Dave Rubin has more fortitude in his testicles than you could ever dream of. Show me this so-called vitriol.
‘‘Vitriol’’ - referring to the linked article. Apologies for the apparent conflation.
‘‘Narrative machinations’’ - my husband’s impression after listening to two of Rubin’s podcasts. I can sort of see it in the Bret Weinstein interview, the way he intentionally set it up to show that Weinstein wasn’t a racist by asking him to talk about his experience as a student at Penn, when he didn’t really want to talk about it, etc. Rubin, from my perspective, bent over backward to construct this specific narrative. In fact, if you look at the description of the podcast on Podcast Addict, it’s talking about embracing a very specific ideology, not a ‘‘just asking questions’’ approach. I haven’t listened to anything but that one podcast, which I found very interesting. I had never even heard of Rubin until I sought out that specific interview.
My point is that pretending you aren’t biased, when you clearly are, wins you no arguments. Using hyperbolic and hysterical language, as soooo many of these Evergreen articles have, also wins you no arguments. It’s like I want to agree but it’s sort of embarrassing how they present their argument, so it pushes me away. In much the same way I sympathize with the social justice movement but this shit at Evergreen and similar nonsense alienates me, too. I have no political home, ATM.
In case it’s not clear from above, I think it’s obvious Weinstein was 100% fucked over in this situation which would have been evident whether Rubin attempted to make it look that way or not. If Weinstein started his own podcast I would listen to it every day.
I just wish… fuck. I just wish people would be more open-minded and reasonable. That’s my point.
Personally, I’m against any bullying, shouting down, assault in ANY form and I include sticking a hand in a camera and shooting silly string in someones face *…cursing like you spent 50 years in the navy. And that’s from all sides including police.
I appreciate that our riot police are more than happy to stop the shit you see going on in Europe where riots get out of hand cause the police don’t have the training and equipment…but I’m not sure if the police should also be like a wild animal that you got to close to.
*My definition of assault is, “Can you do it to a cop??” Can you get away with screaming in a cops face? Sometimes. Can you unload a can of silly string in their face? Yeah try it.
As usual, my response turned into a rant. That’s just where I am politically and what I’m against.
Agreed. We need like a universal chill pill.
If ever there were a time to legalize weed…
To quote Weinstein himself, “Isn’t it important at some point to determine whether or not I actually am a racist?”
Yes, I do think that’s important. But I guess, I just assume people aren’t racist by default. I do think his Penn story was interesting because it established him as a person who was willing to go against the grain for things he believed were right, even if the consequences to him were inconvenient. He seems to be a person of great integrity. The thing that pissed me off the most about Evergreen was the utter contempt they had for someone who was clearly an excellent professor. That they would take for granted such a great educational opportunity was pretty disheartening. Weinstein didn’t merely ‘‘remain calm,’’ he remained a teacher even while they were spitting insults at him. When you’re at a university, the purpose is to learn - displaying basic contempt for learning, IMO, is grounds for expulsion in and of itself.
I was a freshman undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, about a week into my first semester, when 9-11 happened. It was an explosive event for my understanding of the world and the U.S.’ place in it. That was my introduction to politics, 2,000 dead and struggling to make sense of it. We had forums including students and professors from all walks of life, students from Iraq, Palestine, Israel, local students from Dearborn (huge Muslim community) all with their own unique perspectives on what was happening. We engaged in frequent classroom debate - I took a philosophy class called Contemporary Moral Issues in which we openly discussed things like affirmative action and racism. People were not in universal agreement on these topics, but they were expected to back up their arguments with reason, facts, and yes, sometimes personal experience. The point is that it was an exchange of ideas, not one person screaming down the others. There was no shortage of hyperbole from the young, liberal students - but there was no shortage of pushback, either. When one student carried a sign that said, ‘‘BUSH IS A FASCIST’’ in the Diag, a visiting professor with experience living in a fascist regime dressed him down in front of everyone. That’s what a good education is. That’s my gold standard.
This other shit is not education. Crazy students are nothing new, but the way the administration has capitulated is really distressing.
I’m not ready to wash my hands of Rubin Report based on my husband’s opinion; while we share the same political values, he tends to be more cynical and less open-minded than me. I think it was Rubin’s continual and grating use of phrases like ‘‘regressive left’’ that got to him. I haven’t made up my own mind based on exposure from one single podcast. I will say that Sr. Weasel was very skeptical of the Evergreen story itself, but the interview changed his mind and even scared him a little. It certainly shook me up.
I was drinking champagne in the Diag the night Obama was elected and here I am criticizing college kids for being stupid. I guess the commitment of faculty and administration to robust discourse cannot be underestimated. The real shame of the Evergreen saga is that the administration cowered before the mob.
Yup, and skipped the really easy solution.
Let the kids go home for the summer and then don’t invite them back for next year.
Yeah, because I can’t see anything like this ever happening at U of M, but that was so long ago, who can say? It’s hard for me to gauge the extent to which this is a new trend at universities vs. just a few crazy-ass extremist administrations.
- Meet the students only 1 or 2 at a time.
- Tell them you don’t deal in demands. Kidnappers make demands.
- Increase police presence.
- If sit-ins and other demonstrations are made that disrupt the main body’s ability to get the education they paid for, make arrests and expulsions.
They all signed some kind of contract (Im guessing!! They usually do) that agreed to a code of conduct.
This isn’t rocket science. And that faculty that turned on Weinstein? I look forward to next years cuts when the incoming freshman class is 40% smaller.
*And as the students are led away in handcuffs, I want to see this hypothetical school president clapping his hands and chanting, “Hey hey!! Ho ho!! These racist students have got to go!!”
You sure seem eager to reach for a stick to hit somebody with. Though, I guess this is the sort of thing that looks bad on your permanent record.
But you’d be obliged to prove it, wouldn’t you? If you presume the right to punish, don’t you assume the responsibility to be just? If you tell young Malcolm X John Lenin that he is not welcome next year, because he is an antifas stinker, shouldn’t you be able to prove it?
Objection your honor, presumption followed by a leading question.
But I do like the play on words with John Lenin.
I remember a case a while back where a college administrator did have the (non-gender-specific organs implying strength and fortitude) to stand up to the protesters. Took a bit of googling to dig it up, but it was at Ohio State. While searching for that, I found a compilation of some of the lists of “demands” from various protester groups.
Personally, I think that the protesters should be given a refund of their unused tuition, a transcript of transferable credits, and a hearty “best of luck in your future endeavors.”
Here’s a video message from a freshly-minted SJW.
Nice video by Vice/HBO. Great quality on the picture and a little more illumination on the students.
“I’m fearful of my nuanced opinion…”
The poor dear. But it is hers, isn’t it? Properly spayed and neutered, it need not be feared, even if dangerously nuanced. Still, she’s the picture of wholesome good health and conventional views.
Not like that ragged tattooed potty mouth druggy speaking on behalf of the Revolutionary Cadre. 'Course, she was the most “ordinary” they could find! They specifically cast for a particular type, or anything like that? No.
Seriously, dude. This is what chaps your hide? Got a meth-addled baboon running amok in the halls of power, and this is what worries you? Well, OK. Sure, takes all kinds. Bless your heart.
And I can find more just like this at patriotprayerusa on FB. For all your non-partisan, objective viewing needs. Mmmm. Yes. Quite.
Making a big deal about how something is bad but isn’t technically racism is stupid. There is no benefit in it, other than to be able to say “that’s not racist.” It’s still wrong, and you still need to stop doing it. The exact definition doesn’t matter.
And I do not in any way agree that most people aren’t racist. That makes no sense. We all have an innate tribalism inside of us. We are all predisposed to thinking better of people who are like us and worse of people who are not like us. It requires a continuous conscious choice to try not to be racist/sexist/homophobic/etc.
I’ve even take those tests where they check your automatic responses. They show a bunch of faces, and calculate how you associate them, using fast reaction times. It’s complicated. But the result is that I have innate prejudice against black people, as do most white people and many black people who take that test.
You can’t hope to not be racist without actually trying to not be racist. It takes effort. If you aren’t trying to combat your own internal biases, you will adhere to them, and that includes being racist. It’s part of the human condition, and why we’re all predisposed to be selfish assholes.
It takes effort to be good. That’s a universal truth. It applies to racism, sexism, bigotry, etc. It applies to crimes. It takes effort not to hurt someone because they’ve made you angry enough that you want to hurt them. It takes effort to not steal something that you really want. And, yes, it takes effort not to treat someone differently because of anything other than the content of their character.
This is far from “SJW” as you guys try to define it. It’s actually basically Christian doctrine. We’re all sinners. We’re all predisposed to be selfish assholes. We have to fight it so that society can work.
(Pssst: I think the word you’re searching for is “guts”.)
I think it does, because some prejudices are obviously more damaging than others.
"All Asians are super smart’’ is not equal to ‘‘All Asians are bad drivers’’ is not equal to ‘‘All Asians should be deported.’’
They all involve some degree of ignorance and some degree of harm to the target of the prejudice, but they are not equally problematic. The insistence of a certain contingent of liberal idealogues on lumping them all together in one category is neither helpful nor all that reasonable.
I agree that most people have an unconscious bias, that seems evident based on implicit association tests, statistics, and all the other social experiments that have been conducted to get at the root of the problem. Even black people often have an unconscious bias against black people. Even reminding a student that he is black, by having him write down his race at the beginning of the exam, can undermine his performance on the exam.
Being aware of that bias, and acting accordingly, is a great idea.
I don’t agree that most people have to but a huge amount of effort into this. For most of us, who do not harbor vile racist beliefs, it’s basic self-correction every time we have a prejudiced thought. The amount of effort for say, a law enforcement officer, or someone who is routinely exposed to a violent minority within any racial demographic, will be much higher, and the consequences for their innate bias could easily be the death of an innocent man, so they’ve got their work cut out for them. But the average person? Probably not all that much effort.
FWIW, I don’t put a lot of effort into not stealing things or not hurting people who piss me off. It comes pretty naturally. Combating internal racism comes a little less naturally. While I had the benefit of being raised by a not-racist mother, racism has been endemic to my family in a lot of ways, up to including involvement in the KKK. I have always despised racism but racial prejudice is so par for the course in the environment where I grew up, it’s easy to fall back on certain stereotypes. Just because I put zero stock in those damaging stereoytpes doesn’t mean they aren’t the first ones to come to mind.
Now once you’ve dealt with the plank in your own eye, you can go about removing the plank in others, but screaming ‘‘racist!’’ at them probably won’t do the trick. You’re dealing with people who come from a place of skepticism, and you have to act accordingly.