Cancel Culture In Academia

[IcakethereforeIam]

Interesting and sobering, article in the Critic that names names. It won't be as widely read as it should be.

https://thecritic.co.uk/cancel-culture-in-academia/

A lot of it echos stuff I've read on here and elsewhere. The ignorance that the genderists have in the terms that they use. Deliberate ignorance because they know but can't admit that the terms are baseless.

I thought of pasting this article in one of any number of existing threads but thought it links to so many, all the cancellations, all the threats and violence, that it deserved its own.

I haven't seen an existing thread, apologies if I've missed one.

One of the scariest things I've ever read. We're in serious trouble.

Chimes totally with what I’m seeing in academia tbh.

It really is frightening.

It may not qualify for its own thread, but a job advert for a rare tenure track job at the US' to ranked public University illustrates the way things may be going over there.

Note the need for "a statement that addresses past and/or potential contributions to equity, diversity, and inclusion"

Posting on MN presumably would not count.

https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF08459

Hmm, they say "Latinx" in that ad posting too, a word most Latinos hate.

It reminds me a bit of a DEI conference they had at a university I am involved with in Canada. They had an elder from the local first Nations community, who told the group they should stop doing the land declarations that are now ubiquitous, they are meaningless and many First Nations people hate them.

They really didn't know what to do with that information, they were like goldfish. These statements are of course totally ineffectual in any practical way, they are more like part of a religious right, and a signal to others that they think the right things.

I once attended a conference in west London where, I kid you not, the organiser made a land declaration to ‘the first peoples’ of St John’s Wood’ 🤣😂🤣

@Rudderneck lmfao would've loved to see that. Land acknowledgement is so stupid, and ignores injustices committed against native people by other native people. My ancestors came up from Mexico a relatively short time ago in the anthropological timeline, and they had to boot somebody off their land to re-settle in what's now the US. The borders between nations were fluid sometimes as people went to war, as they're want to do. And what of people who sided with the French to gain territory? Why is the land they stole acknowledged?

So silly and useless, all of it. A former friend who is one of the most easily influenced, mentally people I've ever known is a DEI person in a big city now making nearly 6 figures teaching corporate and education types how to woke scold. Meanwhile, mathematical literacy amongst black students continues to plummet, immigrant kids have poor food security at home, and girls are being sexually assaulted more and more in our increasingly violent schools.

@Katbum , that is hilarious!
I suppose the First Peoples of St.Johns Wood were forest dwellers before they got ordered by St.John.
I'm curious now as to whether Land Declarations are meaningful to the firsts in Australia, or whether it's considered a hollow gesture.

Were they taking the piss? I’ve always been tempted to do this at a U.K. conference but wouldn’t quite dare.

I think the fact that I have to ask whether they were taking the piss shows how far gone academia is.

It's a depressing thought that so many of these academics that are screwing women over are women themselves. The ones who think sex work is fine and dandy. But not for their daughters, of course.

No. It was done with cringe inducing sincerity.

Cognitive dissonance is a feature not a bug. It's why they get so aggressive if they're questioned about any of it. Even if the questioners are genuinely seeking clarification, perhaps especially then. They're always on the fringe of looking ridiculous.

It's a depressing thought that so many of these academics that are screwing women over are women themselves.

I get depressed for the students.

The less than rigorous thought being offered by academics like Sally Hinds worries me. Good luck to the grifters if someone is willing to pay them large sums on money, but those kids taking on large loans to study gender studies at Sheffield are being cheated. For most employment they should be learning about critical thought, about gathering evidence and coming to a conclusion. That there is not one truth and that things are not black and white. You can agree or disagree with Laura Favaro but her research, if carried out properly should be subject to academic interrogation, not just smear.

Ditto the "Latinx" students at UCLA. Fine have a job advert that says we have done very well to attract a large number of students for minority and less affluent backgrounds. Now we need staff who will help make their dreams (and investment of time, money and lost wages) into a reality. Not by puffing up your DEI credentials but by proving that you are a hard working, capable academic who is able to get the best from this particular demographic. Surely the aim is to enrich and to teach skills rather than to indoctrinate. I suspect that the advert puts off more capable young academics than it attracts.

And as for the first peoples of St Johns Wood. Is it something you can identify into?

Good article - but will it change the minds of the true believers?

I think many pople are just unaware of how common that kind of movement has been historically, almost everywhere. I had a conversation with someone recently about that very question about the French, and specifically the fact that the warring indigenous groups at the time where we are now allied very deliberately with the French and English respectively, in hopes that with access to more technology and trade they could extinguish their enemies. Which in one instance they largely did.

It became clear that the person I was talking to actually didn't realize that history existed at all, nor did they seem to comprehend that there had been that kind of autonomous action, or political and militaristic motivation and strategy on the part of those groups. I've seen a similar kind of thinking about the British in India, people who don't seem to have any sense of how the various states and peoples were playing for their own advantage against others in terms of trade or war or power in general. And actually, now that I think about it, it's not dissimilar to the narrative many Americans have about the African slave trade, it's like it's all external, no sense of how it emerged from the internal political and military landscape.

How did people react to this? Did they laugh?

Everyone nodded seriously as if something profound had been said. The racial politics of my particular discipline are insane, so pointing out that this was nonsense would have been interpreted as ‘I am a Nazi’. A couple of people I spoke to afterwards also thought it was nuts but too scared to speak up because of what the reaction would have been.

This evokes one of the most problematic aspects of genderism: it expects full submission even from those external to its doctrine. What is worse, this is done largely via manipulation and coercion.

Totally agree with the above from the article!

Unbelievable. I wouldn't have been able to resist collaring that person in the coffee break to ask them to educate me as to what horrible fate befell the First People of St John's Wood, who their colonisers were, and how they felt we could best make reparations.

Good luck to the grifters if someone is willing to pay them large sums on money, but those kids taking on large loans to study gender studies at Sheffield are being cheated. For most employment they should be learning about critical thought, about gathering evidence and coming to a conclusion. That there is not one truth and that things are not black and white.

They want to be cheated. Trust me. If we tried to teach them this they'd run us off campus. They just want to be taught what they have already been indoctrinated in on social media. They don't want to be challenged and to learn to actually think.

That is so deliciously wonderful. Who did they imagine lived there when it was a forest? Perhaps they thought it was like Narnia full of Talking Beasts, dryads and fauns etc? I am going to start a campaign to ensure that every cricket match played at Lords begins with an apology to the first people of St John's Wood.

The article itself is shocking. It does not reflect at all well on senior women academics that they have treated a young women hoping to establish her career so badly.

Link to earlier background thread and gardening request:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4776028-dr-laura-favaro-is-taking-city-university-to-an-employment-tribunal

"It may not qualify for its own thread, but a job advert for a rare tenure track job at the US' to ranked public University illustrates the way things may be going over there.

Note the need for "a statement that addresses past and/or potential contributions to equity, diversity, and inclusion"

Definitely not "may be going'. It's been true for a very long time. We have thousands and thousands of $ thrown at DEI, and meanwhile I am teaching 2 overload courses because there's no money to pay for an adjunct to help me (c. $3000 a semester)!

Noooooooooo

What nationality was this speaker? Assuming American?