Elsewhere (284)
Janice Fiamengo on inclusive, decolonised, anti-rational academia:
This is probably now the top hot-button issue at Canadian universities – the move to replace ‘European-based knowledge’ as exclusionary, inadequate and subjective, and to replace it in some cases with “indigenous knowledge,” and even something called “indigenous science”… what some might say is superstition or magical beliefs… The idea that “indigenous knowledge” is not to be questioned, that it has value equal to supposedly ‘European’ science… is an incredibly worrisome and strange idea.
Do watch in full for the anecdotes about the realities of so-called “affirmative action,” and the faculty lounge response to hearing of the 9/11 atrocities. If you’re new here and unfamiliar with Professor Fiamengo’s observations on campus culture, I recommend watching this.
Somewhat related, scenes from Cape Town’s decolonised academia, where “science people” are scolded for “disrespecting progressive space” – specifically, for doubting the claim that Africans can throw lightning at their enemies.
Lia Eustachewich on Harvard’s woke racism:
A Harvard University dean testified that the school has different SAT score standards for prospective students based on factors such as race and sex — but insisted that the practice isn’t discriminatory… [Dean of admissions, William Fitzsimmons] said Harvard sends recruitment letters to African-American, Native American and Hispanic high schoolers with mid-range SAT scores, around 1100 on math and verbal combined out of a possible 1600… Asian-Americans only receive a recruitment letter if they score at least 250 points higher — 1350 for women, and 1380 for men.
The words that come to mind are systemic and institutional. See also this and this.
Further to the recent Clown Quarter hoaxing saga, Peter Boghossian on the game of Nazi-by-association:
Think about how crazy this is. We have created an environment where a sincere person cannot ask a question about a dominant moral orthodoxy – in a university system.
And via Jonathan, Abigail Shrier reviews Heather Mac Donald’s book The Diversity Delusion:
Under the diversity mantle, college administrators have mangled every aspect of universities from hiring processes to disciplinary proceedings to curricula in the humanities and even in the sciences. (An introductory chemistry course at Berkeley has as its stated primary goal “to disrupt ‘the racialised and gendered construct of scientific brilliance,’ which defines ‘good science’ as getting all the right answers. The course maintains instead that ‘all students are scientifically brilliant.’”)
And which, I’ve just noticed, pretty much brings us full circle. Ms Mac Donald’s book can be bought here (US) and here (UK).
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
. . . but if we take WSG as writing specifically about his own century, I think his point still holds. The Romantics, and specifically the Aesthetics, whom he was needling in that line, thought the world had gone downhill since the middle ages.
And archaeologists hear yet another round of how much more refined and cultured the ancestors were, and respond with Yeah, right, hold my tea.
Should we protest “No refunds credit note only” policy of You Know Who?
Nah. He never used the No refunds. Credit note only. line, that’s always been David who used that. What he did was to feed people to his pet snake.
scenes from Cape Town’s decolonised academia,
Road. To. Hell.
Road. To. Hell.
Watching the video again, what’s striking is the air of bad faith and opportunist dominance, of vindictive mediocrities intoxicated by the opportunity to cow and insult people more competent than themselves. And so, we have students, supposed intellectuals, demanding that they be taken seriously while insisting, based on nothing, that “Western” science, all of it, is a “product of racism,” and while claiming, based on nothing, that the scientific method and pretensions of witchcraft are just rival epistemologies and therefore somehow equal in their accuracy and usefulness.
And this transparent horseshit is indulged. By people who should be laughing, booing and throwing soft fruit.
You’d think that at some point, quite early on, some of the adults might have fathomed that prostrating themselves before spiteful little morons might not be a good idea. I mean, ideally before lecturers were actually scared of the students and looking for jobs elsewhere, and before students started burning historic artwork and smearing statues with human faeces.
As intellectuals do.
As noted at the time, I sometimes wonder if the Clown Quarter of academia might actually be a massive and rather perverse behavioural experiment, the point of which is to see just how credulous and mentally deformable human beings are.
Dolly Parton has given away more than 100 million books to young children. As such I rather suspect she has done more to educate people than her academic detractor by some orders of magnitude.
Dolly Parton has given away more than 100 million books to young children.
Specifically . . . My wife reminded me of that last night and popped in to mention it, but TomJ was quicker on the draw.
Today’s postmodernists think they’re so much better than their Victorian predecessors, even though in many ways – their censorious moral rigidity, for example – they’re astonishingly similar. If not worse.
And not just their censorious moral rigidity: Dickens was spot-on with his caricature “telescopic philanthropist” Mrs. Jellyby and her obsession with the “Borrioboola-Gha venture.”
Turns out that some sense of a not-retired USMC Officer watching over you works pretty well, too.
I’ve been fighting my sugar- and carb-cravings lately with this gimmick. I’ve never served, but I’ve seen enough clips of R. Lee Ermey to imagine him screaming at me every time I consider going off the wagon. It’s worked for the past few weeks, despite the ready availability of chocolate-chip cookies at my workplace (all gone now, fortunately!).
Today’s postmodernists think they’re so much better than their Victorian predecessors, even though in many ways – their censorious moral rigidity, for example – they’re astonishingly similar. If not worse.
Not a new idea.
On the topic of Dolly, strange how the attempt is made to claim that her broad appeal is due to “multiple (unstated) personas”, and not to anything universal in human sentiment. One might almost think the pigeonholists of the left want to divide people however they can and will assume almost any non sequitur of thought required thereby…
Dolly Parton, whose songs about overcoming adversity and being poor and suffering unrequited love are *clearly* approachable as a hallmark of how whites believe that they are better than everyone else… what? The claim she has anything do to with White Supremacy(c) is far more nonsensical than a claim Marlene Dietrich was uniquely Nazi – no self-respecting Patriarchal overlord of all would build a Dollywood mythos.
As to broad appeal, I sometimes frequent a “reactions” YouTube channel fronted by a pair of black gents – specializing in rap, but frequenting also the realms of metal, alt-rock, and even country. The merits of “Jolene” in its beat, structure, writing, and soulful singing were enthusiastically certified.
Dolly Parton has given away more than 100 million books to young children.
Time to investigate these books. I suspect more than a few colonize non-white non-cis conceptual space thereby removing it from the oppressed and transferring it to the oppressor.
Even the name “Dolly” reeks of enforced childishness, and the social, economic and intellectual subordination, and, yes, of course, rape forced upon the female listener thereby reinforcing gender stereotypes.
No, Dolly, you don’t get a pass for being a good person. Teaching kids to read and to love books only sustains the corrupt capitalist system and makes its inevitable fall and annihilation all the more prolonged and painful.
Reading is FUN? No, reading is f*cked!
@Sporktackle
‘ The merits of “Jolene” in its beat, structure, writing, and soulful singing were enthusiastically certified.’
listen to the 7″ of Jolene at 33rpm (or search youtube for the same).
its eerie and brilliant.