Hard-left academics ‘plotted gender ID witch-hunt’ on colleagues

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Hard-left academics ‘plotted gender ID witch-hunt’ on colleagues

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0ef73904-18ab-11ed-b4a0-f11f082a3a3c?shareToken=9086841b1851a93726804639c7ced9f1

About three years ago I tentatively discussed Michele Moore's book (with others) with a lecturer in sociology and criminology who's also occasionally taught gender topics.

She said that she knew of university lecturers locally who were really panicked about joining Moore on various things not even linked to what she was writing about ("inventing transgender children") asking her opinion on "how it would look."

She could see the sexism in the idea of being "born in the wrong body" but could also see that the title was "inflammatory."

Unfortunately she's a peri menopausal mum friend and we've rarely been able to have a much needed deeper discussion about this.

Which is needed as I've seen she's been involved in zooms with Sally Hines et Al.

The rot has been there for a long while and it will be hard to dig it out.

IME Moray House is a difficult place to work where people whose faces and ideas don’t fit are not treated brilliantly. It has been for some time.

A friend told me recently that she was bullied into approving an ethics application for a student who wants to do trans identity research with primary school children with no parental consent involved…

And that the midwives at the same university are very angry because someone has decided to change all the language on the website to be trans inclusive/gender neutral. It’s all childbearing people now.

The atmosphere is coercive across the sector.

If this is what universities have become, then burn the whole lot to the ground. They are no longer serving their primary purpose, to teach young people how to think.

I’d argue that the problem is that it’s very much become about teaching everyone how to think rather than equipping people with the tools to think critically for themselves.

I think we are arging the same thing. Kids are being taught what to think, not how to think. That is not a university level education

We are definitely in agreement. It’s not ok.

I have been on these boards long enough to know that we haven't got to this place without some shady shit having happened behind closed doors.

But, when you see the words written down in black and white, and they are coming from the very places that are supposed to guard academic freedom and train young people to develop critical thinking skills, it is fucking terrifying.

This article lists 11 instances.

Strongly recommend The Coddling of the American Mind on this, which now applies to UK setting too.

Yep. But they get hounded, harrassed and are left little doubt that the loud voices in the student and academic bodies are out to get rid of them.

Well that's absolutely terrifying and yet I'm not surprised.

Because this is the latest TRA sock account?

Me? I've been on mn since 2008. I'll get off this board now though. Clearly it can only be an echo chamber. Oddly, universities continue to do an outstanding job teaching and supporting many of your kids.

I'd be interested in your thoughts as to why the story on the reading lists is ridiculous and malevolent too @canellini

What are we meant to do just pretend everything's a ok in our universities?

What The Times said on universities and books was that:

Two universities, Essex and Sussex, admitted to removing books from study lists for this reason, the first time this is thought to have happened at British universities.

Eight others, including Russell Group members Warwick, Exeter and Glasgow, have made texts optional to protect students’ welfare.

Academics have previously been criticised for providing trigger warnings for students reading mainstream literature. The Times investigation found 1,081 examples across undergraduate courses.

Some of Britain’s most influential authors — including William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie — are among those whose works have been deemed concerning enough to require warnings.

Jane Austen needs a trigger warning? FFS!

I’d rather kick horns with the rightest of the right than a flipping hard on Leftie. At least the rightie looks you in the eye and says what they think.

it really is 'are you now or have you ever been...' isn't it

This isn't "hard left" but progressive left i.e an impoet from America where their left wing politics is so empty it amounts to promoting ideas of freedom through identity.

As it happens, I would take the word of the Times on this one, because I've seen first hand the correspondence churned out by our so-called 'union'.

National UCU are grotesque. They are also grossly incompetent. Neither of these points comes as any great surprise with the present General Secretary in situ.

Shereen Benjamin is a left wing academic with years of research and teaching behind her. They are reporting using her words and her story. She spoke incredibly eloquently recently in Edinburgh after years of the, trying to silence her. She deserves to be heard.

I thought the Times article about reading lists was a bit thin, tbh. Of course universities review their reading lists every year, and texts come and go. Trigger warnings are silly, but we've known about them for ages and I thought yesterday's article didn't add much.

Today's, though, is different. A union turning on its own members and driving them out because it doesn't like their politics is a disgrace to the trade union movement. I've seen references on twitter to women leaving UCU because of bullying and failure to stand up for women, but this (Shereen Benjamin's account) is the first actual blow-by-blow evidence I've come across and it's horrifying. Good for the Times for covering it.

I've just been to have a look - 1K comments - loads of DARVO and blaming The Times 😬 Some people are riled.

Ms Kennedy, who describes herself on Facebook as a “stroppy, bolshie transgirl with attitude who hates the Tories with a passion”,

A 50 year old 'girl' by the look of the photo

The article reveals numerous gobsmacking aspects to the current situation, but this paragraph stopped me in my tracks:

Grady, 38, a senior lecturer in employment relations at the University of Sheffield, was elected as the UCU’s general secretary in 2019.

You’d think she’d understand the purpose of a union with her professional background. Astonishing.

Higher education sounds like an awful place to work.