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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   24067 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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"Her arguments are bad but a score of zero? The teacher is treating her differently, more harshly."

No, people on the Motte said "Her arguments are bad, but according to the published grading rubric there's no way it deserved a zero"

Yea? Ok.

  • -29

Is this an argument? A rebuttal? Or just a low-effort grunt?

Do you not see any difference between that argument and your strawman of it?

It's not what I remember the argument being here. I recall people here saying an equally shitty form of argument coming to pro-trans conclusions wouldn't have gotten a zero. In any case, in both cases the goal posts are moved away or toward the solidity or veracity of the argument made and away or toward "but given procedural conditions and norms that surround the argument-making, she's being singled out."

  • -16

I believe her paper was singled out because of its content.

  • The paper was critical of progressive gender ideology.
  • The transgender TA who graded the paper provided a lengthy explanation justifying the zero, stating it did not satisfy the requirements laid out by the rubric. They also mentioned it was offensive in their explanation. The TA refused to adjust the grade.
  • Fulnecky claimed in an interview that she received 100% on all other papers in this series and that she didn't change her writing style for this paper.
  • Fulnecky also mentioned that this was the first paper that touched on gender, and that it was the first time she mentioned anything about her religion or the bible.

Based on the information above, it was already reasonable to assume that this paper was graded with extra scrutiny because of the topic and the grader's identity.

Then the university reviewed case and decided the TAs grading was arbitrary. The provost agreed with this conclusion.

What do you disagree with here?

Likewise if the same thing had happened 5 years ago where a mostly off-topic pro-trans argument was submitted to a conservative TA and given a 0, that TA would have been loaded into a cannon and shot into the sun.

It's not what I remember the argument being here.

Cool, I can't wait to make you defend an argument you never made, because that's how I "remembered" it.

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