Comedian refuses to sign "behaviour agreement" before performing at university

What happened to the days of the warm-up at home, where you drank cider and black out of Arielator washing balls because you had no glasses? Then spent the rest of the night with a Joker style Ribena moustache and didn't actually care.
Comedy clubs are one of the best bits of living in a city.
I've even been known to have a hearty laugh at myself, although that seems like it might have gone out of style in student circles. They'll be missing out on some valuable life lessons if they keep up the platforming, safe spacing, contracts and trigger warnings.

Joy, love and acceptance...

Sweet. Maybe they’d be better off dropping a few Es in a warehouse than attending a comedy club...

Found it, linked on from the BBC news item

pbs.twimg.com/media/DuFArAbXcAMeBDi.jpg

If be interested to see the text of the ‘contract.’

I think it was linked near the start of the thread. It was basically, as you said, 'I promise to be nice'.

If be interested to see the text of the ‘contract.’

Was any sanction implied if he broke any of the rules, or was it just ‘I promise to be nice.’ ?

Look how quickly a discussion with vegetarians degenerates into accusations of murder.

Why would you have a discussion with vegetarians? AFAICS the aggression is all the other way - anyone who asks for a meatless option is piled onto with jokes and people making yummy noises and smacking their lips over meat, it's all hilarious.

Oi I’m veggie and never argue the toss with anyone. Why should I - my gob/belly my choice. If anything it’s the non veggies who get all arsey and irritating

oh go on just a bacon sandwich, a lovely lovely bacon sandwich!

So you liked that soup - it had bacon in it - only joking!

You’re so skinny/fat/pale/tired looking - that’s because you are vegetarian!

Or my favourite in a restaurant (before we ordered) ‘You can always tell the vegetarians - they are all so miserable’

I think there’s a lot of pent up aggression as well.

That's true of everyone who believes themselves to have the moral high ground and therefore that everyone who disagrees with them is either stupid, malevolent, or acting in bad faith. Look how quickly a discussion with vegetarians degenerates into accusations of murder.

I think there’s a lot of pent up aggression as well. The safety culture stops people from expressing it legitimately - I mean on here you can have a good polite but robust argument and still be civil about it. It leads to people expressing that aggression via ‘taking offence.’

Because that’s what it is. It’s not genuine offence, it’s aggression against another subgroup.

I used to be in that culture, too much time in woke Twitter etc. It definitely made me more sensitive, I was almost looking to be offended, I saw myself as a perma-victim of sorts. I’m so glad I’m out of it. I’m happier and more resilient, my mental health is miles better. ‘Woke’ twitter life was basically a shitstorm of petty personal feuds, bullying (mostly of women) and general bullshit, fuelled by anxiety and depression.

I’m reading ‘the coddling of the American mind’ right now, based on the Atlantic article. I’d recommend it to anyone concerned about this. I see so many of those attitudes, what they term ‘safteyism’ hampered my own recovery from depression.

Interestingly his grandmother was born in a gulag.

Cradle to grave service for the gender critical. With added three generation rule a la n Korea?

What a time to be alive...

I knew it would be SOAS or Goldsmiths before I even read past the headline!

Happy to say that it's still possible to be a uni student and not be completely swayed by this crap. DD is at Southampton and it seems pretty normal 😬

He's written a piece about it here. Interestingly his grandmother was born in a gulag.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6493921/Comedian-signed-behaviour-agreement-reveals-family-fled-censorship-Soviet-Russia.html

Frankie Boyle. I say give him (and then) a good triple whisky and let him lose.

Kill or cure I guess. Students used to be up for a laugh. Is this as a result of tuition fees that they are so full of anghst they are actually scupperning their job prospects.... ohhh I get it! 💡 💡 💡 So they won’t every earn enough to pay back their student loan.

The real fear isn’t that comedians will say something harmful but that they’ll say something funny and the student will be caught laughing at something they shouldn’t.

They've been doing obedience training in schools for the past 10 years.

Haven't they just? Good little drone production is what we've been doing.

My kids have had more chance to air and dissect dissenting opinions and to challenge other opinions at home than they have ever had at either school or university.

It is not a healthy state of affairs, particularly when the country is deciding to leave a supra national trading bloc and will need domestic independent thinkers to drive it forward in the future.

Comment column in The Times today:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/there-s-nothing-funny-about-student-censors-qhhxd5nz7?shareToken=6c1d6c18d83a78872e46479c08bc2e9b

One further thought re comedy not being 'safe' which I'm not sure has been stated - live comedy has never been a 'safe space' for the comedian, has it? Heckling, booing, 'dying' on stage...

More than 10 years. Training children in schools in rightthink and very specific unquestioned political povs was New Labour's brainchild.

Take heart, you would be amazed at how little relevance the Student's Union has to most students' lives. At my place, they tend to roll their eyes whenever the worthies from the SU come to talk to them about something.

They've been doing obedience training in schools for the past 10 years. Maybe not surprising that we've ended up with a generation who expect to live within authoritarian regimes

The lack of real critical thinking - even in some of the graduating students - astounds me.

Forget the students, I’ve started to notice it in junior academics in the last couple of years.

It’s obedience training isn’t it?

Yep. I'm just not sure what this is a test run for.

It’s obedience training isn’t it?

Yes.

And yes to everything else you said.

Bowl, the only reason I am not sure it is a conspiracy is because I can't imagine the MRAs who profit most would be clever enough to consciously plan it.

Bowl I may be paranoid, but working in a university I agree with all you've said here. It reminds me a bit of that disturbing episode of Black Mirror, 15 million merits; the idea that reality shows can turn you into a star overnight...so why bother working hard? The lack of real critical thinking - even in some of the graduating students - astounds me.