Patterico's Pontifications

3/29/2017

It Is Nearly Impossible For The Self-Important To Not Reveal The Fool That Dwells Within

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:05 pm



[guest post by Dana]

They simply cannot resist the urge to try and be relevant. Embarrassingly, this kind of inevitable showmanship becomes just another effort to sate the voracious appetite of one’s own vanity:

Untitled

From the bio of Drexel University Assistant Professor George Ciccariello-Maher, PhD:

…an expert and frequent media commentator on social movements, particularly in Latin America. His most recent book, We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution (Duke University Press, 2013), examines social movements and revolutionary groups active before and during the era of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Ciccariello-Maher also teaches, researches and writes about race, racism, prisons and policing in the U.S. and internationally, including how race is associated with suspicion and guilt. He has been a media commentator for such outlets as The New York Times, Al Jazeera, CNN Español, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and the Christian Science Monitor, and his opinion pieces have run in the New York Times’ “Room for Debate,” The Nation, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Fox News Latino. He previously taught political theory at U.C. Berkeley, San Quentin State Prison and the Venezuelan School of Planning in Caracas.

Perhaps you might remember Ciccariello-Maher as the “white genocide” tweeter last Christmas Eve. This when he tweeted, “All I want for Christmas is White Genocide”. Drexell University gave him a little slap on the wrist as a result.

Anyway, Ciccariello-Maher seems like the type who would be happy to know he has made waves with his latest display of ignorance insightfulness. Happy about that, and no doubt smug and happy that he receives a cushy salary without ever having to hike up a hill carrying 60 lbs. or more on his back.

As the parent of a soldier who is readying for a second deployment, you might think I would be offended by Ciccariello-Maher’s tweet. But I’m not. He is nothing to me. Just another big mouth on the internet who has proven that he is not worth my time or energy to get to know. These cats are a dime a dozen. But one purpose Ciccariello-Maher’s existence does serve, is to remind people like me that doing something honorable and something of real importance is not for the faint of heart, nor for the self-consumed, and certainly not for those brave enough to mouth off on Twitter but too afraid to speak in a mature and direct manner to a soldier when the opportunity presents itself. I suspect it may have been a teachable moment for the professor.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

59 Responses to “It Is Nearly Impossible For The Self-Important To Not Reveal The Fool That Dwells Within”

  1. How funny, a professor uninterested in learning.

    Dana (023079)

  2. Greetings:

    Okay, so here goes:

    When you mix them Eye-ties with them Oy-rish maritally, results are at best mixed.

    But the hyphenation shows clearly that this guy was going down no matter what.

    Bit be that as it may, he’d be welcome to sit next to my right elbow anytime.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  3. He may be nothing to you, but he still a douchebag

    Scott (4967b1)

  4. Yeah, as soon as I saw the twit’s name, I went “Oh, it’s that guy’.

    Don’t be “that guy”, folks!

    nk (dbc370)

  5. He’s ‘nothing to you’ yet you devote an entire posting to him.

    As Ivanka Trump has taught us again tonight, no means yes.

    “Never mind what I told you. I’m telling you!” – Captain Morton [James Cagney] ‘Mister Roberts’ 1955

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  6. Post distracting you from finishing Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, DCSCA?

    nk (dbc370)

  7. 11B40. Yes, John Travolta, Joe Montana and Kellyanne Conway bear that theorem out. But I thought “Maher” could also be a Joo.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  8. He’s half Jewish, as he pointed out in his early standup.

    narciso (d1f714)

  9. @ DCSCA,

    He’s ‘nothing to you’ yet you devote an entire posting to him.

    As Ivanka Trump has taught us again tonight, no means yes.

    He does mean nothing to me, DCSCA, but as stated in the post, he nonetheless, and most unintentionally, provided a valuable reminder.

    Dana (023079)

  10. Why doesn’t he live in Venezuela.

    AZ Bob (f7a491)

  11. That soldier probably (though we shouldn’t just assume) didn’t vote for Obama, and he was dispatched there on the orders of Obama. He went faithfully because we have a citizen run military, and he serves the people at great impact to his family and at risk to his life.

    Our academics, at least around me, tend to appreciate it. They understand that without this kind of military, devoted to our constitution rather than any ideology or man, we are free. For example, this professor is free to bash the military. That’s not the natural state of the world. We take it for granted at great peril, and for an educator he sure does seem ignorant.

    For the past several years it seems to pressure to brainwash everyone into dogmatic politics is cranked to 11. We all need to do our part to avoid this ourselves and to recognize it when we see it.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  12. He’s a wannabe ward Churchill, why one want to be one?

    narciso (d1f714)

  13. He’ll soon be made obsolete through the miracle of distance learning.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  14. “Why doesn’t he live in Venezuela.”

    AZ Bob (f7a491) — 3/29/2017 @ 7:24 pm

    That ain’t livin’, AZBob.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  15. At this point, he’d either be eaten alive, or used for toilet paper.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  16. He being the professor.

    Nothing can make soldiers obsolete.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  17. Now I’m mad I slept on Designated Survivor (until a flip-channel viewing tonight) and Italia Ricci…right in Steve57’s wheelhouse in terms of look.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  18. And 886 ‘likes’? Scary.

    Steven Eldred (afaa0f)

  19. Dana, I agree with your views.

    It’s entirely consistent for you to write this post while simultaneously asserting that Ciccariello-Mahe “is nothing to [you].” The point of the post isn’t, as a shallow reader might think, that you don’t like Ciccariello-Mahe. Rather — as I thought your headline made quite obvious — you’re drawing a broader observation about a type of hateful person. Individually and collectively they’re unworthy of any further respect or regard. By pointing that out, you certainly haven’t contradicted yourself.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  20. He’s taught at Berzerkley, San Quentin and Chavez’s Caracas? It’s a shame that’s the actual order.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  21. I bet he was upset that no one in the history of time has given up a first class seat to a noted SJW like himself. Not that he believes in first class.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  22. Here’s something to think about: this crapweasel is an assistant professor, meaning he is not yet tenured. His department page appears to have been taken down, so I can’t look up his curriculum vitae. But having known a faculty member at Drexel, I am going to guess that Ciccariello-Maher is not going to receive tenure and knows it (Drexel has been prudently reducing the number of professors who are granted lifetime appointments), so because his days at Drexel are numbered he is positioning himself as a hero of the far left in the hopes that he lands something at either a nutso school like Bennington or UC Santa Cruz, or maybe for some George Soros-funded think tank. Oh — also, he is deeply disturbed, but that probably goes without saying.

    And regarding his compensation, according to the link Dana provided an assistant professors at Drexel average salary is $94k for 9 months ($125k per year). But Drexel has a fairly large program in engineering, science, and business which probably inflates the numbers significantly, since educators in those disciplines tend to command higher compensation than their colleagues in humanities and social sciences. I would guess that an assistant professor of history falls closer to the $75k range, which isn’t exactly a fortune in an expensive East Coast city like Philadelphia.

    JVW (5de783)

  23. Well now this gets interesting. I just saw Ciccariello-Maher’s personal website which describes him as an Associate Professor at Drexel, whereas the Drexel website describes him as just an Assistant Professor. Being an Associate Professor would imply that he has received tenure. I would think that the school website would have the correct info, but who knows.

    If Ciccariello-Maher is misrepresenting his faculty position on his personal website, I wonder what his employer would think of that.

    JVW (5de783)

  24. Jack: Early finish below?
    Al: We’d a meetin’. I ought to have asked you too.
    Jack: What topic commended my presence? Reprobates? The elderly?
    Al: [edit]ing Hearst—that took an axe to my left middle digit, sends for 25 more thugs to take the tool to the whole [edit]ing camp. Why am I [edit]ing optimistic?
    Jack: Did your meeting find a strategy in counterpoise?
    Al: We heard the [edit]ing reading of a letter.
    Jack: Ahh.
    Al: Writ by Bullock, to a miner’s family after Hearst had had him murdered.

    Jack: Exhorting they charge Hearst with the crime?
    Al: Never once mentioning Hearst. Expressing sympathy to the family, respect for the way the man lived. We decided Merrick would publish in the paper.

    Jack: Strategy some may call ingenuous, others merely off the point.
    Al: I sit mystified I was moved to endorse it.

    Jack: Mystified, Al, at proclaiming a law beyond law to a man who’s beyond law himself? It’s publication invoking a decency whose scrutiny applies to him as to all his fellows. I call that strategy cunningly sophisticated, befitting and becoming the man who sits before me.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  25. Did you mean that for the reservations thread, tiger.

    narciso (636179)

  26. JVW,

    That’s an interesting discrepancy you found regarding his position. Given that Drexel just gave him a slap on the wrist for his white genocide tweet, would they really consider this a big deal? I don’t think so.

    Dana (023079)

  27. Noting the younger Hearst, the zymbionese liberation army she joined, was directed by an ex con Donald defreeze ‘cinque’ whose fans like Donald freed blamed the via in creating him, this ended up in a book by ward Churchill on coinyelpro

    narciso (636179)

  28. Can we beat our professors into plowshares?

    Pinandpuller (95db40)

  29. I would love to violently recline my seat back two inches into his personal space.

    Pinandpuller (95db40)

  30. narciso @ 25. No. This is the right thread.

    All those credits Ciccariello-Maher lists in his bio, those are the people that need their nose rubbed in his twitter feed.

    Dana does herself credit connecting the two.

    On the side topic; A college holding itself to it’s own standards is a forlorn hope.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  31. I thought because deadwood is set in the black hills,and
    George hearst senior is cast as balzacian villain

    narciso (d1f714)

  32. I don’t know what balzacian means. My general point was it’s a good thing to shame the shameless, even if it seems like it might have little effect.

    And well done Dana.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  33. Balzac if I re all correctly said “behind every fortune lies a crime’ in most spaghetti westerns the lawman was not the hero, definitely nit with lee van kleef. Semanticleo ska fmrly Dana ward of pitzer, was innthe same mold.

    narciso (d1f714)

  34. As usual narciso, your explanation leaves me more befuddled.

    I hope mine came through better. lol

    papertiger (c8116c)

  35. Today I was discharged from jury duty for the remainder year.
    Although it was my goal, I still feel the sting of rejection.

    It’s that strange?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  36. He was a troll that haunted this place, back in the aughts, he was a political studies and anarchy professors.

    narciso (d1f714)

  37. That helped narciso. Thanks.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  38. @9. The wisest reminder: forget’em.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  39. @32. ‘Balzacian’ is a ‘yuge,’ empty method of persuasion Mister Trump pretends to swing.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  40. As an American, I praise the fact that he can say such things.
    As a retired Soldier, I’d like to put a ruck on his back, give him an M4 and make him the point man of a door to door clearing action.

    TES (5a62f0)

  41. Thomas Sowell was right.

    Everyone has some purpose. Even it it’s just to serve as a bad example.

    Clearly this Asshat proves the theory correct.

    Steve_in_SoCal (58e1f9)

  42. 38… shorter DCSCA: “this is a spot-on example of one the human hemorrhoids you are looking for”…

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  43. …As the parent of a soldier who is readying for a second deployment, you might think I would be offended by Ciccariello-Maher’s tweet. But I’m not. He is nothing to me. Just another big mouth on the internet who has proven that he is not worth my time or energy to get to know.

    As a parent of a soldier it may interst you that this April will be the 75th anniversary of the Doolittle raid on Tokyo.

    http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Upcoming/DoolittleTokyoRaid75thAnniversary.aspx

    Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary when men and aircraft of the 17th Bombardment Group landed at NAS Alameda to be craned aboard the Hornet. I can barely imagine what it must have been like when Halsey in Enterprise joined with Hornet on 13 April 1942 and announced “This force is bound for Tokyo.”

    I’ve never met a Ranger who fought at Pont du Hoc who wouldn’t buy a drink for a Sailor who served in the Satterlee.

    http://olive-drab.com/od_history_ww2_stories_1944rangerspointeduhoc.php

    …The Rangers never broke, continuing to climb amidst the fire as Ranger BAR men picked off any exposed Germans. The destroyer USS Satterlee (DD-626) observed the Rangers’ precarious position, closed to 1500 yards and took the cliff top under direct fire from all guns, a considerable assist at a crucial time.

    The skipper of the Satterlee said, if it as going to take him running his ship aground to support the Rangers that was what he was going to do.

    Give your Soldier my heartfelt best wishes.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  44. Dear Dana: I tip my hat to honor your son’s service, and your own role in that.

    I would tell you that this is a great post, but you know that: very heartfelt, fair, and accurate.

    Still, as you know, and I think everyone should remember (troll or not): not every academic is like this nutcase. I cannot tell how many academics are actually quite moderate, and held hostage to the Culture War of the Clerisy now running our diseased social structure.

    Like Glenn Reynold’s said: to the Clerisy, it’s all “Because shut up.”

    Again, honor to your son’s service.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  45. What’s that professor tslking about? Maybe some people think that because he’s aprofessor it must make sense?

    Is it letting Mosul be captured by ISIS in June, 2014?

    That soldier didn’t lose Mosul to ISIS, nor did any other American soldier. Mosul was lost by the Iraqi Army, which collapsed and was abandoned by its commanders, many of whom were corrupt…

    You could blame Obama for

    1) Pulling almost all American troops out of Iraq.

    2) Watching Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki destroy the value of the Iraqi Army and not calling him to task (U.S. aid was leverage.)

    3) And relying on bad intelligence that did not predict ISIS would make this attack.

    Maybe 4) Doing nothing until Erbil and Baghdad were threatened.

    Or is this professor accusing the United States of getting people killed?

    Sammy Finkelman (8a31dc)

  46. The lumberjack guy at the nutrootz blog named after a zevon song is another one.

    narciso (e490f4)

  47. Simon Jester, if it means anything, I know not all academics are like this.

    And also, if it means anything, I am proud of my service. This shows up in what I consider justifiale intramural competition. While I may at times come across as full of myself, I’d run, not walk, across h3ll’s creation if an Airman or Soldier needed me.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  48. And I would honor your own service, Steve.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  49. Simon, I appreciate the thought. But it as truly my pleasure to serve this great country.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  50. Some of the keys on my keyboard aren’t orking like they should.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  51. Autocorrect conjured on mt doom, I doubt we’ll get to Luna federation before 2076 simon.

    narciso (a5f523)

  52. While I am undignifiedly bragging about the greatest Navy that ever sailed, it’s important to note that the US Naval Institute Press is offering fifty percent off on all intelligence and espionage titles through April 7.

    Just thought I’d toss that out.

    https://www.usni.org/store/books/espionage-intelligence?sort=title

    At these prices the membership pays for itself.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  53. “Why don’t you relax and eat your in-flight meal, Professor Ciccariello? I recommend the fish.”

    *cue theme music from “Airplane”*

    M. Scott Eiland (1edade)

  54. Drexel is an expensive private school favored by rich kids. It’s nice to know that the school provides an assistant professor who demonstrates what a silly putz is. OTOH the school does not hang a placard around the guy’s neck with a message “don’t be like this jerk”.

    Skeptical Voter (1d5c8b)

  55. As a drafted veteran, and the father of a SFODA Senior Weapons NCO with multiple Iraq & A-stan tours, I would truly love to see the draft reinstated, for both (all?) sexes. The sight of Snowflakes melting in basic training in August at Ft. Polk, Ft. Stewart, Ft. Jackson, etc. would warm my old bitter clinging heart. It would probably be the first taste of reality many of them ever had.

    twolaneflash (b8b0ec)

  56. Bow that crazes psychology prof, from orange county college, guess what’s happened with her

    narciso (d1f714)

  57. Man this Ciccalini-Maher is currently beclowning his own damn self on Tucker Carlson’s show

    Colonel Haiku (fb7ea4)

  58. I almost cared enough about this guy to cut and paste his name into a search engine.

    But then I decided I just don’t care that much.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)


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