SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The latest manifestation of the conservative targetting of academia is the Professor Watchlist, created by the "activist organization" Turning Point USA, founded by rising star Charlie Kirk. It's stated purpose is to "watch" professors "who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom"
Of course, this is not new. David Horowitz has written a book called The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America . HeterodoxAcademy.org has rational articles discussing the liberal slant to modern college campuses. Nicholas Kristoff writes an interesting piece on the same topic. However, with the election of President Trump, the stakes may have been raised. A professor in California has gone incognitio after criticizing Trump in the classroom and receiving death threats.
But more important is how the attempt to blacklist liberal academics has actually backfired. George Yancy [not the George Yancey from the Kristoff piece above] published a response, "I Am a Dangerous Professor" in the New York Times, and since then it seems to have become de rigueur for all academics to get their name on the Professor Watchlist in order to cement their tenure. An entire hashtag on Twitter has taken form: #trollprofwatchlist! People have taken to mocking the list by suggesting candidates such as Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi, and Jesus, not to mention Socrates, who obviously belongs.
Charlie Kirk may not be dangerous, but he did start this list. I am watching him now.
[Editor note - This story was substantially rewritten for balance. As always, the original submission is available at the link below.]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Tuesday December 20 2016, @06:51PM
Do we really need to evaluate ideas that are so far out of line with reality? At some point it becomes a complete waste of time to evaluate things that are so ridiculous.
If the SJWs want to be taken seriously, it would help immensely if they'd actually know what the fuck they're talking about. You can't negotiate with them, nor is there any basis in reality for their positions. These are not people that simply are advocating for an unpopular position, these are bullies that try to cut off other people's free speech so that they don't have to have their world view challenged.
That's not something that deserves the attention necessary to dispute it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @09:32PM
If the SJWs want to be taken seriously, it would help immensely if they'd actually know what the fuck they're talking about.
Et tu, Francii!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @02:02AM
You don't seem to be self-ware enough to realize this, but you just demonstrated the GP's point through your use of circular reasoning about "SJWs." Your declaration that they don't "know what the fuck they are talking about" is literally a dismissal of ideas without analysis or critical argument.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday December 21 2016, @07:02PM
Spoken like somebody who doesn't actually know what an SJW is.
You're neglecting the middle here. I've seen the arguments before over and over and over again, precisely how many times do you think I should debunk the same arguments? Precisely how much of my time should I waste on people that are gish galloping? Perhaps I'm that much smarter than you, but it doesn't really take much thought to see the fallacies in these posts. Most of which are effectively copy pasta of other people's poorly thought out and deluded world view.
We don't live in a rape culture, women do not make less than men for the same work, disagreeing with people is not wrong and I have absolutely no responsibility for other people's feelings. Those are just a few of the things that routinely come up from those sorts of posters. Oh, and cultural appropriation. Somehow that's wrong if white people do it, but when other groups do it they're being forced to do it. Never mind that the dominant culture isn't found anywhere else in the world and everybody else had to learn how it works.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @11:05PM
Shut up, Francis!!