Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday April 13 2017, @10:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'm-not-touching-this-with-a-ten-foot-pole dept.

The Guardian has a fascinating piece entitled Sexual paranoia on campus – and the professor at the eye of the storm. There is a lot going on in this article/interview and it touches on a lot of different issues in both society and higher-ed in general. Some choice quotes:

But you do end up making strange bedfellows. The people supporting free speech now are the conservatives. It's incomprehensible to me, but it's the so-called liberals on campus, the students who think of themselves as activists, who are becoming increasingly authoritarian. So I'm trying to step carefully. It's not like you want to make certain allies, particularly the men's rights people.

Kipnis's original essay was provoked by an email she received about a year before, informing her that relationships – dating, romantic or sexual – between undergraduates and faculty members at Northwestern were now banned. The same email informed her that relationships between graduates and staff, though not forbidden, were also problematic, and had to be reported to department chairs. "It annoyed me," she says. The language was neutral, but it seemed clear that it was mostly women this code was meant to protect. She thought of all those she knew who are married to former students, or who are the children of such couples, and wondered where this left them. It seemed to her this was part of a process that was transforming the "professoriate" into a sexually suspicious class: "would-be harassers all, sexual predators in waiting".

On a personal note, when I interact with students (which is every day), it's always either with an open office door, or in a public area. So as not to be discriminatory, I do the same for all students, men, women, or others. This sort of culture on campuses does make everyone suspicious of everyone else and it makes it hard to trust others. Students can't trust the instructors because they might "do something", staff can't trust the students because even a false accusation can be career ending, so there's this overall chilling effect that occurs when what should be a collegiate environment turns into an us vs them thing. This is definitely worse in some places than others, but there is an undercurrent of it everywhere. I applaud Laura Kipnis for bringing these issues to the light -- if we're going down this route, it should at least be a conscious community decision rather than bureaucratic policy handed down from University Counsel and risk assessment teams.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @10:29AM (12 children)

    Offensive speech is the speech most in need of protection. Dipshit.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @11:30AM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @11:30AM (#493911)

    Offensive speech is the speech most in need of protection. Dipshit.

    Nope. Speech that offends the powerful needs protection.
    Speech that offends the weak does not, pretty much by definition.
    You only ever stand up for speech that offends the weak.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @01:40PM (3 children)

      All offensive speech is the most important kind to protect because you can always find someone offended by anything. I, for instance, am offended by your willful idiocy.

      By the way, do you know what the consequences are of being offended? Absolutely nothing.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @03:22PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @03:22PM (#494023)

        All offensive speech is the most important kind to protect because you can always find someone offended by anything. I, for instance, am offended by your willful idiocy.

        That's a non-sequitur. I said what matters is offending power, you have no power your offense is of no value.

        By the way, do you know what the consequences are of being offended? Absolutely nothing.

        If that's true, then what is the value of offensive speech? If absolutely nothing comes of it, then its a no-op.
        Says a lot that what you care about most is literally absolutely nothing.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @10:59PM (1 child)

          It's not about value, dumbass, it's about liberty. If you're not free to offend then all anyone has to do to shut you up is feign offense.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:35AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:35AM (#494274)

            Hey finally something of value out of TMBs craw.

    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Friday April 14 2017, @01:57PM (4 children)

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 14 2017, @01:57PM (#493963)

      That's extremely short-sighted. There is always a weaker and a more powerful but the people within those groups change.

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @03:19PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @03:19PM (#494022)

        That's extremely short-sighted. There is always a weaker and a more powerful but the people within those groups change.

        And when that context changes, the speech that needs defending changes too.
        Why is that hard to understand? Its almost like you'd rather not actually think about the content of the speech.
        In which case, why is speech important at all?

        • (Score: 2) by tibman on Friday April 14 2017, @03:24PM (2 children)

          by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 14 2017, @03:24PM (#494025)

          Who decides which speech is the important speech to protect? Let's just protect as much of it as possible. Having to constantly tweak which speech is protected sounds like a potential mess.

          --
          SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @03:34PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @03:34PM (#494031)

            Who decides which speech is the important speech to protect?

            The people protecting it.

            Having to constantly tweak which speech is protected sounds like a potential mess.

            You write like there is an official list of important speech. If you are a human you know that's not true.

            People always make contextual judgments. That's how life works.

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @11:03PM

              Who decides which speech is the important speech to protect?

              The people protecting it.

              What a fucking moron. At best you might get eight years of being able to be as big a dipshit as you like, then the other party would get in and shut you down or throw you in jail. The fucking counter jockeys at McDonalds have more of a clue than your ass.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @05:29PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @05:29PM (#494089)

    Offensive speech is the speech most in need of protection. Dipshit.

    How the hell did this drivel get modded up? Buzzard, are you manipulating mods with sock puppets again?