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Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

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Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#61

Post by recuter »

humanistbot wrote: post #57
recuter wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend, you may very well be right, you may be wrong, completely besides the point. Hypotheticals aside, and with all due respect, what godly business is it of yours? "Rules are there for a good reason and must be followed" is also called fascism under certain circumstances. The old soviet ladies watching like hawks from balconies the goings on in the hood were all about power trips and exploiting the situation. I…

> "Rules are there for a good reason and must be followed" is also called fascism under certain circumstances. We are too far apart in our assumptions and definitions to have a meaningful discussion.

Mhm, of course.

Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. The pope is infallible. And the cardinal surely knows best. Ours is not to question why.

You see, every two bit authoritarian is always so very sure that they are correctly interpreting and enforcing the rules. Strong sense of justice, all for the greater good.

And every two bit dictator learns to capitalize on these proclivities. All one has to do is create a rotten atmosphere of guilt, after all, who isn't guilty of something? And then just crown yourself enforcer-in-chief.

If anybody questions you just assert that they are morally inferior, insensitive or just don't get it and goose-step away in a huff.

You are not batman. You are Thunder Karen.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#62

Post by lbarrow »

vector_spaces wrote: post #55

It might be helpful to know that the author, Laura Kipnis, has made a career out of critiquing sexual harassment policies on American university campuses and the broader #MeToo movement. Her 2017 book titled "Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus" compared the Title IX process against philosopher Peter Ludlow a "witch trial". The book also offers an anecdote of an undergraduate student woke up next to a…

Kipnis was also subject to several rounds of retaliatory Title IX investigations simply for publicly objecting to Ludlow's treatment, all of which eventually exonerated her. It's hard to think of someone more qualified to critique the issues with Title IX and the culture of campus inquisitions.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#63

Post by unmole »

recuter wrote: post #51
jchw wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole reason why it’s difficult to empathize is not about whether someone snitches or not, or the mentality of the person who snitches. It’s already clear that the incentives for rule enforcement is screwy. But the rule is there for a reason, a good reason, and everybody else had to follow it. I’ve heard of people leaving companies and having to effectively be demoted due to interpersonal relationships; that’s th…

My friend, you may very well be right, you may be wrong, completely besides the point. Hypotheticals aside, and with all due respect, what godly business is it of yours? "Rules are there for a good reason and must be followed" is also called fascism under certain circumstances. The old soviet ladies watching like hawks from balconies the goings on in the hood were all about power trips and exploiting the situation. I…

> "Rules are there for a good reason and must be followed" is also called fascism under certain circumstances.

Right, because things like rule of law and consistent application of rules are the hallmarks of a fascist polity.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#64

Post by manicdee »

lbarrow wrote: post #62
vector_spaces wrote: post #55

It might be helpful to know that the author, Laura Kipnis, has made a career out of critiquing sexual harassment policies on American university campuses and the broader #MeToo movement. Her 2017 book titled "Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus" compared the Title IX process against philosopher Peter Ludlow a "witch trial". The book also offers an anecdote of an undergraduate student woke up next to a…

Kipnis was also subject to several rounds of retaliatory Title IX investigations simply for publicly objecting to Ludlow's treatment, all of which eventually exonerated her. It's hard to think of someone more qualified to critique the issues with Title IX and the culture of campus inquisitions.

Surely the issue there is not Title IX but vexatious litigants?

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#65

Post by BlueTemplar »

zozbot234 wrote: post #56
BlueTemplar wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably because German Nationalism (especially of that time) was "Ethnic" Nationalism ? Which I have gotten the impression has been distinctly racist even long before the Nazis ?

It's not like the Germans had any monopoly on casual racism back then - consider the Dreyfus Affair, which occurred at the peak of La Belle Époque France. Of course Germany was where these attitudes had been festering for a long time due to a generally authoritarian social environment (which went hand-in-hand with opposition to bourgeois modernity), and where they were taken to extremes.

My point was that it's probably not a coincidence that the worst abuses happen in countries that followed "Ethnic" Nationalism rather than Civic (aka Liberal) Nationalism.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#66

Post by bjourne »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #9

I'm having a serious "Gell-Mann Amnesia effect" moment on this one: I don't think that representation of the Ewell paper is quite accurate, though admittedly it's been over a year since I read it. Despite being Jewish (would have had different significance later than during his time!) Schenker was a proud german nationalist and in his own words considered his method one of the ways german people could assert their su…

Thanks for telling us. Do you know if Kipnis characterization of the backlash Jackson suffered is correct? "All hell broke loose on social media. ... The university swiftly announced that an ad hoc committee would be convened to investigate. Its members found Jackson guilty of bullying the grad-student editor into publishing views he disagreed with, and the journal guilty of editorial mismanagement (although, Jackson said, the editorial practices followed were the same as they’d always been). Jackson was removed from the journal, and its funding was cut." Some writers have a way of magnifying things. 3-4 people complaining is enough for "all hell broke loose" according to some.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#67

Post by scandox »

ars wrote: post #22
scandox wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First let us pause to consider our terms: Was Schlissel’s narc a “snitch” or a “whistle-blower”? Whistle-blowers are generally attempting to topple or thwart the powerful, and Schlissel was certainly powerful. But the reported offense was, in the words of a lawyer I spoke with, “a nothingburger.” Let us provisionally define snitching as turning someone in anonymously, for either minor or nonexistent offenses, or pr…

So if it's a "nothingburger", then why is the administration not just ignoring it? You can't have that kind of harassment without the assistance of those you are reporting to. Being how I'm not there, I'm going to defer to the administrators to decide what's important and what's not.

I'm just quoting the article which attempts to address the issues of terminology you raised. Without discussing his terms your original comment lacked relevance.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#68

Post by xhkkffbf »

raincom wrote: post #26
xhkkffbf wrote: post #4

It's sad but true in my experience. My thesis advisor makes this a sport, apparently. I learned this after I graduated. One friend explained that my advisor would often call up colleagues at other universities and tell them not to hire particular people. He's apparently known for this habit. It's one thing to provide a recommendation when requested. It's another to routinely campaign against others and provide anti-r…

Does he do it for those who haven’t asked for his recommendation letter? Or he does it for those who asks for his recommendation letter?

Both. Of course the letters are full of bogus, positive statements that he can defend if ever caught. But he badmouths people left and right because he thinks that anti-recommendations are just as important as positive ones.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#69

Post by raincom »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #68
raincom wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does he do it for those who haven’t asked for his recommendation letter? Or he does it for those who asks for his recommendation letter?

Both. Of course the letters are full of bogus, positive statements that he can defend if ever caught. But he badmouths people left and right because he thinks that anti-recommendations are just as important as positive ones.

Wow, unbelievably vicious.

Usually, a generic recommendation letter without any specifics is negative enough. Many professors don't want to write such recommendation letters.

Re: Academe is a hotbed of craven snitches

#70

Post by blaser-waffle »

manicdee wrote: post #64
lbarrow wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kipnis was also subject to several rounds of retaliatory Title IX investigations simply for publicly objecting to Ludlow's treatment, all of which eventually exonerated her. It's hard to think of someone more qualified to critique the issues with Title IX and the culture of campus inquisitions.

Surely the issue there is not Title IX but vexatious litigants?

> vexatious litigants

If it's happening only on one or two campuses, perhaps. But these aren't new trends and have popped up all over the US.

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