Not Entirely Similar
For those with an interest in recent history, and indeed surrealism, a catalogue of progressive cancel culture.
Among the sins punished with both swiftness and eyebrow-raising severity – questioning the benefits of rioting; questioning overt racial favouritism at the University of California, Los Angeles; saying that George Floyd wasn’t actually a moral exemplar; liking tweets in support of Donald Trump; questioning the methods of Black Lives Matter; showing the 1965 film of Laurence Olivier’s Othello to students at the University of Michigan; and teaching students of Chinese how to pronounce Chinese words.
And regarding the above, this:
And also, from recent comments, this by Mr Wanye Burkett:
Maybe the principle here is that this is so unbecoming of a public school teacher [to publicly exult in the murder of someone with different political views] that not only should they lose this specific job, but maybe they shouldn’t work in another public school ever again. Maybe they’re just not suited for that kind of work.
That’s not punitive. That’s much more logical, instrumental. The idea in this latter case is that people have revealed themselves to be unsuited for a particular kind of employment.
Readers may wish to ponder whether the sins mentioned above – expressing doubts about rioting, or teaching Chinese pronunciation to students of Chinese – exist on the same level of inaptness as, say, a public-school teacher showing ten-year-olds shockingly graphic video of a man being shot in the neck, and killed, in front of his family, and showing that footage repeatedly, “numerous times,” while hectoring those same ten-year-olds on the merits of so-called “anti-fascism.”
Answers on a postcard, please.
Update, via the comments:
Regarding the example immediately above, John D adds,
It does, I think, invite questions as to the vetting of public school educators and the kinds of personalities the job seems to attract in high concentrations. It also invites questions as to what kind of environment, what kind of workplace assumptions, might make a teacher of ten-year-olds think that such behaviour would be considered acceptable.
I mean, if nothing else, and even absent any conventional moral inhibition, you’d think that one of the obvious considerations for a teacher of ten-year-olds might at least be the assumption that parents will find out. In this case, when their children arrive home bewildered and distressed. And to therefore behave accordingly. And yet.
Update 2:
Regarding this,
Liz adds,
Or sufficiently sympathetic, politically, to not mind too much, or maybe just accustomed to politicised overreach and inapt behaviour in general. Those would seem to be among the more obvious inferences. And as so often, it appears that shocked parents, rather than colleagues, were the ones to object.
On the subject of parents being shocked to discover, belatedly, what their children are actually being taught, these three incidents came to mind. Among many others. Note, in the third link, the casual invention of a fake curriculum – yes, a fake curriculum – so as to deceive any curious parents.
And all while insisting, “This is not being deceitful.”
In light of which, the “anti-fascist” snuff-video session mentioned above doesn’t exactly scream anomaly or aberration, or some unfortunate misreading of the room, so much as a ratcheting upwards.
With a hat-tip to Darleen.
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Or by ostentatiously refusing to listen. As if even hearing an opposing view would somehow be contaminating.
Well, when teachers and administrators manufacture a fake curriculum to actively deceive parents as to what their children are being taught – and then use the term “our children” – it is a little jarring. Just a tad presumptuous.
The reply that comes to mind is, “Back off, Sunshine. Back way off.”
Imagine hiring a piano tutor and discovering that half of every lesson had been used to inculcate your child – referred to as “our child” – into flat-Earth conspiracy theories.
You wouldn’t be thrilled.
The problem is that such a belief is not limited to feminists. I have even heard it from church-going conservatives. Less so lately tho.
Maybe he should stick to sports reporting.
I experienced some of that experimentation in grade school. Too young to really understand, but I knew something felt less than optimal or even inappropriate.
(Moved to here)
As Gutfeld says, everyone must push back on this narrative. The idiocy will only stop when it is roundly, soundly, in no uncertain terms refuted and mocked.
Re. Robinson’s text messages: I took the ‘correctness’ for granted when I read them, as my three sons all use standard grammar, spelling and punctuation when they text me. They know what my reaction would be were they to use ‘text-speak’. Mind you, for obvious reasons I don’t know whether they are equally formal when texting their friends – but I suspect they are.
Showing videos of the murder to ten-year olds would be considered grooming for terrorism in the UK and have you on a fast-track to prison and a permanent ban from working in education. Safeguarding AND glorification of terrorism.