Mama, Just Killed A Man
With expectations of competent spelling:
[Professor Inoue] will lecture about “language standards that just kill our students” by subjecting them to “single standards,” which perpetuate “White language supremacy.”
You see, those composition classes you’re paying for, or that some poor sap is paying for, shouldn’t teach students how to write clearly. Instead, “compassionate” classrooms should be grounded in “dimension-based rubrics” and “labour-based contracts,” which presumably reward the length of time a student spends getting something wrong, repeatedly, irrespective of whether they actually, eventually, get it right; thereby avoiding “white racial habits of language.” It’s the path to “a socially just future,” apparently. And not, as one might suppose, somewhat narrowed hopes of employment. Because an “anti-racist” education, at a university, should ideally leave its beneficiaries sounding uneducated. With mangled conjugation, missing verbs, and saying axe instead of ask.
Professor Inoue has, of course, been mentioned here before.
Very much related, this. In which, fellow “social justice” enthusiast Dr A W Strouse informs us that correcting errors of spelling and basic grammar can “make students feel bewildered, hurt, or angry,” and should therefore be avoided. We’re also told that job applicants who, as graduates, struggle with even elementary spelling, should bristle at any acknowledgement of this shortcoming, telling potential employers – and I quote – “Fuck you.”
Update, via the comments:
Readers will note that Professors Inoue and Strouse insist that disparities in proficiency must be a result of “racism” by “bourgeois white teachers” – i.e., teachers who treat minority students like anyone else, with the same expectations and standards – while carefully omitting the influence of leftist educators, such as themselves, who choose not to impart the basics of the subject to minority students on account of their supposed delicacy, and while exulting in their own woke status. Because, somehow, that’s not racist at all.
Again, lefties project.
Lifted from a discussion following this.
Are all linguistics professors nuts?
Thread:
http://twitter.com/WorthwhileRandC/status/1080906529828524033
Thread:
Perhaps Dr Wertheim should consider lowering the dose.
Because an “anti-racist” education, at a university, should ideally leave its beneficiaries sounding uneducated.
That.
That.
Note that Professors Inoue and Strouse claim that disparities in proficiency must be a result of “racism” by “bourgeois white teachers” – i.e., teachers who treat minority students like anyone else, with the same expectations and standards – while carefully omitting the influence of leftist educators, such as themselves, who choose not to impart the basics of the subject to minority students on account of their supposed delicacy, and while exulting in their own woke status. Because, somehow, that’s not racist at all.
Again, lefties project.
On the bright side, now we have an explanation for deluge of terrible public writing we’ve seen lately.
Professor Strouse risks nothing by advising students to exclaim “Fuck you!” to their potential employers. His job is guaranteed followed by a comfortable pension in retirement. Students following his advice will not be so fortunate – or dare I say privileged?
On Michael Feldman’s old NPR show, he had a quiz category headed ”Things you would have learned in school had you been paying attention”.
That category would not be permitted today.
Professor Strouse risks nothing by advising students to exclaim “Fuck you!” to their potential employers.
Well, quite. As noted at the time,
And this dynamic, in which students are essentially props in some preening psychodrama, is one we’ve seen many times.
Have any of these people ever studied a foreign language?
It’s a cargo cult. The vast majority of people in our civilization have no idea where stuff comes from, what the actual work involved in producing things consists of. They just know that they go somewhere and do somethings and thus “labor”, whether they actually work at that “labor” or not, and stuff consequently exists. School, a job, no difference. They were put out in some way, you must give them something. And I include many so-called conservatives in that majority as well.
Have any of these people ever studied a foreign language?
I’ve mentioned before how – thanks to left-leaning teachers who didn’t want to share the secrets of basic grammar, on account of it being inegalitarian – learning a second language was rather tricky. It generally helps if you already know what various bits of the language are called and what their relationships usually are. My long-suffering German teacher couldn’t quite believe that his ‘A’ stream students had so little formal knowledge of their own national language. As a result, he had to spend a sizeable chunk of his lessons, for several months, providing remedial English tuition to some of the brightest kids in school.
And I include many so-called conservatives in that majority as well.
Ultimately the dynamic is shown to have been cultural all along, with a stripe of malign urbanism being one of its incubators and the church of secular progg humanism being another. Add in the superficial, even cartoonish righteousness of the present topic and the die is case.
This is why conservativism cannot survive. This and it’s inherent passivism.
When the Left wants to mock the ridiculous things said by the Right, they go to now-deleted anonymous Twitter accounts.
When the Right wants to mock the ridiculous things said by the Left, they go to highly-paid education professionals at government-subsidized institutions.
When the Right wants to mock the ridiculous things said by the Left, they go to highly-paid education professionals at government-subsidized institutions.
And imagine just how dementedly dogmatic you’d have to be – or how much of a narcissistic shitstain – to actively undermine students’ life-chances in the name of “compassion” and “social justice.”
But Prof. Inoue wrote a book! All the properly credentialed humyns luuuuved it! It “incorporates ideas about the white racial habitus”!
https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/inoue/
Remember that tripe about ‘straight’ guys whacking off together? This just involves more people, is done in public, and seems to be entirely a waste of wrist and arm energy.
But it pays well!
Postmodern “oppression studies” have long been accused of mimicking the form of true scholarship — with journal papers, citations, impenetrable terminology, and so on — but being at its core intellectually vacuous.
If they remove the ability among its acolytes to at least sound scholarly, what are they left with?
Somewhat related:
And remember, the hustlers and parasites dare to pretend that they are the good guys.
“correcting errors of spelling and basic grammar can make students feel bewildered, hurt, or angry”
I’m reminded of that great line from the Sad Radicals article, “…if all you are is a nail, everything looks like a hammer”.
and the church of secular progg humanism being another
Well the church of churching has done us little favor in this regard either. The idea that labor is our collective punishment for some guy biting an apple eons ago feeds a good bit of the misconceptions to which I am referring.
“Ultima Thule” tastes like white supremacy and violence and genocide.
And I thought the Thule Ultima was a top-of-the-line hitch mounted bike rack.
Postmodern “oppression studies” have long been accused of mimicking the form of true scholarship…
What ? Are saying this bargain course is not true and serious scholarship ? Unpossible !
Meanwhile in China, speaking of learning things. It is amazing the NYT would publish such a thing, except maybe as something they think is a good idea.
Not all of them. Quite. But a significant proportion of them appear to be.
By this point, it seems that few teachers were ever properly taught basic grammar themselves, so even if they wanted to teach it, they’re not actually capable of doing so.
“Ultima Thule” tastes like white supremacy and violence and genocide.
I liked the comment that labeled the good doctor as a “quasi educated space justice warrior”
The vast majority of people in our civilization have no idea where stuff comes from, what the actual work involved in producing things consists of.
Can we presume they’re training for civil war with the same diligence they’re applying to their studies?
Are all linguistics professors nuts?
Probably- and their nuttiness is not confined to their supposed field of expertise.
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomsky/cataclysm.html
Because an “anti-racist” education, at a university, should ideally leave its beneficiaries sounding uneducated.
And its professors unworked.
“Ultima Thule” tastes like white supremacy and violence and genocide.
So does Big Mac. The Whopper for Medusa’s sake.
Interpreted: I’m a righteous bitch about your naming rocks. Or as David observes, they project.
Why this is is open for discussion, but whether this is a new – ergo woke – phenom is not:
“The care taken to prevent ennui is but a creditable plan for promoting self-ignorance. We run from one occupation to another with a view to lighten the pressure of time; above all to save us from our own thoughts.” — Hannah More, 1799
Become enlightened they have become preposterously, transparently predictable.
Well the church of churching has done us little favor in this regard either. The idea that labor is our collective punishment for some guy biting an apple eons ago feeds a good bit of the misconceptions to which I am referring.
Specifically, there’s no connection between that myth and this dysfunction you’ve identified, although there certainly is one between the allegory and spiritual state, that being the reason the allegory exists.
Generally, I question whether the projection could even realistically flow from the stereotype. That same ancient thread certainly includes enough distinct warnings about it and, you guessed it, the immensely clever madnesses of the untruthful. Progressive postmodernism’s central tenet is erasing it all in favor of any madness to come down the pike so there’s that recommending it too.
Way back in 1973, my High School French teacher loudly complained to the English faculty that they owed him half their salaries because he had to teach us grammar before teaching French.
Otoh, one of the English teacher was nabbed for hosting overnights with girls on his small yacht.
So, you know, priorities, folks.
And this was at, literally, one of the best schools in the country.
Otoh, one of the English teachers was nabbed for hosting overnights with girls on his small yacht.
My old English teacher, a Guardian reader, was, er, getting busy with a former student, a girl who’d left school only a year or so earlier. It was a cause of much sniggering when she tagged along on a school trip that entailed staying overnight in a rundown cottage. I doubt that the chap had a yacht, even a small one, but he did own a shabby-looking Citroen 2CV, which was often dragged out of the car park by sixth-formers. I once saw it tipped over and left on its side in the street.
Steve E,
And I thought the Thule Ultima was a top-of-the-line hitch mounted bike rack.
I haven’t competed in a bicycle race in more than 20 years, or even ridden my mountain bike in 10, but “bike racks” are exactly what I thought of when “Thule” and “Ultima” were first mentioned as “triggering”. I thought, “What the fuck, are the SJWs going after bicyclists now?”
(FWIW, the bike rack that was on the roof of my car when it (the car) was stolen 15 years ago was a Thule.)
Farnsworth,
It is amazing the NYT would publish such a thing, except maybe as something they think is a good idea.
A hint, perhaps:
Of course, since it’s the New York Times, one of the first reader comments one encounters is pretentious rationalization:
See? who are we to criticize???
Because Trump.
(Is “preserverance” a word? Or is that some of what the post was originally about?)
It’s the path to “a socially just future,” apparently.
It’s the path to minimum wage.
Y’all still don’t get it. Saying stupid stuff is how you signal to others how out-of-the-box-thinking smart you are. They teach this stuff at universities and shit. Duh.
Spiny Norman,
I have the exact bike rack in the picture. I also have a twoer for my smaller car. It comes with a lock for the bike rack and a lock for the bikes. A big improvement from the other one.
Saying stupid stuff is how you signal to others how out-of-the-box-thinking smart you are.
That’s precisely why all corporate “out-of-the-box,” “brainstorming” sessions begin with the admonition, “there are no stupid ideas.”
Well I’m here to tell you my friend, as a participant in too many of these sessions, there are plenty of stupid ideas coming from plenty of stupid people.
Can I have a hallelujah!
Professor Strouse risks nothing by advising students to exclaim “Fuck you!” to their potential employers. His job is guaranteed followed by a comfortable pension in retirement. Students following his advice will not be so fortunate – or dare I say privileged?
Feature not a bug. Like childless weirdos, one hopes that these people and their delusions will not reproduce.
Is “preserverance” a word?
I think it is one of those made up words that sounds to a certain set more “intellectual” than the common “preservation”, which would have made sense in the context used.
However, he could have meant “perseverance” which in the psychiatric sense means meaninglessly repeating the same words or actions over and over and is generally the sign of brain injury and other neurological abnormalities which, come to think of it, rather describes the left in general, and would also have made sense regarding Gordon’s slice of “certain cultures”.
China much like Russia functions best with a very strong leadership. Much as it did in the past.
Sometimes I feel like evolution has sped up to the point where I can spot the dead-ends before they even happen.
Way back in 1973, my High School French teacher loudly complained to the English faculty that they owed him half their salaries because he had to teach us grammar before teaching French.
When I was in high school (68-72), I learned more basic grammar in my shorthand class than in most of my English classes. This included clear, concise rules of punctuation.
I had to look at my steno book filled with phonic symbols, then type them directly with no spelling or grammar errors. We were also expected to be able to edit the dictation so as to present a polished document of concise communication.
I get emails, even from my higher-ups, where the writing skills on display leave a lot to be desired. Computers have made a lot of things easier, but the elimination of competently trained secretaries has negatively impacted professional communications.
China much like Russia functions best with a very strong leadership. Much as it did in the past.
The Times could make a sort of hidden-pictures contest out of this — prize for who finds all the questions being begged behind “functions best.”
Professors Inoue and Strouse insist that disparities in proficiency must be a result of “racism” by “bourgeois white teachers” – i.e., teachers who treat minority students like anyone else, with the same expectations and standards – while carefully omitting the influence of leftist educators, such as themselves, who choose not to impart the basics of the subject to minority students on account of their supposed delicacy, and while exulting in their own woke status. Because, somehow, that’s not racist at all.
That.
Ultima Thule makes me think Transformers meets Hell Boy.
I thought, “What the fuck, are the SJWs going after bicyclists now?”
Yes, yes they are
Yes, yes they are.
As a society, we seem to be losing the ability to flush out and render harmless the pernicious and absurd. It’s almost like a kidney disorder, in which the waste accumulates, poisoning the body.
I also agree about the point of knowing English grammar being a help in learning a foreign language. That, and when I was studying Russian, already having studied German with its case structure gave me a heads-up on those students who hadn’t had to deal with cases and declension.
I’d never have figured out the subjunctive in English if I hadn’t encountered it in Spanish.
As a society, we seem to be losing the ability to flush out and render harmless the pernicious and absurd. It’s almost like a kidney disorder, in which the waste accumulates, poisoning the body.
The mashup of base philosophies, relativism, postmodernism, and whatever else promotes meaninglessness tends to do that. The foundation of progressivism is a materialistic, neopuritanical fondness for envy, coveting, and Pharisaical ersatz moralities so there we go.
The fundamental shift from internal individual trajectory to forced collective leveling went only partly noticed. The real became the imaginary and vice versa.
David, did you ever find your feet after the holidays? I hope they didn’t get thrown away with all the torn-off gift wrap.
It’s almost like a kidney disorder, in which the waste accumulates, poisoning the body.
Well that happens, when the media/academia/establishment is trying to force feed everyone mercury with every meal.
Ah, pogo. According to my French teacher, he had this exchange with an English teacher:
ET: The subjunctive is dead!
FT: I wish it were, for your sake.
You used “irrespective” when the spirit of the article demands the use of “irregardless”.
For shame, five shame even.
Some twenty years ago when I was studying Latin for my classics minor, the standard Wheellock book set included a small primer on English grammar. It was added to the standard set by Professor Wheelock in the early 1970’s when he bemoaned that students no longer knew enough elementary English grammar to properly study Latin grammar.
Plus ca change, plus le meme chose.
The fact that I can’t remember the Latin for that aphorism should indicate how good a classics student I was :/
Darleen,
I get emails, even from my higher-ups, where the writing skills on display leave a lot to be desired.
Try reading the copy in a real estate listing. You’ll be pulling out your hair. (O.O)
By all appearances, one need not be even barely literate to get a real estate license in California – and based on far too many of the reports I’ve reviewed, written by professional real estate appraisers, the same can be said of those, too. (>_<)
[hoping no one sees the glaring grammatical error in that last line]
Muphry’s Law in action, I reckon.
I suspect that a majority of readers of bad writing are themselves bad readers and are blissfully unaware of bad grammar, misspellings, misusages, fractured syntax. If you point out an error you risk being accused of being a “hater”, a “grammar Nazi”, or just a racist – microaggressions doncha know.
…racial inequity within the realm of bicycling
From the linked blogpost: “…(B)uffed like so much enlightening graffiti”.
That phrase says so much.
That phrase says so much.
Perhaps the ladies are hoping to sway the demographic that gets its subtle philosophies from crap sprayed on walls.
Ultima Thule: a distant unknown region; the extreme limit of travel and discovery.
I am struggling here.
It’s the path to minimum wage.
As noted in an earlier thread, our woke professors insist that standard English shouldn’t be “privileged” in class, or in academic writing, or during job interviews, as this would be “racist.” But if you’re an employer and trying to thin a pile of job applications, repeated errors of even simple grammar and spelling are, inevitably, going to be a big help in deciding which ones to ignore. Whether the professors like it or not, “alternative types of English” tend to send a message – of ignorance, carelessness, parochialism and intellectual imprecision. And if someone is apparently too distracted to proofread their own job application, that’s unlikely to inspire great confidence.
And remember, we’re talking about university students. Our brightest and best.
I am struggling here.
It is perfect geometric logic.
Ultima Thule is from Greco-Roman history, AKA Dead White Men (even if they really were a bit swarthy at times) and refers to what is now Scandinavia in general, i.e., a land filled with pasty white blond haired, blue-eyed Vikings, and we all know how violent and genocidal they were.
QED, Ultima Thule=violent white supremacist genocide.
Come on man, you have to get your Woke™ on.
Sorry, but thinning job applications by grammar checking may be seen in the USA as a pretext for discrimination if such a practice has adverse impact on a protected class. If there is adverse impact (a statistical comparison of pass rates) then the burden falls on the employer to demonstrate that the practice is a reliable measure and valid for that job in terms of job content (individuals must use proper grammar,etc. to successfully perform the job).
A slippery slope indeed, as are so many.
Sorry, but
At this rate, I suspect many of us will be.
Sorry, but
It’s a strange conceit, the notion that if you fail to impress a potential employer – say, with inept, unchecked spelling – then this is somehow the fault of the person running a business and with a hundred other things to worry about. As if it were the employer’s duty to bend over backwards and find something for you to do, at his or her expense, because you’re just so fabulous and intriguing.
I saw a milder version of something similar a while ago, while chatting with a niece’s teenage friends. There was lots of modish indignation about dress codes that frowned on outlandish piercings, hair colouring, etc. The idea that a job seeker has an imperative – and duty – to make themselves employable, rather than a needless burden to strangers, was at times met with something approaching bewilderment. As if it were an unfamiliar concept and quite puzzling.
As if having green hair and distorting your earlobes with holes the size of a two-pound coin were much more important.
…if such a practice has adverse impact on a protected class.
I’m half-convinced that this is the motivation behind our universities’ tireless efforts to maleducate the “privileged” kids. When everybody sounds like a character from Idiocracy, then there’s no need to worry about proportionate impact. Matta fix!
Rob,
Yes, Ultima Thule, as an expression, generally means a far and unknown place. The origin is in classical references to the farthest unknown northern lands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule
However, our linguist friend is sure that references to “Ultima Thule” should be considered references to the “Thule Society”. This was a collection of theosophical cranks in interwar Germany, complete with absurd racial theories that fascinated some of the early Nazis. I think “Thule” itself was supposed to be a mystical origin place for Germanic peoples. The society was not filled with rational or nice people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society
However, the Thule Society is not exactly at the forefront of most peoples’ minds nowadays. Still, a suitable basis for intimating that NASA is full of crypto-Nazis, right?
The idea that a job seeker has an imperative – and duty – to make themselves employable, rather than a needless burden to strangers, was at times met with something approaching bewilderment. As if it were an unfamiliar concept and quite puzzling.
Was met with this same sense of bewilderment about 10 years ago when blogging on The Philosophers’ Magazine website. In the process of discussion a hypothetical situation arose in which I implied that a hypothetical person with neck tattoos would be suspicious in the context of a crime that had just been committed. I was met with bewilderment and more at such a suggestion. This was 10 years ago. With adults. Or perhaps I should say older people. Their adult status, aside from being teachers and great thinkers and such, was a matter of perspective. Of course I’m sure they would have said the same of me.
Was met with this same sense of bewilderment about 10 years ago
At the time, I didn’t press the point and was more interested in listening to the huffing and indignation, but I was left wondering how my parents or grandparents might have fared with a similar attitude.
At the time, I didn’t press the point and was more interested in listening
Of course those were teenagers and one could attribute much more of their bewilderment to what they have seen coming from adults in this regard and thus somewhat miming those adults as an excuse to get away with whatever the issue is at the time. When I was that age I had similar sympathies, though mostly because my parents were more strict in what we were allowed to wear to various outings. Teen logic, etc. that was generally attitudinally adjusted, if not by parents, by the loco parentis of other adults more likely to hear it, especially teachers and such, because we had some weird sixth sense, likely reinforced by…mmm…force, not to utter teen logic around our actual parents. So I don’t so much blame the kids as I do the writers at the Guardian or from whatever source kids over yonder are more likely to get their adult-justifiable stupidity. The lion’s share of the responsibility thus is lying with the adults who write such crap and the publishers/editors who sanction it whether to sell product or for some Alinsky purposes. No matter.
But along similar lines this happened on FB recently. I have a rather religious high school teammate who sometimes posts rather tiresome religious…stuff…but within that context occasionally her posts are usefully amusing. Also on FB in our intersection of friends is our old high school coach. Now this guy is someone from whom I gathered a lot of very positive adult-ish growning up, no excuses principles. I really respected this guy when I was a teenager. One of my favorite go-to no-excuses lessons he taught me was after we lost a meet due to a bad call, and we were all pissing and moaning about it, he got our attention right quick and proceeded to explain that life is going to hand you bad calls. You must build such things into your game plan. To win by a little when all goes your way is deceptive. You need to always, always press yourself such that when all the breaks are against you, you still have enough cushion to win in spite of oh fortuna. So today my teammate posts a meme that has been around a bit to wit “Heaven has walls, a gate, and a strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders. Think about it”. Now who chimes in on this but ole coach asking “How do you know this?”. I think to myself, my God WTF happened to this guy? How could the guy who taught me so much make such a douchey disingenuous comment? My point in relating all this I suppose is, WTF is wrong with people? I try hard to understand the generational eroding of logic and values and such, but for the kind of guy that that guy was to sink to such a lame level of argument of the course of an already-adult life is extremely disheartening. Forgive me for the long rant, and perhaps not knowing Coach, my little paragraph here does not convey the amount of respect I once had. Admittedly I was young, perhaps there was something there that I missed.
David – If I fail to impress an employer with misspellings and poor grammar in my resume, that is my failing. But the truth of the matter is that if enough people in a protected class similarly lose out on job prospects with an employer for the same reason, the law places the burden on the employer to prove that it is not discriminating by using the “grammar test”.
The same would apply to using attire, tattoos, or body piercings to whittle down the number of applicants for a job. Employers can have policies regarding these things for their employees, but they cannot* impose them on applicants if doing so eliminates applicants of a protected class at a greater rate than non-protected.
* Well, you can, but be careful. If you know that a practice has adverse impact you had better prepare for the possible consequences. If you don’t know, your ignorance is not a defense.
protected class
There’s your problem.
Unemployment in my region is below three percent. Given the performance of various cashiers, waiters, snow-removal specialists, and automotive service technicians that I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with this winter, I’d say that bad grammar and neck tattoos aren’t the impediment to employment one might think they should be.
I’m pretty sure that the kid who wiped down my table a few months ago is now the shift manager, if only because he shows up when scheduled and he doesn’t steal too much from the establishment. Hell, it’s gotten to the point that employers are actually willing to look at furloughed federal employees as potential new hires!
“How do you know this?”
Who wants to sneak into Hell?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jun/07/invasion-urban-foxes
David, it’s a good thing you have the flamethrower! You might need it. (“Hey, Half! Get on the phone and see if anyone wants to come over for grilled fox—tell them we’re sorry about the short notice, but it just now attacked me…”)
I must say I was shocked to read this. I don’t think there’s any record of an American being attacked by a fox unless it (the fox) was rabid. Maybe the British foxes are getting even for all those centuries of fox-hunting?
Squid, ex-Feds with security clearances are always in demand. A high-level clearance is a license to print money.
test
(trying out an old [2011] laptop my brother got working again)
Farnsworth, there is a history :
“Nicaragua’s press censor is Lieut. Nelba Blandon, a 24-year-old lawyer whose wit and intelligence serve to soften the image given by the military uniform she wears to work and the pistol she carries on her hip.”
–the New York Times describing the Sandinista’s gun toting military censor of the press.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/21/world/nicaragua-loosens-the-reins-on-opposition-paper.html
https://colmilquetoast.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-orwellian-censor-censoring-censor.html
A high-level clearance is a license to print money.
Indeed. Hence the squealing we heard when Trump started rescinding the clearances of officials from the previous administration.
“Otoh, one of the English teacher was nabbed for hosting overnights with girls on his small yacht.”
Hhhmmm, York House? And he ‘eloped’ with the head girl? I may know of whom you speak. I had him for English when he taught in Toronto, before moving to Vancouver. Iirc, he was the headmaster, too.
‘Fick you’