Academic Freedom and Cancel Culture

[mamselle]

Back to the goat thread-within-the-thread.

Using them, or sheep, for grass control is a very old ploy.

In the early 1600s, landowners were permitted to graze their sheep in a town's early burial ground to keep the growth down.

Even more recently, they can be hired out for the same purposes: Colorado St. Univ. has this report:

   https://sam.extension.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/06/goats-weeds.pdf 

And the Pew Charitable Trusts offer this article on specific growth control near Pittsburgh:

   https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/05/20/grazing-goats-get-government-work

I've seen others at work near me.

OK, back to the other sub-thread-thread.

M.

[marshwiggle]

This excellent review of Anne Applebaum's new book is worth the read. It has something for everyone.

I have tried quite hard to find hard data on this matter. FIRE, an organization I consider fairly credible in its consistency regardless of the partisan valence of particular incidents, has documented 426 "targeting incidents involving scholars at public and private American institutions of higher education," and 477 "disinvitations" (Joe and Hunter Biden being the first and second most recent incidents at the time of this writing). Canceled People, an organization dedicated entirely to tracking cases of this kind, documents 217 cases of "cancellation." The National Association of Scholars documents 185 cases of "cancellation" in academia. The first FIRE database goes back to 2015, the second goes back as far as 1998. The Canceled People list includes a case from 1991. The NAS list has a case from 1975, one from 1988, and one from 2004, growing considerably more recent after that.

I have not bothered to duplicate these lists; even if they are all unique cases, the total is very small relative to both the size of the populations they are drawn from and the time period over which they occur. If any other problem in social life was occurring at this frequency and at this scale, we would consider it effectively solved.

That's an odd quotation at the end. Would 400+ incidents of racism or campus sexual assault be described as "effectively solved"?

[secundem_artem]

NPR's On Point had a thoughtful discussion about academic freedom of speech and the risk of getting cancelled from either the left or the right.

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2021/09/28/the-academics-behind-the-push-to-speak-freely-on-campus

[Parasaurolophus]

This excellent review of Anne Applebaum's new book is worth the read. It has something for everyone.

I have tried quite hard to find hard data on this matter. FIRE, an organization I consider fairly credible in its consistency regardless of the partisan valence of particular incidents, has documented 426 "targeting incidents involving scholars at public and private American institutions of higher education," and 477 "disinvitations" (Joe and Hunter Biden being the first and second most recent incidents at the time of this writing). Canceled People, an organization dedicated entirely to tracking cases of this kind, documents 217 cases of "cancellation." The National Association of Scholars documents 185 cases of "cancellation" in academia. The first FIRE database goes back to 2015, the second goes back as far as 1998. The Canceled People list includes a case from 1991. The NAS list has a case from 1975, one from 1988, and one from 2004, growing considerably more recent after that.

I have not bothered to duplicate these lists; even if they are all unique cases, the total is very small relative to both the size of the populations they are drawn from and the time period over which they occur. If any other problem in social life was occurring at this frequency and at this scale, we would consider it effectively solved.

That's an odd quotation at the end. Would 400+ incidents of racism or campus sexual assault be described as "effectively solved"?

Spread out across 4000 colleges and universities and 20 years or more? Yes.

[marshwiggle]

This excellent review of Anne Applebaum's new book is worth the read. It has something for everyone.

I have tried quite hard to find hard data on this matter. FIRE, an organization I consider fairly credible in its consistency regardless of the partisan valence of particular incidents, has documented 426 "targeting incidents involving scholars at public and private American institutions of higher education," and 477 "disinvitations" (Joe and Hunter Biden being the first and second most recent incidents at the time of this writing). Canceled People, an organization dedicated entirely to tracking cases of this kind, documents 217 cases of "cancellation." The National Association of Scholars documents 185 cases of "cancellation" in academia. The first FIRE database goes back to 2015, the second goes back as far as 1998. The Canceled People list includes a case from 1991. The NAS list has a case from 1975, one from 1988, and one from 2004, growing considerably more recent after that.

I have not bothered to duplicate these lists; even if they are all unique cases, the total is very small relative to both the size of the populations they are drawn from and the time period over which they occur. If any other problem in social life was occurring at this frequency and at this scale, we would consider it effectively solved.

That's an odd quotation at the end. Would 400+ incidents of racism or campus sexual assault be described as "effectively solved"?

Spread out across 4000 colleges and universities and 20 years or more? Yes.

Can you imagine anyone actually saying such a thing publicly? In the current climate, I can't imagine it.

[Parasaurolophus]

Saying it's effectively solved doesn't mean it doesn't or can't happen, or that it's fine when it does.

But we would be indescribably lucky if such events happened just once at just 10% of colleges and universities every year, let alone across twenty to thirty years. If we had enacted policies which reduced sexual violence on campus that much, it would be a huge success. (The current yearly estimate is 6.1 sexual assaults on campus per 1000 students. That's about 101 260 a year...)

If you want to put this in another perspective: there are an average of 16 shark attacks in the US each year. Going back to 1978 (as NAS does for its 185 cases of "cancellations") that's 736 shark attacks. Shark attacks are thus a much bigger problem than "cancellations" are (if you went by NAS, as much as four times bigger).

[Wahoo Redux]

One of the women in my graduate cohort married a fella who lived on a country plot and owned goats.  The goats acted just like dogs but were very distrustful of people they did not know.  I wonder how goats would react to large groups of students.  There are a number of fails on YouTube involving people getting butted by goats.

[dismalist]

Saying it's effectively solved doesn't mean it doesn't or can't happen, or that it's fine when it does.

But we would be indescribably lucky if such events happened just once at just 10% of colleges and universities every year, let alone across twenty to thirty years. If we had enacted policies which reduced sexual violence on campus that much, it would be a huge success. (The current yearly estimate is 6.1 sexual assaults on campus per 1000 students. That's about 101 260 a year...)

If you want to put this in another perspective: there are an average of 16 shark attacks in the US each year. Going back to 1978 (as NAS does for its 185 cases of "cancellations") that's 736 shark attacks. Shark attacks are thus a much bigger problem than "cancellations" are (if you went by NAS, as much as four times bigger).

Apparently there have been more shark attacks at Caped Cod [more baby seals are attracting the sharks] which induced the Cape Codders to install -- and pay for -- sharp mitigation technologies. To Cancel Culture mitigation technologies I am happy to contribute financially, and I do. :-)

[mahagonny]

Even mahagonny:

As to what can be done, that is clearer. If you don't like the power of the "secretive bureaucracies" at large employers, then consider promoting laws more favorable to the development of unions and alternatives to at-will employment.

In the current political climate, I don't see most unions as much protection unless one is aligned with the democratic platform. I'd be pleased to find out I'm wrong.

[dismalist]

Even mahagonny:

As to what can be done, that is clearer. If you don't like the power of the "secretive bureaucracies" at large employers, then consider promoting laws more favorable to the development of unions and alternatives to at-will employment.

In the current political climate, I don't see most unions as much protection unless one is aligned with the democratic platform. I'd be pleased to find out I'm wrong.

Unions are good for union members alne. And they can't contain all workers, for the higher wages depend on having a smaller work force. The others get nailed. This pushes down wages in non-unionized sectors and States. Lovely.

[mahagonny]

Even mahagonny:

As to what can be done, that is clearer. If you don't like the power of the "secretive bureaucracies" at large employers, then consider promoting laws more favorable to the development of unions and alternatives to at-will employment.

In the current political climate, I don't see most unions as much protection unless one is aligned with the democratic platform. I'd be pleased to find out I'm wrong.

Unions are good for union members alne. And they can't contain all workers, for the higher wages depend on having a smaller work force. The others get nailed. This pushes down wages in non-unionized sectors and States. Lovely.

Oh. Maybe so. I was thinking of more of protection for freedom of speech.

[dismalist]

Even mahagonny:

As to what can be done, that is clearer. If you don't like the power of the "secretive bureaucracies" at large employers, then consider promoting laws more favorable to the development of unions and alternatives to at-will employment.

In the current political climate, I don't see most unions as much protection unless one is aligned with the democratic platform. I'd be pleased to find out I'm wrong.

Unions are good for union members alne. And they can't contain all workers, for the higher wages depend on having a smaller work force. The others get nailed. This pushes down wages in non-unionized sectors and States. Lovely.

Oh. Maybe so. I was thinking of more of protection for freedom of speech.

Unions? Their speech!

[mahagonny]

Perhaps true. Perhaps there are no ideals left, anywhere, only ruses. Right now I'm thinking the dismalist knows.

[spork]

Yale: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/arts/yale-grand-strategy-resignation.html.

[spork]

MIT: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/why-latest-campus-cancellation-different/620352/