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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Australia's conservative government announced plans Friday to double university fees for humanities students, in a bid to push people into more useful, "job-relevant" courses like maths and science.
Under the proposal—which critics panned as an "ideological assault"—the cost of degrees like history or cultural studies will rise up to 113 percent to around US$29,000, while other courses such as nursing and information technology will become cheaper.
Education Minister Dan Tehan—an arts graduate with two advanced degrees in international relations—said the government wanted to corral young people towards "jobs of the future" to boost the country's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
"If you are wanting to do philosophy, which will be great for your critical thinking, also think about doing IT," Tehan said.
The plan would help pay for an additional 39,000 university places by 2023 and for cost cuts for courses like science, agriculture, maths and languages.
[...] "I'm an arts graduate and so is the minister for education so I'm not sure you can draw the conclusion that we're completely unemployable," said opposition lawmaker Tanya Plibersek.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @12:40AM (40 children)
Exactly. This is consistent with the right's attack on education all around the world. The right wants wage slaves to act as cogs in their enterprises. The right fears a population that can think for itself.
E.g., The far right in Texas outlawed teaching of critical thinking in schools:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html [washingtonpost.com]
And, of course the advisor to both Nixon and Reagan, Roger Freeman,:
"We are in danger of producing an educated
proletariat. That's dynamite! We have to be selective about who we
allow to through higher education. If not, we will have a large number
of highly trained and unemployed people."
The far right's solution, is to ensure that the masses are kept ignorant-- even turning university into vocational training. Of course, the wealthy elites leading the right, do not have their own children attend the training style schools that they promote for the masses-- Montessori as children, legacy admissions (regardless of merit) to elite universities when older. It is no accident that in the US, which is further down the path to neo-feudalism than many other nations, that the single determinant most likely to predict future success is how wealthy your parents are.
And, of course the far-right hates the idea of people knowing their history. Better to have ignorant flag wavers who believe everything their masters tell them.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @12:47AM (35 children)
Wrong! [twitter.com]
This is why they're tearing down historical statues is it?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @01:30AM (34 children)
Ah, an ignorant flag waver speaks up. Here is a short history lesson for you, if you can put down the flag for a few seconds.
Those statues were put in place during the nadir of race relations in the South, many decades after the civil war as emblems of white racism in the South.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Confederate_monuments_and_memorials [wikipedia.org]
They do have a historical significance-- They celebrate racism in the South. The country minus a minority of ignorant confederate flag wavers believe that this is not a history worthy of celebrating.
Even if that tweet is real (no guarantee since most tropes circulated by the right are fabrications), one moron does not a movement make. And, it does not counter the assertion that the right has attacked education throughout the world. Try again. This would not be so hard for you, if you had received a proper education.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @01:59AM (8 children)
Which flag are you waving?
Ulysses S. Grant and Miguel de Cervantes were not Confederates. Try again.
It was real [archive.is] and such foolish concepts abound within the social justice movement although I agree they are morons.
[citations needed]
Based on your debating skill here, had I paid for a "proper education" such as yours, I would be demanding a refund.
(Score: 1) by petecox on Monday June 22 2020, @02:17AM (5 children)
Wait, they vandalised a statue of the author of Don Quixote?
Who could be offended by a 17th century pisstake?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @02:23AM (2 children)
One and the same, the author of Don Quixote who was himself a former slave.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 22 2020, @03:11AM (1 child)
[Citation needed]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @03:25AM
Here you are. [bbc.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @02:33AM (1 child)
Cops running around claiming to be "antifa." Remember the Reichstag fire in 1933.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @03:41AM
That isn't what people mean when they tell Antifa to Lubbe up.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @03:48AM
>> the right has attacked education throughout the world.
>[citations needed]
Ummmm.... See the article that you are commenting on?
And, the post earlier in this thread that provides a link to the Texas Republican (far-right) law against teaching critical thinking in Texas public schools.
A proper education could really help you with your reading comprehension.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @09:47PM
Grant participated in the genocide of indigenous people.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @03:52AM (24 children)
Floyd's death happened in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a state so far north, any farther north is Canada.
If racism was involved, it was NORTHERN racism, and the mob should have toppled statues of UNION soldiers.
But... the South is racist and the Confederacy is EVIL, let's march on the South! Stupid fucks, the South had nothing to do with it. This was YANKEE all the way. What happens when the facts don't fit the narrative? ...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @04:30AM (23 children)
They did. The dumb-asses tore down a statue of US Grant, the guy who accepted the surrender of the Confederacy. The "protesters" are, if anything, invincibly ignorant. I'd love to see a bullet in the skulls of every one of these vandals, China style.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @04:46AM (22 children)
That's because the real enemy is much broader than some old Confederate soldiers from over 150 years ago. The real enemy was always the entire white race, particularly males, that ruled before year zero of the present Communist Revolution.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday June 22 2020, @01:02PM (21 children)
No one believes this except a bunch of bed-wetting little manchildren like yourself. What's wrong, are you scared that you'll be treated poorly based on your skin color, sex, gender, or culture for no good reason? Wow, wouldn't THAT suck? Good thing it's NEVER EVER HAPPENED TO ANYONE ELSE BEFORE.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @03:42PM
So you are saying I am correct?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @05:06PM (1 child)
Most aren't listening to what these protesters are saying. The real enemy is capitalism and having to work for positive outcomes. Racism is just a front since many protestors and rioters are middle/upper class white kids. BLM are self admitted marxists and 1/2 their demands relate to that. The street level people don't even know what they're revolting about as evidenced from interviews and tearing down grant/defacing civil war black regiment.
Come on... Police brutality in the UK? Institutional racism... especially there!? People who lived through the real deal would beg to differ. That's why it's the realm of the young; those lacking life experience or world travel. Last 10 years has been full of hints, in songs, media and education. The Bernie people even straight up said if he didn't get the nomination they'd burn this motherfucker down.
It's not even unprecedented. The same exact "revolution" was had in the 60s USA. The Black Liberation Movement is the previous "BLM" and they just changed the acronym but not much else. In their eyes capitalism IS white supremacy and these type of things are taught in the humanities as fact these days. The sad people focused on race and racism are the legit racists and it's blinding them from seeing the forest for the trees.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @10:48PM
Let me give that a citation: https://itsgoingdown.org/questions-in-the-face-of-counterinsurgency/ [itsgoingdown.org]
It should also be noted that Democracy is also on the chopping block:
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @07:02PM (4 children)
We're not going to live with the leaches any longer. We will have our own ethnostate(s). Whites are starting to wake up to the scam of multiculturalism and white genocide. Other races, antiracialists, and race traitors can live together, or separately as they choose, and can develop their own civilizations, such as they will be.
White Genocide Is Real: In Their Own Words: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Es3WG7JKJUGB/ [bitchute.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @07:51PM (1 child)
Eww, true trash here on SN.
Can you deniers admit there is a neo-nazi infestation around here yet?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday June 23 2020, @02:25AM
The "deniers" *are* part of the infestation, they're just too cowardly to admit it. This place has a serious problem with that type...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday June 23 2020, @12:38AM (1 child)
So where is this ethnostate going to be located, exactly? In case you haven't noticed, pretty much all the land is taken up already aside from some very inhospitable places near the antipodes.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 23 2020, @07:22AM
Usually, it is their Own Private Idaho [wikipedia.org], but it usually does not work out the way they thought, much like the Mad Mormons, like Lori Vallow and the Bundy's, found out, especially when the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge resulted in shipments of barrels of lube and all kinds of sex toys, since it was a Dubioius Battle [wikipedia.org]. But really, there is no place for a white supremacist to go anymore, what with the Fall of the Third Reich and the end of Apartheid, and the fact that their parents won't let them move back in.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday June 22 2020, @10:39PM (12 children)
So what you're saying, is that people who had nothing to do with any of this stuff in past centuries, should just suck up the new racist ideology of the regressive left? That fundamental freedoms, the very concept of equality, should just be thrown out the window because a long time ago people unconnected to us did bad shit.
That's fucked up.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday June 23 2020, @12:35AM (11 children)
Uh, no? You have some real problems with reading comprehension. Willful ones.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2020, @02:04AM (1 child)
No, he pretty much nailed exactly what you said.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2020, @07:30AM
NO, he is just a snowflake, too white, too fragile, irresponsible, and not will to admit his people's injustices that have resulted in structural racism. I say, punch him in the face, tax him for reparations, but him on a "washita reservation", send him blankets infected with smallpox, deny him loans for houses in nice neighborhoods, make him ride in the back of the bus, and rape his female relatives with impunity, just so he gets some idea of what it is like, as Azumi suggested. Or, we could just lynch him because of his skin color. That might get the message across.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday June 23 2020, @07:23AM (8 children)
Not really. My great grandparents were peasants in E. Europe who escaped pogroms in the early 1900s to come here. You are clearly suggesting through sarcasm that I should be re-subjected to the discrimination they suffered because other unrelated people did bad things to other unrelated people. NO! I support equality, but you, with your lax dismissive attitude toward it, support human rights violations while you ride around here on your high horse sanctimoniously criticizing those who fear a resurgence of identitarianism, and would struggle against it just like our grandparents did in the Second World War. It baffles me why you want to resurrect such evil.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2020, @07:32AM
COLLABORATOR!!!! COLLABORATOR!!! HANG HIM! BURN HIM!!! White privilege comes at a price, even if you were not the one to create it. And you are Jewish? Passing for white? Oy, vey! the Chutzpah!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday June 23 2020, @01:43PM (6 children)
Uh...what? Please point out the exact things I've said that lead you to that conclusion and the chain of thought that brought you there.
And please note, I am *not* sitting here going "hahaha stupid wypipo, get what's coming to you!" I'm not that petty, and being "wypipo" myself, it would be really damn stupid and self-destructive to wish that. No, I'm hoping the OP stops and thinks "wait a minute, what are MY motives for that little rant?"
Because, Hemocyanin, what I notice most from people like that is a hell of a lot of projection. They assume that $MINORITY are just as awful as they are, will treat them just as badly as they either do treat or wish to treat $MINORITY, and have a complete disconnect between that fear and the realization that if they have a problem with the idea they should be paying it forward. It's whiny, selfish, white-fragility bullshit. And you appear to be falling for the same trap. Please slow your roll and think about this for a moment.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Tuesday June 23 2020, @07:46PM (5 children)
First regarding you comment, it's pretty clear: https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=38111&page=1&cid=1011387#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
Secondly, YOU are injecting race here. I am talking about the authoritarian regressive left. I would see a world with equality for all. You would see a world divided by race. It was this story that crystallized for me why I am so repulsed by the regressive left and mentioned it in another post:
You insult me about white fragility, but what I'm concerned with is freedom and equality for all people. Freedom and equality ARE fragile. They are easily crushed and what comes afterward, is always bloody and horrific. I will stand against the wall for those principles, and you will pull the trigger.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday June 24 2020, @01:40AM (4 children)
And if you want freedom and equality for all people, *you must create the conditions necessary for them to exist.* There is no way around this.
Freedom and equality are not pre-existing Platonic forms floating around in some ethereal realm of ideas, just waiting to be spoken into existence, top-down. Reality does not work this way. They are grassroots, bottom-up, the *end results* of adaptive, humanistic organization of society.
You, Hemocyanin, don't strike me as someone truly interested in making freedom and equality happen. No, it sounds more like you have a victim or martyrdom complex the size of God, and are almost creaming yourself in anticipation of being slain "for the cause." A cause you have such a poor grasp on that you don't even know how to begin bringing it about, a cause you know so little of that you'd rather attack people who could potentially be allies than sit down and examine the fundamental ideas you have about.
You know what I'd do to you, given the chance? *Exactly what I'm doing now.* You have no need to fear a bullet or even a mocking custard pie from me. You have every reason to fear merciless deconstruction, blunt critique, and even mockery if and when deserved. And something tells me that you fear that more than you fear high-velocity lead.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Disagree) by hemocyanin on Wednesday June 24 2020, @08:20PM (1 child)
However you wish to couch things, whatever pretty words you wish to decorate your ideology with, and whatever insults you wish to throw at me, your ideas are not an opposition to racial supremacists' ideas, but consonant with them. They strike me as Orwellian: Equality Through Oppression!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 25 2020, @01:25PM
So you haven't seen my thoughts on affirmative action, for example?
I know, I know, you want SO badly to be able to peg your ideological opponents as cases of Harrison Bergeron syndrome. That's not the truth, certainly not in my case, and you do no one any favors by closing your eyes, pulling your hat down over your head, and whining that everyone else is just as bad as the people they claim to be opposing. Only you, Hemocyanin, are pure and righteous and enlightened! Only you know the truth!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Troll) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 25 2020, @12:46AM (1 child)
hahaha man, i bet you call out your own name during sex.
get some perspective. you are not God's gift to anything.
i mean that in all kindness. i am quite fond of you, but my goodness is your ego hypertrophic these days.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 25 2020, @01:24PM
Projection, Phoenix. I recall our last few conversations. You got the shit kicked out of you, and your main problem is you weren't even able to keep up with said shit-kicking. You don't like your perfection being assailed--after all, you DID work hard to get where you are and put a lot more time into developing yourself than average, so how *dare* someone shit all over that, right?
But you're still badly deficient in several critical areas of development, and worse, you've fallen into a few pernicious meme-plexes, mostly due to your religion, that will make it very, very difficult to progress onward. Ironic, considering how Pride is said to be the worst sin. And now you project and rebound, accusing others of what you yourself are guilty of.
And if you're wondering, I generally call out my girlfriend's name during sex, for what should be obvious reasons.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @03:19PM (2 children)
Did anyone READ the article? The headlines and title say one thing, but the meat of the article encourages the rights have have as American's, wants American's to pay for American's and not illegal foreigners, and ENCOURAGES discussion, free thinking, and merit-based academics.
But no. The far left reports "OMG TEXAS HATES FREE THINKING". No, the complete nut-job propagandists have completely failed to report that any Beef these Texans have is with the CURRENT state of it.
It's like saying "Eh, I don't like the new Mustang. If we go back to the original design principles, I think it'd be much better".
Left-wingers: "OMG THIS GUY HATES MUSTANGS. MUSTANG HATERS FEAR PEOPLE WHO DRIVE MUSTANGS".
From the article, For anyone commenting and didn't do anything but take a left-wingers opinion in the title of the article and failed to use comprehensive reading skills (which according to the generic non-political scientists in the article can't really be taught...):
American Identity Patriotism and Loyalty – We believe the CURRENT TEACHING of a multicultural curriculum is divisive. We favor strengthening our common American identity and loyalty instead of political correctness that nurtures alienation among racial and ethnic groups.
Basic Standards – We favor improving the quality of education for all students, including those with special needs. We support a return to the traditional basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and citizenship with sufficient discipline to ensure learning and quality educational assessment.
Bilingual Education – We encourage non-English speaking students to transition to English within three years.
Career and Technology Education (Vocational Education) – We support reinstatement of voluntary career and technology education, including adjusting the 4x4 requirements as needed, without detracting from non-vocational program requirements.
Classroom Expenditures for Staff – We support having 80% of school district payroll expenses of professional staff of a school district be full-time classroom teachers.
College Tuition – We recommend three levels of college tuition: In-state requiring proof of Texas legal citizenship, out-of-state requiring proof of US citizenship, and nonresident legal alien. Non-US citizens should not be eligible for state or federal grants, or loans.
Controversial Theories – We support objective teaching and equal treatment of all sides of scientific theories. We believe theories such as life origins and environmental change should be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change as new data is produced. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these theories openly and without fear of retribution or discrimination of any kind.
Early Childhood Development – We believe that parents are best suited to train their children in their early development and oppose mandatory pre-school and Kindergarten. We urge Congress to repeal government-sponsored programs that deal with early childhood development.
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
Educational Entitlement – We encourage legislation that prohibits enrollment in free public schools of non-citizens unlawfully present in the United States.
Higher Education – We support merit-based admissions for all college and university applicants to public institutions. We further support the repeal of the 1997 Texas legislative act commonly known as the Top Ten Percent Rule. All Texas students should be given acceptance priority over out-of-state or foreign students.
Funding of Education – We urge the Legislature to direct expenditures to academics as the first priority.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday June 22 2020, @11:04PM (1 child)
We need Creationism as much as we need the new Woke garbage, which is to say, not at all. Unfalsifiable belief is not science nor are feelings facts or lived experiences data. The creationists and the regressive left are the same thing, with different gods, and neither side has anything real to offer humanity.
The regressive left has cherry picked identity politics from NAZIs, blind faith from evangelicals, suppression of speech and thought from authoritarians, and concepts of justice from the mob. They've chosen the most cancerous ideas possible from the worst people in history to create this juggernaut and honestly, I think they're winning. Humanity has a hard century or so ahead.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2020, @07:34AM
Go back to sleep, Hemo. The nurse will be along shortly with your meds.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @09:21PM
And which part of the humanities courses teach "critical thinking"?
Outside of the science, engineering, and medical curriculum's, most of the degrees amount to memorizing facts without questioning those same facts, regurgitating those memorized facts on a test, and obtaining a sheet of paper attesting to your ability to memorize, without questioning, a set of facts you were handed by someone else.
Just exactly what the "business elites" want, workers who will do whatever they are told, without questioning what it is they are asked to do.
Which would be exactly counter to what the business elites want. They want the "no critical thinking occurred in obtaining this degree" certificates, which is about all a humanities degree confers.