Goldsmiths LGBT society says feminists should be sent to a gulag.

I've read a few biogs of women during the Chinese cultural revolution (I had a theme going for a while and found it fascinating). Two were: Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng and Red Azalia, Anchee Min.

By steven w mosher

This one

Yes it is and i would

Its basically about chinas one child policy by an abortionist...it goes from her childhood up to her working and slightly beyond

Its a true story and it is harrowing

Absolutely fascinating childhood and youth

Yet another round of praise to @CesiraAndEnrico 's sceptical-hero, Andy Lewis aka MN's own @lecanardnoir who has a fine thread up on Twitter:

Shout out to all the sceptics who unfollowed me, blocked me, told me I was a jerk for being sceptical of an ideology that is now telling us women need to be sent to gulags for the crime of thinking women are an objective, material reality.

twitter.com/lecanardnoir/status/1039601254161367040

Toby Young has always been a complete penis

However, Jung Chan's Wild Swans is also wrenching for its insights into 're-education'.

Me too. I read it when everyone was reading it (how the hell many years ago was that? Loads!)

I am really concerned about the extremes in our politics at the moment - far left vs far right. We've got the chaos of brexit coming up - it feels so dangerous.

If you found wild swans interesting did you ever read a mothers ordeal?

No, I didn't. Is it similarly harrowing? Would you recommend it?

arranfan

If you found wild swans interesting did you ever read a mothers ordeal?

Another good 'gulag' read: Half of Man Is Woman by Zhang Xianliang
Cultural Revolution. Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman, is great on the incremental little steps that fascism takes before it reaches its full force.

Add me to the people recommending Applebaum's Gulag history. However, Jung Chan's Wild Swans is also wrenching for its insights into 're-education'.

On balance, I'm not sure which is the more harrowing.

I highly recommend Anne Applebaum's book about the feminist reedu-, sorry, actual gulags, in which loads (millions) of people died miserably whilst separated from their families for thoughtcrime.
Seconded. Brilliant book.

Toby Young is a direct reaction to universities being ultra left wing though

Universities are not 'ultra left wing', that's a bizarre generalisation. Some student bodies and some subject areas have more lefties than rightwingers, and some have more on the right than the left (I doubt you'll find many Corbynites at Warwick University Business School, for example). My department (staff and students) spans the full political spectrum from hard right to hard left and we all manage to get along with each other and not threaten to send each other to the gulag. Goldsmiths is a special case - I've never had any dealings with it, but have heard long before this from colleagues, including PoMo colleagues who are on the left, that it's disfunctional and an unpleasant place.

And I suspect Toby Young has always been a complete penis, irrespective of what any university is or isn't like.

Wow, Tara does not come across well at all there. Unhinged, possibly drunk, and incredibly self absorbed.

From article red posted:

Goldsmiths Students’ Union has now suspended the group and withdrawn its support for its activities, saying the Gulag threat - and subsequent refusal by the group to apologise for it - clearly breached the students' union code of conduct^

In a statement backed by Goldsmiths University the students’ union said: “We condemn the abhorrent content of the tweets and they are in complete opposition to the views and values of the Students’ Union

If we had squillions of £s backing us, a few legal cases from our side, would be in order.

to start expelling people from educational establishments for views expressed which are several steps removed from the establishment imprimatur...But chuck them out merely for being stupid and wrong?

Stupid and wrong is one thing, collecting names of women to purge from twitter - no. Not stupid and wrong. Vindictive and hateful.

AngryAttackKittens

www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=eaDibfKnKbc

"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right ..."

imo, the abysmal standard of politicians in all (English) political parties has left a vacuum in which violent nihilism flourishes

it is a dangerous abandonment of the field by the politicians who are supposed to be the grown-ups

Oh bloody hell.
Extreme historical revisionism

Next article by TRA will be telling us how concentration camps were all about
"Arbeit macht frei" / work sets you free = a little gentle work therapy

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/11/soviet-labour-camps-compassionate-educational-institutions-say/
Soviet labour camps were 'compassionate', 'educational' institutions, say trans rights campaigners

Members of Goldsmiths LGBTQ refused to comment when approached by The Daily Telegraph.

Theyve been right royally shut up by the Goldsmiths student union. result

Whoever was responsible should be kicked out of the university

I think it is a very, very dangerous path to do down - one, ironically, beloved of the totalitarian regimes the tweeter is so enamoured of - to start expelling people from educational establishments for views expressed which are several steps removed from the establishment imprimatur.

Clearly, the actions of the Goldsmith SU are proportionate, and clearly they're not going to let the offender within a million miles of a union-affiliated organisation. But if someone stands up in a seminar in Russian History, if Goldsmiths have such a course, and says "you know, the Gulags weren't all bad", then that might be grounds for mockery and it might be, if badly argued, grounds for failing a course. But it is nothing even remotely close to grounds for expulsion. Making martyrs out of free speech is never a good look.

And before Godwin is invoked, yes, the same thing applies to holocaust denial and holomodor denial. Laugh at them. Pick apart their shitty arguments and fail them for misreading and misusing the shitty sources they will have used. Fail them on that assignment. But chuck them out merely for being stupid and wrong? No.

Hate-keeper actually works better as a description of what's happening.

Does anyone have a link to coverage of the flipping the bird incident?

Can we also remember that the reason the Gulag posts came about [and I have been told to get to the Gulag on twitter before so I am well aware of the threat]...this was about the Goldsmiths LGBT group putting a list together to PURGE various feminists. This was the response after being called out on it.

They were breaking rules long before the Gulag thread.

Whoever was responsible should be kicked out of the university or sacked if they are a staff member.

Another ex-goldsmith student, even 15 years ago the loudest voices were super right on, lecturers as well as students. I can't say I loved my course despite its excellent reputation and since leaving I have met others with the same experience. But don't judge everyone by the loudest people, there were down to earth, non woke types there when I was there and I am sure they are now.