Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros • Hacker News Board

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#11

Post by kordless » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:06 AM UTC

free_speech wrote: post #7

free_speech wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, why don't you first try a party where everybody shows up like an inbred redneck with some missing teeth and no Tshirt? Or a bunch of Polo wearing blond guys walking like they have ants up their ass? Try that and then come back to report.

Oh so you are offended now?

Actually, you are making an illogical argument with your hypothetical party. You have no idea what a redneck would feel at a party full of people dressed like rednecks. They might like it. They might not.

The point is, you are actually asking these leading questions in a way that can't be answered and are doing it for the intent of inflating the argument further. Worse, you are doing it in a way that discriminates against several other groups of humans in the process.

Now, as a Polo wearing redneck, I could get mad about it, or I could just say "dude that's silly". I chose the latter.

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#12

Post by pmiller2 » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:07 AM UTC

My question is: what the fuck is "social probation"? And how in the world does throwing a party with silly hats get people kicked out of their dorms? This would never have happened when I was in school[1].

[1] The people getting kicked out of dorms business, not the party (unless it was really rowdy and there were injuries or property destruction or something).

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#13

Post by strictnein » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:07 AM UTC

free_speech wrote: post #7

free_speech wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, why don't you first try a party where everybody shows up like an inbred redneck with some missing teeth and no Tshirt? Or a bunch of Polo wearing blond guys walking like they have ants up their ass? Try that and then come back to report.

Oh so you are offended now?

No. People are downvoting you because no one would care about either of those things.

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#14

Post by Thetawaves » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:10 AM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #12

My question is: what the fuck is "social probation"? And how in the world does throwing a party with silly hats get people kicked out of their dorms? This would never have happened when I was in school[1]. [1] The people getting kicked out of dorms business, not the party (unless it was really rowdy and there were injuries or property destruction or something).

You are delusional. University administration has always been filled with the worst kinds of totalitarians.

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#15

Post by droithomme » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:10 AM UTC

polishninja wrote: post #5

There's an update to this story. Bowdoin update: On Facebook, school flaunted photos of alumni, students in school-provided sombreros https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/03/04/bo...

An interesting difference between these is that last year's school administration sponsored sombrero event was organized by american faculty members and was considered fine by the same faculty; whereas the "offensive" sombrero event was organized by an actual latin american student and was considered by faculty members to be an offensive stereotyping event worthy of sanctions.

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#16

Post by morgante » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:10 AM UTC

nefitty wrote: post #3

I'm curious to know what other HN readers think about this topic. I was born and raised on the left side of the spectrum, and continue to be so. I can empathize with my fellow millenial's struggle to push for a true egalitarian and respectful culture in the name of liberalism. I'm torn though. I see some of these actions moving the left to eventually begin embracing seemingly-fascist policies and aesthetics. What cou…

it's just standard horseshoe theory. The far left ends up adopting the methods of the far right (authoritarianism).

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#17

Post by morgante » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:14 AM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #10

SerLava wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>making light of a particularly painful era in Slavic history. This seems like it was written to shoehorn it into a racist thing instead of just a run-of-the-mill dismissive insult towards a group of people.

I dunno. I found the Stalin angle to be far more offensive than anything else. Imagine if they did a similar thing where people dressed up like SS officers and one was designated Hitler?

Nothing would happen. Jews are "privileged" and therefore not protected by the safe space movement.

(If you don't believe this, pay attention to pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.)

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#18

Post by wapapaloobop » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:14 AM UTC

nefitty wrote: post #3

I'm curious to know what other HN readers think about this topic. I was born and raised on the left side of the spectrum, and continue to be so. I can empathize with my fellow millenial's struggle to push for a true egalitarian and respectful culture in the name of liberalism. I'm torn though. I see some of these actions moving the left to eventually begin embracing seemingly-fascist policies and aesthetics. What cou…

You put a bunch of people, be they left-wing, right-wing, religious or secular in the same spot, and their talk will be influenced and perhaps dominated by group politics. A significant minority with an internalised sense of lack will compete for status and power in a self-righteous manner.

i.e. by striving to promulgate the most virtuous opinions, and, as a corollary, ostracising and denouncing those who voice wrong or unfashionable opinions.

The rest of the group will go along with it because they don't want to be individually targeted. Even though they may privately suspect that what's going on is bad and that true virtue does not depend on one's opinions.

I watched some of Milo Yiannoupoulos's recent lectures in his tour of American universities. He claims that the purpose of attending university is to be exposed to difficult and disturbing ideas. I'm not sure if this is true.

Perhaps it ought to be true. Yet I suspect that no one knows what the real purposes of universities are because they are an evolved tradition. What we do know is that most of the early European universities and their colleges were founded with the intention of preserving and promoting orthodoxy: combatting heresies, training priests, etc. What we're seeing at present in the anglospherical universities is simply the emergence of a different sort of orthodoxy.

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#19

Post by look_lookatme » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:14 AM UTC

thedz wrote: post #6

I usually like to give political correctness the benefit of the doubt in these situations, because sometimes its hard to fully understand how or why something might be offenseive. But COME ON. The severity of reprisals and administrations actions on this one is completely out of proportion. I'm not faulting anyone getting offended. But I am questioning the administration's response to all of this. Especially given: "…

If you do not act swiftly, you run the risk ending up in the sights of some hashtag campaign. Administrations around the country increasingly operate in a culture of fear.

Re: Political Correctness Devours yet Another College, Fighting Over Mini-Sombreros

#20

Post by morgante » Sat, Mar 05, 2016, 4:15 AM UTC

Thetawaves wrote: post #14

pmiller2 wrote: post #12

My question is: what the fuck is "social probation"? And how in the world does throwing a party with silly hats get people kicked out of their dorms? This would never have happened when I was in school[1]. [1] The people getting kicked out of dorms business, not the party (unless it was really rowdy and there were injuries or property destruction or something).

You are delusional. University administration has always been filled with the worst kinds of totalitarians.

The difference is that historically students opposed their totalitarianism. Now they're egging administrators on, even protesting when they don't adopt authoritarian enough positions.