Cancel culture IRL

[mumblethrax]

He could have been pushing back at the politically correct notion that it's wrong to cast blame (or even suspicion) on the CCP, because the sort of folks who promote political correctness have also treated lab leak talk as taboo.

"Wuhan flu" doesn't particularly make sense as a castigation of the CCP.

This is far less complicated than you're making it.

 

[Darat]

And again

NOT IN A BLOODY CHEMISTRY SYLLABUS!!

I spent several years as I high school teacher. I can promise you that if I had started making political statements in a History or Engineering lesson plan or syllabus, I would have been fired, on the spot; given the DCM.... and that was over twenty years ago!!

But if I squint really hard, unfocus my eyes and switch off all the lights I might make out a flash from a single neutrino hitting a molecule of water in my eye that means I can continue to argue that it is important that chemistry syllabuses are allowed to add in politics and anyone saying they shouldn’t is a very intolerant person as bad as the Taliban!

 

[smartcooky]

But if I squint really hard, unfocus my eyes and switch off all the lights I might make out a flash from a single neutrino hitting a molecule of water in my eye that means I can continue to argue that it is important that chemistry syllabuses are allowed to add in politics and anyone saying they shouldn’t is a very intolerant person as bad as the Taliban!

Summed up near-perfectly!

 

[d4m10n]

"Wuhan flu" doesn't particularly make sense as a castigation of the CCP.

I believe the full quote was “Wuhan Flu or Chinese Communist Party Virus.” It's relatively easy to interpret these together as a critique of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a state institution which ultimately reports to the State Council of the People's Republic of China.

Then again, maybe he was just trolling.

 

[d4m10n]

But if I squint really hard, unfocus my eyes and switch off all the lights I might make out a flash from a single neutrino hitting a molecule of water in my eye that means I can continue to argue that it is important that chemistry syllabuses are allowed to add in politics...

Syracuse University has an academic freedom policy, one which doesn't limit itself to situations as narrow as the content of a specific syllabus.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Chemistry professor tries to make racially sensitive joke and it falls flat, causing more offense than humor. Completely understandable. And frankly, the eventual punishment seems like where the university should have started.

What I don’t get is bootlickers lining up to explain why it:

A. Wasn’t a joke but some insightful academic statement.

B. Wasn’t racially insensitive but factual in all aspects.

C. Was an important topic to discuss in this particular chemistry class.

 

[d4m10n]

Bootlickers, eh? Okay then.

Is there a similarly insulting term to use for people who hope to get professors fired from teaching?

Not that I'd deploy it, just curious.

 

[tyr_13]

Bootlickers, eh? Okay then.

Is there a similarly insulting term to use for people who hope to get professors fired from teaching?

Not that I'd deploy it, just curious.

Just think of this post as a Chemistry syllabus and the term is just academic freedom.

 

[phiwum]

Syracuse University has an academic freedom policy, one which doesn't limit itself to situations as narrow as the content of a specific syllabus.

Good point. Here's an excerpt.

Faculty are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject.

Now, are you saying that the use of the term "Chinese Communist Party Virus" (pardon me if that's a misquote) is somehow a natural topic in Chemistry?

 

[Darat]

Syracuse University has an academic freedom policy, one which doesn't limit itself to situations as narrow as the content of a specific syllabus.

And?

 

[d4m10n]

Now, are you saying that the use of the term "Chinese Communist Party Virus" (pardon me if that's a misquote) is somehow a natural topic in Chemistry?

Evaluating whether or not the virus originated in a CCP laboratory requires an understanding of biochemistry, particularly the behaviour of proteins. I don't think a political scientist would be particularly well qualified to sort this one out.

 

[smartcooky]

Syracuse University has an academic freedom policy, one which doesn't limit itself to situations as narrow as the content of a specific syllabus.

Except, of course, if you had actually read the link you posted, you would have seen it does exactly that!

 

[d4m10n]

Except, of course, if you had actually read the link you posted, you would have seen it does exactly that!

Show us where.

 

[smartcooky]

Evaluating whether or not the virus originated in a CCP laboratory requires an understanding of biochemistry, particularly the behaviour of proteins. I don't think a political scientist would be particularly well qualified to sort this one out.

What a load of tosh. You are just straight up lying now

1. This was a ******* Chemistry syllabus... NOT, repeat, NOT a Biochemistry syllabus. There is a big difference between those subjects.

2. Even if we were to accept your ridiculous spin, the comments were made in the class safety protocols... and they have nothing... absolutly nothing to do with the subject matter

 

[smartcooky]

Show us where.

"Faculty are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject. "

 

[d4m10n]

"Faculty are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject. "

Where does it say that "their subject" is limited by the course syllabus and cannot include the prof's published research?

Once again, I find myself taken aback by how the anti-speech folks will go to jesuitical lengths to narrow the scope of permissible speech in a university setting.

 

[smartcooky]

Where does it say that "their subject" is limited by the course syllabus and cannot include the prof's published research?

Once again, I find myself taken aback by how the anti-speech folks will go to jesuitical lengths to narrow the scope of permissible speech in a university setting.

The syllabus SETS the subject for the class

The subject set by a Chemistry syllabus is... err... Chemistry. I might well be a professor who has published research on Political Science or Social Justice, but I cannot include that as part of a Chemistry syllabus.

Once again, I find myself taken aback by how the pro-unlimited speech folks will turn themselves into pretzels to infinitely widen the scope of permissible speech in a university setting to such an extent that it allows racists, bigots and homophobes to use their academic status as cover for their use of slurs against protected minorities.
.
.

 

[Graham2001]

John McWhorter on an earlier 'it offends, make it go away' moment.

What is it about the University of Wisconsin and race? The administration’s recent decision to move a rock from view because a journalist referred to it with the N-word almost 100 years ago was goofy enough. But there has been more at the school in this vein.

This week a group including alumni, faith leaders, actors, and the N.A.A.C.P. wrote to University of Wisconsin officials asking them to repeal the tarring and feathering of an alumnus of the school, the renowned actor Fredric March. The letter, which was also sent to the Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, and shared with me, decried the decisions to strip March’s name from theaters on the Madison and Oshkosh campuses, which the writers blamed on “social-media rumor and grievously fact-free, mistaken conclusions” about March.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/opinion/wisconsin-Fredric-March.html

 

[phiwum]

Evaluating whether or not the virus originated in a CCP laboratory requires an understanding of biochemistry, particularly the behaviour of proteins. I don't think a political scientist would be particularly well qualified to sort this one out.

Perhaps. Is the prof a biochemist? Was this a course in which such specialized topics were relevant?

And didn't he say his point was more political than scientific? Not in so many words, but as a strike against PCness?

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Syracuse's record

FIRE's Adam Steinbaugh wrote, "But just as that statement offers valuable lessons for other institutions, so too does its genesis offer caution about the importance of consistency. The fact is that, thanks to Syracuse’s shockingly abysmal track record of failing to defend its students and faculty members’ freedom of expression, there is virtually no reason to believe the university’s profession of principles on free speech, nor its will to continue to defend Jackson should the pressure increase or the politics change."

"When a faculty member’s syllabus joked about the “Wuhan flu,” Syracuse suspended him, relenting only after FIRE came to his defense. Fraternity members have not been so fortunate: Fraternity members whose skit privately and humorously “roasted” a conservative member of the group by insinuating that he was racist — using racist language to do so — were suspended after video of the event leaked. Syracuse defended that censorship, predicated on ensuring a “welcoming” environment on campus, up and down New York’s appellate courts. When it announced its new Code of Student Conduct, administrators warned that it meant “bystanders” — that is, people who witness offensive speech or prohibited conduct — “can be held accountable,” which is both unjust and preposterous."

Here is more information on the Theta Tau episode. Syracuse's record is worse than the average university, but it is not the only offender.