Cancelling Dr. Seuss

[Diogenes]

A simple example is obesity, and the push by many to deny the science about the health costs of obesity. It's why the ogranization changed its name from "Weight Watchers" to "WW", because caring about weight is considered by many to be inherently bad.

NO... they are just keeping up with the latest science, as any good academic ought to do, right?
BMI is BS https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439
In fact, the originators of it have been screaming about it's misuse from the beginning.  https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-body-mass-index/id1535408667?i=1000530850955

If that's your idea of this amorphous "cancel culture" you go on about, I suppose we Liberal snowflakes CANCELLED flat earth theory

[marshwiggle]

A simple example is obesity, and the push by many to deny the science about the health costs of obesity. It's why the ogranization changed its name from "Weight Watchers" to "WW", because caring about weight is considered by many to be inherently bad.

NO... they are just keeping up with the latest science, as any good academic ought to do, right?
BMI is BS https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439
In fact, the originators of it have been screaming about it's misuse from the beginning.  https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-body-mass-index/id1535408667?i=1000530850955

If that's your idea of this amorphous "cancel culture" you go on about, I suppose we Liberal snowflakes CANCELLED flat earth theory

Problems with the BMI as a metric don't negate all of the medical data about effects of weight on health. Thee above response illustrates the point I was making about cancel culture quite well.

[Wahoo Redux]

Racist Fraternity Joke Prompts Outrage at Duke

Gotta say, though, that these D-bags are the types to give frats a bad name.

What bothers me, as always, is our impulse to form some sort of censorious entity to control what we say.

Multiple Duke student organizations, including Mi Gente, Duke's largest Latinx student group, signed on to a letter making several demands of the university, including that it create a "peer judicial board" so students can hold each other accountable and establish more systems to allow for confidential peer reporting about Greek life.

[marshwiggle]

Racist Fraternity Joke Prompts Outrage at Duke

Gotta say, though, that these D-bags are the types to give frats a bad name.

What bothers me, as always, is our impulse to form some sort of censorious entity to control what we say.

Multiple Duke student organizations, including Mi Gente, Duke's largest Latinx student group, signed on to a letter making several demands of the university, including that it create a "peer judicial board" so students can hold each other accountable and establish more systems to allow for confidential peer reporting about Greek life.

It's based on the mistaken notion that rudeness can be legislated out of existence. Wherever the line is drawn as to what is "illegal", there will be people who will push right up to that line; i.e. that is what is "rude". The only sane way to make laws is to try to base them on objective concepts  of harm, rather than on subjective experiences of "offense".   Harm should be determined by the damage that is universally observable, rather than on what is individually perceived.

[waterboy]

That would seem to me to allow for only punishment for physical abuse and relegate verbal abuse to the legal dustbin. I don't think that's equitable.

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: Professor Who Tweeted About Black Privilege Reinstated despite the trumped up charges

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: Princeton Moves to Fire Professor with a bunch of trumped up charges.

[downer]

IHE: Princeton Moves to Fire Professor with a bunch of trumped up charges.

That's just repeating claims by The Free Beacon. Not a reliable source.

[downer]

IHE: Princeton Moves to Fire Professor with a bunch of trumped up charges.

That's just repeating claims by The Free Beacon. Not a reliable source.

Katz got fired.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/us/princeton-fires-joshua-katz.html
As expected, Princeton says it is because of his sexual misconduct and his lying about it, and he says it is because of his political stance on inclusiveness.

Dr. Katz, 52, said Princeton had treated him with "gross unfairness" after he had given his "entire career" to the university.

I'm looking forward to him also saying "My name and family have been totally and permanently destroyed." wlb

[Wahoo Redux]

IHE: Retract or Attack

The African Studies Review is facing calls to retract a recent article by two white Africanists promoting "autoethnography," or research incorporating one's own personal experiences.

Thompson and Mara don't suggest that they've invented autoethnography (which has long existed), and they discuss at length various opportunities for collaborative autoethnography, such as crediting research participants for their ideas and doing research together with them. Their critics nevertheless fault them (and the journal) for thinking it was a good idea for two white women to suggest centering personal experience in research involving African people, especially in the name of decolonization.

"Instead of actually being mindful of power and positionality, the authors instead co-opt autoethnography—a methodology that should be used to advocate empowerment within postcolonial discourses—to grant themselves authority to speak for African people," the demand-for-retraction letter says. "This reflects a growing trend in disconnecting the logics of decolonization from its liberatory praxis to 'campfire decolonization', which replaces engaged critique of theory with a warm and safe space under the misappropriation of inclusion and equality frameworks."

[marshwiggle]

IHE: Retract or Attack

The African Studies Review is facing calls to retract a recent article by two white Africanists promoting "autoethnography," or research incorporating one's own personal experiences.

"Instead of actually being mindful of power and positionality, the authors instead co-opt autoethnography—a methodology that should be used to advocate empowerment within postcolonial discourses—to grant themselves authority to speak for African people," the demand-for-retraction letter says. "This reflects a growing trend in disconnecting the logics of decolonization from its liberatory praxis to 'campfire decolonization', which replaces engaged critique of theory with a warm and safe space under the misappropriation of inclusion and equality frameworks."

So am I reading this to mean that it's not sufficient for white people to incorporate the stories and insights of Africans into their research, but that they should instead vacate that field entirely so that only people from a community (in this case Africans) can research their own community?

[Diogenes]

Problems with the BMI as a metric don't negate all of the medical data about effects of weight on health. Thee above response illustrates the point I was making about cancel culture quite well.

You should probably listen to the sources I cited. It does negate it because it breaks down the validity of your independent variable. You have no equation.

Multiple threads over many weeks and we still can't get an operational definition from you about what exactly "Cancel Culture" is. Can you at least pleeaseeee define it? Until you do, I must just call it as a see it- an amorphous moving goal post that you toss around whenever it's self serving to your personal political proclivities.

[marshwiggle]

Multiple threads over many weeks and we still can't get an operational definition from you about what exactly "Cancel Culture" is. Can you at least pleeaseeee define it?

At its most basic, it's about silencing people rather than refuting  arguments. Saying "This person is wrong, and this is why...." isn't cancel culture. Saying "This person is wrong, and should be fired for saying such a thing" is cancel culture. It isn't confined to one end of the political spectrum; it has a long tradition in religious circles where people were punished for blasphemy. It's the idea that certain statements cannot be made publicly, or that even certain questions cannot be asked.(In the absence of cancel culture, there can still be statements or questions that may be considered in bad taste, or poorly worded, but in that manner they are violations of etiquette, rather than violations of laws or formal codes of conduct.)

[ciao_yall]

Multiple threads over many weeks and we still can't get an operational definition from you about what exactly "Cancel Culture" is. Can you at least pleeaseeee define it?

At its most basic, it's about silencing people rather than refuting  arguments. Saying "This person is wrong, and this is why...." isn't cancel culture. Saying "This person is wrong, and should be fired for saying such a thing" is cancel culture. It isn't confined to one end of the political spectrum; it has a long tradition in religious circles where people were punished for blasphemy. It's the idea that certain statements cannot be made publicly, or that even certain questions cannot be asked.(In the absence of cancel culture, there can still be statements or questions that may be considered in bad taste, or poorly worded, but in that manner they are violations of etiquette, rather than violations of laws or formal codes of conduct.)

Still, anyone has the right to say "You know what? I don't feel like engaging in discussion with you any more. And frankly, you are being toxic and dragging the conversation into the pits of heck instead of moving it forward. So... kthxbye."

Is that Cancel Culture? Or just natural consequences to behaving like a tool?

[Wahoo Redux]

There actually is a Merriam-Webster definition of "cancel culture":

Definition of cancel culture
: the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling (see CANCEL entry 1 sense 1e) as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure

For those of you who aren't aware, cancel culture refers to the mass withdrawal of support from public figures or celebrities who have done things that aren't socially accepted today. This practice of "canceling" or mass shaming often occurs on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
— Demetria Slyt

At a Republican National Convention where speakers' rage about cancel culture has been clear, former Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann used his speaking slot to introduce himself as "the teenager who was defamed by the media."
— Hunter Woodall

The relative difficulty of doing something good and the prolonged waiting period to receive credit for it is why cancel culture has flourished. It offers quicker social rewards.
— Rob Henderson
Cancel culture is supported as a tool to stop offensive and harmful behavior, while others find it problematic and toxic.
— Elise Krumholz

cancel culture warriors

the cancel culture movement

also : the people who engage in or support this practice
I have to admit that I'm not opposed to the majority of legacies, groups of people, and trends being scrutinized by the cancel culture. In fact, the response to many of the ideologies and personalities that have been "cancelled" is, in most cases, long, long overdue. But I have a few concerns ...
— Brad Peters

First Known Use of cancel culture
2016, in the meaning defined above