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[Deleted]April 5, 2024
This is why I had to leave the academy: You’re watching grand storied universities destroy themselves because they no longer believe in themselves, they don’t believe in the canon they’re supposed to be transferring to the next generation.” The students now have the power, she says. “It was bad enough that the universities had converted into supermarkets, which were offering products. But the administration and faculty are now terrified of their own student bodies.”
Could not be more true! Esp the students have the power. I know a lot of people think its the profs, but let me tell you, many of us live in terror of the students. The nexus of students and admin made my life a living hell.
m0RT_1 [OP]April 5, 2024
that satisfaction of destroying other people’s lives.
Where do these students end up? It is terrifying what they are training each other to do. Someone needs to start teaching more students about the horrors of emulating the Stazi.
MarthaMMCApril 5, 2024
This era reminds me of China's cultural revolution & the young woke people remind me of the Red Guards, forcing denunciations from people against others, "re-educating" people, punishing people for their former "privileged" status in society. They were set loose by Mao to serve his views, who set loose this woke group & for what purpose?
LadylucyApril 6, 2024
I would add “glee” to satisfaction. They find destroying someone funny, and most of all, powerful.
SlowCollapseApril 5, 2024
Education became a for-profit service. So ‘the customer is always right’, even when they’re horribly horribly wrong.
"We talk about JK Rowling, whom the Telegraph has described as “the woman who can’t be cancelled”. “Of course, they would have taken her down if they could,” Shriver says. “That’s why she’s been so important. Because she hasn’t apologised, which has been the format, traditionally. She’s stuck by her guns and has helped make it more possible for people who are in less powerful positions to also be forthright about their reservations about this consuming social mania for transgenderism.”
To connect two great women who, in different ways, are trying to promote sanity, fairness and justice. Shriver, through her novels, her speaking and articles. Shriver's wit, truth telling, fearlessness, and unique views rub some people the wrong way, but usually those who deserve it. She speaks the hard truths and is first and foremost a believer in Free Speech for everyone, and is a sharp, uncompromising observer of social and cultural issues, as a writer must be.
TortoisemouseApril 8, 2024
"Right now, being male, I would say, is on a career level, a disadvantage"
Some of what she says in this article is good, but she seems to be tarring all attempts at equality and inclusion with "woke" nonsense or whatever. The fact remains women are still hugely disadvantaged in nearly all areas of life, particularly work and economic. Legislation and policy are very much needed to help combat the disadvantages of our sex. I'm really disappointed she is unable to recognise that.
ItzpapalotlApril 5, 2024
So glad my favourite author (alongside our queen JK 💚) is against this shit.
She is polarising, I'm not on board with everything she says, but there are some gems in this interview.
“I am very suspicious of this whole pose of guilt,” she says, explaining that it’s usually used by white people to “assert superiority over other white people”...... “Real guilt is a terrible sensation. It is not something that you parade, shame. That is not what these people are experiencing. It’s proud guilt. It’s used to shut people up, to essentially deprive you of your right to free speech".
Things start falling apart because functionality no longer matters; all that matters is ideology. And that’s what we’re dealing with right now. You’re watching grand storied universities destroy themselves because they no longer believe in themselves, they don’t believe in the canon they’re supposed to be transferring to the next generation.” The students now have the power, she says. “It was bad enough that the universities had converted into supermarkets, which were offering products. But the administration and faculty are now terrified of their own student bodies.”
Cancel culture, Shriver believes, “is getting worse... there’s nothing moderate about it. It’s aggressive, hostile, angry, deliberately disruptive, vengeful, perhaps vengeful above all... it’s about hunting people’s careers for sport.” The goal, she says, “is to utterly destroy you. And that is the appeal of this stuff – that satisfaction of destroying other people’s lives. And also, in doing so, you don’t have to take any responsibility for being a destructive force. You are the force of righteousness.”
I agree. I think there is structural racism in the society I live in and just blatant racism between individuals. Same with sexism. But I think these are both much more complex than dividing people into good guys and bad guys, incapable of nuance or change.
If kids were given a decent education in terms of world history, geography and critical thinking, most would come to their own opinions about global dynamics, with the benefit of diversity and debate that would allow us to actually change society. But of course that would also involve discussion of class and that is the main thing that elites want to avoid.
It’s easy to imagine the mental parity world she describes. At my workplace we are not allowed to use the phrases “white glove treatment” or “blackout period” for example despite these having precisely zero to do with race.
See, now this is the kind of condescension that is emblematic of our current moment. It does nothing, nothing to address racism but jars and divides people while supposedly showing a superiority of perception. It’s not only that it’s all surface and no substance, though that would be bad enough, it’s actively doing the opposite of what it purports.