Author Topic: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look  (Read 135743 times)

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Offline sonofdaxjones

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The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« on: November 10, 2015, 04:57:41 PM »
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/not-a-very-pc-thing-to-say.html

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After political correctness burst onto the academic scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it went into a long remission. Now it has returned. Some of its expressions have a familiar tint, like the protesting of even mildly controversial speakers on college campuses. You may remember when 6,000 people at the University of California–Berkeley signed a petition last year to stop a commencement address by Bill Maher, who has criticized Islam (along with nearly all the other major world religions). Or when protesters at Smith College demanded the cancellation of a commencement address by Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, blaming the organization for “imperialist and patriarchal systems that oppress and abuse women worldwide.” Also last year, Rutgers protesters scared away Condoleezza Rice; others at Brandeis blocked Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a women’s-rights champion who is also a staunch critic of Islam; and those at Haverford successfully protested ­former Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who was disqualified by an episode in which the school’s police used force against Occupy protesters.

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At a growing number of campuses, professors now attach “trigger warnings” to texts that may upset students, and there is a campaign to eradicate “microaggressions,” or small social slights that might cause searing trauma. These newly fashionable terms merely repackage a central tenet of the first p.c. movement: that people should be expected to treat even faintly unpleasant ideas or behaviors as full-scale offenses. Stanford recently canceled a performance of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson after protests by Native American students. UCLA students staged a sit-in to protest microaggressions such as when a professor corrected a student’s decision to spell the word indigenous with an uppercase I — one example of many “perceived grammatical choices that in actuality reflect ideologies.” A theater group at Mount Holyoke College recently announced it would no longer put on The Vagina Monologues in part because the material excludes women without vaginas. These sorts of episodes now hardly even qualify as exceptional.


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Offline DQ12

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2015, 05:05:03 PM »
It is pretty concerning.

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Some 800 students at a variety of colleges across the country were surveyed. The results, though not surprising, are nevertheless alarming. By a margin of 51 percent to 36 percent, students favor their school having speech codes to regulate speech for students and faculty. Sixty-three percent favor requiring professors to employ “trigger warnings” to alert students to material that might be discomfiting. One-third of the students polled could not identify the First Amendment as the part of the Constitution that dealt with free speech. Thirty-five percent said that the First Amendment does not protect “hate speech,” while 30 percent of self-identified liberal students say the First Amendment is outdated.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/notable-quotable-unfree-speech-on-campus-1445555707


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Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2015, 05:05:23 PM »
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Yale students have every right to express their anger and frustration with Yale faculty. But FIRE is concerned by yet another unfortunate example of students who demand upsetting opinions be entirely eradicated from the university in the name of fostering “safe spaces” where students are protected from hurt feelings. Practicing free speech does not merely entail the right to protest opinions you object to—it also means acknowledging people’s right to hold those opinions in the first place

The ugliness of elite college student privilege, a more pampered and coddled college atmosphere then Yale would be extremely difficult to find anywhere else in the world. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoxJKmuoBmE&feature=youtu.be&list=PLvIqJIL2kOMefn77xg6-6yrvek5kbNf3Z

https://www.thefire.org/yale-students-demand-resignations-from-faculty-members-over-halloween-email/

Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2015, 05:13:02 PM »
This:

http://chronicle.com/article/Sexual-Paranoia-Strikes/190351

Brought about this:

http://www.thenation.com/article/laura-kipnis-melodrama/

The chronicle article was written exclusively using only publicly available information.

Offline DQ12

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2015, 05:16:13 PM »
what do you think the answer is, Dax?  just hope these policies get challenged and courts do their jobs?  courts have generally been pretty good with speech protection.


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Offline chum1

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2015, 05:23:58 PM »
If it came and went (at least) once before, don't we have evidence that it's not actually a big deal? Just a case of students gonna student rather than a case of Heavens to Betsy our country is going to Hell in a handbasket?

Offline 8manpick

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2015, 05:27:28 PM »

If it came and went (at least) once before, don't we have evidence that it's not actually a big deal? Just a case of students gonna student rather than a case of Heavens to Betsy our country is going to Hell in a handbasket?
Internet tho. 24 hr hyper-sensational news tho.
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Offline DQ12

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2015, 05:33:41 PM »
If it came and went (at least) once before, don't we have evidence that it's not actually a big deal? Just a case of students gonna student rather than a case of Heavens to Betsy our country is going to Hell in a handbasket?
I hope so.  But the poll results I posted are a little freaky.  A majority of students favoring "speech codes" seems nuts.


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Offline sys

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2015, 05:36:48 PM »
If it came and went (at least) once before, don't we have evidence that it's not actually a big deal? Just a case of students gonna student rather than a case of Heavens to Betsy our country is going to Hell in a handbasket?

how do we know it came and went of its own volition?  it could just as easily have invaded and been turned back only by heroic resistance.
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."

Offline chum1

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2015, 05:40:19 PM »
If it came and went (at least) once before, don't we have evidence that it's not actually a big deal? Just a case of students gonna student rather than a case of Heavens to Betsy our country is going to Hell in a handbasket?

how do we know it came and went of its own volition?  it could just as easily have invaded and been turned back only by heroic resistance.

Are dax, KSUW, and FSD actually heroes!?!?

Offline 8manpick

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #10 on: November 10, 2015, 05:44:06 PM »

If it came and went (at least) once before, don't we have evidence that it's not actually a big deal? Just a case of students gonna student rather than a case of Heavens to Betsy our country is going to Hell in a handbasket?
I hope so.  But the poll results I posted are a little freaky.  A majority of students favoring "speech codes" seems nuts.

Did not investigate, but could be a self selecting sample of students responding
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Offline sys

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #11 on: November 10, 2015, 05:45:46 PM »
Are dax, KSUW, and FSD actually heroes!?!?

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men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them.
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."

Offline michigancat

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2015, 05:59:27 PM »
lol

Offline K-S-U-Wildcats!

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #13 on: November 10, 2015, 06:18:16 PM »
Here's s really good example of the PC insanity that is destroying universities, and the nut jobs who defend it: http://goEMAW.com/forum/index.php?topic=36448.0

I confess, I get some enjoyment watching these liberal professors reap what they sow. They created this madness. Unfortunately, just consider where most of these lunatics will be in a few years: a government job of some sort, most likely education or bureaucracy. Just like the radicals from the 70s found their way to positions of influence.

Seriously: take a good look at these coddled, boorish, fools. They'll be teaching your kids and grandkids. They'll be crafting and enforcing regulations. Some will even hold elected office. They are the future, and that's really scary.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, K-State fans could have beheaded the entire KU team at midcourt, and K-State fans would be celebrating it this morning.  They are the ISIS of Big 12 fanbases.

Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #14 on: November 10, 2015, 06:27:14 PM »
what do you think the answer is, Dax?  just hope these policies get challenged and courts do their jobs?  courts have generally been pretty good with speech protection.

What's sad is that this rarely goes to court, and what's even worse is that we're engaging the notion of what is supposed to be intellectual discourse having to go to court.




Offline michigancat

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #15 on: November 10, 2015, 06:29:25 PM »
I am really curious

a) how big of a problem this really is and
b) how to correct it

I mean why shouldn't Berkeley students have a voice in their commencement speaker? How many professors are really terrified of liberal students like the one in that viral vox article? I mean, I'm sure if that couple got fired from Yale, there would be dozens of applicants lining up to replace them.

IMO the solution has to start with organization of faculty at these schools that have a problem with "PC culture" or whatever. Is anyone at Yale standing up for the halloween email couple? The intitial email (without any context) seemed entirely reasonable. If the professors formed a union of solidarity (including popular/highly coveted professors), they could fight back against these punk kids. I wonder why this isn't happening?

Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #16 on: November 10, 2015, 06:36:51 PM »
I am really curious

a) how big of a problem this really is and
b) how to correct it

I mean why shouldn't Berkeley students have a voice in their commencement speaker? How many professors are really terrified of liberal students like the one in that viral vox article? I mean, I'm sure if that couple got fired from Yale, there would be dozens of applicants lining up to replace them.

IMO the solution has to start with organization of faculty at these schools that have a problem with "PC culture" or whatever. Is anyone at Yale standing up for the halloween email couple? The intitial email (without any context) seemed entirely reasonable. If the professors formed a union of solidarity (including popular/highly coveted professors), they could fight back against these punk kids. I wonder why this isn't happening?

You do realize that for example a recent survey of Cornell faculty yielded an overwheming belief that the existence of more politically conservative faculty members would immediately devalue the education process and reputation of the university.   With such absurd and childish proclamations implying that literally all politically conservative faculty members would engage in creationism, climate denial-ism (a patently absurd precept in and of itself) and engage in a far right agenda.   Because we all know that conservative faculty members inclined to apply to and qualified to teach at a school with the reputation of Cornell would most certainly have just stepped out of Theology class at Liberty.   

That's a perfectly applicable anecdote of why there is no "banding together" of any note.



 

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #18 on: November 10, 2015, 06:39:18 PM »
sounds like an interesting survey dax, i guess we'll just trust that you're fully representing the findings.
Hyperbolic partisan duplicitous hypocrite

Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #19 on: November 10, 2015, 06:43:40 PM »
sounds like an interesting survey dax, i guess we'll just trust that you're fully representing the findings.

Well I apologize, I remembered the article as a survey of politics, but it's actually a survey of political giving with commentary about conservative faculty.

http://cornellsun.com/2015/10/15/cornell-faculty-donations-flood-left%E2%80%88filings-show/

Offline michigancat

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #20 on: November 10, 2015, 06:46:38 PM »
I am really curious

a) how big of a problem this really is and
b) how to correct it

I mean why shouldn't Berkeley students have a voice in their commencement speaker? How many professors are really terrified of liberal students like the one in that viral vox article? I mean, I'm sure if that couple got fired from Yale, there would be dozens of applicants lining up to replace them.

IMO the solution has to start with organization of faculty at these schools that have a problem with "PC culture" or whatever. Is anyone at Yale standing up for the halloween email couple? The intitial email (without any context) seemed entirely reasonable. If the professors formed a union of solidarity (including popular/highly coveted professors), they could fight back against these punk kids. I wonder why this isn't happening?

You do realize that for example a recent survey of Cornell faculty yielded an overwheming belief that the existence of more politically conservative faculty members would immediately devalue the education process and reputation of the university.   With such absurd and childish proclamations implying that literally all politically conservative faculty members would engage in creationism, climate denial-ism (a patently absurd precept in and of itself) and engage in a far right agenda.   Because we all know that conservative faculty members inclined to apply to and qualified to teach at a school with the reputation of Cornell would most certainly have just stepped out of Theology class at Liberty.   

That's a perfectly applicable anecdote of why there is no "banding together" of any note.



 

so what you're saying is they aren't banding together to fight "uber jackboot PC culture" this because they don't have a problem with it? Interesting.

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #21 on: November 10, 2015, 06:48:13 PM »
so i power skimmed your link, but i didn't see anything about a survey saying libtards are barring conservatives from teaching at cornell because it would devalue the education process.  kindly point me to where that result was
Hyperbolic partisan duplicitous hypocrite

Offline sys

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #22 on: November 10, 2015, 06:49:31 PM »
How many professors are really terrified of liberal students like the one in that viral vox article? I mean, I'm sure if that couple got fired from Yale, there would be dozens of applicants lining up to replace them.

i don't know how you feel like the second statement informs the first.  if we read "terrified" literally, rather than simply as a statement of how far beyond the pale the professor considers the students' attitudes to be, then certainly that terror is chiefly the knowledge of how easily they can be dismissed and replaced if student opinion coagulates against them.
"experienced commanders will simply be smeared and will actually go to the meat."

Offline michigancat

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #23 on: November 10, 2015, 06:51:50 PM »
How many professors are really terrified of liberal students like the one in that viral vox article? I mean, I'm sure if that couple got fired from Yale, there would be dozens of applicants lining up to replace them.

i don't know how you feel like the second statement informs the first.  if we read "terrified" literally, rather than simply as a statement of how far beyond the pale the professor considers the students' attitudes to be, then certainly that terror is chiefly the knowledge of how easily they can be dismissed and replaced if student opinion coagulates against them.
You're right, I'm bouncing all over the place here.

Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: The Death of Free Speech: Uber PC'ism-A further look
« Reply #24 on: November 10, 2015, 06:52:28 PM »
Or afraid of it, I mean when people are forced to resign for not becoming more emotional, then that's a pretty slippery slope.   When the mobs hit the quad because they don't like an article or an email, that's pretty scary and many university administrators are quite spineless.

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"Placing more emphasis on diversity of political beliefs when hiring [would] almost certainly require sacrificing on general quality or other dimensions of diversity."