

A personal account of how call out culture has harmed teaching - platz
http://whitehotharlots.tumblr.com/post/114067452180/a-personal-account-of-how-call-out-culture-has

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gumby
> No way in hell would I assign that today. Not even to grad students.

If this is not hyperbole, then it is shocking. I mean OK, I can imagine
undergrads being hysterical one way or another -- that's part of being that
age. And frankly we _are_ all still working out millennia of screwed up
attitudes, so some reasonable positions can seem crazy, and vice versa.

But a grad student in German history should be able to read, and carry around,
Mein Kampf; if that is reasonable than why shouldn't a grad student in
English, Indian, or African colonial history be able to read an account of an
equally dreadful past?

If you can't cut an animal apart don't become a medicinal chemist. Likewise if
you are squeamish about history, don't become a historian.

~~~
esrauch
I'm pretty skeptical of the claim that liberal students will be "triggered" by
teaching out of a book that calls some colonial slaughter "genocide" leading
to the professor's career being impacted.

It's hard to say for sure, but this reads like someone who is very
conservative that is overstating or overestimating what is probably a real
(but much less severe) problem.

~~~
zaphar
What does this term "triggered" mean? I feel like I'm missing a crucial piece
of context when reading the article.

~~~
falcolas
Triggered means, made to recall and relive a traumatic psychological episode.
Think about a soldier with PTSD hearing fireworks.

Now then, that's the impression of the mental anguish this word is supposed to
evoke. However, in the context of this article, the phrase triggered is
instead used anytime you're made uncomfortable.

Criticism of my writing? You triggered my feelings of inadequacy from my
childhood... How dare you? Point out that I am using ad hominem arguments, and
you're a privileged white male who is out to actively oppress me.

I wish this was one big circle jerk, full of self deprecating humor from a
bored group of trolls, but it sure doesn't seem like it.

Search phrases for more research: "SJW", "cis", "/r/tumblerinaction"

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beerbajay
The author seems to hate both liberals and conservatives equally, but his
rhetoric is pure college republican; playing the victim when one is in fact in
a position of power and status and privilege, and a willful misunderstanding
of what is objectionable to these people they call "liberals".

It is a fantasy of being a victim when the author claims that they couldn't
assign a book on genocide because of liberal students; this is exactly the
kind of reading done in feminist and postcolonial studies programs. Also
telling is the author's worry that "one bougie, liberal student" would
complain about "texts about climate change" which "indicted our consumption-
based lifestyles"; this is the position of the left/liberals; it is
conservative students which object to these kinds of texts; so again, a victim
fantasy.

~~~
macho_pikachu
I rarely see these, "playing the victim" arguments shut down. I'll frequently
see them deconstructed, explained away, dismissed, but not forcefully and
cunningly defused.

Here's my attempt: Academic environments have historically been places of
cultural experimentation diametrically opposed to the stifling culture of the
workplace.

How desperate and bereft of sensitivity and creativity must you be to emulate
the corporate model of HR in your classroom?

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ajuc
If it's true (seems improbable, but then I live in PC-free society, how would
I know) it's very sad, and funny at the same time. Shows that every idea, no
matter how well-intentioned, can and will be abused eventually.

Another example - the outrage about the shirt of Rosetta misstion scientist.
It was unreal.

~~~
def_illiterate
Same thing, same groups.

Same groups behind Donglegate (or Donglewater, however you prefer to call your
scandals.)

