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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32153 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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You might recall that an adjunct professor was let go from Hamline University after a Muslim student complained about a depiction of the prophet Muhammad shown in class. The immediate responses were not terribly surprising to me. Given past incidents, I assumed that college administrators would have an interest towards affirming the student's complaint, no matter how unreasonable it was. This panned out, with the university president issuing a very bizarre statement where she presented non-sequiturs like:

To suggest that the university does not respect academic freedom is absurd on its face. Hamline is a liberal arts institution, the oldest in Minnesota, the first to admit women, and now led by a woman of color. To deny the precepts upon which academic freedom is based would be to undermine our foundational principles.

What do the demographics of the university president have to do with academic freedom? Fuck if I know.

Similarly, I also assumed that non-profit organizations would have an interest to bolster their profile by seizing upon the incident. This too panned out, with the local Minnesota Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter condemning the professor as Islamophobic. The local chapter's executive director even dismissed the fact that the professor went out of her way to add a content warning and said "In reality a trigger warning is an indication that you are going to do harm."

Since then, things have changed. First, the national CAIR organization felt the need to step in and rebuke the local chapter, and issued a (tepid) defense of the scorned professor. Then, Hamline University faculty just voted overwhelmingly (71-12) to ask the president to step down. For a defense of freedom of expression, the statement they issued is (at least on its face) pretty good.

Both of these developments surprised me, and it made me wonder whether this is a sign of a potential turning point on the topic of suppressed freedom of expression on campus.

Both of these developments surprised me, and it made me wonder whether this is a sign of a potential turning point on the topic of suppressed freedom of expression on campus.

It's better than the opposite happening for sure. Although I think the whole depicting the prophet, at least in the states, isn't an establish route of canceling. Or at least if you want to establish a pattern can you find a past successful canceling over something like this?

Although I think the whole depicting the prophet, at least in the states, isn't an establish route of canceling.

If not outright "cancelling," it's the source of extreme skittishness. There's the famous instance of South Park intentionally poking at this issue (https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Muhammad) by including Muhammed amongst a group of superheroes. This episode cannot be found on HBOMax, Comedy Central or the official South Park website (run by Comedy Central).

My priors are that anyone who doesn’t vociferously apologize and try to make some costly signal of disowning the person who decided to depict Mohammed is laying a trap in some way.

disowning the person who decided to depict Mohammed

In this particular case, you'd be disowning two people who lived in the 14th and 16th centuries.

I find this an incredibly confusing take. I just find those people to be cowards, it's a much simpler reasoning. What trap are the setting?

edit: It's impossible for me to believe the group of who broadly support piss Christ, which I support too in its being legal and allowed if not very artistically interesting, have some kind of hang up of unnecessarily offending religious people.

It's impossible for me to believe the group of who broadly support piss Christ, which I support too in its being legal and allowed if not very artistically interesting, have some kind of hang up of unnecessarily offending religious people.

It's okay to offend Christians, particularly in the American context, since as we know they are all bitter clingers, racist rednecks with guns and Confederate flags who want to round up all the gays for torture conversion camps. They're the white majority so they're in power and it's punching up. Anyway, this is art and it's not your fault if the knuckle-draggers can't tell the difference.

It's not okay to offend other faiths because they are non-white, non-majority, and have been oppressed by the Christians in the past (Crusades, the Holocaust) and you can show how tolerant and inclusive and virtuous you are by supporting them and being good allies.

‘Hang up of unnecessarily offending religious people’ isn’t how I would describe my mental model of these people- more like genuine fear of terrorism coupled with a twinge of guilt about treading on the feelings of brown non-Christians.

On the other hand red tribers who hold Mohammed drawing competitions then stand around with their guns ready for an attack.

genuine fear of terrorism

It's in the rational self-interest for someone who feels they will have a guaranteed place and privileges (even under a society of 'enemy') to feel a genuine fear of losing them because they sided with the 'enemy' too enthusiastically.

On the other hand red tribers who hold Mohammed drawing competitions then stand around with their guns ready for an attack.

Yes, that's what you'd expect supply-side political action to look like. It should be revealing that the demand-side tribe's guns all belong to the supply-side tribe, this is why military organizations code red.

The meta-level of "Blue tribe's enemy is Red tribe, Red tribe's enemy is external" is "the demand-side tribe's enemy is the supply-side tribe, but the supply-side's enemy is external". Which is why the supply side's tactics are confrontational to things that code "external" (as in, that one should not say anything because their political enemies could get violent) in a way the demand side's aren't.

Uh, do you mind restating your thesis in smaller words? It’s clear as mud and maybe defining your terminology would help.

I, uh, assume the "trap" involves the "fuck around and find out" strategy of dealing with angry people who try to do something about the depictions, a la that incident at an art museum where a shooting was stopped by another guy with a gun.

IDK anything about a trap (or really what that guy meant), but I don't see them as cowards. That's just not the hill they want to literally die on. Someone who cared more about free speech might well decide to risk death on that hill though, and that's commendable.

If you're in a land where it's illegal and surrounded by people who suspect you're with the guy whose depicting the big Moh, sure self preservation yourself. If you're in the united states and no one is even asking you, and your reasoning for doing it is to avoid offense, yeah, that's not the same situation.

Who are we talking about here? I think the college president can't come out and say "that's dangerous," but she doesn't want to risk her staff, so she instead says that it's offensive. Maybe she's good at doublethink and has even internalized that. In the end we probably agree but I think there's still an element of danger (if much smaller) here in the US as well.

but she doesn't want to risk her staff

However, the backdrop is that the State (and the local social majority) won't back her up. Which is why regime-aligned speakers who threaten her staff all the same do not get shut down when a threat comes in.

Followed by a two parter where Tom Cruise wants to steal Muhammed's 'goo', which ended with comedy central censoring the image of Muhammed and bleeping the entirety of the boys' ending monologue (which explained the magical power of violence).

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