Some Quick Thoughts on Higher Education Silliness
[guest post by JVW]
ITEM ONE:
The University of Michigan has settled a lawsuit from a student they suspended on very questionable sexual assault grounds. Add in recent court losses for the University of California San Diego and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and with a solid chance that Amherst College might lose in a similar suit, and the entire edifice of allowing college administrators to adjudicate complex sexual assault allegations might start crumbling down.
ITEM TWO:
President Obama, whose own administration has done much to enable the grievance-mongering of victimized college students, thinks that today’s college students need to grow a pair (did I just microaggress anyone?):
It’s not just sometimes folks who are mad that colleges are too liberal that have a problem. Sometimes there are folks on college campuses who are liberal, and maybe even agree with me on a bunch of issues, who sometimes aren’t listening to the other side, and that’s a problem too. I’ve heard some college campuses where they don’t want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative or they don’t want to read a book if it has language that is offensive to African-Americans or somehow sends a demeaning signal towards women. I gotta tell you, I don’t agree with that either. I don’t agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view. I think you should be able to — anybody who comes to speak to you and you disagree with, you should have an argument with ‘em. But you shouldn’t silence them by saying, “You can’t come because I’m too sensitive to hear what you have to say.” That’s not the way we learn either.
Now, if only Dear Leader would be bold enough to admit that ideological litmus tests help ensure that certain campus departments are havens for groupthink, maybe we could start making headway in restoring intellectual balance to our universities.
ITEM THREE:
Candidate Bernard Sanders (I’m sick of referring him as “Bernie,” as if he were some guy who checks people in and hands out towels at the front desk of the YMCA) recently spoke at Liberty University where he gave a defense of his socialist economic views and lifestyle liberalism to an audience of mostly Evangelical students at a school founded by Jerry Falwell. Amazingly enough, the Liberty students didn’t whine about the potential for being “triggered” and demand that the invitation to speak be rescinded, nor did they set off a fire alarm to clear the lecture hall or bum rush the stage to disrupt the talk or shout down the speaker until he or she left the stage. Instead, they appear to have respectfully listened to a speaker with whom they may not have agreed.
I mean, what the hell is wrong with these Liberty students?
– JVW
they’re Ding-bats?
😎
redc1c4 (b340a6) — 9/16/2015 @ 12:41 pmxir and ze both know that yes means yes (we learned this at orientation) and if that triggers you then there should be therapy dogs on campus I think
happyfeet (a037ad) — 9/16/2015 @ 12:53 pmi call him “Bernie” because no one with an IQ larger than their hat size should take the (Idiot-Vt.) seriously…
and i doubt he could handle the responsibilities of running the front desk at a Y anyway.
redc1c4 (b340a6) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:00 pmno dogs allowed on campus Feets: they offend our Moose-slime student population…
😉
redc1c4 (b340a6) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:01 pmoh my goodness that was my privilege talking i better check it before i wreck it
happyfeet (a037ad) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:06 pmhttp://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2015/09/02/protest-transgender-teen-bathroom/
If girls are forced to shower with leering guys with a woodie since high school shouldn’t they be beyond being offended by micro-aggressions and the need for safe spaces by college?
Steve57 (a07e69) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:15 pmIn the words of Tom Jones, Better not to have gone to college and know something, than to have gone to college and know nothing.
ropelight (cbaa5b) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:23 pmIn the words of Tom Jones, Better not to have gone to college and know something, than to have gone to college and know nothing.
Also in the words of Tom Jones, “What’s new pussycat? Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-ah! What’s new pussycat? Whoah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ah.”
Did that microaggress anyone?
JVW (887036) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:30 pmFull disclosure: I graduated from UC Santa Barbara and have often recommended it as a beautiful place to go for an excellent undergraduate education. In fact a few years ago Patterico was looking for a suitable college for his daughter and I suggested UCSB, but now I’m not so sure. I’d have serious reservations.
ropelight (cbaa5b) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:33 pmand i doubt he could handle the responsibilities of running the front desk at a Y anyway.
Yeah, what I mean by that quip is that Bernie at the Y would be a laid-back nice guy with whom you would enjoy a nice chat. Bernard the Senator and candidate is no doubt a moralizing hectoring bore.
JVW (887036) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:33 pmTom Jones was the first person to urge me to listen to Rush Limbaugh – I’d never heard of him. And, JVW, if you’re intent on microaggressing anyone, you’re going to have to have another go.
ropelight (cbaa5b) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:38 pmFun fact: Tom Jones used to live in Dean Martin’s old house in Bel Air. That has to be the manliest house ever.
JVW (887036) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:42 pmTom Jones sent his gardener to France to learn viticulture and enology.
ropelight (cbaa5b) — 9/16/2015 @ 1:48 pm“Candidate Bernard Sanders (I’m sick of referring him as “Bernie,” as if he were some guy who checks people in and hands out towels at the front desk of the YMCA)”
– JVW
Yeah! Who does that guy think he is, anyway? Not foolin us, that’s for sure.
Rafael Cruz 2016!
The Sarcastic Leviticus (48a857) — 9/16/2015 @ 2:43 pmI’m a bit chagrined at the prospect of having a President named “Ted.” The best thing Obama ever did was go from being “Barry” to “Barack.” A president Barry would have been bad. And don’t get me started on “Jimmy” Carter.
I long for Presidential first names like Millard and Woodrow.
JVW (887036) — 9/16/2015 @ 2:54 pmDon’t forget Calvin and Rutherford.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 9/16/2015 @ 3:41 pmLower Education Silliness: There was a time when I would have believed that the poor treatment of Ahmed was the product of bigotry. Now the Occam’s razor solution is that it was merely the product of the endemic stupidity that bedevils our schools, our government, and, more generally, our culture.
It is nice to be reminded of exceptions to this rule.
“Ted” is a damned sight better than “Feito,” his childhood nickname.
ThOR (b81f2a) — 9/16/2015 @ 4:52 pmYeah, when that happens I’ll be buying heavy duty umbrellas for cheap and selling them for beaucoup bux.
‘Cause that’s the day that aerial porcine droppings start to really be a serious problem.
IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (3d1b0a) — 9/16/2015 @ 5:26 pmWhy? Excluding Congress, it’s the only job he’s competent to hold…?
IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (3d1b0a) — 9/16/2015 @ 5:28 pmMillard – it’s a nice, woody sort of name. Not like Barry – hideous, tinny thing
Leviticus (48a857) — 9/16/2015 @ 9:21 pmJVW @12, I think I have to go with either Jack Nicholson’s or Kirk Douglas’ house.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/11505950/playboy-mansion-jack-nicholson-secret-tunnels.html
Steve57 (a07e69) — 9/16/2015 @ 10:11 pmI mean, what the hell is wrong with these Liberty students?
They’re mature adults, hardly the type most institutions of higher learning cater to.
Wyowanderer (10a759) — 9/18/2015 @ 6:30 am