The Absurd And The Sinister Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

I understand your positionality… but the reality is it has created a toxic climate… an unsafe learning environment for students… It’s like neutrally playing a speech by Hitler.

That feeling when you’re a teaching assistant and in your communications class you play a Jordan Peterson clip about pronouns and freedom of speech, hoping to spur discussion, and you then get reported and hauled in front of faculty and the manager of the university’s Gendered and Sexual Violence Prevention and Support Office for a ritual scolding, during which you’re accused of remaining politically neutral, which is deemed both a “problem” and in itself “threatening,” before being accused of “gender-based violence.”

The teaching assistant in question, Lindsay Shepherd, has, at the time of writing, been allowed to keep her teaching position at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, but must now file copies of her lesson plans in advance for vetting and must allow faculty members to sit in on her sessions as and when they wish. Presumably, to head off any further political neutrality. 

Readers can watch the Peterson clip here and are invited to report back on any “gender-based violence” they incur simply by watching it.

Update, via the comments: 

The recording – which I recommend hearing in full - offers a handy window into the fever-dream world of many Clown Quarter educators, whose incoherence is matched only by a compulsive self-flattery. (As when the professors declare themselves, at some length, the arbiters of scholarly standing and academic rigour, as being “public intellectuals,” while denouncing the notion that ideas might be discussed in a university classroom.) I can’t quite decide if their stated convictions are hallucinatory or simply dishonest, but the departure from reality is remarkable. 

To recap: Entertaining an argument, aired civilly, and testing it in class, now constitutes “targeted violence” and is something to be punished. Satirical posters (“It’s Okay To Be White”) are somehow proof of an all-pervasive “white supremacy,” a threat of “ethnic cleansing,” rather than a comment on the idiocies of leftist identity politics. Peterson’s linking to a public Facebook page used by activists intent on disrupting his speaking engagements is described, bizarrely, as doxxing, and his claim that the left holds worrying power in academia is, it seems, something to be mocked as fanciful - by leftist academics whose own behaviour and leverage illustrates his point. But then, the man is apparently on a par with Hitler.

And then there’s the admission that students must be not be allowed to arrive at their own determination of whether Peterson has a point worth discussing, and instead must be told, emphatically, in advance, that he’s a Very Bad Person, someone either to be hated or ignored. And of course there’s the eye-widening projection of it all, in which basic academic standards of enquiry, and any reference to reality, are deemed to create an “unsafe” and “toxic” environment, unlike the mediocrities peddling this nonsense with institutional authority, an air of bullying, and audible satisfaction.

But whether it’s delusional or merely dishonest, it’s quite jarring to think of such people having any kind of influence over someone’s children.

Update 2:

Incidentally, Jordan Peterson has one or two trans admirers, and there are transgender people who are happy to chat with him about ideas, and language, and about being an anomaly, without resorting to theatrical indignation, fits of victimhood or other passive-aggressive tactics. And in terms of furthering social acceptance, I’d suggest that these people are doing a much better job than the censorious scolds found on campuses. Indeed, one of the implications of the sinister farce at Wilfrid Laurier University is that conversations like this one, in which Dr Peterson talks with a trans woman named Theryn Meyer, and which I recommend, should not be aired in class either. Presumably for fear that students’ misconceptions might be corrected.

Comments

[bilbaoboy]

Proving Peterson right yet again!

[Joan]

I understand your positionality…

Bullshit alert!

[David]

Bullshit alert!

Yes. When someone asserts their self-imagined status with words like positionality, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you’re dealing with a preening inadequate, and that much of what follows will be sly and mendacious. As illustrated in the recording linked above.

More on the story here.

[Rafi]

but the reality is it has created a toxic climate

Lefties project.

[David]

Lefties project.

I can’t offhand think of a statusful, mainstream environment that’s more pathological, and more likely to corrode a person’s sense of realism and probity, than academia’s Clown Quarter.

[Alice]

There are four lights!

[Killer Marmot]

The punishment of Lindsay Shepherd was a political act, pure and simple. She did nothing that remotely approaches professional misconduct.

The good news is that the rug has been pulled back for all to see the dirt beneath. At a minimum, the administration will know that punishing students or faculty for political reasons invites the full glare of public exposure. That might give pause to these academic thought police.

At a maximum, it will induce a full-scale re-dedication to academic freedom and diversity of thought at Wilfrid Laurier.

No, really. Quit laughing, I'm serious.

[David]

Ms Shepherd is interviewed here.

Her Twitter account, via which she explains her experience, can be found here. Note that Ms Shepherd describes herself as fairly left-leaning, albeit not censorious.

[Robert of Ottawa]

There are four lights!

Where?

[Clam]

during which you’re accused of remaining politically neutral, which is deemed both a “problem” and in itself “threatening,” before being accused of “gender-based violence.”

I can hardly believe what I just heard.

[David]

I can hardly believe what I just heard.

“What am I accused of?”
“Something really, really bad and conveniently vague. Does it really matter?”
“Who’s accusing me of… whatever it is I’m being accused of?”
“We won’t tell you.”
“But I was professional and impartial…”
“And we can’t allow that.”

I’m paraphrasing, of course.

[Daniel Ream]

it will induce a full-scale re-dedication to academic freedom and diversity of thought at Wilfrid Laurier.

If it induces a dedication to academic anything at WLU, that would be an improvement.

WLU is not the most politically active campus in Canada - that honour goes to the University of Guelph or perhaps Concordia - but as old-school Canadian universities go, it vies with Carleton and Ryerson (which has been mentioned here before) for being the bottom of the barrel academically.

She claims she's very probably going to leave WLU after this semester. It's the best decision she could make.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Why do they all speak like valley girls ?

Lindsay:...in a university all perspectives are valid...

Soyboy Inquisitor:...that's not necessarily true...

Later as noted above...

Lindsay:...I remained politically neutral...

Soyboy Inquisitor:...that's kind of the problem...

There you have the Clown Quarter in a nutshell.

...It’s like neutrally playing a speech by Hitler...

The phrase used to justify accusing her of "transphobia" by discussing controversy over pronoun usage. Right. Back in the dark ages in high school we were played excerpts of Hitler's speeches and "Triumph of the Will" by a WWII vet history teacher as part of a quite neeutral discussion of how Hitler rose to power. One has to wonder whether these clowns ever think about what they say.

[jabrwok]

One has to wonder whether these clowns ever think about what they say.

They don't think, they "feel". So much easier that way.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Related in the world of "Clown Quarter Things You Can't Make Up" to provide "safe learning spaces" for students...

University College London provides trigger warnings...for archaeology students afraid of bones or discussing warfare.

Meanwhile, in the land of haggis, bible students are warned that the crucifixion might be distressing.

Your fields of study...you chose poorly.

[Col. Milquetoast]

Comparing a debate about pronouns with calls for genocide from a dictator is the most obvious, not at all overly dramatic comparison.

[beau brix]

Obvious to most of us for years, but surely the Stalinist tendencies of these types should be getting recognized and the myth of their good intentions destroyed.

[R. Sherman]

Some questions for the worthies at Wilfrid Laurier University: What exactly is it about the Peterson video--or more precisely his participation in a two-sided debate with the opposing view represented--which creates a "toxic environment?" Is it his opinion? His presence on the video tape? His existence on the planet?

If it is Ms. Shepherd's lack of full-throated denunciation of Peterson which is the problem, who then determines what is the appropriate demonstration of disagreement? One student? Ten? Who determines whether the instructor is sufficiently enthusiastic in his/her denunciation of "wrongthink?"

Does the university plan on advertising the fact that curriculum decisions will henceforth be made by some, as yet to be determined, aggrieved 19 year olds and their emotional states at any given time?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...which creates a "toxic environment?" Is it his opinion? His presence on the video tape? His existence on the planet?

All of the above.

...If it is Ms. Shepherd's lack of full-throated denunciation of Peterson which is the problem...

That too.

[David]

Here’s Nathan Rambukkana, Ms Shepherd’s supervisor, the one who can be heard equating Jordan Peterson with Hitler. The teetering pretension of his biographical blurb says more than I suspect he realises.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

The teetering pretension of his biographical blurb says more than I suspect he realises.

Aside from it reading as if it had been written by the pomo generator, I am not sure he knows what the "thinking outside the tower" in the title, "Complex Singularities; Adventures in Thinking Outside the Tower", really means.

[Matt]

As best I can tell, the notion is that expressing disagreement with (or deliberately exposing someone to disagreement with) something that a student (or at least the right kind of student) considers a core part of their identity is regarded as an assault on their sense of self, and therefore an implicit act of violence that makes said students feel unsafe.

It's like the panel doesn't even understand the logic of their own position well enough to express it.

[David]

And here’s course coordinator Herbert Pimlott, whose political leanings are unlikely to surprise you, and who can also be heard in the recording, as when mocking Peterson’s claim that the left holds worrying power in academia. Presumably, we’re supposed to think that it doesn’t and that the very idea is silly. And yet the farce above. And yet almost everything here tagged ‘academia’.

[David]

I am not sure he knows what the “thinking outside the tower” in the title… really means.

Yes, the mix of vanity and obliviousness is quite funny. And I suppose you have to ask what kind of personalities would audibly enjoy subjecting a young woman to a three-on-one half-hour berating session, with a huge disparity of status and power entirely in their favour, and in which they can assert the most ludicrous things, including several outright lies, with little risk of being challenged.

More here.

[R. Sherman]

...a three-on-one half-hour berating session...

Don't you mean "struggle session?"

[tolkein]

I've read Nathan Rambukkana's bio, as linked.

It doesn't make any sense to me. I'm a guy whose daughters buy the Oxford English Dictionary (the full one, not the Shorter)as a present, knowing I'll read it for pleasure. I like words, long ones especially, but his bio makes no sense at all. That grad student needs to leave that University as soon as possible.

How are the pickled "eggs"?

[Eagle]

I would've told him anything. Anything at all. But more than that - I believed that I could see... five lights.

[Eagle]

Lets be realistic though. Deanna Troika would have told Picard that his rational mind was incorrect, and that his feelings of five lights (not four) was reality.
-
Oh God how that Betazoid tortured us twenty years ago. She was the muse that all SJWs modelled themselves after.

[Splotchy]

We should remind ourselves of what Peterson’s purportedly heinous stance is (given that the Laurier henchpeople liken him to Hitler). And that is that he disagrees with his opponent, Nicholas Matte’s view that: “biological sex” is a “popular misconception”, also Matte’s view that “male and female” are similar misconceptions. And Peterson is fundamentally is opposed to being compelled to use invented words: zhie, zay etc.

What I want to know is: how come Shepherd was expected to castigate Peterson, while ignoring the above utterly unevidenced biological howlers of Matte which would appear to wipe out 65 million years of evolution? I am assuming Laurier have a biology department - and would be curious to know if they are permitted to teach factual biology?

[David]

It’s embarrassing to be associated with universities under these conditions. It’s surreal that this is happening.

Jordan Peterson responds to the story here.

[Farnsworth M. Muldoon]

That grad student needs to leave that University as soon as possible.

I am sure Canada has enough unemployables to contend with already.

[kfg]

I don't understand why anyone would say "positionality."

[David]

I don’t understand why anyone would say “positionality.”

It’s a status-signalling word for the intellectually insecure.

[Adam]

Academic authors are writing progressivism into their textbooks now. If you teach the couse as designed you have to teach these ideas. If you introduce contrary viewpoints you may be found to have deviated from the specific learning objectives, putting your future in jeopardy.

The new cadres of emerging academics may not even notice this as they have been conditioned to progressivism throughout their lives in school.

[R. Sherman]

It’s a status-signalling word for the intellectually insecure.

What they really want is an established SJW liturgy which can be repeated without thinking on a daily basis in order to provide some assurance of "salvation" for the benighted souls in attendance. Absolution to be provided only upon confession and appropriate demonstrations of contrition.

[David]

I am not sure he knows what the “thinking outside the tower” in the title… really means.

The senior staff, Rambukkana and Pimlott, are essentially saying that there should be no discussion as to whether Peterson’s views are correct or not, even his statements of fact, for fear of them gaining traction. Instead, it seems, his views should be instantly and unequivocally condemned because – well, because. And failing that, one simply shouldn’t think about them or acknowledge them in any way.

Because it’s a university and we don’t do that thinking business here.

[Sam Duncan]

“Bullshit alert!”

Hah! Exactly what I was about to say. :)

“Meanwhile, in the land of haggis, bible students are warned that the crucifixion might be distressing.”

My father studied forensic medicine at Glasgow in the 1950s under Prof. Glaister, who literally wrote the book on the subject (although his father was even better known), and considered his lectures a failure if students weren't ill.

And he wasn't wrong. There's a serious point here: if you can't hack the subject matter, you shouldn't be studying it in the first place. Okay, the university has a “duty of care” over its students mental health. By all means put up a warning. But it should read, “This lecture may contain images that some students find disturbing. If that's you, get out and stay out. You are clearly unsuited to the subject.”

“It's like the panel doesn't even understand the logic of their own position well enough to express it.”

I'd be surprised if they'd ever even tried to understand it.

[pst314]

“It's like the panel doesn't even understand the logic of their own position well enough to express it.”

Well, a lot of this Thought Police garbage comes out of Maoism, which is Socialism for Very Stupid People. (All socialism is stupid, but Maoism is especially so. The entirety of Mao's rule was an extended manifestation of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, with an extra helping of psychopathy.)

[WTP]

Lets be realistic though. Deanna Troika would have told Picard that his rational mind was incorrect, and that his feelings of five lights (not four) was reality.
-
Oh God how that Betazoid tortured us twenty years ago. She was the muse that all SJWs modelled themselves after..

Perception is reality. A marriage counselor, a trained psychiatrist with a PhD and everything, told me that very thing nearly 25 years ago. Who is this Deanna Troika? She must have been highly educated.

[pst314]

Oh God how that Betazoid tortured us twenty years ago.

I confess I do not remember anything about that character, except I found her annoying. I'll be grateful if you can remind me of details. But please don't mention Wesley. :-)

[Geezer]

I'm a guy whose daughters buy the Oxford English Dictionary (the full one, not the Shorter) as a present

The twenty-volume set that costs £845.00?

[Spiny Norman]

But please don't mention Wesley. :-)

Just so you know, Wesley continues to inflict himself on the rest of us, via Twitter. 15-odd years ago, Farkers used to think it was awesome that Wil Wheaton posted there (Fark.com), but seriously, he's a grown man now, acting like a "woke" teenager. He's far more annoying than his tv show character ever was. >_<

[R. Sherman]

Re: Deanna Troi

Personally, I found Firefly's Inara Serra character more appealing.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I don't understand why anyone would say "positionality."

The same reason one would say:

hybridity and mixed-race identities [which is rather redundant]

digital intimacies

methodologically within discourse analysis;

MMOs and avatar infidelity

If you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit; a six syllables word that means the same as the one of only three obviously means one is a Deep Thinker™ in the Clown Quarter.

[Eagle]

I found Firefly's Inara Serra character more appealing

The real question is ... Captain Picard, or Captain Reynolds?

We could write Troi off as a spelling\grammatical error ... except she was there for all seven seasons.

[Eagle]

Examples of Troi...

How bout that episode where she saw herself in the mirror, and started screaming?

Star Trek anticipated many of todays technology, including the SJW nemesis.

Youtube for DEANNA TROI IS USELESS, and you'll get the evidence.

[Eagle]

Just to be clear. TNG showed us a future where SJWs were at the highest levels of leadership... and get paid for getting in everyone's way.

[champ]

I think US and Canadian academics realize what a sweet gig they have going, what with students paying $50,000 to $70,000 per year to attend "angry studies" classes. The academics don't want to loose their sweet gig, so they go out of their way to insure that their students are not offended in even the slightest way. Hence, you get things like this...

[pst314]

Wesley continues to inflict himself on the rest of us, via Twitter

Yes. Every now and then I see one of his more asinine tweets reposted elsewhere.
"Throw Wesley out the airlock" was a popular joke back when TNG was on the air.

[pst314]

The real question is ... Captain Picard, or Captain Reynolds?

Reynolds: "If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me, and you'll be armed."
Picard: "If I ever kill you, I'll talk you to death."

[Rick Bonsteel]

"It isn't clear to me how much longer we'll be able to have the discussion we're having right now," says Peterson presciently.

[Monty James]

Lindsay Shepherd, the monster:

This is who the Khmer Canadians decided to go after? She looks like someone's little sister.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

This is who the Khmer Canadians decided to go after?

The good news is that she says she is 70% sure she is going to bail on that miserable excuse of a school after this semester, the better news would be this was a rather unfortunate wake up for her regarding leftists in general.

Meanwhile, in the land of twisted thinking, one db "the nice man" shares with us a tweet:

db "the nice man"‏ @dogboner

Love him or hate him Charles Manson (polarizing figure) was still a human being so let’s keep the jokes about his death to a minimum please.

Yes. Polarizing.

[Spiny Norman]

She looked like an easy victim, Monty, someone they could browbeat into submission. I'd like to think she came away from her 3-1/2 hour Maoist struggle session unbowed, but I doubt it.

[Sporkatus]

There are certain people whose ideas we simply can't have. Because they're bad people. What makes them bad people? Surely their bad ideas, of course. What are those ideas? Oh, we can't be telling you. Surely they're bad. They come from bad people.

Goodness me, when stated like that it almost sounds circular. Even trivially so.

[Spiny Norman]

Farnsworth,

The good news is that she says she is 70% sure she is going to bail on that miserable excuse of a school after this semester, the better news would be this was a rather unfortunate wake up for her regarding leftists in general.

Let us all hope for "better news". For someone in that environment, and on the left, to still have an open mind is encouraging.

[Connor]

Readers can watch the Peterson clip here

Let me get this straight. Peterson isn't worth discussion but we're supposed to take Nicholas Matte ("no such thing as biological sex") seriously?

[David]

Let me get this straight. Peterson isn’t worth discussion but we’re supposed to take Nicholas Matte (“no such thing as biological sex”) seriously?

Apparently, Dr Peterson is the only one saying anything controversial.

In entirely unrelated news, I’m pouring a large glass of red.

[WTP]

In entirely unrelated news, I’m pouring a large glass of red.

You know, I used to have a very strict rule of no drinking before noon. Then Kim Wilson broke my heart in the 7th grade and that was the end of that.

[David]

I used to have a very strict rule of no drinking before noon.

Happily, hereabouts it’s dark and the badger will soon be out.

Which, I hasten to add, is not a euphemism.

[MC]

a lot of this Thought Police garbage comes out of Maoism

At least in the Cultural Revolution academics were dragged out of universities and worked to death in the fields. I find that thought strangely comforting after trying to read Rambukkana's tortuous approximation of English.

[Dr. Toboggan]

...bible students are warned that the crucifixion might be distressing.

Wasn't that rather the point?

[Sporkatus]

"dogboner" was the chosen sobriquet of a particularly nasty troll at Ace's for a couple days some years ago. I think I'm right in suspecting that very few would choose that as a moniker and that it's the same person.

In what I'm sure will shock you, his record leaves doubt in my mind that he'd have called for restraint in postmortem abuse toward anyone on the right whatsoever.

[Eagle]

Picard: "If I ever kill you, I'll talk you to death."

A little harsh on #1, but some valid criticism never hurt anyone.

And curse the creature that cancelled Firefly after 1 season. Every episode was chock full of awesomey dialogue.

[Pogonip]

I listened to the clip. The man seemed to be trying to tell her that Canadian law forbade exposing students to reality--by the end he was virtually screaming "You're going to get us sued, you fool!"--and the woman who sounded like she was talking through a kazoo was just spitting out buzzwords.

I'm glad I don't work there.

[Eagle]

Wash: I'm confused.
Saffron: You're asking yourself: "if I've got the security codes, why don't I go in and grab it for myself?".
Wash: No, actually, I was wondering... WHAT'S SHE DOING ON THE SHIP?! Didn't she try to kill us?!

Love that show.

[bgates]

the crucifixion might be distressing

Imagine how Jesus feels about it, seeing what's become of theology students.

Comparing a debate about pronouns with calls for genocide from a dictator is the most obvious, not at all overly dramatic comparison.

"We find that your activities in class have increased the risk of the return of forces which murdered a dozen million people and started wars which killed several times that many; consequently, you really must submit your lesson plans ahead of time from now on."

[David]

The man seemed to be trying to tell her that Canadian law forbade exposing students to reality

That was pretty much the gist of Peterson’s original, rather prescient complaint, the one that brought him to wider attention (and now something approaching guru status). The fact that the unrealism he warned against involved transgender people was, from his point of view, incidental.

[Pogonip]

Small appliance report from yesterday: I made toast. In a toaster.

[David]

I made toast. In a toaster.

If that doesn’t mean you’ve earned a drink, I don’t know what does. Though I maintain that, unlike toast, crumpets must be done under a grill to achieve optimal crunchiness.

[TimT]

Appropriation! The horror, the horror!

[Sporkatus]

I made toast. In a toaster.

Those who have never experienced the caprice of the thermostat toasting the first piece differently than those following might be inclined to understate the difficulty, the skill of properly crafting a toast breakfast. Leaving alone even the trickiness of judging the setting right for the first go-round.

It's a process what needs skill, it is.

[champ]

When things don't go quite as planned...

https://twitter.com/Brett_A_Taylor/status/932701344082923520

[David]

When things don’t go quite as planned...

And having ruined the shot with comedy-sketch timing, the bus pulls away. With comedy-sketch timing.

[Pogonip]

Now that I'm the Toastmistress, can I have a better table?

[PiperPaul]

If you want to practice your eye-hand
coordination in the mornings, get this one.

[David]

Now that I’m the Toastmistress, can I have a better table?

Oh, I suppose so. But only because you coined the term toastmistress.

[ Henchlesbians move Pogonip’s table to a more fragrant position, then pick up WTP’s table and relocate it by the gents’ toilets. ]

Ssh. Nobody say anything.

[Pogonip]

"Mr. Spock, launch toast!"

[Daniel Ream]

I am assuming Laurier have a biology department

They offer a BA in Biology.

No, I'm no making that up.

And I'll refrain from proferring my usual opinion of Firefly. It seems to provoke...responses.

[WTP]

then pick up WTP’s table and relocate it by the gents’ toilets.

Hey! First the Kim Wilson thing, now this. Life sure ain’t turning out like I was promised. Is it any wonder that I drink?

[tolkein]

The twenty-volume set that costs £845.00?

They didn't pay that - it was a few years ago, for a Big Birthday. The 20 volume set. Because they knew I'd appreciate it.

I used to like reading the big Lewis and Short Latin dictionary at school to see the Sanskrit roots.

I'll get my coat.

[Pogonip]

Who ya gonna call?

Toastbusters!

[R. Sherman]

It would appear, the Lesbians are getting surly. Which begs the question, "That's unusual in what way precisely?"

Thank you. Try the veal.

[Pogonip]

Don't call them Surly.

[Fred the Fourth]

So my Serenity reference from yesterday was too obscure for this crowd?
[ continues sulking over his pint of stout. ]

[pst314]

Yes, Fred, it went right over my head.

[Fred the Fourth]

David, I brought a case of Fruity Oaty Bars for this bunch of heathens.

[WTP]

I bought a case of Fruity Oaty Bars for this bunch of heathens

Well seeing as we’re out of Thunderbird (* glances suspiciously yet surreptitiously at the henchlesbians with a cautiously concealed look of contempt *), with what do you propose we wash them down?

[Fred the Fourth]

WTP: I "brought" the case. I may or may not have "bought" them. Can't be letting folk think I subscribe to bourgie virtues, unless that fits the con. (Bloody hell, did I say that out loud?)
Anyway, I recommend a good porter or stout. It's just possible I know where a few cases what fell off a truck might be found. I could maybe donate them to the house in exchange for a copy of the new key to the upstairs hot-tub...

[Vince N]

She looks like someone's little sister

Mostly, she looks awfully cute ... !

[George]

Which begs the question

Oh dear... Something I've always liked about this place is that David is one of the half dozen or so people on the internet who knows what that means.

[Hal]

Well seeing as we’re out of Thunderbird . . . with what do you propose we wash them down?

Muscadoodle.

Or Everclear.

Anyway, I recommend a good porter or stout.

I hear Bluebeard the pirate has an excellent wine cellar that one can get access to. Just remember that he really does have a wife in every port.

[David]

Let me get this straight. Peterson isn’t worth discussion but we’re supposed to take Nicholas Matte (“no such thing as biological sex”) seriously?

The recording – which I recommend hearing in full - offers a handy window into the fever dream world of many Clown Quarter educators, whose incoherence is matched only by a compulsive self-flattery. (As when the professors declare themselves, at some length, the arbiters of scholarly standing and academic rigour, as being “public intellectuals,” while denouncing the notion that ideas might be discussed in a university classroom.) I can’t quite decide if their stated convictions are hallucinatory or simply dishonest, but the departure from reality is quite remarkable:

Entertaining an argument, aired civilly, and testing it in class, now constitutes “targeted violence” and is something to be punished. Satirical posters (“It’s Okay To Be White”) are somehow proof of an all-pervasive “white supremacy,” a threat of “ethnic cleansing,” rather than a comment on the idiocies of leftist identity politics. Peterson’s linking to a public Facebook page used by activists is described, bizarrely, as doxxing, and his claim that the left holds worrying power in academia is, it seems, something to be mocked as fanciful - by leftist academics whose own behaviour and leverage illustrates his point. But then, the man is apparently on a par with Hitler.

And then there’s the admission that students must be not be allowed to arrive at their own determination of whether Peterson has a point worth discussing, and instead must be told, emphatically, in advance, that he’s a Very Bad Person, someone either to be hated or ignored. And of course there’s the eye-widening projection of it all, in which basic academic standards and any reference to reality are deemed to create an “unsafe” and “toxic” environment, unlike the mediocrities peddling this nonsense with institutional authority, an air of bullying, and audible satisfaction.

But whether it’s delusional or merely dishonest, it’s quite jarring to think of such people having any kind of influence over someone’s children.

[Jacob]

a handy window into the fever dream world of many Clown Quarter educators, whose incoherence is matched only by a compulsive self-flattery. (As when the professors declare themselves, at some length, the arbiters of scholarly standing and academic rigour, as being “public intellectuals,” while denouncing the notion that ideas might be discussed in a university classroom.)… Peterson’s… claim that the left holds worrying power in academia is, it seems, something to be mocked as fanciful - by leftist academics whose own behaviour and leverage illustrates his point.

That.

[David]

That.

Well, it bears repeating that these are the kind of clowns who are being employed and granted status and authority, and who may well have a say in who else gets employed.

[Jonathan]

Lindsay Shepherd, the monster:

Clearly just a disguise. This is the real Lindsay Shepherd:

[Pogonip]

Ladies, gentlemen, and those who are still undecided--I give you the Social Justice Olympics! Ducking microaggressions and hurdling stereotypes!

https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2017/11/17/faculty-member-offers-lessons-shes-learned-about-institutional-racism-essay

[David]

I give you the Social Justice Olympics!

It’s hard to miss just how often Inside Higher Ed reads like Everyday Feminism. Both in terms of politics and an active hostility to anything approaching realism.

[Pogonip]

You reminded me, I forgot to check them for a couple of days. Today's satire (?):

https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/11/practice-vulnerability-online/

Yes! I'll tell the entire Internet, all one billion of them, the most personal details of my life! That'll work out great!

(I really, really hope THIS one is parody.)

[prm]

Grammar school offers non PC discussions to 6th formers:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/20/kent-grammar-school-announces-plans-for-unsafe-space-including-mein-kampf

Twitter loses its shit:

https://mobile.twitter.com/sarah_cundy/status/932610277912215552