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

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Ducking microaggressions and hurdling stereotypes!

Great googly moogly, that is a dog's breakfast of an article.

I raced toward my Ph.D. in search of social protection, professional stability and financial freedom.

Upon joining the professoriate, I thought I was joining a group of people committed to a similar end goal.

IOW, Miss Prof wants to be given a paycheck for hiding in a hive so as not to have to deal with the real world, though she is spot on about the goal of today's "academics".

I have found few liberal “havens” in academic spaces...

Either she hasn't looked, or thinks anyone not left of Mao is Alt-Right. As we have seen with the Case of the Communist Lieutenant, they infest even the service academies.

Most of us will be denied tenure...

Bull, in today's environment that would be an instant civil rights suit.

The job of a professor is physical work.

Yeah, no. Roofing is, masonry is, the 12 mile road march in 3 hours in full kit is, the list is nigh endless. "A short critical comment in faculty meeting requires brute force to momentarily pause my shaking hands as I stand to address fellow faculty." - that isn't on the list.

I expected to feel at home, but instead of like-minded peers I found antagonists. Instead of solidarity, I found cynicism. I endure affirmative action jokes from white colleagues and passive digs at my inability to “look like a professor.”

I am beginning to sense from Miss Prof's litany of whining that there might be a chance, not that she should admit it, that she is an insufferable ass and is actually the problem.

I know - crazy talk.

[Pst314]

I bought a case of Fruity Oaty Bars

(Steps back a pace) They're not going to trigger any violent episodes are they?

[Jon Powers]

My Alma Mater gets a mention on the David Thompson blog for the second time in a year! Hurray! As I mentioned during the last episode, I graduated in 1997 - back then can you believe that they actually allowed pro-life demonstrations on campus? Once a year, demonstrators would quietly display poster sized pictures of aborted fetuses. We all survived. Much has changed.

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/christine-schuknecht-at-wilfrid-laurier-university-do-as-the-campus-thought-police-dictate-or-else

[Geezer]

Begging the question.

[David]

My Alma Mater gets a mention on the David Thompson blog for the second time in a year! Hurray!

I’m spreading the joy.

[David]

Much has changed.

One more time. Lefties project.

[David]

one of the half dozen or so people on the internet who knows what that means.

I’m pretty sure there’s more than half a dozen of us, though we do seem to be outnumbered.

My own bugbear is when people use ‘nemesis’ to mean ‘enemy’ or ‘arch-enemy’ – which robs the word of its more precise and poetic meaning. I.e., the agent or means of a deserved downfall or comeuppance - the thing that follows hubris. Often with an implication that the downfall was inevitable, inescapable, caused by one’s own actions or vanity, or some detail overlooked. The now more common usage as a synonym for ‘arch-enemy’ is typically arse-backwards. For instance, you hear Voldemort being described as Harry Potter’s nemesis, or Blofeld described as Bond’s nemesis, when it makes much more sense the other way around. The hero, presumably, is the agent of retribution, the bringer of justice and comeuppance. Though nemesis needn’t be a person at all. It could be, say, humble bacteria, as in The War of the Worlds.

[ Edited. ]

[W Krebs]

Perhaps medical help may be available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXtHzUM082g.

[W Krebs]

Nobody has mentioned this yet, but this case seems to be much like the John McAdams case at Marquette University, only running in reverse. http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2014/12/chewing-the-scenery-for-social-justice.html?cid=6a00d83451675669e201b7c7236be7970b#comment-6a00d83451675669e201b7c7236be7970b

[sH2]

I can’t quite decide if their stated convictions are hallucinatory or simply dishonest, but the departure from reality is remarkable.

David, you missed one. Rambukkana says that Peterson is "highly involved with the alt-right", which is bullshit.

[David]

David, you missed one.

They’re quite shameless in their attempts to conjure bogeymen.

[David]

Seemed a good time to dig out this one.

[Pogonip]

Today's small appliance report: dustbusted the car! What I could see; it was dark out. At least I think that was the car I dustbusted. Maybe it was the side of the house. Or a UFO. Or a very large, dusty microaggression. Or a jar of pickled eggs.

[Pogonip]

David, the caption on the kitten picture got cut off--what does it say?

[pst314]

what does it say?

I will not enact the labor to explain.

[David]

Meanwhile, at the University of California, Irvine, great minds reveal themselves:

Resistance is saying “fuck this,” you know, “fuck the police,” or whoever the fuck you invited over here and then listen to us, listen to what we’re saying. And we’re not just talking out of our ass, like we’re smart as fuck, you know what I mean? We read books, and we know shit; we know statistics.”

Oh, there’s video and everything.

[pst314]

what does it say?

Here's an answer that's helpful rather than funny:
http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2016/02/but-work-is-so-hard-and-indignation-is-easy.html?cid=6a00d83451675669e201bb08bccfea970d#comment-6a00d83451675669e201bb08bccfea970d

And this explains my funny answer:
http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2017/10/elsewhere-251.html?cid=6a00d83451675669e201b8d2b89c9f970c#comment-6a00d83451675669e201b8d2b89c9f970c

[pst314]

like we’re smart as fuck, you know what I mean?

They are following in the footsteps of Mao, who was both abysmally ignorant and stratospherically arrogant.

[Mags]

we know shit

At least that bit's true.

[David]

we know shit

Why, it’s almost as if lowering standards until you’re admitting borderline morons and then pandering to their morony, and explaining away the consequences of that morony as always and forever someone else’s fault, and doing it year after year, at enormous expense, until it becomes an established culture of morony… It’s almost as if doing that has sub-optimal consequences.

[Pogonip]

Oh, David, that's moronic. 😄

[Trevor]

Oh, there’s video and everything.

"Stop talking like we stupid up in here, man!" Oh, Madam. You're not even stupid.

[David]

Oh, Madam. You’re not even stupid.

I think that one deserves a thread of its own.

[Wh00ps]

UK headmistresses advised not to call girls 'girls' or 'ladies' because it's 'patronising:'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5104579/Heads-warned-not-use-gendered-terms-schools.html

At least it isn't because there might be a tranny that might be triggered...

[WKrebs]

We read books, and we know shit; we know statistics.

That's nice. But let's start by talking about those little brown pellets that rabbits leave all over the garden...

[WKrebs]

Why, it’s almost as if lowering standards until you’re admitting borderline morons (snip) has sub-optimal consequences.

I hate to say it, but there are two further tiers below this lot.

[Brian Snelling]

I am an alumnus of UW (B Sc 71) just up the road and we always scorned WLU - now I know why. I hope they fire that pretentious idiot and anyone who put him in his place.

[Hal]

David, the caption on the kitten picture got cut off--what does it say?

I am creating a non-hierarchal safespace to express my intersections.

And, just in time for the holidays, Persistent disagreement is the height of harassment.

[Fen Tiger]

At least it isn't because there might be a tranny that might be triggered...

Sadly not.

Another reason to avoid using gendered terms, Ms Devon said, was in case transgender people were present.

[Jim Whyte]

WLU and Prof. Rambukkana both say they apologized to Lindsay Shepherd. Christie Blatchford at the National Pest differs, eloquently.

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/christie-blatchford-heres-where-laurier-can-stick-their-apology-to-lindsay-shepherd

[Mae]

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.

That video's fascinating. Thanks, David.

[David]

That video’s fascinating.

Yes, it’s frank and probing, but civil, and sometimes surprising, and both parties seem to learn something, as did I, and both appear to enjoy it. But according to professors Pimlott and Rambukkana, any discussion of this kind - any genuine enquiry - is corrupting and indecent, and therefore must be stopped.

And these clowns call themselves woke.

[Randy]

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?!

Zoey: Whack! "I'm in."

[David]

This rather captures the mindset of the Mao-lings:

Note the casual and baseless smearing of Ms Shepherd as a “bigoted transphobe” and the smearing of Dr Peterson as “an ignorant hate-monger” who, we’re to believe, “openly incites hatred and violence.” Note too the curious lack of any evidence – any evidence at all - to support these claims, and the lack of any expectation that evidence should be provided.

To be clear, and in case there were any doubt, these supposedly pious beings, the ones who cry ‘shame’, are more than happy to lie.

[Leigh]

Note the casual and baseless smearing of Ms Shepherd as a “bigoted transphobe” and the smearing of Dr Peterson as “an ignorant hate-monger” who, we’re to believe, “openly incites hatred and violence.”

SJWs *always* lie.

[David]

SJWs *always* lie.

It does seem to be a common default.

It’s quite strange to watch these people in action on social media: Some hyperbolical and defamatory accusation is made, one that bears no relation to reality and, as in this case, is simply perverse. Other people respond by asking for evidence to support the claim – a link, a video clip, even a single quote. None is forthcoming, and instead the accusation grows in scope, such that those defending the accused, or who simply ask for evidence of any wrongdoing, are themselves denounced as complicit in the oppression of whichever Designated Victim Group is notionally involved. And so the boundary of imagined purity, and of permissible thought, shrinks ever tighter.

[ftumch]

"... instead the accusation grows in scope, such that those defending the accused, or who simply ask for evidence of any wrongdoing, are themselves denounced as complicit in the oppression..."

SJWs *always* double down.

[splotchy]

Note also that the person making the unevidenced allegations of hatred, bigotry and ignorance endorses himself with the rather hateful, bigoted and ignorant epithet: 'Fuck you'

...a rather inarticulate substitute for the reasoned debate he protests about.