Pep Talk For Sane People

[mahagonny]

https://nypost.com/2021/01/31/10-ways-to-fight-back-against-woke-culture/

This interested me because I have been reading that people who don't self-identify as liberal increasingly feel they cannot express themselves in the academic world, and I believe it. OTOH, why the hell can't we?

Discuss please.

Bonus: John McWhorter fights back....https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/more-on-what-modern-antiracism-does

[writingprof]

True story: I saw your thread title and thought, "I should post a link to yesterday's excellent Bari Weiss column there."

[marshwiggle]

One of my favourite quotes:

If you are a decent person, you know mob justice is never just. So never join a mob. Ever. Even if you agree with the mob. If you are a decent person, you know betraying friends is wrong. So if a friend or a colleague does something you disagree with, write them a private note. Don't be a snitch. Any mob that comes for them will come for you.

Great article. My one quibble:

Do not nod along when you hear the following:
That America is evil. (It is the last hope on Earth.)

Setting aside the issue of American exceptionalism, this sort of absolutist thinking ("last hope on Earth") fuels the fundamentalist zeal of the people she criticizes. All kinds of countries are dealing with the same kinds of issues, and some may not get as polarized as the USA in the first place, or may advance to a place of sanity before the USA does.

There is another Skywalker. (Or perhaps several)

Otherwise spot on.

[polly_mer]

Academia is not limited to just the humanities.

Visit other parts of campus.

Make friends with people who aren't humanities professors.

The useful pep talk for sane people is to get out into the wide world that is filled with interesting people and activities where the term 'woke' doesn't occur for years at a time.  Stop playing the game if you'd rather do something else.  Lots of games exist with better stakes and rules more to your liking.

[Parasaurolophus]

This is a listicle like any other, which is to say it's pretty vapid and overgeneral. You might as well be nodding in agreement with JPete's lobster rules.

I find #2 especially amusing, however:

2. Be honest.
Do not say anything about yourself or others that you know is false. Absolutely refuse to let your mind be colonized. The first crazy thing someone asks you to believe or to profess, refuse. If you can, do so out loud. There is a good chance it will inspire others to speak up, too.

I think it's funny, because it's exactly this sort of thing that you all don't like.

[writingprof]

This is a listicle like any other, which is to say it's pretty vapid and overgeneral. You might as well be nodding in agreement with JPete's lobster rules.

I find #2 especially amusing, however:

2. Be honest.
Do not say anything about yourself or others that you know is false. Absolutely refuse to let your mind be colonized. The first crazy thing someone asks you to believe or to profess, refuse. If you can, do so out loud. There is a good chance it will inspire others to speak up, too.

I think it's funny, because it's exactly this sort of thing that you all don't like.

We like it when the subject is the actual sex of a transgender person. We like it when discussing the historical record of Marxism. It's possible that we don't like it when reflecting on our culpability for some of Trump's misbehavior. But, on the whole, I'd say we like it.

[marshwiggle]

This is a listicle like any other, which is to say it's pretty vapid and overgeneral. You might as well be nodding in agreement with JPete's lobster rules.

I find #2 especially amusing, however:

2. Be honest.
Do not say anything about yourself or others that you know is false. Absolutely refuse to let your mind be colonized. The first crazy thing someone asks you to believe or to profess, refuse. If you can, do so out loud. There is a good chance it will inspire others to speak up, too.

I think it's funny, because it's exactly this sort of thing that you all don't like.

We like it when the subject is the actual sex of a transgender person. We like it when discussing the historical record of Marxism. It's possible that we don't like it when reflecting on our culpability for some of Trump's misbehavior. But, on the whole, I'd say we like it.

And when it refers to things that are actually established by science, rather than all kinds of non-falsifiable circular logic garbage like "white fragility".

[mahagonny]

Academia is not limited to just the humanities.

Visit other parts of campus.

Make friends with people who aren't humanities professors.

The useful pep talk for sane people is to get out into the wide world that is filled with interesting people and activities where the term 'woke' doesn't occur for years at a time.  Stop playing the game if you'd rather do something else.  Lots of games exist with better stakes and rules more to your liking.

Other parts of the campus are under the same dominance of the diversity and inclusion team and the union. There are, of course, individuals who are not lock-step with this whole dogma they are pushing, although one might detonate a lot of mines while looking for them. It might be interesting if all of us got together and formed a mini-society.
These trends pervade my field and it's not so intolerable that I would leave my field and attempt to replace my income another way. Besides, even after I did that the toxicity would remain for others. It should be talked about.
'All that's necessary for the world to go to hell in a hand basket is for good people to watch what bad people are doing and neglect to act in opposition.' - or whatever the exact quotation is.

[mahagonny]

And another one: https://spectator.org/identity-politics-media/