> Why the Latest Campus Cancellation is Different
Spoiler: it's not any different at all, the author is just red pilling and decided to tell the world about it.
The latest campus cancellation is different
81–90 of 520 posts
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#82It feels very strange and perhaps kind of contradictory to be presented with an individual who is vehemently against the idea of censorship while also using "the majority of people also hold this view" as their primary justification why censorship in this case is wrong. If the professor held a view that the minority if Americans supported, would there be more or less reason to support censorship in that case? Would t…
> the majority of people also hold this view His argument is strengthened by, but doesn’t rely on, that fact.
Popularity absolutely does not impact the logical correctness of an argument: an argument is true by virtue of its own structure, if you say popularity somehow affects its correctness you've basically jettisoned logic in favour of subjective opinion.
At best popularity serves as a useful heuristic for when you don't have the means to carefully confirm the correctness yourself.
(There is a fairly uninteresting special case where the popularity of something comes in to the argument as a factual statement about the world.)
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many such cases. That's why we need to look more closely at why the professional administrative class so eagerly does the wishes of activist mobs. Could it be that the activists and the administrators believe the same things?
Or the admin feel like they are taking the easiest way out? But if I was an admin, the easier thing would be to ignore it.
I thought it was because, if the mob doesn't get their way, they single out the 'admins' as the next target. At least that's what I remember before I cut out on following twitter as a first party platform.
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many such cases. That's why we need to look more closely at why the professional administrative class so eagerly does the wishes of activist mobs. Could it be that the activists and the administrators believe the same things?
They do the wishes of right-wing activist mobs, too, and the original victims of campus "cancel culture" were Palestinians. Could it be that the administrators believe in nothing?
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Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#85How do we neuter the power of Twitter mobs? Seems like they can bully and intimidate any organization from universities to corporations to GitHub projects to kowtow to their demands. Their demands are usually to fire, boycott, or boot people with opinions that run afoul of the mob. Not a healthy precedent to set. We will regret this later if we continue down this path.
Vote in or appoint new leaders who do not give a damn about them. May backfire if too callous people are the winners. Another method, create a formal method for processing complaints from Twitter that diverts the hateful energy from individuals towards a larger decision-making body. Let us say that a random 24 people jury of MIT peers had to decide by secret ballot whether the researcher in question gets approved or…
> Vote in or appoint new leaders who do not give a damn about them. May backfire if too callous people are the winners.
You're literally talking about appointing a group primarily based on their quality of not listening to people; in the ideal case, they're callous.
The trap is that you'll really just appoint a bunch of right-wingers who won't cancel right-wing speakers for not being "politically correct" but will cancel every mildly-left wing speaker for being a terrorist or supporting terrorism.
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or the admin feel like they are taking the easiest way out? But if I was an admin, the easier thing would be to ignore it.
I thought it was because, if the mob doesn't get their way, they single out the 'admins' as the next target. At least that's what I remember before I cut out on following twitter as a first party platform.
It's very conceivable, but I haven't seen any examples in a long time, if ever.
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#87How do we neuter the power of Twitter mobs? Seems like they can bully and intimidate any organization from universities to corporations to GitHub projects to kowtow to their demands. Their demands are usually to fire, boycott, or boot people with opinions that run afoul of the mob. Not a healthy precedent to set. We will regret this later if we continue down this path.
> How do we neuter the power of Twitter mobs? Stop listening to them? EDIT: That's especially effective since the Twitter mobs keep moving targets every couple of weeks anyway. They don't have any patience.
I don't understand why this isn't the norm. It seems obvious that if you ignore them, they'll go away. But nobody's trying it.
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#88How do we neuter the power of Twitter mobs? Seems like they can bully and intimidate any organization from universities to corporations to GitHub projects to kowtow to their demands. Their demands are usually to fire, boycott, or boot people with opinions that run afoul of the mob. Not a healthy precedent to set. We will regret this later if we continue down this path.
You know Twitter is not a real place right?
I do hope Dave Chappelle might start a trend of "ignore Twitter and suffer no consequences"
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#89It is time for talented teenagers to stop going to illiberal institutions. Consider getting your education at a place with values you can respect. Mission-driven schools: this is your moment.
A mission driven school? Sort of like Evergreen State?
Re: The latest campus cancellation is different
#90If you tolerate this, then your children will be next....
My children are at no risk of having their MIT speaking gigs canceled because of their public positions on race-influenced admissions policies.