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Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

#23

This article is about students protesting a humanities course at Reed College in Oregon. Why does it have a huge image depicting protesters against "Nazis in Berkeley"?

It's simple: when it becomes acceptable to violate standards of civility when addressing particularly ultra-bad ideas, soon enough, every idea you don't like becomes ultra-bad.

Re: Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

#24
post #5

I worry about an increasing movement toward radicalization on all ends of the political spectrum. I think Trump represented a shift to the far -right. Now I worry liberals might shift to the far -left. The middle ground seems to be disappearing

Having lived in Ohio, the far right is exactly the same as the far left here in San Francisco. What is funny is they do not realize this. So I think its more a personality type selection than actual thought process or belief. The result of believing the other side is evil, is no one is willing to work together so we all lose. I think this could be a function of things we've built on the internet such as the ability t…

> So I think its more a personality type selection than actual thought process or belief.

Yep, I think that's an important insight. I know a few people who grew up in very evangelical/conservative Christian communities who later dropped that ideology for left-wing ones (e.g. feminism). Their attitudes and behaviors are almost exactly the same, except that the content of their ideas has been swapped out.

Re: Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

#25

http://reediesagainstracism.tumblr.com/demands I'm all for equality, but increasingly, these BLM-emulative student movements aren't egalitarian, but racist in the other direction. See #7 for example. Many of those demands, like #24, aren't even possible let alone reasonable. There are specific laws governing the employment of non-naturalized residents.

whats AODs, SES, CSO, HCC, MRC, PMP, CAT, CRES ?

Re: Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

#26
post #10

whole lotta people on this "hacker news" website that love to say authority shouldn't be questioned

It's a variant of Chesterton's fence: question an authority when you've learned how that authority works and what motivates it. For god's sake, if you want to be a contrarian, be intelligent about it. Some freshman with a copy of Derrida and a bullshit social justice grievance does not know enough to question 4,000 years of civilization.

I'll keep that in mind next time an non-economist posts something here about bitcoin

Re: Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

#27
post #10

whole lotta people on this "hacker news" website that love to say authority shouldn't be questioned

It's a variant of Chesterton's fence: question an authority when you've learned how that authority works and what motivates it. For god's sake, if you want to be a contrarian, be intelligent about it. Some freshman with a copy of Derrida and a bullshit social justice grievance does not know enough to question 4,000 years of civilization.

Do you? Anyone can question anything. That's how a free and fair society works.

The professor has a lot of detailed knowledge on the topics they cover, but maybe not a radical critique of the underlying assumptions of what they teach.

I'm not super familiar with this case, but glancing over the student's demands, many looked reasonable.

Re: Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

#28
Tim Wu, who coined the term “network neutrality”, wrote an excellent op-ed in the N.Y. Times yesterday. He said that now speech,l is a form of control and censorship, whereas 100 years ago limiting speech was a form of control / censorship. Interesting to see how the pendulum shifts...

Re: Professors can’t stay silent about this extremist moment on campuses

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in Ohio, the far right is exactly the same as the far left here in San Francisco. What is funny is they do not realize this. So I think its more a personality type selection than actual thought process or belief. The result of believing the other side is evil, is no one is willing to work together so we all lose. I think this could be a function of things we've built on the internet such as the ability t…

> So I think its more a personality type selection than actual thought process or belief. Yep, I think that's an important insight. I know a few people who grew up in very evangelical/conservative Christian communities who later dropped that ideology for left-wing ones (e.g. feminism). Their attitudes and behaviors are almost exactly the same , except that the content of their ideas has been swapped out.

Why the downvotes? Seems like a relevant anecdote.
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