In The Coming of the Third Reich, historian Richard J. Evans explains how, in the early days of National Socialist Germany, Stormtroopers (Brownshirts) “organized campaigns against unwanted professors in the local newspapers [and] staged mass disruptions of their lectures.” To express dissent from Nazi positions became a matter of taking one’s life into one’s hands. The idea of people of opposing viewpoints airing their disagreements in a civil and mutually respectful manner was gone. One was a Nazi, or one was silent (and fearful).
Today’s fascists call themselves “anti-fascists.” Just like the Nazis, they are totalitarian: they are determined not to allow their opponents to murmur the slightest whisper of dissent. Forcibly suppressing the speech of someone with whom one disagrees is a quintessentially fascist act. Stanford professor David Palumbo-Liu, who is so angry and hastening to claim victim status over an article about him appeared at Jihad Watch here, is a prime example of this new fascism. Much more below.
“Why we have free speech on university campuses, and why I will never take a call from the Stanford Review again,” by David Palumbo-Liu, Stanford Daily, January 18, 2018:
…As Professor Joan Scott has argued, there is a distinction to be made between free speech and academic freedom in this regard: “Free speech makes no distinction about quality; academic freedom does.” I am one of the organizers of the Campus Antifascist Network. One of our basic premises is that many, if not all, of the speakers whose ideologies are aligned with the alt-right — including the ideologies of white supremacy, hetero-normalcy, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry — are using campus groups to invite them to speak at their universities not to debate, test, advance knowledge, which is the purpose of education, but to have the legitimacy — and in the case of institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Middlebury and others, the luster of these institutions — rub off on them. They want to be taken seriously, as having some knowledge that is important to know. But their fundamental desire is for attention. The debate over free speech for them is merely a pretext to gain publicity for themselves. They care little or nothing about free speech — hence their campaigns to dox, stalk, harass and silence critics, affixing misleading and mendacious labels to them. You will see some examples of that in the second half of this essay.
The bottom line is, whether they are allowed to speak or not, they make headlines and sell books. Those on the alt-right have absolutely no interest in debating the quality and substance of their ideas — they wish a showcase for their bigotry on university campuses simply to appropriate intellectual repute. They abuse free speech precisely in pretending to be entering into a contest of ideas, when their real intent is simply academic theater. Unfortunately, campus administrators fall into this trap over and over again….
Leaving aside his propagandistic use of the smear term “alt-right,” which should be unworthy of any professor who is actually interested in the free exchange of ideas, the question arises: how does David Palumbo-Liu know all this? He doesn’t, of course. I myself would be happy to travel again to Stanford again at my own expense in order to debate him on the concept of “Islamophobia,” but he, of course, will not accept, because, he claims, I and others like me are not interested in debate. This exposes Palumbo-Liu as a propagandist: he defames those whom he hates by claiming they’re not interested in debate, or only wanting to wrap themselves in the luster of his university (that one made me laugh), or just wanting to sell books, but here I stand ready to meet him in a fair and open discussion, and there is no doubt whatsoever about the fact that he will refuse. What he is saying here about the alleged purveyors of “Islamophobia” is true of himself, not of them.
Note also his insidious totalitarian heart. He wants Stanford not to allow a platform to those whom he accuses of “white supremacy, hetero-normalcy, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry.” Who will get to decide whose ideas are acceptable to be aired at Stanford and whose aren’t? Presumably, in David Palumbo-Liu’s little world, this supreme judge will be none other than David Palumbo-Liu, or someone who shares his narrow views. Out the window is the very mission of a university, which is to allow for the consideration of all ideas and their acceptance or dismissal based on their merits alone. David Palumbo-Liu would have been quite at home in the KGB or Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry, deciding which ideas could acceptably be disseminated to the masses and which could not. But the fact that he is a professor at a major university shows what a disgrace to what its very guiding principles should be Stanford University, and American academia in general, has become.
Palumbo-Liu then goes on to complain at length about the Stanford Review piece that I excerpted at Jihad Watch here, which enraged him: “Like any good piece of right-wing propaganda, that piece is now on Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch, bracketed by a few sentences by Spencer himself so he gets the byline.” He goes on at great length to explain why he named his group the Campus Antifascist Network, despite supposedly disavowing violence, unlike the Leftist thugs of Antifa. With a grandiosity and arrogance unusual even in a college professor, he proclaims: “We named ourselves the ‘Campus Antifascist Network’ to claim an alliance with the anti-fascists who fought Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and other fascist leaders.”
Yeah, yeah, if Hitler, Mussolini, or Franco show up, I’ll call you, Professor, but in the meantime the question that really should be asked of you is not whether or not you endorse violence against those whom you hate, but whether you want their ability to speak and be heard forcibly suppressed. And the answer is abundantly clear from what you have written here.
And then comes his claim to victim status:
When the Review writes: “Do we really want to bring this type of vigilante thuggery to Stanford by enabling a professor who promotes it?”, it puts words I did not speak into my mouth, arrogantly ignores the facts, engages in McCarthyist guilt by association and attributes motives and behaviors without any proof whatsoever, and then its lies and distortions appear on Jihad Watch, they open the door to the hate mail, phone calls, threats and harassment that not only I, but also my family, am now subjected to.
Here I am going to call your bluff, Professor. Generally it’s the Left that traffics in violence and threats these days, not its opponents. Also, anytime a Leftist is criticized these days, he or she claims in turn to have received threats. It’s a tired act, and it’s noteworthy that these claims are never supported with any actual evidence. By contrast, I have over the years published on this site the actual text of hundreds of death threats that I have received — and of course I also turned them over to law enforcement. Has Palumbo-Liu called the police? Somehow I doubt it. These claims from Leftists of having been threatened after getting criticized is just a clumsy tactic trying to ensure that they don’t get criticized in the future.
By contrast also, Professor, I have been told by an Antifa member that he would have murdered me if it hadn’t been for all the police standing nearby. When I spoke at an outdoor event shortly after receiving that threat, Antifa members threw bottles, rocks, and manure at those of us up on the stage. In Iceland, I was poisoned by a Leftist and spent the night in a hospital, where a Leftist doctor took a course of benign neglect, failing to perform basic procedures, such that I might never have gotten out of that hospital.
That’s what it’s like to be subjected to “threats and harassment.” Has anything like those things ever happened to you, Professor? I doubt it, and I hope it doesn’t. You are the very definition of the demogogue in a position of power that you decry. You’re a cosseted propagandist at a propaganda mill, hailed by those you’re busy brainwashing, and never even having to expend the energy to refute intellectual challenges, which you dismiss by name-calling and false claims. If Stanford wanted to take the first step toward becoming a university again, it would fire you (and your fellow fascists in its administration and faculty), but don’t reach for the xanax just yet: your job couldn’t possibly be more secure.
Johnny Cuyana says
Robert is exactly correct when he opines: “What he [professor David Palumbo-Liu] is saying here about the alleged purveyors of “Islamophobia” is true of himself, not of them.”
This was clear to me from the outset, when, professor Palumbo-Liu, in writing, quotes Professor Joan Scott regarding their agreed perceived “distinction to be made between free speech and academic freedom in this regard: “Free speech makes no distinction about quality; academic freedom does.” ”
Professor, your words are an outstanding example of an irony emerging from ignorance … accompanied by the denial of the same; but, professor, in your blind ideological rage, you would not recognize such … would you?
Andy says
The leftists are Fixing a Hole (where the truth gets in)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxgfDBcnvpg
Andy says
*URGENT* American Patriots should be pissed off today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU9W6Ma_Jb0
Andy says
David Palumbo-Liu it is time to get a debate going, Time to call Robert Spencer and Paul Weston. IT’S CALLED FREE SPEECH BUDDY!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN3YIbIxafM
Lynne Wright says
Well put Andy! You have vocalized what a lot people think.
Patk Morrison says
Well put.
Andy says
Democrats Cave on Chuck E’ (The Pickle Man) ‘Schumer Shutdown
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/22/total-and-complete-surrender-democrats-schumer-shutdown-cave-endangers-leftists-emboldens-gop-walking-into-midterm-elections/
Steven Hobbs says
So Andy, not to dispute complaints of ‘liberals” whatever, do you believe you need clip Paul Weston’s vapid sophistry to believe you think substantively? Sorry son. You need hit some books. Might start with Marx, Engles, Freud, Veblen, Voltaire, Dostoevsky, Durkheim, Descartes, and Occum. If you have a need, ask well-read people around you about the silliness of Randian hypothesis. LOL!
gravenimage says
So Steven Hobbs believes that any defense of Democracy and criticism of Stalin and Communism must perforce be “Randian”, and must be countered by the reading of Marx and Engles?
He does not say what should be done if we have read these authors, but with a critical eye.
I suppose this being the case, the next stop for us is the Gulag…
Of course, the idea that all well-read people reject Democracy and embrace Stalinism is just ludicrous.
Steven Hobbs says
Hi Graven,
You are correct there are many ways to defend ‘democracy’ (whatever that is –
undefined by the author). Not all criticism of Stalin (a person) or Communism (a theory) need be Randian. Conflating a person with a theory and implying it is also a nation-state is lazy confabulation. But, it is a rather easy way toward jingoistic groupthink.
You write: “I suppose this being the case, the next stop for us is the Gulag…Of course, the idea that all well-read people reject Democracy and embrace Stalinism is just ludicrous.” That’s a ridiculous implication of what was stated, but of course, you have the right to make any meaning out of it you wish. It’s just not what was implied.
Phil Copson says
Excellent – many thanks for that; so how about giving us the rest of the Lennon/McCartney songbook? eg –
“Yesterday –
(dum-dum-dum-dum-dum)
All those migrants seemed so far away –
(dum-dum)
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay –
Oh, I believe in yesterday…….”
Phil.
Andy says
LOL, Hey, That’s a good one Phil! You have a great name by the way, I say that because that’s my son’s name.
Take care,
Andy
No Fear says
LOL. 🙂
PRCS says
You named your son Copson?
gravenimage says
Copson is just a surname.
http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Copson
LR says
Andy,
That was funny…This guys fans could show up all dressed up in that outfit, carrying signs with their new slogan, “I’m fixing a hole (where the truth gets in)” at the next women’s march…I wonder how many would think they were actually protesting Trump?
Andy says
Hello LR
You know LR that is a good idea you have, All of us Patriots should dress up and go to the Leftie/women’s march and start singing the song “I’m fixing a hole, (where the truth gets in”) LOL I wonder what reaction we would get?
Take care,
Andy
gravenimage says
This is projection on Palumbo-Liu’s part.
Wellington says
Damn right, gravenimage. The man is an enemy of free speech. The only undecidable here is whether he is consciously so or unwittingly so (projection, after all, can encapsulate both).
Either way he is bad news for liberty. What a turkey.
PRCS says
So easy to find, to review, and to see through his excuses and deceit.
A review of his web page provides us with this, as but one example:
“We should be deeply concerned by these efforts to label “antifa” as a terrorist organization, which would open the door to criminalizing and harassing a wide range of antifascist actions. Under such a dispensation, one could legitimately say that the 40,000 people who marched in Boston were all “antifascists.””
Of course, a review of that incident makes quite clear what really occurred there: an extremely large, hate filed citizens–whipped up by lie after lie after lie about a small group of people who wished only to express THEIR right to free speech (with a permit to do so in a public space)–attacked them.
PRCS says
group of
gravenimage says
Yes, Wellington and PRCS. He’s a nasty piece of work.
Richie says
what is ‘hetero-normalcy’? I do know some of the gay left radicals consider straight sex to be an aberration and gay sex to be normal. Is that what it is? Before long liberals will defend sex with blood relatives and children
Richard says
You’re too late. Recently it was discovered that a mother had married her daughter. Bestiality is becoming more and more open. The big coming thing is sex with robots, which they say is so great it will take the place of sex with other humans. “Stop the world, I want to get off!”
gravenimage says
Yeah–“hetero-normalcy” struck me, too. I’m actually very much for equal gay rights, but I have to say–heterosexuality *is* the norm statistically, by a great margin. Pretending it is not is ridiculous.
Immanuel79 says
Me too, I support equal rights regardless of sexual orientation, yet I’m opposed to same-sex “marriage” on grounds of equality. I’m sure this alone would be enough for the lefties to say I’m a whatever-o-phobe.
Anton Filipenkov says
It’s a pitty to see how the modern society is transforming into a pack animals first of all it’s true with the leftists. Leftist are obsessed with sexual relations. My guess is that’s because the state of their mind is favorable for exercising evolutional instincts rather that thought processes. That’s the part of Social Games they play. They are like the pack of animals that has found fertile and secure place and the only task standing in front of them is to make sure they interact with each other according to the ancient unwritten rules: no dissent, no unequality, no abnormality – just act like everybody else – eat, sleap and f*ck. That happened because the majority of them was born in a prosperous coutries and never knew any hardship. And the term ‘inquiring minds’ can’t be applied to them even when they are eloquent. They prefer to immitate thought process by demagoguery and act according to instincts.
brane pilot says
Spencer has a titanium spine.
Same as Trump.
When your civilization needs men like this, they appear.
Unfortunately, they are being attacked by throngs of rabid, brainwashed hamsters.
Who you elect to your local school board has consequences.
gravenimage says
+1
mortimer says
HOW ABOUT A DEBATE if they are so sure of themselves?
NONE of the Stanford teachers, including and perhaps especially David Palumbo-Liu could defeat the mighty debater ROBERT SPENCER.
The Stanford teachers are COWARDS and GAS-BAGS … all talk and no action!
DEBATE ROBERT SPENCER or it will be assumed that YOU HAVE NO ARGUMENT with which to defeat his REASONABLE, WELL-ARGUED POINTS REGARDING THE JIHAD DOCTRINE.
Stanford’s teachers are GAS-BAGS and COWARDS.
gravenimage says
+1
Custos Custodum says
One can learn a lot by reading.
Here is what PALUMBO-JUMBO says about himself:
Very impressive – getting a PhD, MA and BA all in the same year.
Interesting that Palumbo-Jumbo is allowed to teach in the Department of English only “by courtesy.”
PJ is apparently cleaning up his online footprint. Keep backups before he memory-holes everything.
Custos Custodum says
Also, there is this little tidbit in Palumbo-Jumbo’s official Stanford listing:
TRANSLATION: I tried to make it as a lit prof, but they told me I wasn’t cut out for real lit stuff. They told me to take the spot in Asian-American victimology “Studies” and propaganda.
https://vptl.stanford.edu/people/david-palumbo-liu
Westman says
Where can we buy one of those Palumbo-Liu mirrors so we can hold it up in front of leftist totalitarians as they describe the image and claim it is us?
It’s unfortunate that the man who created Stanford cannot be present to see what happened to his university as CA became the center of sedition, gender confusion, and the propaganda center for cowards who neither respect democracy nor are willing to shed a drop of blood to preserve it.
David Palumbo-Liu seems be unaware that his gravy train, based on words, not physical work, is going to be ruined by the very people he indoctrinates and the welfare-demanding unproductive hordes.
CA has 12% of the US population, yet it has 33% of the welfare recipients. The net migration out of CA is growing even as millions pour across the border from the South. The high-tech multinationals out-sourced the labor/production and the state is going broke.
What is prof Palumbo-Liu going to do for income when the CA State Retirement System goes bankrupt? Organize the Antifa Socialist State and make everyone live in equal squalor? Maybe that secession idea is needs some encouragement.
Custos Custodum says
What is prof Palumbo-[Jumbo] going to do for income when the CA State Retirement System goes bankrupt?
Palumbo-Jumbo is sitting pretty at Stanford which is private. He wouldn’t risk his own future on the Cult-Marx prescriptions he peddles to his students.
BTW how many disciplinary complaints have been filed against PJ by students and staff over the past 15 years?
Shmoovie says
Yes, what a load of projection this prof is pushing.
RS and the Republicans didn’t have much success trying to ‘wrap themselves’ in the free-speech gloriousness of Stanford. How many who wanted to hear him were denied the opportunity?
Where is this prof on the subject of truly oppressed people trapped in a nightmare islamic world? JW reports stories of often bloody islamic suppression of women, homosexuals, Christians, apostates. But Robert & co are just doing it for the attention of the ‘far right’, which is anyone not aligned with leftists.
The super-tolerant prof doesn’t speak for true victims; he has no fortitude for the tough stuff. He’s lazy and cowardly so sticks to defending fake victims in the West. ‘Claiming an alliance’ with genuine anti-fascists of the past is just beyond disgusting and hypocritical.
gravenimage says
Yes–the idea that someonw who decries violence against women, gay people, atheists, artists, and free speech advocates is “far right” is ludicrous. But then, Ayaan Hirsi Ali–who is a Black African feminist–has been called “racist” for opposing Jihad. It just shows how insane things have become.
WPM says
Yes we have a women like Sansour who claim they are black and oppressed! When they are neither black and were raised upper middle class lives in safe “white” communities { Bayridge Brooklyn go look it up} .Truth is a great obstruction for the left,s agenda that is why they must try to suppress it or remove it from view. Upper Middleclass rich bored students following the twin pied pipers, Islam and far left into the hell of losing all their freedoms because they feel good about rebelling against capitalism that made their way of life too easy to appreciate .To be 21 again and chase rainbows not have to face any real responsible of paying bill, raising kids and holding down a job.
gravenimage says
Not all young people are like this–I wasn’t–but it is definitely true of all too many.
PRCS says
Given that the Women’s March doesn’t appear concerned about the suffering of women in Shari’a compliant countries, gotta wonder if he participated.
don vito says
Must all of humanity believe and speak as you, Prof Liu? Why must you try to put us in your intellectual straight jacket of thought? Is the only way a person can “prove” innocence of your accusations is to parrot your words and actions? Must all you accuse of being fascists, be mind readers as you seem to be, attributing to those you accuse, various inclinations you seemed to have conjured up? Where is the liberty and freedom in being your thought clone? Your rigid thinking has no room for self expression, you poorly serve the university, students,neighborhood, city, state, and nation you live in. Death to tyrannical visions you promote, long live liberty and free expression, plus rule of law.
Andy says
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Phil Copson says
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
“As you so adroitly express the sentiment, Sir – “Who’s looking after the custard ?” – a penetrating question, the answer to which, baffled even the great Spinoza! notwithstanding which, I trust that Stanford Professor Peggy-Sue will shortly receive his just desserts..”
gravenimage says
🙂
Custos Custodum says
You called, Sir?
JawsV says
I thought Chinese were supposed to be smart.
Ren says
There are dumb people everywhere, even among Chinese.
DFD says
“…… Stanford: Fascist professor David Palumbo-Liu…. —– historian Richard J. Evans explains how, in the early days of National Socialist Germany, Stormtroopers (Brownshirts) “organized campaigns against unwanted professors in the local newspapers [and] staged mass disruptions of their lectures.”….”
—–
Ah, isn’t it good that you have the likes of ANTIFA to protect you? Wasn’t it wonderful how they protected Spencer’s free speech at Berkeley? Marvellous! What would Spencer have done without ANTIFA, supporting him?
And it really is good to see how the sons of Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot protect the right of Spencer & Co. their right to speak freely! Just think how those brown-shirted Nazi storm-troopers with their Hitler slogans are always trying to interfere with the wonderful works of Spencer, Geller & Co. Thank God for ANTIFA! Without them, and their paragons of modesty and virtue, like Mao etc., we’d all be living under the Nazi jack boots! So, three cheers and hip, hip hurray’s for ANTIFA!!!
I am sure an article by H. Fitzgerald will follow…
Will you be surprised under what flag you’ll wake up! But don’t worry, instead rejoice: It wont be a Nazi flag.
livingengine says
“David Palumbo-Liu is a professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford University (Stanford). He serves as the Second Vice President of the American Comparative Literature Association, and will assume the presidency in March, 2018.
On March 11, 2016, Palumbo-Liu tweeted that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should “go f**k” herself.
Palumbo-Liu is a supporter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and has encouraged his Twitter followers to donate money to the group’s anti-Israel campus initiatives.
Palumbo-Liu is a leader within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and a member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott (USACBI) Organizing Collective. He is also a member of the Modern Language Association Members for Justice in Palestine (MLA MJP) and since 2014, has been leading an effort to pressure the MLA into adopting a BDS resolution, which will come up for a vote in 2017. . . .”
And, so on.
https://canarymission.org/individual/David_Palumbo-Liu
Westman says
Palumbo-Liu is an antisemetic BDS supporter and a foul-mouth – all supported by Stanford? I doubt that Robert Spencer has ever behaved this way.
It makes rather a sham of the “patina” of Stanford. It’s interesting to note that Elon Musk didn’t think Stanford was worth it’s image; leaving after two days. Nor did Zuckerberg remain at Harvard. High-priced Universities are becoming roadblocks to the extremely talented – the real society changers.
The Antifa supporters will likely end their experiment in the same state as most of those who lived in the Hippy Communes of the late 1960’s – disillusioned and broke(with massive college debt).
gravenimage says
Yes–I pointed out that this creep was BDS on the first thread about him.
Indiana Tom says
Today’s fascists call themselves “anti-fascists.” Orwellian Doublespeak.
“We named ourselves the ‘Campus Antifascist Network’ to claim an alliance with the anti-fascists who fought Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and other fascist leaders.”
Mussolini was part of the Antifascist Network when he was a Communist.
There is no real difference between the extreme Left and Right.
gravenimage says
+1
No Fear says
Islamophobia is not Fascism. I simply don’t want to live in an Islamic country. I don’t want to live in a Communist country. Why should I be forced to support any of those ideologies? Anyone who attempts to change my country towards Islamic rule or Communist rule is my political enemy.
Westman says
Not to be too critical, but people like Palumbo-Liu and the leftists will conflate these comments with Spencer’s writings, which are free of vulgarity, in an attempt to discredit his message. We should seek higher ground than today’s campus language.
Ren says
We can never go lower than the leftists even when they claim that “when they go low, we go high”. I believe in responding to fire with fire. Playing nice games when it comes to ideology doesn’t give any credit other than being nice…
gravenimage says
True, Westman.
Sarah says
The great big bloody irony here is that the field of so-called Comparative Literature is supposed to be one that arms those who have studied it with ‘critical thinking’.
I don’t know what this utter tosspot of a Professor thinks he has in his repertoire of skills and experience, but as far as I can see, critical thinking isn’t one of his talents
Mind you, the entire concept of Comparative Literature, seems hopelessly worthless in today’s world. To me, it seems to be akin to ‘Gender Studies’. Comparative Literature, according to Ohio State University anyway is explained as::
“Comparative Literature focuses on the study of literature from different cultures, nations, and genres, and explores relationships between literature and other forms of cultural expression. Comparative Literature poses such questions as, What is the place of literature in society? How does literature as a form change over time, and in relation to other forms of making art? How does literature shape and respond to values, social movements, or political contexts?”.
Now everyone has their own views etc, but as far as I can see, that is a hefty explanation for what is essentially, ‘look at a bunch of fiction and non-fiction from across the world and talk about how it applies from one culture to the next (eg, Arab literature in its social application to Western culture). How important is it, is it relevant and how is it impacted (if at all) by different cultural values’.
To me, that is an ENORMOUS waste of a degree. At best, its a term unit included within a vague Bachelor of Arts degree. But certainly not worthy of 3 years or more at God only knows what cost.
I wonder how this idiot’s fascism plays a part in what he teaches the students who study under him? I am willing to bet its a significant part. Jesus Christ, can you imagine the millions in American student loans that have gone down the drain on idealistic young kids wasting years of their lives and their educations on studying this utter horsesh!t?
As far as I am concerned, this idiot has no real world use or function. Anything he says isn’t worth listening to or paying any real attention to. The only thing I worry about, are the stupid idiot kids who are suckered in to thinking that a degree at a cost of tens and tens of thousands of dollars and years of their life in this ‘discipline’ is a worthwhile endeavour.
StellaSaidSo says
My sentiments exactly, Sarah. As an undergraduate years ago, I took a semester course in Comparative Lit, which was then a new ‘discipline’. Looking back, it was probably my first encounter in academe with the twin scourges of cultural Marxism and post-modernism. The lecturer was a pretentious dude with a beret and a foulard who talked about ‘legends of the dreamtime’ as though they were up there with Shakespeare. It was the least intellectually demanding course I ever took, and the least interesting.
Sarah says
Po–Mo-Marxism LOL. That just takes the cake – and says it all about the shocking state of modern-day Western style tertiary education standards, doesn’t it? And people wonder why those without a STEM degree are struggling to get by, pulling coffees in a franchise chain. without a hope in hell of ever actually working in the career path of their true choice.
I’m doing medicine and I had to do a unit once, on gender studies. It was the ‘best’ of a bunch of poor choices on offer, given the scope of requirements I was facing at the time and I wound up in a terrible argument with a lecturer in one class; to which I quickly learned to shut my mouth and keep my head down if I wanted to keep going with my degree.
So much for debate and discussion in University. Suffice to say, I’m still bitterly resentful that I had to pay for that stupid unit and waste my time on it. It was an experience that I still believe to be the absolute opposite of an educational experience and it was the final straw that turned my views from being quite supportive of the LGBTQ community, to being quite traditionally conservative views as I still hold today, regarding the LGBTQ community.
I’ll be damned, as a woman in mid 30s that I’m going to be ‘forcefully instructed’ on how to think and what to believe – when I am paying through the damn nose for it – when it’s all based on conjecture, opinion and ideology as opposed to scientific fact – with undeniable evidence and proof to support any of it. I’m not a 19 year old kid, fresh from high school anymore. I’m too old for that kind of nonsense, I’ve spent too many years knowing how to think for myself, rather than being told how and what to think and believe.
I honestly think Stella, that if I were doing any degree other than a STEM degree, I would’ve thrown in the towel by now. But considering where I want to go with my chosen career path, its just not possible to get there without the degree I’m doing. So God help me, LOL. I have another 3 years ahead of me. And I’m surrounded by, largely, a group of kids – fresh out of high school, all formidably intelligent and almost all of them, utterly incapable of seeing the forest for the trees with the difference between factual truth and wishful thinking.
I cannot begin to describe just how fundamentally terrifying this is, especially given this is medicine and that these kids are future medical professionals who will hold the lives of so many in their hands one day.
‘Legends of dreamtime’; now as an Australian, that automatically makes me think of Australian- Aboriginal culture. Can I ask, what specifically, your beret wearing lunatic of a lecturer was on about with that one? Don’t tell me that you actually had to study obscure Australian Aborigine storytelling? (I’m assuming here, that you are North American of some description?) Because truly, that would take the cake.
StellaSaidSo says
Great post, Sarah, I appreciate the time and thot you put into it!
I know you are Australian from your posts. I am also Australian, from Melbourne.There are several Aussies here, including Wazza and Infidel. I’m a generation older than you, so my undergraduate years are well behind me, but I do recall that the idea in the Comp Lit Prof’s head was that the best of any culture’s output was as worthy of attention as the best of any other. Utter bollocks, of course, but I kept my head down and stayed out of trouble. In the ’80’s, we started to hear more about all cultures being equal, and who are we to judge? etc etc,, and identity politics reared its head, and the multi-culti nonsense really took off, and political correctness kicked in – and academic rigour and plain common sense flew out the window in sheer terror, and haven’t been seen on a university campus since. Or in a lot of other places where it is sorely needed.
These days, I would not advise any secondary school student to contemplate tertiary studies in any course other than STEM or Law. The proliferation of Mickey Mouse courses in the Humanities over the past 30 years has so devalued the BA that even if you could follow a classical curriculum it would count for little when you entered the job market. I do think that it is a good idea in principle for STEM students to take at least one course in the Humanities, but if ‘Gender Studies’ is the best on offer, standards have clearly gone down the proverbial.
You’re right about the fresh-out-of-school being clueless and confused. I have long thought that a gap year between school and university should be mandatory. Time for kids to grow up a little, before taking on real adult responsibilities. (Hang in there, though, and be ready to share some of your mature wisdom whenever they’re ready to listen!) When do you resume study? In my day, 4th year Med was the first clinical year, but that has probably changed too, lol.
gravenimage says
I’m American, and there is a superficial interest in the Australian- Aboriginal dreamtime concept here with New Age types–for most, pretty much on the level of romaniticizing Native American lore.
WPM says
You are right after getting a four year degree in these “elective lib gender studies major ” you can get a job asking to you want fries with that meal?
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
For anti-globalist, Browdergate, Russiagate nerds only:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mJ42Vl521g
gravenimage says
Stanford: Fascist professor David Palumbo-Liu calls for suppression of views that dissent from the hard-Left line
……………………..
Disgusting call for the crushing of freedom of speech. Does not surprise me from this creep, though.
Lydia Church says
It just demonstrates their self contradictory ways in their twilight zone world of….
ANTI-LOGIC!
Aaaaahhhhh!
O :}
Remedy:
Never shut up!
Don’t allow the evil to silence you.
Lydia Church says
P.S. “anti-logic” is otherwise known as “orwell-think” and “orwellian-speak”
CRUSADER says
Vast Left Wing Conspiracy!!!
=====================
Getting the feeling that there is a pattern….
….that things are becoming orchestrated…..
Singh the Sikh says
David Palumbo-Liu needs to extract his head from his arse. This is what he is supporting:
Male Muslims happily lapping it up and blessing the imam for obvious reasons.
Watch rom 7.20 if not from the beginning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZGm7wJDSzA&app=desktop
Baucent says
” They care little or nothing about free speech — hence their campaigns to dox, stalk, harass and silence critics, affixing misleading and mendacious labels to them.”
He’s referring to what he would call “the Right” but is describing accurately the long time tactics of the “Far Left” of which he is a member. A case of pot calling the kettle black,… if that’s not also racist.
Theopholus says
Boggles the mind doesn’t it? He has the right to say what he wants but suppress anyone else that doesn’t agree with him. How does he keep his job or is this what Stanford U. all about? Education is now indoctrination. Parents, do you know where your children are?
sidney penny says
David Palumbo-Liu:
As Professor Joan Scott has argued, there is a distinction to be made between free speech and academic freedom in this regard: “Free speech makes no distinction about quality; academic freedom does.”
Robert Spencer:
Note also his insidious totalitarian heart. He wants Stanford not to allow a platform to those whom he accuses of “white supremacy, hetero-normalcy, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry.” Who will get to decide whose ideas are acceptable to be aired at Stanford and whose aren’t?
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/05/cal-poly-free-speech-under-attack-in-academia
Cal Poly: Free speech under attack in academia
Everybody should watch the last ten minutes of this video (fast forward to 2.00) to the part where a female student tells Robert Spencer that hate speech is not free speech and watch Robert Spencer’s reply.
Fantastic: It is only 3 minutes long
Yes, who decides what is and what is not hate speech?
sidney penny says
“The bottom line is, whether they are allowed to speak or not, they make headlines and sell books. Those on the alt-right have absolutely no interest in debating the quality and substance of their ideas — they wish a showcase for their bigotry on university campuses simply to appropriate intellectual repute. They abuse free speech precisely in pretending to be entering into a contest of ideas, when their real intent is simply academic theater. Unfortunately, campus administrators fall into this trap over and over again….”
Robert Spencer absolutely has an interest in debating the quality and substance of his ideas.
Why does Stanford professor David Palumbo-Liu, not take him on?
Carolyne says
Dr. Fu Man Chu, you was to regulate what I say? I want you to cut your mustache. It offends me and you do not have that right.
See how silly you sound? See how silly you are?
Carolyne says
“Want to,” of course.
Matthieu Baudin says
“…We named ourselves the ‘Campus Antifascist Network’ to claim an alliance with the anti-fascists who fought Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and other fascist leaders…”
Who? The Marxist Comintern aligned thugs who white-anted the Spanish Civil War effort, backed the Soviet/German non aggression pact, plotted the division of Poland and the liquidation of it’s intelligentsia and all the while dreamed of undermining the democracies of Western Europe?