Elsewhere (218)

Janice Fiamengo on academia’s sanctimonious totalitarians:

[Feminist academic] Jo Livingstone laments that “the tenured, particularly men, are exempt from the kind of character scrutiny to which ordinary employees are subjected.” It’s remarkable to find self-described “progressive” people calling for “character scrutiny” for professors. It sounds like something out of Victorian times: “We hope Professor Sandwell is a respectable man, moderate in his habits, prudent, correct in his opinions, and regular in church attendance.” It’s clear that these individuals would love to able to sanction their colleagues for thinking incorrectly about feminism.

Somewhat related. 

Brian Min finds more feminists exhibiting their trademark stoicism and level-headedness: 

Student organisers of the upcoming talk [a critique of feminism and pretentious victimhood] by scholar Christina Hoff Sommers put up roughly 50 flyers promoting the event on four different campus buildings at Columbia University and Barnard College earlier this month. Nearly all were torn down within 24 hours. Since then, the organisers replaced the originals, posting roughly 75 flyers throughout the Columbia and Barnard campuses. That prompted another series of bizarre reactions. Flyers at Barnard College have had Sommers’ face torn or clawed off… In Lerner Hall on Columbia’s campus, two young women lurked and took pictures of student organisers as they posted the flyers… One of the students organising the event was putting up flyers… when a female student came up to her and threw a cup of cereal and pretzels at her feet.

And Thomas Sowell on immigration and discernment: 

Sweden was, for a long time, one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in the world. As of 1940, only about one percent of the Swedish population were immigrants. Even as the proportion of immigrants increased over the years, as late as 1970 90 percent of foreign-born persons in Sweden had been born in other Scandinavian countries or in Western Europe. These immigrants were usually well-educated, and often had higher labour force participation rates and lower unemployment rates than the native Swedes. That all began to change as the growing number of immigrants came increasingly from the Middle East, with Iraqis becoming the largest immigrant group in Sweden.

This changing trend was accompanied by a sharply increased use of the government's “social assistance” programme, from 6 percent in the pre-1976 era to 41 percent in the 1996-1999 period. But, even in this later period, fewer than 7 percent of the immigrants from Scandinavia and Western Europe used “social assistance,” while 44 percent of the immigrants from the Middle East used that welfare state benefit. Immigrants, who were by this time 16 percent of Sweden’s population, had become 51 percent of the long-term unemployed and 57 percent of the people receiving welfare payments. The proportion of foreigners in prison was 5 times their proportion in the population of the country.

Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.

Comments

[Susan J]

Flyers at Barnard College have had Sommers’ face torn or clawed off… In Lerner Hall on Columbia’s campus, two young women lurked and took pictures of student organisers as they posted the flyers… One of the students organising the event was putting up flyers… when a female student came up to her and threw a cup of cereal and pretzels at her feet.

Feminism sounds like an even sillier version of Scientology.

[David]

Feminism sounds like an even sillier version of Scientology.

It’s perhaps worth remembering that Melissa Fabello, the often-mocked managing editor of Everyday Feminism, recently described her immersion in feminism as quasi-religious, a Total Explanation For Everything Awful In The World: “Once I found it and let it into my life, my entire perspective shifted in such a way that suddenly, everything made sense.” And it “made sense” in such a way that Ms Fabello came to see, rather conveniently, that “what had gone wrong” in her life, all of it, and there’s quite a list, “was never my fault.”

And I shouldn’t think that Ms Fabello’s absurdly self-flattering, somewhat cultish experience is terribly unusual.

[fnord]

After decades of sanctimony from Sweden I'm afraid my sympathy levels are severely depleted.

[David]

I’m afraid my sympathy levels are severely depleted.

I don’t think it’s intended to elicit sympathy. It’s more of a cautionary tale.

[Joan]

Flyers at Barnard College have had Sommers’ face torn or clawed off

But David, vandalising other people's stuff is what social justice is all about.

https://twitter.com/ALeaftOnTheWind/status/792758704097624068

[David]

But David, vandalising other people’s stuff is what social justice is all about.

It reminded me of this pious poster-shredding and carefree littering. Apparently, the ladies’ theatrical display of disapproval – and thereby self-elevation – is much more important than whoever is being inconvenienced by it. Whether that’s the person who has to clear up the litter that the ladies left behind as they strutted away self-righteously, or the shop worker who has to spend an afternoon trying to pick stickers off of supposedly offensive Hallowe’en costumes.

The utter disregard for others on whom one imposes – including people who probably earn only a modest living – is quite telling. It reveals a person’s character.

[Theophrastus]

Speaking of cautionary tales...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3888206/He-s-living-like-king-Fury-neglected-family-10-44-000-year-benefits-moved-425-000-four-bedroom-house.html

[WTP]

Not surprised. Such is becoming the new normal. Well, except for the bit about the cereal and pretzels. I mean, who does that?

[David]

I mean, who does that?

Well, quite. Setting aside the deadly menace of badly tossed cereal, what’s striking is this need to react, and react aggressively, to any sign of a non-leftist, or insufficiently leftist, position. It must be exhausting to be permanently in hair-trigger mode, always ready to be outraged, or at least ready to pretend in a suitably theatrical fashion.

I live not far from a campus and when out for a walk I sometimes pass stickers on lampposts and hoardings, stridently proclaiming some leftist idiocy or other – lots of socialist fist-pumping and dodgy Islamic causes. All predictably stupid stuff. But I somehow manage to walk on by and go about my day without feeling compelled to start ripping down posters, or picking at stickers, or hurling Weetabix at people.

[R. Sherman]

Had Olof Palme lived,things would be much better in Sweden. < /sarc >

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Speaking of cautionary tales...

One of the houses the family turned down was a £250,000 terraced three-storey townhouse in Luton...

Out of curiosity, not knowing how the UK laws work, seeing as how they are getting everything for free, why are they allowed to "turn down" a place that is adequate ? Why are there four satellite dishes ?

[Eagle]

when a female student came up to her and threw a cup of cereal and pretzels at her feet

I bet it was an old box of Lucky Charms. With hardened marshmallows.

[Jonathan]

Meanwhile, a lesbian couple love Hillary Clinton so much that they dress their 8 year old son as the 'Lady' herself:

https://twitter.com/DebbersGar/status/792841758526824448

Cute or what?

I'm thinking death by hanging.

[David]

The Great Pronoun War reaches absurdity level 2:

Is the university [of Toronto] seriously claiming, by inference or direct assertion, that because a professor has freely chosen not to speak a set of freshly made-up words that others insist he speak, that others, because of the professor’s intellectual dissent, have really been made targets of “assault, injury, and death threats”? Has the University of Toronto been moved to Iran now, that such things happen? […]

I simply don’t believe them. But if they present their police reports (for surely threats of injury, violence and death have been reported?), and show evidence of increased security and police patrols, I might change my mind. In the meantime, on the wild chance all this is indeed the case, every student should stay away from University of Toronto campus until the carnage stirred up by The Great Pronoun War subsides.

It goes without saying that the dissident professor, Jordan Peterson, isn’t the one indulging in behaviour like this.

[Daniel Ream]

But David, vandalising other people's stuff is what social justice is all about.
https://twitter.com/ALeaftOnTheWind/status/792758704097624068

That's one of ours (Kahnawake is an aboriginal reserve in the province of Quebec). Now, a bit of context: Jessica Deer is likely a "Status Indian" which means she doesn't have to pay taxes (in Canada, all Status Indians are considered Wards of the Crown rather than, you know, functional and independent citizens). That's why she was squawking about the owner not tax-exempting the purchases. Also, Status Indians get free post-secondary tuition, so a millenial having an extra $1500 on hand isn't that unusual. If all this sounds like perhaps being aboriginal in Canada isn't really all that onerous, well, one could be forgiven for thinking that. On the other hand, aboriginal reserves are squalid hellholes of illegal drugs, violence and social dysfunction.

Rather like most US inner cities, now that I think of it. It's almost like they have something in common.

Why are there four satellite dishes ?

This is quite common in Canada - satellite subscription packages are often "free installation and six months at a cut rate", but having a tech come out and remove the dish costs the subscriber money. So if you have multiple tenants in a rental building with high turnover, the technological barnacles proliferate quickly.

[David]

Jessica Deer is likely a “Status Indian” which means she doesn’t have to pay taxes (in Canada, all Status Indians are considered Wards of the Crown rather than, you know, functional and independent citizens).

The left does like its pets.

[Darleen]

From another thread ... NYU boots professor because heresy "incivility"

But Rectenwald says he began getting “dirty looks” in his department and on Wednesday figured out why: A 12-person committee calling itself the Liberal Studies Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group, including two deans, published a letter to the editor in the same paper.

“As long as he airs his views with so little appeal to evidence and civility, we must find him guilty of illogic and incivility in a community that predicates its work in great part on rational thought and the civil exchange of ideas,” they wrote.

“We seek to create a dynamic community that values full participation. Such efforts are not the ‘destruction of academic integrity’ Professor Rectenwald suggests, but rather what make possible our program’s approach to global studies,” they argued. [snip]

The same day that letter was published, Rectenwald was summoned to a meeting with his department dean and an HR representative, he says.

“They claimed they were worried about me and a couple people had expressed concern about my mental health,” Rectenwald told The Post.

[wtp]

“They claimed they were worried about me and a couple people had expressed concern about my mental health,” Rectenwald told The Post.

Yeah, I'm crying for him. He's in academia, at NYU no less, and he's surprised by this? Got something similar to that 20 years ago in diversity training class working in software development. No one gave a fig then, a pox on all your damn houses now.

[David]

No one gave a fig then, a pox on all your damn houses now.

Problem is, people tend to be emboldened by their victories.

[Lisboeta]

Speaking of cautionary tales...

According to the DM article, the couple in question "were born in Cameron".

[David]

“Beach privilege.”

[wtp]

Problem is, people tend to be emboldened by their victories.

Said that 20 years ago. My doctor questioned my sanity. PC is not something to be taken seriously. Just laugh it off. Mr. NYU professor can just laugh it off.

[Rob]

"“They claimed they were worried about me and a couple people had expressed concern about my mental health,” Rectenwald told The Post."

Labelling opponents as mad, classic Communist tactic.

[David]

Meanwhile, in academia’s Clown Quarter, issues of great and pressing import are being probed good and hard:

In turning attention to this understudied and overdetermining space — the black anus — “Black Anality” considers the racial meanings produced in pornographic texts that insistently return to the black female anus as a critical site of pleasure, peril, and curiosity.

Hey, I’m just reading what it says here.

[Darleen]

Re Beach Boys

It is hard to imagine that they helped anyone toward self-determination or achieving their social rights

Holy flippin' crap ... this is what one gets when everything must be viewed through the Leftist Lens of Race/Gender/Class and why the members of the Social Stasi are even more humorless than the oft demeaned Puritans.

I spent the better part of my childhood summers at Zuma Beach in the 1960s -- I "get" the Beach Boys, who captured in song just that happiness of sunny youth in the moment.

Was there sh*t going on in the rest of the world? There is always sh*t going on, next door or over in the next country. Enjoying moments in one's own life is not a sin.

Which is why even a recent songs from them are immensely popular.

Constant, morose naval gazing gets old and just puts a crick in one's neck.

[Hopp Singg]

But I somehow manage to walk on by and go about my day without feeling compelled to start ripping down posters, or picking at stickers, or hurling Weetabix at people.

An SJW Olympics might be fun, inclusively open to all, SJW and deplorables alike. Lots of events like the ones you name, each with as many divisions as there are genders. See who will win the biggest dump on a car competition, the random scream at strangers, and the grand finale before the closing ceremonies, the That's Not Funny lecture, where participants harangue each other in a withering scramble for gold.

[sH2]

This.

https://twitter.com/UsefulIdiotWtch/status/792994318663426048

[PiperPaul]

"An SJW Olympics might be fun"

I immediately thought of you-know-who's Upper Class Twit of the Year competition and then realized that the outcome of that event for the participants would be acceptable.

Is the re-groover fixed yet?

[Jen]

the black anus

⊙_ʘ

[David]

⊙_ʘ

And yet – bafflingly, scandalously - there are still those who can’t take the Clown Quarter seriously.

And in other, entirely unrelated news:

82 percent of articles published in the humanities are not even cited once. Of those articles that are cited, only 20 percent have actually been read. Half of academic papers are never read by anyone other than their authors, peer reviewers, and journal editors.

A mystery, it really is.

[Darleen]

Jennifer C. Nash is Associate Professor of African American Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University where she researches and teaches in the areas of black feminisms

FeminismS? Oh good god, they're reproducing!!!

[Daniel Ream]

issues of great and pressing import

"Jennifer C. Nash [...] [a]long with AAAS PhD alum Emily A. Owens, [...] edited a special issue of Feminist Formations focused on the institutional politics of women’s studies."

It's turtles all the way down.

[David]

It’s turtles all the way down

I think that one warrants a post of its own.

For posterity.

[JJM]

Ha ha! The last hurrah of feminism!

I mean, in an age where we can now declare ourselves to be any gender we want, who needs it anymore?

[TheTooner]

"...I somehow manage to walk on by and go about my day without feeling compelled to start ... hurling Weetabix at people."

Do they not sell Fruit Loops where you live?

[Hedgehog]

For posteriority.

There, fixed it for you.

[fnord]

Evidently, to be considered for an academic post nowadays one must, in addition to a degree in one's speciality, also posess at least a minor in auto-proctology. To qualify for an administrative position one needs post graduate training and have provided a detailed map of the upper colon.

[fnord]

theatrical display of disapproval – and thereby self-elevation

===========
This is the most concise description of SJWness I' e ever seen. I congratulate you sir. Monuments shall be raised in your honor.

[PiperPaul]

fnord, are you referring to rectal-cranial inversion syndrome?

[[+]]

on immigration and discernment

"If you come for the freedoms you add value. If you come for the free stuff you subtract value."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN_FOCF3vIQ

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Getting back to the Cameroonians, I am still seriously trying to figure out how this all works with the councils and whatnot.

Near as I can figure, Luton and Milton Keynes are two separate councils, but each are in different shire counties which have different authorities on top of that, so who or what is it that gets to decide that the Cameroonians can turn down an adequate place in the council in which they already live, and ship them all off to another city that falls under another council.

Granted moving from Luton to Milton Keynes is not exactly moving from New York to Los Angeles, but still, I'd think the tax paying people and council in Milton Keynes would be a bit put out by now picking up the tab for their new residents, or is there some giant central pot of money that gets dribbled to the councils ?

I tried reading the 48 page Bedfordshire housing scheme, but that didn't exactly help as it says if one turns down housing, ones bumped down from what ever need priority band one was in, which doesn't explain how they get a nicer place in another county.

If there is a simple explanation, clue me in, but it almost makes 0bamacare look like a carefully thought out plan.