Columbia Professor Wishes Death Upon U.S. Troops

[King Rat]

http://www.nynewsday.com/nyc-prof0329,0,2015886.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-right

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/03/28/sprj.irq.professor.somalia/

I hardly know what to say. He's beyond a jerk, that's for sure.

[Brutus]

They had a 'teach-in' at Columbia? How pathetically 60's.

[Azael]

The extreme logical end of the anti-war position rears its ugly head. It's assholes like this that give the rest of them a bad name.

[Ashkicker]

This is really sad. :( By the way, what is a "teach-in"?

[Wabbit]

What a tool. And I believe 'teach-ins' (not 100% on this) were activities where kids and professors would take over a class room and lecture to each other about whatever the hell it was they were protesting.

[Duck Duck Goose]

De Genova also said that the American flag stands for imperialism and that it is impossible to be a patriotic American without also being an imperialist. Egad. :rolleyes: So I guess that if "patriotic American = Imperialist", and if he probably wouldn't consider himself an imperialist, then that must mean that he wouldn't consider himself a patriotic American?

Who he is and where he's coming from--the Deep And Murky Groves of Academe.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/anthropology/faculty.htm#DE%20GENOVA
The central concerns of my research and teaching include: labor and class formation, racialization, the production of urban space, nationalism, the politics of citizenship, and transnational social processes, especially migration. My ethnographic research explores the social productions of racialized and spatialized difference in the experiences of transnational Mexican migrant workers within the space of the U.S. nation-state. More specifically, I examine transnational urban conjunctural spaces that link the U.S. and Latin America as a standpoint of critique from which to interrogate U.S. nationalism, political economy, racialized citizenship, and immigration law. This work contributes to a reconceptualization of Latin American, Latino, and "American" (U.S.) Studies. Likewise, I am interested in the methodological problems of ethnographic research practice and the limits of anthropological disciplinary forms of knowledge and modes of representation.

[Miller]

Originally posted by Azael
The extreme logical end of the anti-war position rears its ugly head.

That's no more true than saying that the "logical end" of the pro-war position is "Let's shoot all the towel-heads and steal their oil." This professor is a major-league nutsack. Even the other faculty at the teach-in called him an idiot. Don't mistake his viewpoints as representative of the majority of anti-war sentiments in the US.

[Avalonian]

Originally posted by Azael
The extreme logical end of the anti-war position rears its ugly head. It's assholes like this that give the rest of them a bad name.

This guy is the extreme end, to be sure, but logical? I don't see any logic in anything he's espousing. I don't how how you could claim that he's the logical end of anything.

I may be against this war for many reasons, but this asshole was way the fuck out of line for what he said.

[Avalonian]

Hey first simulpost! Thanks Miller! :D

[Kitfox]

"a million Mogadishus?"

Man, this guy really hates Somalis...

Racist fuck...

[SPOOFE]

It's sad that a moron like this, and a tiny minority of the anti-war side ("Let's vomit our protest!"), damage the credibility of the anti-war movement altogether.

[Michael Ellis]

Man, what an asshole.

[Michael Ellis]

I think I'll leave this fuckwicket a very polite message on his answering machine tomorrow morning thanking him for wishing death on my father.

:rolleyes:

[E-Sabbath]

What I've been impressed with is WCBS880, the CBS AM station's coverage of this sort of insanity. They clearly can't ignore it, it's good news-fodder... but for this, and for the previous dead-in and so forth, they always have someone interviewed that says, "I'm against this war, but I support our troops, I don't like what the president is doing." The rational, calm, and reasonable version of it. In this case, they added, "I don't agree with what he said, but he certainly has the right to say it." I like that I've not heard media-side calls to light the bugger on fire. He's an idjit, but a harmless one. I think he's also an Afrocentrist.

[gobear]

This guy is an asshole, but it would be grossly unfair and inaccurate to tar the positions of the sensible antiwar protestors with the ravings of this jackass just as it would be unfair to tar my pro-war position with the garbage spewed by Ann Coulter.

[Consuela Bobuela]

You beat me to it Gobear.
I was just saying this asshole DeGenova is to the left what Ann Coulter is to the right.

[ganglian]

Just another whiney assed academic hippy shithead without a worthy opinion. Why do I care?

[Typo Negative]

Does it frighten anyone else that this guy is actually a teacher at a college? Have the standards fallen that low?

[Dreaming of Maria Callas]

Originally posted by spooje
Does it frighten anyone else that this guy is actually a teacher at a college? Have the standards fallen that low?

While I think his way of expressing himself makes him look stupid, I do believe universities should represent a wide range of viewpoints. When I was an undergrad, figuring college would introduce to amazing never-before-seen things, professors like this one (but not lunatics) were the most helpful because they presented new angles and didn't make me feel I had gone through everything presented before. I hope no one here objects to someone with an extreme or idiosyncratic viewpoint teaching in a university.

UnuMondo

[Typo Negative]

I se your point. But this guy had to know how this would look, right? A college teacher should know how to express his views without making himself look stupid, or seeming like he's trolling. Maybe a backlash was what he was hoping for?

[SpasticKitty]

Stupid fuck.

Not only is this guy demeaning the brave soldiers who are risking their lives over in Iraq right now, he is also demeaning the brave soldiers of the past who fought and died so stupid fucks like him could have the right to make such idiotic statements.

[Carcosa]

Originally posted by UnuMondo
While I think his way of expressing himself makes him look stupid, I do believe universities should represent a wide range of viewpoints. ... I hope no one here objects to someone with an extreme or idiosyncratic viewpoint teaching in a university.

UnuMondo

I do. I object to professors wishing death on America soldiers.

What I find most objectionable though is how lightly these things are dismissed as long as the speaker is promoting an agenda that opposes the interests of United States. If the same professor were to say, " Hey, I hope someone kills all the blacks" I'm sure he would be out of a job ( as he should be ) and I doubt many folks would be explaining away his "extreme or idiosyncratic viewpoint" as a stupid but harmless personality trait.

Of course, I have come to expect this from the academic crowd. Their idea of free speech is that they can say whatever they want and then puff themselves up with self - righteous indignation when they are confronted with any backlash. I believe we saw another example of this a few months ago that revolved around the exchange of letters between an Air Force Academy cadet and another "professor".

Well, a pox on this "professor" ( I use the term lightly). If he has nothing but contempt for the lives of American service people and this country then I see no reason for him to be teaching at an American university. Problem being, I have no idea what else he would do, I'm beginning to think there is a lot of truth in the old saying - "Those that can,do. Those that can't ,teach". I suppose there is always the chance that he may starve and if this comes to pass and you stumble across him sprawled out in the gutter somewhere please give me a call. I do not usually urinate in public, but I will make an exception in this case.

[Binarydrone]

In other breaking news, the rest of the hundreds of thousands of people that oppose this war don't wish death on anyone.

[beagledave]

Originally posted by UnuMondo
I hope no one here objects to someone with an extreme or idiosyncratic viewpoint teaching in a university.

UnuMondo

So no problem with shelling out already high tuition dollars for an adjunct professor Phelps (http://www.godhatesfags.com/)?

Does every nutjob viewpoint have to be paid for by tuition dollars?

Maybe some graduate level classes on the TimeCube (http://www.timecube.com/)?

:rolleyes:

[Khan]

Ah, but he's an "assistant professor." Considering the lack of seniority that entails, I wouldn't be too nervous--perhaps this might just keep him in that position.

I wonder if they took student questions at the end. If they did, did anyone challenge that asshole, or was there just a bunch of the popular leftist bullshit so prominent among undergrads?

Ugh.

There was a "teach-in" (I hate that term--for some reason it makes me see red) here at Yale. It was pretty good: three professors and one assistant professor moderated by the famous John Gaddis. They had reasonable views of the war, without any statements that were even remotely close to radical. One in particular who's stance I liked lined up every single UN resolution and US approach/response to them as an a to b to c of how we got where we are.

Then there was an assistant professor who, according to my friend, was on the panel because she was a specialist on the middle east. She was very difficult to understand, as her explanation was peppered with "gulps" and perforated with "sort of", much like a student in a discussion section who hadn't done all the reading but had something VERY important to say. I wish I had a better critique apart from saying that she was very inarticulate.

[Rilchiam]

Originally posted by Avalonian
This guy is the extreme end, to be sure, but logical? I don't see any logic in anything he's espousing. I don't how how you could claim that he's the logical end of anything.

I may be against this war for many reasons, but this asshole was way the fuck out of line for what he said.

Logic can be wrong. It's not always a Spock-esque, analytical application of the laws of physics and probability and so forth. Logic can be someone's thought processes, which are internally consistent but lead to a conclusion which is far from objective or practical, and has little if any grounding in reality.

DDG's link indicates that De Genova is skilled at talking "professor-speak", but when he's taking part in a "teach-in", there's no guarantee that he's analyzing "anthropological disciplinary forms of knowledge and modes of representation", whatever the hell that means. He's probably just thinking "The more soldiers die, the sooner Bush will give up on this," not taking into account the fact that, as has been pointed out here, those soldiers are people, with families, and so are the ones who have already died.

[King Rat]

The extreme logical end of the anti-war position rears its ugly headThat's no more true than saying that the "logical end" of the pro-war position is "Let's shoot all the towel-heads and steal their oil." This professor is a major-league nutsack. Even the other faculty at the teach-in called him an idiot. Don't mistake his viewpoints as representative of the majority of anti-war sentiments in the US.Well stated, but there is a tinge of anti-americanism and anti-semitisim in much of what the anti-war movement has to offer. That is why someone like myself, who is against the war, cannot identify with the rhetoric of the anti-war movement. I hope no one here objects to someone with an extreme or idiosyncratic viewpoint teaching in a university.You have to draw the line somewhere. Wishing death on Americans seems as good a place as any.In other breaking news, the rest of the hundreds of thousands of people that oppose this war don't wish death on anyone.Point well taken. This professor has been pretty much denounced and marginalized.

[monica]

Hey, I am very against this war. However, I'm not at all against the soldiers. In fact, I support them and wish them luck. It wasn't their decision to go to war. I understand that the professor has anti-war sentiments. However, wishing death upon the soldiers is JUST NOT OKAY.

[elucidator]

Originally posted by spooje
Does it frighten anyone else that this guy is actually a teacher at a college? Have the standards fallen that low?

You mean like, for instance, Professor Newt Gangrene?

[Weirddave]

Hey, nice one, 'luc. Instead of denouncing what even you should be able to call unacceptable behavior with a clear consience, you use the opportunity to get in a dig at the 'Pubbies. Good, show, you've convinced me of the rationality and common sense of the lunatic left, sign me up today!

[Mr. Wrong]

I have to echo Weirddave here. elucidator, do you have nothing better to do than inject a totally meaningless slam of someone who has absolutely nothing to do with this debate? One can only assume that you tacitly endorse de Genova's comments, since you chose to ignore them in order to equate them with Newt (who was a History professor before he went to Congress).

[Coriolanus]

As a card-carrying Devil's Advocate, I'm with Mr. Wrong. What did the Columbia Professor wish for -- 1000 Mogadishu's?

What an asshole!

Yet I support his right to utter dumbass-drivel that seems like Speech.

Columbia U is a beautful campus, I must say.