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

SOAS have always been woke as a box of frogs. They were just as bad 20 years ago

It’s obedience training isn’t it?

Remove people’s ability to argue back.

‘But we are arguing!’ No you’re not. You’re ‘denouncing’ and there’s a huge difference.

There are times I wonder if this is all a gigantic excercise in social control.

Stage 1. Neuter population

• Keep people physically comfy but precarious (low job security, big mortgage and student debt, consumer lifestyle.)
• reduce people’s ability to debate
• reduce resilience to genuine hardship
• desensitise to gore, extreme porn and real suffering via media
• encourage trial by popularity (social media pile ins)
• 24 hour instant media reduces analysis in favour of novelty. ‘Facts’ become equal no matter how untrue.
• Experts and academics denounced. Must toe the orthodox line or denounced

Stage 2. Reduce social cohesion

• reduce parent child bond (confidential disclosure, named person legislation,
• denunciation culture
• encourage ‘othering’ by mixing population growth via rapid immigration and austerity

• reduce class analysis by promoting ID politics.
• neuter unions and reduce worker solidarity
• encourage inter generational conflict (endless boomer vs millennial shit in the media.)

Stage three - I suppose push the boundaries of what you can make people believe, or act as if they believe.

All a bit tinfoil hatty but everything on that list is happening. Nothing on there is too outré is it? I find it quite concerning.

I didn't turn down this gig because I'm some racist, homophobic, xenophobic, ableist comedian. I turned down this gig because if you sign a contract like that, you're exposing yourself to someone's bad interpretation
This is very true. He also has a point when he says anywhere seeking to impose such contracts is the sort of place where people seek to find offence.

Hecalledmecarrots said
"Our eldest has just started at Leeds University and, I swear, if he comes home for the holidays spouting woke bunkum like this, I’ll cancel Christmas and pack him off to the gulags."

Read in, The great University Con, by David Craig

"Leeds met at 97 courses in which you only needed 2x Es at A level to get to university"

"

They list sexism in there but not misogyny. So you can tell jokes about women as long as they’re really hateful and nasty.

Somebody ought to sneak into their rooms and play Chubby Brown to them in their sleep to build up their resilience subliminally.

I hope the comic in question makes up a decent routine about it..,

Seriously though, I know I’ve said this a hundred times but this is all contributing to decline of the ability to debate and resilience. when you stop debate, you stop people’s ability to debate and argue. Young people are not having the opportunity to argue - and to argue well you need to understand the situation, and be able to put together a reason why you disagree, with logic and data. If you no platform and stop this, you never develop those skills- thats what you’re at university to do, you prats.

Trigger warnings were originalybfor stuff like ‘this film contains loud bangs’ for people suffering from ptsd from war or conflict, or ‘this program contains scenes of sexual violence’. It was never intended to be ‘hey this is andofficult concept’.
When you give the students the idea that ideas can literally hurt them you do them a grave disservice. you are at uni to have your ideas challenged. you are there to learn to string an argument together whether that’s a mathematical proof or a critique of a social system. If that scares you, you’re in the wrong place.

When we coddle students like this we wreck their resilience. ideas cannot hurt you.

And god forbid they ever come up against a situation where they NEED to argue. Start a rebellion against a genuine tyrant. Deliver an eloquent speech on why a policy is harmful.

Who benefits when a whole generation is intellectually neutered like this? Anyone who wants to control them.

room on the broom

That might be witchist.

Oh wait, that’s OK. They’ve probably got a gluten-free ducking stool and artisanal pyre ready.

Did Owen Jones actually say that he didn't want to talk about it?

He did. It was in the news review bit and he whinged that he'd said he didn't want to be the one to do that story. Honest! Stupid little Sanctimonious Morph. He grudgingly offered some waffle along the lines of if you don't approve, you don't have to buy a ticket.

intellectual standards of SOAS can be seen here, where they now use data protection to conceal the identities of the examiners who passed a thesis which had been repeatedly rejected.

I was just going to mention this! I have never, ever heard of this happening anywhere else, and it's an outrageous subversion of the eaxmining process for PhDs. The whole thing is really odd - I know some people who work in the relevant academic areas and none of them know who examined Page's PhD - I assume they got a couple of tame internals to do it.

Knock knock jokes?

Knock knock
who's there?
Boo
Boo-hoo....

Oh fgs I can't have 'triggered' you already..

Did Owen Jones actually say that he didn't want to talk about it? What a fool he is!

Knicknackpaddyflak In hindsight, think a term’s volunteering with SOAS SU might be a better punishment than the gulag

Oops! Saying “pray for me” is an affront to atheists

Aww, go on, the model gulags have barbed wire baseball bats painted in pretty colours. The machine guns have probably got cute little crocheted hats.

The brief was 'joyful'. The entertainment must be joyfilling.

Since cake and chocolate and gin are all definitely right out since the fights over gluten free/dairy free/ fair trade/ nut free/ egg free are just too exhausting to think about, I'm going to suggest carrot sticks and a reading of Room on the Broom.

Langcleg pray for me that my son is as sensible as your offspring!

They made Owen Jones try and defend this on Jeremy Vine this morning. He sat there and said "I did say I didn't want to do this one and moan moan you made me." I did some LOLing.

You can see why my kids avoided socialising on campus while at uni and went into city/town instead, can't you?

The old-fashioned kind of gulag, not Goldsmith’s version obviously...

Our eldest has just started at Leeds University and, I swear, if he comes home for the holidays spouting woke bunkum like this, I’ll cancel Christmas and pack him off to the gulags.

I read that SOAS Student Union are saying this behavioural contract thing had nothing to do with them - it was the 'UNICEF on campus group' who were "too zealous interpreting charity guidelines". If anyone has come across the Titania McGrath spoof account, there are some funny threads on this including her contribution to #wokecomedy:
Knock knock!
Who's there?
David
What are your pronouns?

I love that you can't be anti-atheist. That would make you an
anti-atheist-ist.

I am totally against anti-atheism-ism

SOAS certainly have form. They have a "Womxn's Network" for a start.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD - we are going to show you all how to stroke kittens!

Omg no! Stroking kittens is abuse! You're violating them! www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2448932/Want-cat-affection-DONT-stroke-Our-feline-friends-stressed-touched.html

True. Didn’t like something - debate or leave. Not curl up like a hedgehog and cry about your human rights.