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Another Seuss Cancellation Thread (Summer 2023)

Started by Parasaurolophus, June 21, 2023, 03:01:13 PM

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marshwiggle

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 05, 2024, 08:13:40 PMColleges have big mouths about free speech and free inquiry. 

Colleges also prattle endlessly about being welcoming, being safe for everyone, and DEI.

It may be that you can't have both at the same time, particularly if we conceive of college students as being so incredibly fragile.

As long as "safety" is in the eye of the beholder, that will be the case.

Life is not "safe".
It takes so little to be above average.

Wahoo Redux

Don't know what to make of this one.  Clearly a typical homophobic and racial bigot trying to sublimate in academese...but still, he has an opinion...had to flee to Florida to feel safe with it...

IHE: New College of Florida Hires Professor Who Champions Colonialism

Lower Deck:
QuoteThe institution's president has appointed Bruce Gilley—who's argued that a "European moral revolution" ended Africa's "endemic slave empires" and said the transgender flag symbolizes mutilating children—to teach.

QuoteA second way to "reclaim colonialism," Gilley wrote, "is to recolonize some regions. Western countries should be encouraged to hold power in specific governance areas (public finances, say, or criminal justice) in order to jump-start enduring reforms in weak states." Thirdly, he added, "it may be possible to build new Western colonies from scratch." He did say colonialism could return "only with the consent of the colonized."

<...>

The article was published in September 2017. By the end of that month, Gilley, a politics and global affairs professor, was himself calling for its retraction. "I regret the pain and anger that it has caused for many people," he said in a statement. "I hope that this action will allow a more civil and caring discussion on this important issue to take place." The journal removed the essay from its website, citing threats of violence to its then editor.

<...>

So Gilley clearly hasn't changed his tune. "Decolonization has been the greatest human rights disaster ever," he told Inside Higher Ed this week. He said he's heard support for his arguments from people of color who live in countries that were once European colonies.

"They're sick and tired of having Black activists in America or white film studies professors telling them what they're supposed to think about their own histories," Gilley said.

Hmmm...gotta throw a little doubt on that last one there...
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

Wahoo Redux

#242
And this is more of the typical stick-up-the-wazoo / admincritters-wetting-their-pantaloons type bruhaha. 

IHE: U of Houston Cancels Art Event for Sculpture Deemed 'Satanic'

Lower Deck:
QuoteAntiabortion groups say the sculpture being exhibited on campus has "satanic" imagery and reflects the artist's stance on abortion rights.

QuoteThe sculpture, "Witness," by Pakistani American artist Shahzia Sikander, is slated for an eight-month stay at the Public Art of the University of Houston System collection. It features an 18-foot woman with thick, gold braids that resemble rams' horns and arms and legs that look like roots. The woman also wears a hooped skirt with mosaic details and a distinctive collar that is an homage to the signature lace judicial collars worn by late U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

<....>

Texas Right to Life, an antiabortion advocacy organization, released a blistering statement, describing the sculpture as having "satanic imagery to honor abortion" and memorialize Ginsburg.

<....>

"Disobedience to God certainly should not be esteemed by society, much less lauded with a statue," the statement read. "On the contrary, art should reflect truth, goodness, and beauty: three timeless values that reveal the nature of God. Art cannot have beauty without truth. Art cannot have truth without goodness. A statue honoring child sacrifice has no place in Texas."
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

nebo113

#243
On the contrary, art should reflect truth, goodness, and beauty: three timeless values that reveal the nature of God. Art cannot have beauty without truth. Art cannot have truth without goodness.

Wonder if she approves of Michangelo's David.....  That man is certainly beautiful, and his body truthfully sculpted.....Though his relationship with Tommasso may make him unacceptable to those who require the missionary position.

Wahoo Redux

This is a bit of a reversal, but NBC News: BYU now requires incoming students to read controversial 'musket fire' speech

Lower Deck
QuoteThe 2021 address, which defends "marriage as the union of a man and a woman," called on members of the Mormon church to defend its teachings with "musket fire."

QuoteA new required course at the Provo, Utah, university titled "UNIV 101: BYU Foundations for Student Success, a New Chapter for BYU" features the controversial "musket fire" speech by Latter-day Saint religious leader and former BYU President Jeffrey R. Holland as a core reading. Starting in the winter 2024 semester, all incoming students, except transfer students, will have to take the course in their first semester.

In the speech titled "The Second Half of the Second Century of Brigham Young University," Holland condemned criticisms of the Mormon faith, calling on members of the church to defend its teachings with "musket fire." One such teaching, Holland said, includes "the doctrine of the family and defending marriage as the union of a man and a woman."
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

kaysixteen

This is BYU.   What would you expect them to do, deny their fundamental teachings and/or not teach these to their students?

ciao_yall

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 18, 2024, 04:33:45 PMThis is a bit of a reversal, but NBC News: BYU now requires incoming students to read controversial 'musket fire' speech

Lower Deck
QuoteThe 2021 address, which defends "marriage as the union of a man and a woman," called on members of the Mormon church to defend its teachings with "musket fire."

QuoteA new required course at the Provo, Utah, university titled "UNIV 101: BYU Foundations for Student Success, a New Chapter for BYU" features the controversial "musket fire" speech by Latter-day Saint religious leader and former BYU President Jeffrey R. Holland as a core reading. Starting in the winter 2024 semester, all incoming students, except transfer students, will have to take the course in their first semester.

In the speech titled "The Second Half of the Second Century of Brigham Young University," Holland condemned criticisms of the Mormon faith, calling on members of the church to defend its teachings with "musket fire." One such teaching, Holland said, includes "the doctrine of the family and defending marriage as the union of a man and a woman."

That incoming class has grown up with new of mass school shootings and LGTBQ people portrayed positively in the media. The chances of them having personal experience with these issues, or friends and community members with such experiences is extremely high.

If it makes half the incoming class drop out, BYU might have to rethink that policy.

Wahoo Redux

#247
Quote from: kaysixteen on March 18, 2024, 07:25:55 PMThis is BYU.   What would you expect them to do, deny their fundamental teachings and/or not teach these to their students?

I'm just posting the story.

This is yet another example of a university trying to control its students' speech and thoughts, however.  Take that as you will.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

nebo113

The Morman Church has always been ambivalent about people of color:

"Many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people" 2 Nephi 30:6

marshwiggle

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 19, 2024, 07:40:41 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on March 18, 2024, 07:25:55 PMThis is BYU.   What would you expect them to do, deny their fundamental teachings and/or not teach these to their students?

I'm just posting the story.

This is yet another example of a university trying to control its students' speech and thoughts, however.  Take that as you will.

Does anyone know if BYU has incoming students sign some sort of statement of faith when they arrive?

I don't really have a problem with things like this if they are clear about it up front, so prospective students have the choice of going elsewhere if they don't subscribe to it. (Kind of like joining the military, in that way; the restrictions on recruits are way more extreme than would be acceptable in pretty much any other context, but they can choose to sign up or not.)

With normal institutions that at least pay some lip service to freedom of thought and expression, restrictions imposed after they arrive are another matter entirely.
It takes so little to be above average.

nebo113

Quote from: marshwiggle on March 20, 2024, 07:35:05 AM
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on March 19, 2024, 07:40:41 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on March 18, 2024, 07:25:55 PMThis is BYU.   What would you expect them to do, deny their fundamental teachings and/or not teach these to their students?

I'm just posting the story.

This is yet another example of a university trying to control its students' speech and thoughts, however.  Take that as you will.

Does anyone know if BYU has incoming students sign some sort of statement of faith when they arrive?

I don't really have a problem with things like this if they are clear about it up front, so prospective students have the choice of going elsewhere if they don't subscribe to it. (Kind of like joining the military, in that way; the restrictions on recruits are way more extreme than would be acceptable in pretty much any other context, but they can choose to sign up or not.)

With normal institutions that at least pay some lip service to freedom of thought and expression, restrictions imposed after they arrive are another matter entirely.

IIRC, they have to be in good standing with the Church and gat a recommend from the Ward Bishop.  And he does say that he is a practicing Mormon.