Tuesday, 9 July 2019

The Ordure that the Left Pour on Themselves

There's an inclination to laugh at this but it wouldn't be right, because it's serious.  After decades of leftist encouragement, direct or otherwise, for all manner of 'identitarian' nonsense, the chickens have come home to roost.  The run-of-the-mill 'well-intentioned Left' of academia is now confronted with a Kafkaesque, reductio ad absurdum nightmare: under frontal assault (and I do mean frontal) by the militant 'trans identity' movement to a point where freedom of speech - and much else besides - is quite evidently a thing of the past in several UK universities.  (There are universities in the USA just as bad.)

Sit down, pour a stiff drink and read this: a compendium of appalling personal accounts compiled by the redoubtable and greatly-to-be-admired Kathleen Stock, on behalf of rational feminist educators everywhere.

But not just them, because this is truly baleful and if not stopped in its tracks will eventually flood out of academe and inflict itself on us all.  And - I remind you - Penny Mordaunt, Tory MP and Secretary of State for Defence, is complicit also.

For the antidote, let me even things up and suggest you read this, too, which restores a little of what the equally redoubtable Brian Leiter terms "intellectual hygiene".   Written in a nicely ironic tone, but making the point strongly at the same time.   



Anonymous said...

Nice to introduce the subject on the 30th anniversary of the "Life of Brian"

Just a quote or two.


Stan: I want to have babies.

Reg: You want to have babies?!?!


Reg: But ... you can't HAVE babies!

Stan: Don't you oppress me!


Nothing new in the world is there

Anonymous said...

I have to apologise for the last comment. Inaccurate and could be seen as demeaning.

It was 40 years and not 30.

Apologies again

Anonymous said...

"Satan finds some mischief still for idle Hands to do." (Isaac Watts)

A common thread running through much recent trouble is Twitter. Instinct told me to avoid Facebook and Twitter, and I never joined them.

Don Cox

Nick Drew said...

Ditto, Don.

Nor LinkedIn - but that's another story

Anonymous said...

A symptom of a wider problem - we have a generation who do not like dissent, and it isn't just the left who are culpable. You see it across social meeja, various special interest groups who will brook no opposition to their views.

Academia is highly left-leaning, so the effect isn't just amplified, but given a whole platform to fester in. Being institutionally {something}ist is never a good thing, but it is rather worse when melded with self-righteousness, which is what is going on here.

Now, I'm very pro-trans. I have just known a few folk pre-, during and post- transition, so I have a small measure of understanding, and quite a lot of them would be pretty horrified at reading that Medium article.

Social meeja itself is a bane of modern life, I've abandoned FB as a bad job - shitty company, shitty attitude to privacy and driving a wedge between people. I left as I was losing respect for friends who are Remainers - "Everyone who voted Brexist is a wacist!" *cough* "Oh I didn't mean you!"

Charlie said...

Is this hounding of academic staff not only a result of hysterical leftie shrieking, but also a result of rising tuition fees? When you're handing over nearly 30 grand to an institution while still in your teens, you probably feel more justified in complaining about any aspect of its staff than you would if the taxpayer funded your attendance.

Of course I'm frankly disgusted that good people are hounded for their legitimately held and scientific views, but just a thought.

Raedwald said...

I worked very effectively on two construction schemes with a bloke called Steve. I worked with her on a thid sheme after a break of three years when she was Stephanie. On the third scheme she was so immeasurably more effective than on the first two I was surprised at how much she'd learned about construction in just three years.

Bill QuangoMP said...

O/T but what has happened to our friends at Political betting.

Impartial advice seems thin on the ground.

Its all about embracing the idea of a holiday home in Remainia. And reporting through very wicker and marmalade, yellow tinted glasses.

Was it always like that? Or have they just got a bad case of yellow dove optimism, from recent success. Mixed with a severe cases of TDS and BDS ?

CityUnslicker said...

BQ - Having followed PB since I started this blog I have found it goes through some odd phases. Originally it was very lefty and red, berating of Blair etc. Then it moved to be very Cameroonian indeed and now has, after a fashion, become Remainia.

I guess the commentators come and go whilst Mike himself just wishes away for a Lib Dem surge.

Of course, political discourse, as we are discussing on this article, is a strange thing these days.

My own bugbear is the massive decline of sky news which was my go to for balance but has instead decided to become a direct competitor for channel 4 news - Why? Why has this happened and to what end?

Anonymous said...

Glad it's not just me that's bothered by the downfall of Sky News over recent years.

I wasn't sure if it was just me becoming more political and therefore more aware of the lefty guff they churn out or whether they have genuinely taken the woke road of progressive leftyism.

It does amuse me that on every page of the Sky New website there's a link to a page explaining why you can trust Sky News.

If you went to a car dealership and every car had a sticker saying why the used car salesman is very honest and trustworthy, you would probably would think twice about buying a car from them.

Suff said...

Having read the first few statements in the linked piece, the fact that the cases number 22 women to 6 men and most the lecturers subject matter are ologies, one can’t help feeling that these are feminists who now find themselves on the wrong side of the argument ( men having learnt to keep their opinion to themselves or mansplaining as its now called *) and are now outraged that people are now using the very same techniques the feminist movement used to shut down debate and get their own way.

*Strange that spell check didn’t pick up mansplaining? Pretty much proves my point. My latest technique when confronted by a snowflake is to say “ I would say - insert opinion on particular topic- but I can’t be arsed adultsplaining” and walk away :-) drives them nuts

CU “ why why”= twatter = the go to place for lazy journalists. In the world of hurt ( sic) why research the news when you can report opinion and better still report on your own feeds and have a world exclusive “ breaking news twatter users are outraged at xyz “ and of course everybody races to twatter to see what all the fuss is about and self fulfilled story

dearieme said...

I wonder what her mother tongue is. Because surely no native speaker of English would write "Are academics freely able to criticise ...".

Anyway if The Far Left are being bullied by The Very Far Left ... I laugh, I cheer, I applaud. Serves the buggers right.

dearieme said...

Oh for Christ's sake, here she goes again: "A huge range of academic questions are raised ..."

Silly mare.

Anonymous said...

Graduates are going straight into corporate HR departments from university and infecting the workplace. All are being bullied with this shit.

The gay rights movement has become a bullying movement.

Nick Drew said...

anon @ 2:30 - I think you're missing a subtlty here: it's the gays that are up against it in several current struggles

- the 'trans identity' movement is mercilessly bullying lesbians (as well as feminists) who are no longer allowed their sexual preferences, but must be open to sleeping with trans-women-who-are-lesbians (sic). You'd think that was a Swiftian invention but it's not - see 'Acadaemic 23' in Stock. (As ever, I do not recommend googling this issue ...)

- the Birmingham school flashpoint, where again it's the gays that are under harrassment


in the Competing Minorities Rights stakes, they appear to have been left scrabbling in the dust

Anonymous said...

"the Birmingham school flashpoint, where again it's the gays that are under harrassment"

Not at all - parents are protesting against their children being exposed to gay and trans propaganda at school. As a response to which parents have had a court order against them saying they're free to demonstrate, as long as it's a mile away from the school where the propaganda/indoctrination is taking place.

Ain't it great to have a Conservative Government?

Jan said...

For a more rounded view of the news via TV I recommend RT and AlJazeera. They often report on things not covered at all by the British media and mostly you get a more in depth take on things and different viewpoints.