all about the feelz. Or tenure.
I think the biggest reason for the shitshow we’re living through is that the media, and especially the internet, is largely the work of twenty three year olds whose only life experience is negotiating the popularity games of high school and college.
Yep. Newspapers have obviously always employed younger people, but when they were more financially secure they also used to employ older adults in what flourishing industries call middle management. These days you seem to get twenty somethings who’ve never had proper jobs and who have graduated straight to writing content without proper supervision. They get too much, too soon. It’s easy to overpraise the past, but in this country some of these kids go straight from the Oxford Student to the Times.
If you haven’t moved on to being an opinion columnist or being on the editorial board by a certain age, you’ll probably be doing occasional freelance work or writing a book. Specialist journalism is, I suppose, an exception to this rule.
In June this year the Independent published an article about the “forgotten comedian” Tony Hancock. Obviously the Indignant is a pale shadow of what it was in the 90s, but you do slightly wonder where the adults were to correct them.
I attribute much of this problem to the over emphasis of literature in our education system. Of course even suggesting such a thing is grounds to be dismissed as a ignoramous or philistine. There’s been a real problem in our education system, at least how I see it in the US, where novellists and even historians were viewed as intellectuals but only recently have scientists and engineers gotten near as much attention. What is put in front of our students as a path to fame and fortune is either through sports or The Arts. Granted, scientists and engineers are themselves somewhat to “blame” for this as most, even the Hawkings and Feymans, are introverts to some greater degree. Our education system would do us and its students much justice if just one semester of English literature would be devote to biographies of people who build things. Medical researchers as well could stand some more attention, not that they don’t get much but relative to the value that they add, they are IMNSHO underserved in this regard. Ehll, even business leaders, as much of literature is dedicated to unfairly demonizing them for the sins of the few.
I forgot to mention, I envy skinny Asians.
It’s OK, you’re among friends here.
I attribute much of this problem to the over emphasis of literature in our education system.
I think it not so much literature as abandonment of dead white male literature that was a basis of eduction for years, for the dreck trend du jour.
Our education system would do us and its students much justice if just one semester of English literature would be devote to biographies of people who build things.
Indeed. It seems that among the likes of the pasty white 23 year olds that make up the staff above, SJWs, and leftists in general, that the much derided western civilization (and from which they enjoy their cushy lives) either sprang full grown as if from the forehead of Zeus and has been here forever, or was only build by slaves and/or stolen from PoCs, while wypipo sat on the veranda sipping mint juleps. There appears to be zero conception of how it actually was built, nor of that which preceded it.
I attribute much of this problem to the over emphasis of literature in our education system.
It’s not “literature” which is necessarily the problem, but rather the pernicious idea that literature can only be relevant if it conforms to the tenets of modern, intersectional identity politics. Call it the “dead white male” problem and it exists in all the arts. (On these pages, we’ve seen 20 year olds dismissing Mozart, for example, for the same reason.) There is no longer a belief that literature can point us toward universal insights about the Human Condition. Rather, people act as if the world sprung fully formed from the head of Judith Butler or Jacques Derrida last month.
Crap, Farnsworth. We were typing at the same time.
I mean, the similarity of those comments is frightening.
I mean, the similarity of those comments is frightening.
At least now we know that one of you is, as long suspected, an evil twin. But… which?