I suspect that the situations the author describes have more to do with office politics than personal politics, and have little or nothing to do with the students. Academia is a notoriously feudal environment; once someone has made enemies in their department, any transgression, however minor, is used as a tool to strip them of power or, in the extreme, get them fired. It's no different today than it has been historically, it's just that the particular choice of teapot for the tempest has changed through the years.
I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
31–40 of 57 posts
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#32Unimpressive; the worst he has is that someone made a groundless complaint that was handled perfectly well in 2009, and he worries that someone will make another one one day (though it seems kind of telling that they haven't..?) and it will go differently. Why not get someone who's actually been harmed by this change in culture to write about that?
Are we reading the same article? It isn't about him. He's complaining about general trends and he has several specific examples.
As Judith Shulevitz wrote in the New York Times, these refusals can shut down discussion in genuinely contentious areas, such as when Oxford canceled an abortion debate.
More often, they affect surprisingly minor matters, as when Hamsphire College disinvited an Afrobeat band because their lineup had too many white people in it.
He [Chait] cites an anonymous professor who says that "she and her fellow faculty members are terrified of facing accusations of triggering trauma."
Consider that tweet I linked to earlier, from critic and artist Zahira Kelly, in which she implies that the whole of scientific inquiry is somehow invalid because it has been conducted mostly by white males.
In another instance, two female professors of library science publically outed and shamed a male colleague they accused of being creepy at conferences, going so far as to openly celebrate the prospect of ruining his career.
By the way, you seem to be the sort of person that scares him.
Rebecca Reilly Cooper, a political philosopher at the University of Warwick, worries about the effectiveness of a politics in which "particular experiences can never legitimately speak for any one other than ourselves, and personal narrative and testimony are elevated to such a degree that there can be no objective standpoint from which to examine their veracity."
Why not get someone who's actually been harmed by this change in culture to write about that? -You
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anyone wants to get inside a liberal's mind, you got one right here, BlackAura I'd bet money you are. Weasel words are present and everything. The young liberal-speak of concepts of 'systemic bias' and 'societal pandering' and of course the students as victims who 'have no choice' but to complain Everyone is going to have an example of some bad professor. But if you're in college seeing a systemic bias, you've gon…
I'm not blinded by my own perspective. I actually happen to listen to people, hear their opinions, and want to try to understand them. I don't tell people that their opinions or point of view are wrong, and shouldn't be listened to, just because they disagree with my own. > inside a liberal's mind Use of "liberal" as a snarl word. Awesome way to start a conversation - just go straight for a veiled insult. Nice. > Wea…
This professor had nothing that can be checked up on, no victim, no perpetrator, no specific events... Just a thing that we're supposed to believe is ever present, rampant etc.
Nope, try again.
As Judith Shulevitz wrote in the New York Times, these refusals can shut down discussion in genuinely contentious areas, such as when Oxford canceled an abortion debate.
More often, they affect surprisingly minor matters, as when Hamsphire College disinvited an Afrobeat band because their lineup had too many white people in it.
Consider that tweet I linked to earlier, from critic and artist Zahira Kelly, in which she implies that the whole of scientific inquiry is somehow invalid because it has been conducted mostly by white males.
In another instance, two female professors of library science publically outed and shamed a male colleague they accused of being creepy at conferences, going so far as to openly celebrate the prospect of ruining his career.
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the university being paranoid about being sued is the students' fault? > being silenced Nobody is being silenced by the students. What the students want is for professors to stop being assholes towards anyone that's not just like them, and are (correctly) pointing out various kinds of systemic bias, subjective opinions masquerading as objectivity, and instances where you have material that is disturbing or emotion…
If anyone wants to get inside a liberal's mind, you got one right here, BlackAura I'd bet money you are. Weasel words are present and everything. The young liberal-speak of concepts of 'systemic bias' and 'societal pandering' and of course the students as victims who 'have no choice' but to complain Everyone is going to have an example of some bad professor. But if you're in college seeing a systemic bias, you've gon…
Those aren't really weasel words. It's just charged diction.
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anyone wants to get inside a liberal's mind, you got one right here, BlackAura I'd bet money you are. Weasel words are present and everything. The young liberal-speak of concepts of 'systemic bias' and 'societal pandering' and of course the students as victims who 'have no choice' but to complain Everyone is going to have an example of some bad professor. But if you're in college seeing a systemic bias, you've gon…
Those aren't really weasel words. It's just charged diction.
words like "systemic bias" are the epitome of weaselness. They sound authoritative and final. But they don't mean anything yet are easily thrown in, believed and then connected with victimhood and an impossible villain.
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And yes, that does happen. A lot. You don't seem to have a grasp of the real world here. What actually happens is that people will take credit or get credit from other's ideas regardless of gender. That's what happens a lot. It's only your own bias that you think it's noticeably women being the victims. Welcome to the world of equal opportunity.
And I should believe you, rather than the women to whom this happens all the time, because... why?
I just asked my partner if this ever happened to her. She told me that it did once, but it was a female colleague who did it to her, not a man. I asked her if a man ever did it to her, she said she couldn't remember that ever occurring.
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#37I used to be a liberal. Then I realized that I cannot trust everyone who cries foul. I haven't turned conservative either. But I don't hold liberal views as correct by default anymore. The problem with today's liberals is that they think political correctness is more important than factual data. Any rational argument requires dealing with cold hard facts, however brutal and hurtful they might be. There is no place fo…
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Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#38Unimpressive; the worst he has is that someone made a groundless complaint that was handled perfectly well in 2009, and he worries that someone will make another one one day (though it seems kind of telling that they haven't..?) and it will go differently. Why not get someone who's actually been harmed by this change in culture to write about that?
Are we reading the same article? It isn't about him. He's complaining about general trends and he has several specific examples. As Judith Shulevitz wrote in the New York Times, these refusals can shut down discussion in genuinely contentious areas, such as when Oxford canceled an abortion debate. More often, they affect surprisingly minor matters, as when Hamsphire College disinvited an Afrobeat band because their l…
> Rebecca Reilly Cooper, a political philosopher at the University of Warwick, worries about the effectiveness of a politics in which "particular experiences can never legitimately speak for any one other than ourselves, and personal narrative and testimony are elevated to such a degree that there can be no objective standpoint from which to examine their veracity."
I see why you think I would do that, but when I say that I don't think his fears are justified by the evidence presented and we should seek better evidence of a problem (presumably from someone else), I'm doing the opposite of "elevating personal narrative and testimony".
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#39I used to be a liberal. Then I realized that I cannot trust everyone who cries foul. I haven't turned conservative either. But I don't hold liberal views as correct by default anymore. The problem with today's liberals is that they think political correctness is more important than factual data. Any rational argument requires dealing with cold hard facts, however brutal and hurtful they might be. There is no place fo…
It's crazy how far left liberalism has been pushed these past few years. Just as crazy as how far right conservatism has moved over the past couple decades. This extreme polarization is very worrying. It's not stable, and it's going to lead to serious problems.
Re: I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those aren't really weasel words. It's just charged diction.
words like "systemic bias" are the epitome of weaselness. They sound authoritative and final. But they don't mean anything yet are easily thrown in, believed and then connected with victimhood and an impossible villain.
Alright, I didn't notice that one, but it qualifies.