Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: Hollow out the mind, fill it with propaganda, seal it hermetically inside.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Doubleplusungood speech must be punished, especially at the University of Maryland…
“Students at the University of Maryland have drafted a petition demanding that the school ramp up punishments for ‘hate speech’ in the wake of a tragedy on campus.
“The Black Student Union published ‘Honor Richard Collins III and punish hate speech at University of Maryland’ after a Black student from Bowie State University, Richard Collins III, was killed by a white UMD student, Sean Urbanski, who was a member of an ‘Alt-Reich’ group on Facebook.
“The BSU writes that the lack of consequences for hate speech has emboldened students like Urbanski, arguing that ‘When consequences for hate speech are not strong it tells students like Sean Urbanski that hate and bigotry is okay!’ and that the lack of consequences ‘makes white supremacist students comfortable on campus.'”
Because the only way to have an inviting campus is by making people you don’t like uncomfortable.
You will acknowledge the evils of “Whiteness”, even if it has to be “slapped” into you:
“Professors at a recent conference hosted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis reportedly called whiteness ‘inherently violent,’ saying ‘diversity of opinion’ is just ‘white supremacist bullshit.’
“The conference, held between May 31 and June 2, was organized by the Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA), an organization that frequently hosts similar events to bring together an ‘interdisciplinary consortium of experts who recognize global implications of race and education for minoritized people.’
“‘As a community, we are committed to (1) countering and combating systemic and structural racism with scholarship and praxis, (2) recognizing the multiple locations of oppression and the myriad manifestations and effects of their intersections and (3) co-constructing liberating knowledge that facilitates collective agency to transform schools and communities,’ the group describes itself on its website, a description supported by several attendees at its most recent conference, who quoted highlights from the event on Twitter.”
Methinks that the call to violence isn’t 100% metaphorical…
“According to another attendee, Professor James Scheurich, who also teaches at Indiana University’s Purdue campus, claimed that ‘research’ is a ‘colonial, white supremacist, elite process,’ while Professor Theodorea Berry suggested that ‘some people need to be slapped into wokeness.'”
All in all, silencing wrong opinions and mandating right opinions is an attempt to hollow out and fill the students’ minds with propaganda of a totalitarian bent… and then close it off forever.
“Real critical thinking has been transformed from a dispassionate engagement with ideas into a rabid dissection of American values. As a faculty member, I found there came a time when new courses could not be approved unless they contained a ‘critical-thinking’ component. This component had nothing to do with a traditional conception of critical thinking; it had everything to do with tearing apart traditional American values and culture.
“At least since the end of World War II, there has been a fundamental belief among many faculty in the social sciences and liberal arts that the college experience should make students more sensitive to socio-political problems and promote the solutions endorsed by leftist academics who perceived themselves as holding the answers to complex social issues. The problem with such engagement is that it crosses the line from teaching students how to think to telling them what to think.
“In 1957, Philip Jacob published, ‘Changing Values in College,’ a study showing that four years’ exposure to liberal values at most colleges made absolutely no difference in the way students viewed the world. They entered college as devotees of the values into which they were socialized, and they left the same way. Despite the best efforts of leftist faculty to take it upon themselves to uproot years of parental and institutional socialization, their captive audience remained unconvinced.
“…
“But practitioners of virtue and moral certainty never have enough time or opportunity to disseminate their propaganda. Those who sought to convince the progeny of the racist, sexist, and homophobic society of the evil of their prior political and cultural socialization—not to mention their white privilege—seized upon the residence halls to further indoctrinate students.
“This lead to compulsory sensitivity sessions that would have made the creators of the Soviet-style workmen’s circles jump with joy. Instead of being made to confess one’s mechanistic thinking, as was necessary in the workmen’s circle, it now became necessary to confess one’s white privilege or other aspects of oppressive and privileged behavior.”
Doubleplusgood, comrade. Doubleplusgood.
TTFN.
Pingback: In The Mailbox: 09.14.17 : The Other McCain