1/28/2017: My first-grade teacher taught us how to make paper-plate turkeys, and also that the pilgrims came to the new world to escape religious persecution.
1/20/2017: Yecch. Bleah.
1/28/2017: My first-grade teacher taught us how to make paper-plate turkeys, and also that the pilgrims came to the new world to escape religious persecution.
1/20/2017: Yecch. Bleah.
God bless Donald J Trump and the United States of America.
Did he sneeze?
It’s more of an either/or situation.
On the off chance there’s any truth to this God business, I pray that She blesses the USA.
We’ll need it.
CD, good for you.
Oh come ON – this is gonna keep SNL in strong business for the next 4 years and is a boom to some of us professors in class that talk about the de-evolution of thinking in America.
And hey, he got sworn in and the world didn’t end, well
at least not yet – I hope Trump also builds a wall around Eugene …
Dog, if you’re using your classroom to dump on Trump, or otherwise politicizing your classes, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
yeah well, certainly no teaching or learning is going on so I gotta do something …
dog, just bark a few times, everything will be allright, and you can go back to teaching whatever it is you teach.
Well, you’re right–there’s a terrifyingly good chance that criticizing the incoming administration really isn’t a good idea. But what happened to your voluminous academic freedom rhetoric, hUB?
Academic freedom doesn’t mean a license to impose your political views on a captive audience that is not paying you to do that.
Besides, it’s in very poor taste, and it’s the kind of thing that gives academia a bad name.
Summing up what I’ve learned from this blog over the past few weeks:
Expressing political views is NOT covered by academic freedom.
Wearing blackface IS covered by academic freedom.
Got it.
Expressing one’s political views in, say, biology class is very questionable. In any case, it shows very bad judgment. Sort of like an anti or pro abortion rant at the beginning of, say, finance class. So, for that matter, would be wearing blackface to organic chemistry to make a political point. We’re not talking about a party in one’s own home.
To take it to an extreme, assigning a math class to attend an anti Obama rally would be an outrageous abuse of academic freedom.
A privilege as great as academic freedom demands responsibility. Otherwise, the public might eventually get very tired of supporting it. Many already are, e.g. the attacks on tenure because of outrageous behavior.
Don’t be surprised if the coffee is brewing.
Let me be clear: if a biology professor, say, wants to proselytize about politics outside of regular academic duties, and without coercing agreement or assent, fine, I’m all for it. In class or with captives, uh uh.
Right – in a biology class with evolution as the subject, in that class one should never talk about Social Darwinism as a prime example where pseudo and misrepresented (on purpose) science is turned into a political agenda based on the idea that this is natural in nature – because, after all, that never happened in history, right – so is irrelevant in this biology class.
Indeed, only biology should be taught in that class –
only english should be taught in an english class, etc, etc – three cheers for legacy and preserving the way it always has been …because, after all, that way does know best
Logic, according to honest (sic) Uncle Bernie:
“Let me be clear: if a biology professor, say, wants to proselytize about politics outside of regular academic duties, and without coercing agreement or assent, fine, I’m all for it.”
From 12/31, commenting on a professor’s tweet from his personal account:
“Is there no line anywhere to cross? […] I won’t go any further with this line of inquiry, it is too disgusting to think about. Drexel University rightly condemned this pathetic jackass. I’ll bet though that he will be treated with a double standard.”
Double standard, indeed.
Prof Schwarz — the professor at Drexel — who called for “white genocide” in his tweet, as I recall — had a right to do that, I suppose, though it could be argued that he was inciting to mass violence, which isn’t protected speech.
But even if it was protected speech — everyone else has the right to call him out as the vicious, stupid jackass he is.
Free speech does not mean the right not to be criticized for one’s speech, or even to receive approbation.
Imagine if this professor had called for black genocide, or Muslim genocide.
This is why I have completely f*ing had it with the educated (not to misuse “elite”) right. The most important function of academic freedom is to protect intellectual inquiry and expression of unpopular or politically charged opinion. Which, for the record, is quite distinct from discrimination against a protected class.
There is a long, long list of dickhead GOP (and only GOP) legislators who want very much to abolish tenure or limit what faculty can do in the classroom, precisely to prevent the liberal indoctrination of a “captive audience who isn’t paying for that.” This is exactly why academic freedom is necessary. The threat to the fundamental mission of the university from the right is very real, unlike the alleged “suppression of free speech” by the left in pursuing a fair and respectful environment for a diverse community.
The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. I laugh when the educated right posture as speaking for the disaffected masses to clueless ivory-tower liberals (“the coffee is brewing”). Well, hUB, I’m actually from the white working class, so I’ve probably smelled a lot more coffee than you. And you and the rest of the culture-war-stoking right are slowly but surely losing. Good riddance.
to @JD
what is it exactly that we are either winning or losing?
Yes I do think we are losing or have lost our ability to be tolerant and not to overreact.
But I don’t think there is a game here to win. Once upon a time, I suppose, the world did not judge all that much until it had walked a mile in the same moccasins (shoes) but that time has long passed and now we line up for the rush to judgement.
I taught my first college class in 1978 (which I am sure no one will believe). That class was as “politicized” any that I teach today as I like to relate class material to the real world. Over that last 40 years, I have not seen the oversite-of-my job police actually sit in on my class. Yes, if and when that day comes, then something has been lost but that’s is unlikely to happen so the situation remains very “Much Ado About Nothing”
Dog, perhaps your question was rhetorical but I will answer anyway. I have been especially testy lately, so my last comment was a bit overblown. But I do think that there has been a systematic effort on the right to obstruct or even roll back hard-won social progress on greater inclusivity. And I think the right’s tactics haven’t been fair, because they rely on misinformation and sowing discord for the purpose of gaining political leverage.
To take a well-worn example, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to have a conversation about what the best ways are to fairly protect transgender people under the law. What I don’t think is fair is to obstruct and ridicule that conversation, demonize transgenders as enabling rapists, and push a story about how out-of-touch liberals are ramming their elite values down the throats of good Christian Americans. And then conclude that that’s why Hillary deserved to lose the election.
Such narratives not only breed contempt and division, they corrode trust in our institutions and keep things stuck. But the right irresponsibly uses them as their go-to tactics, which leads me to believe that they like having things stuck. So “winning” means pushing forward anyway.
okay
I guess I would recast winning as continuing to object, publicize and protest the ways of a small number of elitists that think they know what is best for the rest of the masses. History is full of this. The move towards, what I will call Nationalism, is just the latest where some group uses intimidation and lying and sensationalized tactics to convince the clueless masses.
So my “solution” is to contribute to helping the masses not be clueless …
The framers intended for Congress to be a balance against the Executive. In 654 days all 435 House and 33 Senate seats are up for grabs. Just sayin’…
Time for all you complainers to show up at Saturday’s protest.
Whether I voted for him or not — nobody knows — I wish the country well under his leadership.
I think much of the left of center is not serving anybody, themselves included, very well.
Report from the field:
Academia. Yecchhh! Bleaahh!
So now we can be sure that the people running this country will at least serve themselves very, very well. That’s what I call progress.
Depends on how you look it. I suggest you read Trump’s speech in its entirety. I did, and it did me good, though some of it makes me gulp.
A lot of people would consider us academics to be qmong the people you describe. It behooves us to be aware of and perhaps try to understand where they are coming from. Which may not be where you think.
The only thing working class trump supporters are going to get out of his administration is the satisfaction of evening the score with people they hate. Taxes will be less for the rich. Services and opportunity will be less for them. They will continue to vote republican based on hate as they limp through their lives toward less or no social security and medicare. It will be terrific! The republican dream.
The right’s cynicism and manipulation is really sickening. It will be interesting, if that’s the right word, to see how the whole ACA repeal plays out, now that they are changing their positions hourly depending on what they think the electorate wants to hear.
Yeah, Trump probably thinks that John Wayne is the only pilgrim that counts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O8oLqY2sxo
As a non-citizen I’m actually surprised he went through with it.
What a total cluster-Fbomb
Luckily I think Trump will be impeached or he will resign. He can barely make it down the staircase when he disembarks Air Force One.
yes its a clusterfuck of epic proportions but at least
the Justice system is rapidly responding with injunctions which hopefully serves a reminder that the some checks and balances do exist
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/2-iraqis-file-lawsuit-after-being-detained-in-ny-due-to-travel-ban/
Your first grade teacher wasn’t Paul Harvey. I know this, because you didn’t get the rest of the story…
Religious freedom was part of the equation, yes, but the only reason the Puritans were able to come to this continent was they found a company willing to outfit them for the voyage and provisions to set up a colony in exchange for natural resources to be sent by the Pilgrim colony back to England, such as fish, timber, and furs.
In order to find religious freedom on this continent they had to promise to make someone a buck or two along the way…
We didn’t cover that until 3rd grade.
Ha!