This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University • Hacker News Board

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#161

Post by HelloNurse » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:31 PM UTC

EthanHeilman wrote: post #130

ucaetano wrote: post #12

"Oklahoma Wesleyan is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn" Exactly, I don't get why people are trying to make universities, workplaces, clubs, or anywhere else "safe places". They should not be safe places, they should be places where you feel confronted, challenged and threatened by different ideas and points of view.

>Exactly, I don't get why people are trying to make universities, workplaces, clubs, or anywhere else "safe places". I'm not directly disagreeing with you here or putting words in your mouth. I realize you are not saying safe spaces should not exist. Instead I want to make the argument that having safe spaces is reasonable. People make safe spaces _within_ universities and other institutions for the same reason some…

There is a big difference between having a problem with fireworks and having a problem with religion, like in the OP. Asking for a "safe space" where you don't have to deal with your conscience is horribly absurd.

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#162

Post by jazzyk » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:31 PM UTC

frobozz wrote: post #61

sago wrote: post #6

I think the world would be better if, before you're allowed to respond to someone being wrong, you have to first be able to express their position in a way that they agree represents their view. Because 'political correctness' isn't the cancer at the heart of social politics, it is straw-manning. On both sides of every issue. I'd be surprised, perhaps even amazed, if Dr Piper had represented the complaint in any way…

Indeed. Either the complainant is a troll, or doesn't exist. No normal person would attend a sermon at the chapel of a given faith, and complain that the sermon victimises them for being a poor practitioner of that faith. This is doubly true when its about something universal like love, rather than how well you practice some specific ritual.

You think?

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#163

Post by jonkiddy » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:31 PM UTC

I think there is some irony in the title/content of that post and a particular verse in 1 Cor 13 (which was the referenced cause of the issue).

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me." 1 Cor 13:11

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#164

Post by CodeCube » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:31 PM UTC

JulianMorrison wrote: post #117

Overtonwindow wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What subject do you teach? I was talking to an old physics professor of mine and he said the same thing, but my former psych professor was completely the opposite. Maybe it's a subject-related issue?

Could also be related to the person. A prof who's being racist will receive more criticism for being racist, and will have more cause to complain of "political correctness".

I gotta say, anecdotally, this is what I often find ... the people complaining about political correctness, are those that have in the past been openly racist, or at a minimum, fond of racially charged jokes (ie. "black people are great, everyone should own one"). They are chafing against a cultural change that no longer appreciates and/or tolerates behavior like that.

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#165

Post by whatok » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:31 PM UTC

saturdaysaint wrote: post #101

whatok wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why has all the hyper-sensitivity only come to the forefront over the past few years then?

Like other rises in sensitivity, technology. Ever-present smartphone cameras (and, more recently, police cameras) have made violent attacks on black men real and visceral. And social media has made reports of violence (even without video)that would have been buried in papers much easier to find - such as Charles Blow's son getting (mistakenly) apprehended at gunpoint on Yale's campus by campus police. Much like color…

Agreed on technology. There does seem to be a disproportionate rise in sensitivity wrt what you mentioned (100% and incidents emphasized in the original post.

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#166

Post by mziulu » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:32 PM UTC

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/663481837197631488

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#167

Post by coldpie » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:33 PM UTC

venomsnake wrote: post #153

coldpie wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Folks need to have thicker skin Why? Congratulations on being such a paragon of excellence. Why should we require such virtue of all humans? Instead of expecting you to develop a thick skin (are you sure this is a good thing?), why can't we try to reform your aggressors in the first place?

> why can't we try to reform your aggressors in the first place? Because someone somewhere defines something about another group of people as aggression and we can go "reforming" them with impunity. Take a wild guess what the ranges of something could be ...

OP said,

> I grew up being called Gwailo, Gaijin, Auslander, and when I finally returned to the anglosphere in my early teens, I was still an outsider as I spoke with a weird accent and was by that point a through-and-through third culture kid. I got the crap bullied out of me

I don't see any value in accepting this behavior. What harm is there in trying to eliminate it?

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#168

Post by jellicle » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:34 PM UTC

sago wrote: post #6

I think the world would be better if, before you're allowed to respond to someone being wrong, you have to first be able to express their position in a way that they agree represents their view. Because 'political correctness' isn't the cancer at the heart of social politics, it is straw-manning. On both sides of every issue. I'd be surprised, perhaps even amazed, if Dr Piper had represented the complaint in any way…

You're being generous to the author. I'd be amazed if anyone at all had complained to the university president about their sermon.

"The complaining student" is now a trope along the lines of the cab driver who always speaks to New York Times columnists in a way that is convenient for their column.

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#169

Post by coldpie » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:35 PM UTC

lmm wrote: post #157

coldpie wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Folks need to have thicker skin Why? Congratulations on being such a paragon of excellence. Why should we require such virtue of all humans? Instead of expecting you to develop a thick skin (are you sure this is a good thing?), why can't we try to reform your aggressors in the first place?

> Congratulations on being such a paragon of excellence. Why should we require such virtue of all humans? Because modern society and civilization rests entirely on the ability of people to tolerate being offended. It's what made the enlightenment possible. It's what makes scientific inquiry possible. It underlies every improvement to the human condition, because any new idea is offensive to someone. If you can't do t…

Ehhhh, I'm not convinced that university life is substantially improved by blackface costumes.

Re: This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University

#170

Post by yummyfajitas » Tue, Dec 01, 2015, 2:36 PM UTC

EthanHeilman wrote: post #158

yummyfajitas wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually white heterosexual middle class males can totally appreciate these things. Imagine what it is like to be white/asian in a country where a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by black men and where black on white crimes are 5.6 times more common than white on black crimes [1]. Imagine what it is like to be Christian when a disproportionate number of terror attacks are committed by Islamic types. M…

Linking to a post on the website of a White Supremacist organisation such as AmRen (American Renaissance) will probably hurt your argument more than help it. >Jared Taylor founded The New Century Foundation[0], a self-styled white supremacist think tank known primarily for American Renaissance, its online journal. The journal promotes pseudo-scientific studies that attempt to demonstrate the intellectual and cultural…

I don't understand - a white supremacist took a quantity from the DOJ, then took a percentage from the DOJ, and multiplied them together to get a new quantity. Does multiplication become invalid when a white supremacist does it? Or do DOJ stats become false when a racist cites them?

Please, I would like to understand your logic.

I do find it a bit scary that when I google "black on white crime", only racist sites show up. Why are only white supremacists willing to discuss this data? (Or perhaps they are all just super good at SEO.)