Eugene Volokh Pushes Back Against University Of California’s Advisement To Avoid Microaggressions
[guest post by Dana]
Via Instapundit, more warnings about what should and should not be said on UC campuses. They alone know what people really mean when they speak. No free sharing of ideas allowed because hurt feelings:
One of the latest things in universities, including at University of California (where I teach) is condemning “microaggressions,” supposed “brief, subtle verbal or non-verbal exchanges that send denigrating messages to the recipient because of his or her group membership (such as race, gender, age or socio-economic status).” Such microaggressions, the argument goes, can lead to a “hostile learning environment,” which UC — and the federal government — views as legally actionable. This is stuff you could get disciplined or fired for, especially if you aren’t a tenured faculty member.
But of course this concept is now being used to suppress not just, say, personal insults or discrimination in hiring or grading, but also ideas that the UC wants to exclude from university classrooms. . . .
Well, I’m happy to say that I’m just going to keep on microaggressing. I like to think that I’m generally polite, so I won’t express these views rudely. And I try not to inject my own irrelevant opinions into classes I teach, so there are many situations in which I won’t bring up these views simply because it’s not my job to express my views in those contexts. But the document that I quote isn’t about keeping classes on-topic or preventing presonal insults — it’s about suppressing particular viewpoints. And what’s tenure for, if not to resist these attempts to stop the expression of unpopular views?
The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? Then you can start recognizing the microaggressions and the hurtful messages being sent:
[Theme:] Myth of Meritocracy[:] Statements which assert that race or gender does not play a role in life successes, for example in issues like faculty demographics.
[Microaggression Examples:] “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”
“Of course he’ll get tenure, even though he hasn’t published much — he’s Black!”
“Men and women have equal opportunities for achievement.”
“Gender plays no part in who we hire.”
“America is the land of opportunity.”
“Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough.”
“Affirmative action is racist.”
Quickly, here is what this, and so many other similar situations, make me think for the thousandth time: At one time, institutions of higher education provided a place for young people to be intellectually challenged and stimulated by new ideas. They learned to critically think through these challenges while forming their own opinions. Whether or not they agreed with what was presented was not the point. These exercises were encouraged and valued as recognized efforts (and responsibilities!) to stretch and strengthen and produce a more well-rounded young adult who would be able to succeed in a mean and unfair world. This is no longer so. Today’s social engineers are instead attempting to shape the mean world into something that indulges young people’s newly acquired Sensitivities. Sensitivities which convince them that they are the injured party, thus making it the world around them that must become kinder and gentler to accommodate them. There is no longer an expectation to be provided with the necessary tools to help them gain a solid foothold in the unfairness of real life. No longer are these provided because no longer are they wanted. Young people are essentially being taught a particular type weakness and fear which will keep them in a perpetual state of childishness. The blinding arrogance of those in charge does no one any favors. And we will continue to pay a hefty price for their ongoing foolishness.
Anyway, here’s hoping that an army of Volokhs come forth and make their dissent known.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (86e864) — 6/18/2015 @ 7:14 amat this point no matter how cheeky eugene wants to be
he’s just a goddamn enabler
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/18/2015 @ 7:48 amWrap that swaddling cloth just a bit tighter then go forth into the “Real World”. Just don’t bite your thumb off when your sensitivities get overloaded.
SideshowBob (fe4339) — 6/18/2015 @ 7:55 amRecent headline from the AP:
White man sought in killing of 9 people in black church
http://news.yahoo.com/shooting-downtown-charleston-south-carolina-031543897.html#
Do you believe the AP would ever run a headline saying “Black man sought in killing of 9 people in church?”
I didn’t think so.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 6/18/2015 @ 7:59 amWhat can’t go on forever, won’t.
bobathome (f50725) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:06 amit’s inflammatory Mr. daley
Hillary has to figure out quick quick quick as a bunny how to capitalize on this
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:07 amI remember when the First Amendment was sacrosanct with liberals. Now that liberals run the show, it is no longer important.
AZ Bob (34bb80) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:07 amOnly the inferior want equality.
nk (9faaca) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:12 amThere’s a reason why Janet Napolitano was mocked as “Big Sis” when she was responsible for the abomination known as TSA. And now she’s moved her clown act to the University of California, and continues to produce at her usual despicable level.
Comanche Voter (1d5c8b) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:12 amOnly the type of damaged mind which could believe a man can become a woman or a black person become a white person just by sheer strength of will could buy in to any of that rubbish. So I assume academics, the media, the political class and of course, Perry.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:29 amThe University of California isn’t worth the gunpowder needed to blow it sky high, and hasn’t been for some decades. The spread of radical politics through the faculty, combined with a strong disinclination of the part of too many intellectuals to do anything hard, like actual scholarship, has made what might once have been an institution of higher learning into a never-ending Liberal suburban cocktail party. The kind that could be seriously improved by the sudden introduction of a nervous skunk.
C. S. P. Schofield (a196fd) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:49 amgosh it’s a lot like the Vatican Mr. Schofield, how you describe it
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:52 amyes yes this is why I say Mr. eugene is an enabler
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:55 amMicro-agressions are end times kinda BS
JD (876057) — 6/18/2015 @ 9:01 ami made the mistake of enrolling in a post-grad program at a UC campus…
not only was the training utterly useless from an employment POV, but, while i was there, i was called up to the dean’s office one day.
there two stereotypes tried to tell me i had no First Amendment rights as a student, and that i could be punished for things i said in the classroom, should anyone object to them.
i wasn’t quite as impressed with their position as they apparently thought i should be, but frankly, amateurs should not try to play mind games with professionals.
beta males are ill-equipped to intimidate each other, let alone an Alpha. on the upside though, i never heard anything more about the BS “issue”.
redc1c4 (34e91b) — 6/18/2015 @ 9:17 amin remarks about real aggression , the Charleston Church massacre, we have 2 quotes:
Short and to the point. Mr Brooks is NAACP President and CEO
said by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. perhaps a bit too verbose and could do without the polemic at the beginning, but does keep focused to the point of the utter evilness of the person.
seeRpea (0cf003) — 6/18/2015 @ 9:24 amspeaking of real aggression the mayor of charleston says we need to be real aggressive about relieving people of their second amendment rights
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/18/2015 @ 9:32 amSo why do employers value degrees from that university?
Michael Ejercito (d9a893) — 6/18/2015 @ 9:45 amAnd the people whom we will entrust with “relieving people of their second amendment rights” would be the same bunch of people who regularly gun down unarmed black men?
Michael Ejercito (d9a893) — 6/18/2015 @ 9:48 amAt one time, institutions of higher education provided young people a place to be intellectually challenged and stimulated by new ideas.
Dana, what a delightful (and telling) slip of the pen — er, keyboard — that is! I’m assuming you meant that institutions of higher education once provided young people an outlet to be challenged intellectually, but I fear that in modern times they simply are designed to keep students in a mostly pliable intellectually challenged state. Bring on Sex Week, billion dollar athletics, and Tuesday night dollar drafts at the local bars, then it’s back to skipping class and playing video games the next afternoon.
JVW (8278a3) — 6/18/2015 @ 10:04 amJVW, that sort of thing is kinda traditional at UC. Years ago the Systemwide Administration building (2200 University Avenue, Berkeley) had signs directing the disabled to handicapped elevators.
ropelight (be0c4b) — 6/18/2015 @ 10:15 amremember this yutz:
http://twitchy.com/2015/06/18/way-to-fan-the-flames-salon-ties-white-america-to-charlestonshooting-tweeters-condemn-white-privilege/
the lumberjack guy if memory serves
narciso (ee1f88) — 6/18/2015 @ 10:20 amMichael Ejercito ,
There are several reasons;
1) Few, if any, Universities are a great deal better.
2) It has become the accepted norm to require a college degree, even (perhaps especially) when a college degree has nothing to do with the job. It is a way to weed out those too lazy, inept, or stoned to get a degree from the State Run daycare for adults.
3) There was never a time when a Liberal Arts degree qualified you to do anything but study for the next Liberal Arts degree. The problem is that now we have a vast oversupply of Liberal Arts majors, and very few of them are actual scholars. Such scholarship as is actually happening seems to be shifting to the self-taught hobbyists. This won’t be the first time something like this has happened. During the 18th Century the British requirement that one profess Anglicanism to attend University resulted in a large number of the great scientific minds of the era to be completely outside the system. “Dissenters”, like Joseph Priestly.
C. S. P. Schofield (a196fd) — 6/18/2015 @ 10:41 amO/T CSP I am not sure if you returned to the other thread, but I purchased that Mencken book you recommended for 78 cents on Amazon. Thanks again.
Gazzer (be559b) — 6/18/2015 @ 11:05 amthey make big wheels for adults!
i so bad need one
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/18/2015 @ 11:07 amThe term “microaggression” is another example of the collapse of the progressive university. It is one-millionth of a full aggression. This quantification presumes some scientific/objective way of measuring an “aggression”, which in and of itself is dubious since the magnitude of the aggression is left solely to the discretion of “victim” within the university system. One might suspect this terminology is used solely because it lends some gravitas to what otherwise would be a pointless discussion.
But perhaps there is germ of truth in the argument? For the sake of analysis, the smallest aggression I can think of is someone pushing somewhat forcefully on another. Let’s say a force of 5 pounds applied for a tenth of a second on someone else’s chest. That would correspond to a bullying PC-cultist-enforcer thumping soundly on a Global Warming Denier’s chest with his forefinger. If the target of this aggression weighs about 160 pounds (5 slugs in the appropriate units, and surely GWDs are measured in slugs within the university) such a shove would impart a velocity on the target of about one tenth of a foot per second. A micro-shove in such a case would impart a velocity of one ten-millionth of a foot per second, which corresponds to a trip of 116 days to travel one foot. It would be difficult to detect such an aggression objectively.
But it is presumptuous to look at this from the stand point of a person. After all, the victim of the microaggression might be a flea. Answers dot com tells me that a flea weighs .0008 kg, or 55 millionths of a slug. This is pretty close to 100,000 fleas per Global Warming Denier, perhaps after they’ve filled their little bellies with blood. Multiplying one ten-millionth by one hundred thousand, we find that a microaggression would impart a velocity of about one-hundredth of a foot per second on a flea. This might not sound like much, but it is around .25 mm per second, which would move the flea a portion of its body length. No doubt a significant emotional insult to the flea, particularly if it has spent any amount of time on the university grounds, absorbing the culture.
The question yet to be answered is would this hurt a flea?
bobathome (f50725) — 6/18/2015 @ 11:10 amThere was never a time when a Liberal Arts degree qualified you to do anything but study for the next Liberal Arts degree.
C. S. P. Schofield, that’s not entirely fair. Once upon a time a liberal arts degree suggested that you could communicate effectively in English (both written and spoken), you could read and understand a complex argument and perhaps even apply critical thinking to it, and you had knowledge of the history, literature, philosophy, and culture of a particular country. There were once and even still are jobs that could use this sort of solid intellectual grounding. Heck, economics as a discipline is essentially a liberal arts discipline, and there are still a number of universities where the Economics Department is housed in the College of Liberal Arts. So while the modern liberal arts degree with it’s emphasis on feminist economics or queer literature is proving less and less useful in world that demands understanding of math, science, and computing, I would submit to you that it is a degree in the social sciences that is the least valuable of all. That is where most of the Marxist claptrap has taken hold and where ugly grievance mongering has most profoundly affected the curriculum.
JVW (8278a3) — 6/18/2015 @ 11:11 amJVW,
That might be true, but in those days graduating from high school suggested that. My grandfather graduated from a public high school able to read and write three languages (english, latin, and french), grounded in western history from the Roman Republic through the Americam Civil War, and conversant with kathematics through elementary calculus. In those days, a now, a BA basically said you were qualified to study for an MA. Oh, the children of the wealthy went to Harvard, Yale, amd so on. But those places, as now, were day care for youths not urgently needed to run the family fortune, marry an heiress, or fight a war.
Gazzer,
I’m delighted to hear it. I hope you find Mr. Mencken as rich a source of delight as I do.
C. S. P. Schofield (a196fd) — 6/18/2015 @ 11:32 amFrom Narciso’s link at 22, one special snowflake complained
I assume she can’t afford cable, since the only channels not devoting substantial portions of their morning show to this were CNBC and the Weather Channel. Even White Privilege Center aka Fox News carried the news conference.
kishnevi (93670d) — 6/18/2015 @ 11:59 amit bears reminding:
https://patterico.com/2012/12/29/i-stand-with-popehat-on-the-erik-loomis-story/
narciso (ee1f88) — 6/18/2015 @ 12:04 pmTerms like “microaggression” are used to reframe dissent as a provocative, anti-social act. The purpose is to shut down dissent and stigmatize dissenters.
It think the UC policy has two related objectives. First, to weed out any dissent from non-tenured instructors. The second, I imagine, is to revoke tenure from non-conformist professors with tenure – Professor Volokh is precisely the type of instructor that is the ultimate target of this assault. All of this, I believe, is an attempt by administrator apparatchiks to wrest control of the classroom from the teaching staff.
Oddly, I take some satisfaction in this. It was the professoriate, after all, that got the ball rolling down this Orwellian path.
ThOR (b81f2a) — 6/18/2015 @ 12:19 pmi don’t think that’s odd at all mr. ThOR
happyfeet (a037ad) — 6/18/2015 @ 12:41 pmIn those days, a now, a BA basically said you were qualified to study for an MA. Oh, the children of the wealthy went to Harvard, Yale, amd so on. But those places, as now, were day care for youths not urgently needed to run the family fortune, marry an heiress, or fight a war.
It’s undoubtedly true that there are a lot of liberal arts educations these days that are garbage, but it is equally true that there are several schools where a liberal arts education is probably excellent. Think Hillsdale for one, and consider the St. John’s Colleges in Annapolis and Santa Fe which focus on Great Books (they’re learning Shakespeare!). And lest we get too over-enthusiastic about STEM, let’s give P. J. O’Rourke (everyone’s favorite modern Menckenist) a say:
.
JVW (8278a3) — 6/18/2015 @ 1:12 pmnothing here about racist white shooter in south carolina. I wonder why ????????????????????????????????????????????????
antigunner (2592e9) — 6/18/2015 @ 1:13 pmnothing here about racist white shooter in south carolina. I wonder why? [other question marks snipped because they look stupid and illiterate]
Go ahead and start your own blog and put up a post about the SC shootings and we’ll be sure to all toddle over and comment.
JVW (8278a3) — 6/18/2015 @ 1:21 pmWonder no longer my pea brained little obamatron racist. This thread is about University of California nonsense about phony “microagressions”. You do realize you don’t get to choose the subject of every post don’t you? Or are you such a self centered racist you believe we all must yield to your needs, snowflake? ha, ha, ha, …..what a dumbass!!!!!!!
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 6/18/2015 @ 1:23 pmnothing here about racist white shooter in south carolina. I wonder why
He was not a “racist white shooter”. He was a trans-racial African American upset because his fellow African Americans could not see past the color of his skin into his true racial identity. Try to keep up, Perry.
nk (9faaca) — 6/18/2015 @ 1:34 pmBTW, anybody looking for a dog? http://imgur.com/2awHJ6W Safe image
nk (9faaca) — 6/18/2015 @ 1:38 pmJust so you guys know. Perry has a blog, Bridging the Gap. He has not posted on his own blog since December , 2014. Now he could post about some racist white shooter in south Carolina but he chose to troll here instead. Says a lot about his class, no? I guess it also means Patterico and us are much more interesting.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 6/18/2015 @ 1:44 pmThey only value some degrees from that university system.
A. It depends on which UC campus the student attends. A degree from UC Berkeley or UCLA is worth more than a degree from UC Santa Cruz.
B. More importantly it depends on what the degree is in. If it’s a STEM degree then it’s worth something. If it’s a degree in nonsense you wasted your money. Even some of the campuses you might not immediately think of have some good programs. For instance, UC Santa Barbara had (the last time I checked) an excellent Physics program.
Frankly, none of the top tier schools are worth the money.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/05/19/student-turned-down-all-8-ivies-to-go-to-a-state-school-and-we-should-celebrate-it/
These schools just aren’t worth the money. As many of their graduates are finding out.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-07/coding-classes-attract-college-grads-who-want-better-jobs
Employers don’t just value a degree with a particular university’s name on it anymore. And the bolded part is why. These students didn’t learn anything useful. Not least of which is how to work.
They think after four years of sitting in class for a few hours, then “you could just do whatever,” getting inflated grades because non-tenured professors need their students to get higher grades than their students do, and they also need good student reviews to keep their jobs, not to mention the fact they need to “publish or perish” and if happy students with inflated GPAs aren’t bothering them during office hours they’ll have more time to research their papers, employers no longer automatically value these degrees.
And how much did Ms. Feng spend on that worthless degree, thinking as long as it said Dartmouth she could wright her own ticket?
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/18/2015 @ 2:00 pmThe #1 reason for no post about the shooting in S. Carolina yet is…
drumroll please
we learned long ago, even if we don’t always remember
that most of what is going to be said in the first many hours/days is likely to be more false than true
But while we are at it and the obligatory calls for gun control go out, does the NRA or anyone keep a list with documentation of all of the times when a legal gun owner prevented or cut short a crime?
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/18/2015 @ 2:03 pmJust so you guys know. Perry has a blog, Bridging the Gap. He has not posted on his own blog since December , 2014. Now he could post about some racist white shooter in south Carolina but he chose to troll here instead. Says a lot about his class, no? I guess it also means Patterico and us are much more interesting.
Wow, and he’s not even clever enough to put his blog URL in the “Website” field when he enters in his phony name. But I guess that would be confirmation that it is he who is trolling us.
JVW (8278a3) — 6/18/2015 @ 2:23 pmDoc: Look at BearingArms.com, and TheTruthAboutGuns.com…..
askeptic (efcf22) — 6/18/2015 @ 2:26 pmthey regularly post such news items, but no one probably keeps an accurate score except John Lott.
Yes MD in Philly, the phony demigods will circle the wagons for a full frontal assault on American Freedom, well, because! They’ll quote their trite little un American sayings as though they were the inheritors of The gods of the copybook headings. As though it was they who stand for the transcendent values that made this civilization possible. Values like self reliance, loyalty to family and nation, and a belief in something outside and above ourselves that rewards us for restraining our base instincts. Silly things like a compact that makes families possible, and a basic need for personal integrity, honesty and honor. These are the moral values that made it possible to create civilizations, and to maintain them in tact, and without them, civilizations crumble and fall. The shame of America is that we may have reached that last stage. When you witness the hate of a character like Perry. When men and Caucasians tell you to your face they’re women and blacks. When a Pope decides to be a politician rather than a priest.
And after this is accomplished, and the brave New World begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn
The God of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Thanks, Rudyard. Damn, another white writer of English. Ban Him!
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 6/18/2015 @ 2:28 pmThanks, askeptic
through Lott’s site I see where 2 weeks ago someone with a CCP shot and killed a liquor store robber, unfortunately not before the robber had killed two other customers.
Not surprising that didn’t make nation news
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 6/18/2015 @ 3:27 pmAt least they didn’t lower the confederate flag over the south carolina state capital like they did with the american flag.
antigunner (2592e9) — 6/18/2015 @ 3:35 pmThat’s it, a flag over 150 years old made him do it. Case closed.
ropelight (be0c4b) — 6/18/2015 @ 3:52 pmYou just never can tell where you’re going to come up against a Micro-Aggression.
askeptic (efcf22) — 6/18/2015 @ 3:57 pmor a micro pushback
happyfeet (a0f68d) — 6/18/2015 @ 4:01 pmfrom the smartest PotUS we have ever had
it is no wonder our foreign affairs are such an utter mess.
seeRpea (181740) — 6/18/2015 @ 4:55 pmbobathome (f50725) — 6/18/2015 @ 11:10 am
Bravo! I enjoyed that comment! I found the following sentence quite delightful:
“One might suspect this terminology is used solely because it lends some gravitas to what otherwise would be a pointless discussion.”
What a wonderfully phrased thought.
felipe (56556d) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:01 pmSteve @40
Of course we won’t mention the fact that Alabama has a football program worth talking about. Never underestimate the power of a proper football stadium. Especially with cheerleaders, whom a young man with enough musical aptitude to get into the band program once he gets there can expect to meet on a regular basis.
But seriously, this factoid nonplussed me.
(From the Business Insider link given by Hot Air)
kishnevi (93670d) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:05 pmMr. Nelson can put National Merit Scholar on his resume but apparently it means nothing more now. There used to be actual non need based scholarships linked to that. In my case it meant enough to make Emory my choice because at about a $1000 per term it made the cost about equal to U of Florida.
But I suppose saying some people merit scholarships because they are scholars is now microaggression against people who are not.
MD in Philly,
Well said. I’m prepared to believe that a Black church of historical import was the site of a mass shooting by a racist white goon. But at the same time I would not be astonished to discover that, in fact, the shooting took place at an all-night laundromat, the vitems were asian, ans tye shooter was a blue-dyed pict. Tye media’s record on getting this stuff straight is dismal.
C. S. P. Schofield (a196fd) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:12 pmMr. Nelson can put National Merit Scholar on his resume but apparently it means nothing more now. There used to be actual non need based scholarships linked to that. In my case it meant enough to make Emory my choice because at about a $1000 per term it made the cost about equal to U of Florida.
But I suppose saying some people merit scholarships because they are scholars is now microaggression against people who are not.
Even more egregious, isn’t the National Merit Scholarship program based upon a student’s PSAT scores? We all know how those standardized tests are biased towards whites and Asians. I actually think that being a National Merit Scholar might in itself be a racist act, and I unilaterally denounce all of them.
JVW (8278a3) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:29 pmre #52: why would a factoid bother you? i’m confused.
seeRpea (0cf003) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:29 pmPost up re the shooting in a South Carolina church.
Dana (86e864) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:38 pm55….what bothers me is the idea that being a good student is now apparently a meaningless idea.
54. JVW, that is how it worked in my day…actually PSAT and SAT were factored in. Being named a NMS guaranteed nothing; it was up to each school to decide if they would actually offer it, and how much (financial need was usually a factor in the amount). National Achievement Scholars (Mr. Nelson is also that) was an additional program reserved for black students.
The article does not refer to the possibility, but UA may have offered him a merit scholarship even if the Ivies refuse to give them.
Of course if NMS is racist then Mr. Nelson is being racist to his fellow blacks.
I do find it interesting that he did not consider Howard, which used to be comparable to most of the schools mentioned in the article. But maybe it has deteriorated since then.
kishnevi (294553) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:46 pmOh. I just saw this:
What to say but my prayers go out for you. It is only a bleak and lost soul that exploits another person’s horrible tragedy in such a vulgar fashion. And all because you are so utterly desperate to feel alive and be relevant.
Dana (86e864) — 6/18/2015 @ 5:48 pmre #58: actually if one looks one would find that the shooting was mentioned by a few before the jerk post.
re #55: did a committee change the meaning of factoid? i always recall hearing it and using it for something small that was not true but constantly repeated. like “humans only use 10% of the brain”.
seeRpea (0cf003) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:02 pmFrom the Wikipedia article “Factoid”, after giving the definition you know….
Which is the only meaning I knew of before tonight.
kishnevi (294553) — 6/18/2015 @ 8:35 pmre #60: 😀
but seriously, this is why standardized language usage is important in writing. Another example would be that most of the time people can understand when in a talking conversation the word “bad” is meant as a compliment but when reading – not so much.
seeRpea (0cf003) — 6/18/2015 @ 9:23 pmMicroaggressions are so yesterday. Let’s talk about macroaggressions, which consist of:
defending affirmative action
stating or implying that people have some control over their lot in life
accusing others of microaggressions
Of course, the biggest macroaggression is denying that macroaggressions exist.
mh (d8527a) — 6/19/2015 @ 6:55 amSaying 2+2=4 is a microaggression. Pass it on.
Glenn (9cbd15) — 6/19/2015 @ 7:19 amGlenn #63 – Given that theoretical mathematicians can prove that “2+2=5, for a sufficiently high value of 2”, your conventional patriarchal assertion is indeed a microaggression targeted at the integral nature those oft-times socially-challenged individuals …
Alastor (2e7f9f) — 6/19/2015 @ 10:08 amThe UC system is a treasure, and those above trashing it are one reason those running it can act with impunity. If you don’t value it, you obviously won’t support it or defend it. The result will be thousands of kids taught to think in a truly pathetic way: to see the US as a deeply flawed and racist country; to see race the way liberals used to accuse conservatives of seeing communists–everywhere. UCLA is terrific (personal experience) and UCSB’s Bio/Science/Physics departments are serious competitors in the fields. They really are treasures. What ought to bother everyone, is that people who do not treasure the UC, and who see it as a “job” are in charge: they are now dumbing down parts of it, treating the professors and students like Post Office employees. There is no love for the UC in its administration. The non-science departments, where critical race theory etc. runs rampant, are hardest hit. I wish the regents were elected instead of appointed. I can’t see any other way of ending this sweeping PC nonsense.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82) — 6/19/2015 @ 2:12 pmObviously the “Myth of Meritocracy” is a true statement. How else do you account for there being enough idiots at the top of the university food chain that this kind of nonsense could make it past the first reviewer that had to sign off on it?
bud (30d398) — 6/19/2015 @ 5:12 pmI would say that to effectively push back against this thought policing in the classroom, you have to expose the roots of this insanity and its goal.
It is simply repackaged Marxism. It isn’t hard to figure out where this comes from.
The Marxists who came up with this were quite open and wrote extensively about the fact that, when the expected communist revolution didn’t occur after WWI (except in the one place it wasn’t supposed to happen), they studied the problem and concluded that people were too attached to the benefits of capitalism.
Note the Occupy! crowd protesting capitalism on Wall Street. With their Iphones and $5k laptops.
So the anti-capitalist message just couldn’t gain much traction. It only appeals to the children of rich white liberals. Again, look at the Occupy! crowd. So what message would? Attack the west for its culture. Hence the term cultural Marxism.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/
Essentially, all critical theory amounts to is to criticize everything about capitalist cultures.
Hence microaggressions are defined by the left as simply saying anything good about those cultures and the dead (and living) white males who developed it. In other words, the bourgeoisie. But don’t use those other words. The Marxists are quite clear when indoctrinating other Marxists that they need to camouflage the pedigree of their campaign.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/20/2015 @ 1:03 pmContinuing where I left off, it’s amazing that they get away with it. I’ve commented before on the Navy’s “White Privilege” training. In which the instructors are told to teach about “White Privilege” but never use the words “White Privilege.”
This was published in Proceedings magazine (i.e. the “professional journal for Naval officers) in January 2014 concerning training materials developed by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute aka DEOMI:
Again, this is pure leftist political indoctrination. Which is why DEOMI tells instructors that their chapter on “Power and Privilege” is for their training only. But, as the Senior Chief notes, it’s clearly designed shape the instructor’s behavior in the classroom. In other words, while the instructor knows what is really going on, the students are supposed to be left in the dark.
I’ve said it before, but I need to emphasize, this is how cult’s work. The cult leader’s know what they’re doing. But their cult followers aren’t too know they’re being brain washed.
Now that I’ve already identified the roots of critical theory, we can trace it’s development and eventual entry into the classroom.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_ed_school.html
So critical theory was developed by the Marxist academics of the Frankfurt school as they studied how to deconstruct capitalist societies in other then economic terms. And it was put into practice by Marxist professors as critical pedagogy in order to bring “the revolution from the streets to the schools.
Again, these people are so open about what they’re doing it’s amazing that critics like me who read their stuff and expose what they’re doing can be dismissed as nutty conspiracy theorists.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-05-11ss.html
But just as with the Navy’s EO training, the students are supposed to be left in the dark about how they’re being indoctrinated. They’re not supposed to “look at things as if they could be otherwise” on their own, but look at things as their instructors want them to see things. I.E. “from a radical anti-capitalist perspective.” The indoctrination wouldn’t go down so easily if the kids know their not getting an education but propagandized.
As I said in my earlier comment @67, I would say an effective way to push back against this thought policing in the classroom is to expose it. Except that it tactic didn’t work for SSM. Which is just another aspect of this cultural Marxism. First the Marxists had to teach women they’re enslaved by the system in order to created the proletariat that didn’t exist. Some bought it. Then they needed to create their class conscience, but not using those words. Instead they indoctrinated them to see how the culture enslaved them. Marriage enslaved them, and it needed to be destroyed. SSM is one of those steps, but it won’t be the last. Again, I could document all of this. I can document what these people say their going to do with marriage once they get SSM. Render it meaningless.
Like the cultural Marxists and the Marxist educators, the radicals who set out to destroy marriage as “emancipation from slavery” were and are quite vocal and prolific writers. So they developed a technique for people like me who point it out.
They invented the word homophobe, and used it as a cudgel to silence people who know what they’re doing. Anybody who doesn’t want to be called a homophobe will not only refuse to listen to what people like I say or write, they will refuse to what SSM advocates say or write. So SSM advocates can be quite open about the destruction they intend to cause as no one will dare expose them.
So I am pessimistic that exposing the purpose of inventing the word microaggression, to silence people who would expose the Marxist indoctrination in the classroom, will work any better.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/20/2015 @ 2:14 pmJanet Napolitano is a macroaggression
steveg (fed1c9) — 6/20/2015 @ 2:17 pmThis is the kind of thing I was mentioning earlier. If you want to subvert the system, you must hide the truth.
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/22875/
As we know from Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, later confirmed by Grutter v. Bollinger, a quota system would be unconstutional. So if you’re going to engage in an unconstitutional activity, you must hide that fact, deny that you are doing what you are doing, and denounce anyone who would reveal the truth.
Which is why the linked post at The College Fix is relevant. As Eugene Volokh notes:
The particular viewpoint they are suppressing is pro-Western, pro-Capitalism, pro-American. Essentially the viewpoint they are suppressing is that which conforms with the principles of this nation’s founding.
Which would undermine their program of Marxist indoctrination. Only leftist politics are allowed in the classroom.
But outlawing speech based upon content, i.e. its political viewpoint, would be unconstitutional. So they have to deny that’s why they’re doing it.
So they invented the word microaggression.
By group membership they mean their class. They list examples, but you could replace all with the word proletariat. And after having been indoctrinated into their proper class consciousness, from the perspective of their Marxist indoctrinators, these newly minted proles must not be exposed to any speech that would threaten to undo all those years of effort.
Again, we’re talking about a cult. Cult leaders know that they have to limit sources of information they allow their cult members to avail themselves of. They could end up being deprogrammed.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/20/2015 @ 5:02 pmon castrO’S plantation, they called it the ‘little tail’ it was a tag on counterrevolutionary literature like the Diaro de La Marina, that said, you don’t need to read that, and if you do there’s something wrong with you,
narciso (ee1f88) — 6/20/2015 @ 5:11 pmHeh! When the Revolution was conducting the Purges between 1918 and 1925, the question the Cheka asked was not “Are you a Communist?”. It was “What work do you do?” “Intellectuals” did not fare well; doctors, engineers and scientists mostly did.
These people are not Marxists. They’re not even fellow travelers. They’re useful idiots of the Western liberal plutocracy promoting the illusion of social justice while the capitalists drink the blood of the proletariat.
natasha kalashnikova (dbc370) — 6/20/2015 @ 5:24 pmyet that also happened in the Cultural Revolution, the UMAP and the reign of the Khmer Rouge,
narciso (ee1f88) — 6/20/2015 @ 5:31 pmThe Marxist denunciation can mean different things in different contexts. It generally involves threatening your livelihood, as we’ve seen in the case Brendan Eich and the gay hoteliers who hosted Ted Cruz. In the Navy it will involve officers getting torpedoed with low E.O. grades on their fitreps or senior enlisted on their evals if they don’t parrot the cultural Marxist claptrap in the DEOMI training manuals. Which will be career enders.
Universities can act more quickly, as Prof. Volokh observes when he notes the threat to non-tenured professers. The university can fire them and say they were creating a “hostile learning environment.”
But of course universities don’t just employ professors. No dissenters can be allowed to remain in any capacity. And of course the university can lie about why they’re firing them.
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/22908/
Coach Mock astutely observes:
When you can’t win a debate, you need to make sure there are none. To answer the coach’s final question, Marxist educators such as Bill Ayers, Maxine Greene, and Paulo Freire have laid out in detail where it ends. If they have their way.
Of course anyone who points out the mountains of evidence will be “denounced.” After they make a few examples very few will have the courage to keep pointing out what is happening right in front of their eyes.
Which is why I’m pessimistic. The exact same obfuscate, deny, and denounce strategy worked to promote SSM. And the goal of those who invented the idea, destroying marriage entirely, is equally well documented. Which isn’t to hijack this thread and turn it into a gay marriage thread. The point of bringing SSM into this is that it was (is?) one battle in the long Marxist war to destroy every Western institution that they can. Our schools are also western institutions, as the cultural Marxists readily admit, and they too must be destroyed.
Or fundamentally transformed, as our cultural Marxist president has put it.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/20/2015 @ 5:45 pmPrecisely, natasha. Deny, deny, deny!
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/20/2015 @ 5:48 pm