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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32818 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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I'm moving to a job on a campus in the US. The question of what to do about social justice, political conversations, and social justice training requirements has been vexing me for a while. I just got my first email from someone who has pronouns in their email signature, with a link to the campus policy on pronoun use. (Tl;dr: staff are "encouraged," to use pronouns and "expected" to treat people in accordance with their claimed pronouns.)

Here are my options:

  1. Poe's strategy: Agree and amplify. I use all pronouns as claimed. I believe we should racially segregate as much as possible because that would be good for making Black communities into safe spaces for Black bodies, but we should do this by forcibly unhousing white people, because anything else would be gentrification. I take full responsibility for the racism of all the people of my race, and think we should give full reparations to all Black bodies. This probably codes as high-class, but there is a large chance of being unable to keep up with the charade and a small chance of being cancelled as a result. There is also a chance of value drift and the mental risks inherent in living a lie.

  2. Mainland Chinese strategy: I don't talk about politics or social issues at all. If asked, it's because I can't keep up with it. (This is mostly true!) Probably codes as low-class in the US, but I won't be cancelled for my opinions, because I don't have opinions... at least until BLMII (LGBTQIA+ boogaloo) comes around and everyone who doesn't fly the Rainbow-BLM flag is cancelled.

  3. Mask strategy: I don't talk much, but when pushed I shrug and concur with moderately pro-SJ shibboleths that I still believe. When in private with a trusted interlocutor, it's mask off. This is what I currently do, but SJ isn't a significant factor at all in my current social environment, so I am able to spend more time mask-off than mask-on.

  4. Earnest SJW strategy: This is the highest-class option, but I don't think I can pull it off. I don't know the language, I'm doomed to stumble, and don't want to break my reasoning capacity that much, and it goes directly against my values, interests, and tribe.

  5. Earnest Mottizan strategy: True honesty. I oppose SJ (because it is in direct opposition with my values) and I'm not afraid to say so... in a friendly way with a smile on my face. I support equal rights, but not equality of outcomes, which I don't think is ever possible. I think most SJ is just an elite conspiracy to shift focus away from class issues, with the richest of the rich supporting it because they are wealthy enough to avoid its negative side effects... which hurt black people too. I think unfettered immigration is bad for blacks in America, and I don't think SJ really helps the people it seeks to help, instead infantilizing them and removing their agency. I think the biggest problem facing black america is lack of interest in education, and the biggest problem facing women in STEM is that STEM careers suck: the pay is for tools, and no smart woman would enter them when other careers are low stress and more lucrative. My experience living in a more conservative society has taught me that most SJW claims are false in traditional societies, etc. Etc.

So, I guess what I'm asking is: what's the safest strategy, what's the best for my career, and what's the best way to spread my values? For those of you in US academia, what approach do you follow, and what works or doesn't work?

Also dont have sex with any woman who you have "power" over in your department. Didnt end well for quite a lot of Academics. Workplace relationships seem to be a nascent taboo in the US.

Indeed: https://www.thefp.com/p/he-was-a-world-renowned-cancer-researcher?s=w

Sabatinis case really boils my blood. Its outrageous that someone of his calibre can be taken out over such a nonissue, something no would would bat an eye over in a sane world. The contrast in those two things is hard to accept. It's hard to fathom this actually happened.

I dont know what he is upto now, but I were him I'd just defect to China or Russia and continue researching. There is no pride in sticking around in the country that fucked you over so blasely.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for Sabatini. Anyone who sleeps with someone as obviously repulsive and immoral as Knouse has whatever he gets coming. Yeah, yeah, whatever, "consent" is the only basis for morality in 2023, but nothing about their arrangement sounds like a good idea. It reminds me of that Bruce Hay guy at Harvard who had a similar thing happen to him.

What enrages me about the story is that Knouse's behavior was effectively endorsed; she was given a job by MIT and apparently had widespread support from the administration and the activist-students at NYU. It suggests a massive systemic failure in academia that goes far beyond one narcissistic woman.

Well China and Russia came calling but he turned them down, from the article.

It's a clownworld thing. I don't believe this is a functional way to run a civilization, how can it be competitive in the long run?

I was just having a look at suicide rates by country and there's an enormous gender gap in most but not all countries (China, India and parts of North Africa have nearly equal rates). I remember once getting a lecture from some NGO about the wage-gap and thinking in my head 'what would your response be if I produced statistics that showed men were twice or three times as likely to kill themselves and concluded that this was due to oppression by women, how can you justify prioritizing your own statistic out of all possible statistics'.

I remember once getting a lecture from some NGO about the wage-gap and thinking in my head 'what would your response be if I produced statistics that showed men were twice or three times as likely to kill themselves and concluded that this was due to oppression by women, how can you justify prioritizing your own statistic out of all possible statistics'.

Well, I asked several feminist activist types this exact question so I can reproduce their invariable answer for you:

This is because of Toxic Masculinity and because The Patriarchy Hurts Men Too. The solution is more feminism. It boils down to this handy 3-step plan:

  1. Give more special privileges and freebies to women, give women more power over men

  2. ??????

  3. Profit.

This is because of Toxic Masculinity and because The Patriarchy Hurts Men Too.

This part of feminist theory always amuses me. Like apparently men specifically set up society to benefit themselves by oppressing women but I guess men were so shit at it they created a society that also harms themselves so no one really benefits. This is supposed to make sense apparently.

Like apparently men specifically set up society to benefit themselves by oppressing women but I guess men were so shit at it they created a society that also harms themselves so no one really benefits. This is supposed to make sense apparently.

To be fair, this is a common criticism of feminism itself as well. Oft evil will shall evil mar.

Very fair point actually.

Religion is not an exercise in rigorous thinking, it is an exercise in piety.

He's taking money from private billionaires now. With any luck his new lab will have a sign on the door.

That's just good sense, though. If it's college students, they're young and dumb (because of their age) and so you will inevitably get into trouble when some lassie decides you raped her, because her friend clique told her it was rape. If it's your peers, workplace romances can turn nasty if it's a bad break-up, and even if it isn't, may incur resentment amongst other colleagues. An ex-lover who is still a colleague, especially if it was a bad break-up, may well turn all their efforts to destroying you. If you can't keep it in your pants, date outside the college completely.

"It was non-consensual so it was assault" happened to a nephew of mine, after some drunken kissing but nothing more, and the little bitch's friend persuaded her that because they were drunk she was incapable of consent so this was sexual assault. At least he had supportive friends and the college didn't try to boot him out without due process, but it's too damn risky.

Also dont have sex with any woman who you have "power" over in your department.

I would just say "woman in your department", for the reasons you suggest later: PMC people in the US seem to strongly frown on workplace relationships. It's quite a contrast with European academia, which in my experience feels like a badly written porn film half the time.

for the reasons you suggest later: PMC people in the US seem to strongly frown on workplace relationships.

You will use the swipey swipey app and you will like it!

PMC people in the US seem to strongly frown on workplace relationships.

They don't, actually, as long as the woman in question is happy with it. It just gives her a nuclear option should the relationship sour. Or whenever she feels the need to chase victimhood clout on twitter years later.

TBH I would say "don't have sex with anyone at the school at all".

Better but the safest option is "don't have sex with anyone at all".

Even in a college town, there are lots of residents who aren't part of the school. But let's say you're at some weird purpose-made place where every single resident works for the school... it's still good advice. It shouldn't be the case that you put your career at grave risk by having a relationship within the school, but unfortunately it is the case.

If you didn't ever mix with the locals that's really more of your thing than it being impossible. Plenty of students when I was in school knew some of the locals, if only from hitting up the same bars.

Also note that we are very much not talking about students here. We're talking about staff/faculty, who are going to mingle with the locals because... they are locals too.

Especially when it gets extended to "don't have sex with anyone in academia (e.g. that you meet at conferences) at all."

Sure, because these bogus rules are designed to filter out the "less than desirable" and "socially anxious".

I suppose there are scandals concerning male-male sex at universities, but I don't hear about them.

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