Warning - you may encounter ideas you don't like. So what?

[as seen on tv]

Mizzou assistant professor Melissa Click, who was "swiped left" and denied tenure after interfering with the press and free speech on campus


Warning to incoming University of Chicago freshmen: “ we don’t support “trigger warnings,” we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might be controversial, and we don’t condone “safe spaces” where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own . . .”

Wow . . . is that really true? The University of Chicago sounds scarier than a transgendered middle school bathroom, no?

I always suspected some university would have the testicles to stand up to fading lights like Harvard and Yale - administered by milquetoast whites who run for cover at the first sign of disagreement by a black person.

University of Chicago proudly affirms the right of students to be offended at religion, communism, Darwinism, conservatism, and a perennially bad football team. I just never figured it would be them. But wait – weren’t they the midwife for the nuclear bomb development that ended World War 2? Go figure!

Well, let’s not get too fixated on those pesky “ideas and perspectives at odds with your own”. After all, it would be challenging to name a college that is successful at protecting students from robbery, open air drug sales on campus, sexual assault . . .

Every dollar spent by colleges trying to put capitalism or the classics in the closet - and lock the door - is a dollar that can't be spent on student security, right?

For $83,000 (Harvard 2016-2017 tuition, room, board, and fees) you might expect to have a physically safe environment, even if you ARENT forced to confront unedited history, eh?

Full disclosure – the $83,000 Harvard tuition noted above does NOT include $2,600 for ivy league health coverage, if mom and dad aren’t already insuring you on their own policy. That’s a 15% increase over last year’s Harvard health coverage. Say – does Obama know about this? Malia's tuition and fees will be even higher in September 2017, because she's taking a year off to bum around Europe and post selfies smoking weed.

 

[freyasman]

I really don't regret skipping college.

 

[connieb]

I really don't regret skipping college.

The best lesson I got out of college was how to tell a prick who is in a position of authority and thinks they are smart and accomplished ( who are not actually anywhere near as smart and accomplished as the think they are) what they freaking want to hear - so you can get through dealing with them successfully. It has become infinitely useful skill in my work life where I am frequently confronted with blowhards who don't know what the hell they are talking about most of the time.

 

[freyasman]

The best lesson I got out of college was how to tell a prick who is in a position of authority and thinks they are smart and accomplished ( who are not actually anywhere near as smart and accomplished as the think they are) what they freaking want to hear - so you can get through dealing with them successfully. It has become infinitely useful skill in my work life where I am frequently confronted with blowhards who don't know what the hell they are talking about most of the time.

It took me a really long time to learn that and it's something I still frequently disregard just because I enjoy telling someone what a [Unwelcome language removed] jack-ass they are.

 

[connieb]

It took me a really long time to learn that and it's something I still frequently disregard just because I enjoy telling someone what a [Unwelcome language removed] jack-ass they are.

Eh.. I enjoy getting a paycheck - and to do that, I need to keep clients.....I get a perverse satisfaction out of knowing that they think I like them....

connie

 

[Deleted member 21794]

I saw this story and thought, "it's about time". Either they make a stand now or these whiny leftists will whine more and more. I don't think this is a principled stand. I suspect it's simply pragmatic.

What do I mean? Well, I doubt we'll see a wave of conservatives being invited to speak there.

 

[freyasman]

Eh.. I enjoy getting a paycheck - and to do that, I need to keep clients.....I get a perverse satisfaction out of knowing that they think I like them....

connie

I've been there, but luckily for me, I'm not there anymore.... and I'm really, really enjoying that.

 

[connieb]

I've been there, but luckily for me, I'm not there anymore.... and I'm really, really enjoying that.

We have joke around whenever the lottery pot is really big about how and who we are going to tell to piss off..... one day.. one day. When the kids are out of college... by then I will be done.

 

[as seen on tv]

I really don't regret skipping college.

you're lucky. although a college degree doesn't guarantee a good job, in many places its now "the price of admission" for an interview.

high school diplomas are more or less worthless in major cities.

 

[as seen on tv]

I saw this story and thought, "it's about time". Either they make a stand now or these whiny leftists will whine more and more. I don't think this is a principled stand. I suspect it's simply pragmatic.

What do I mean? Well, I doubt we'll see a wave of conservatives being invited to speak there.

I tried to develop a list of commencement speakers. they ALL turn out to be faculty members (in the past decade or so). no notable politicians, entertainers, capitalists, or activists.

 

[Arkady]

Mizzou assistant professor Melissa Click, who was "swiped left" and denied tenure after interfering with the press and free speech on campus


Warning to incoming University of Chicago freshmen: “ we don’t support “trigger warnings,” we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might be controversial, and we don’t condone “safe spaces” where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own . . .”

Wow . . . is that really true? The University of Chicago sounds scarier than a transgendered middle school bathroom, no?

I always suspected some university would have the testicles to stand up to fading lights like Harvard and Yale - administered by milquetoast whites who run for cover at the first sign of disagreement by a black person.

University of Chicago proudly affirms the right of students to be offended at religion, communism, Darwinism, conservatism, and a perennially bad football team. I just never figured it would be them. But wait – weren’t they the midwife for the nuclear bomb development that ended World War 2? Go figure!

Well, let’s not get too fixated on those pesky “ideas and perspectives at odds with your own”. After all, it would be challenging to name a college that is successful at protecting students from robbery, open air drug sales on campus, sexual assault . . .

Every dollar spent by colleges trying to put capitalism or the classics in the closet - and lock the door - is a dollar that can't be spent on student security, right?

For $83,000 (Harvard 2016-2017 tuition, room, board, and fees) you might expect to have a physically safe environment, even if you ARENT forced to confront unedited history, eh?

Full disclosure – the $83,000 Harvard tuition noted above does NOT include $2,600 for ivy league health coverage, if mom and dad aren’t already insuring you on their own policy. That’s a 15% increase over last year’s Harvard health coverage. Say – does Obama know about this? Malia's tuition and fees will be even higher in September 2017, because she's taking a year off to bum around Europe and post selfies smoking weed.

I'm happy to see a push-back against rhetoric about "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" coming from someone other than a right-wing troll. I believe strongly in academic freedom and in the value of confronting ideas that make you uncomfortable. So, I really didn't like the way the debate seemed to be breaking down between smart people willing to sacrifice free speech on the altar of sensitivity, on the one side, and dumb trolls outraged that anyone would take issue with their intentionally vile speech, on the other. There's a middle ground there, where people self-police with a goal of getting the most productive exchange of ideas (meaning not shying away from controversy, but also not being gratuitously offensive).

 

[as seen on tv]

The best lesson I got out of college was how to tell a prick who is in a position of authority and thinks they are smart and accomplished ( who are not actually anywhere near as smart and accomplished as the think they are) what they freaking want to hear - so you can get through dealing with them successfully. It has become infinitely useful skill in my work life where I am frequently confronted with blowhards who don't know what the hell they are talking about most of the time.

here's a helpful book

https://www.google.com/#q=books+on+...ne+is+lying&tbm=shop&spd=16070195947275260240

 

[as seen on tv]

I'm happy to see a push-back against rhetoric about "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" coming from someone other than a right-wing troll. I believe strongly in academic freedom and in the value of confronting ideas that make you uncomfortable. So, I really didn't like the way the debate seemed to be breaking down between smart people willing to sacrifice free speech on the altar of sensitivity, on the one side, and dumb trolls outraged that anyone would take issue with their intentionally vile speech, on the other. There's a middle ground there, where people self-police with a goal of getting the most productive exchange of ideas (meaning not shying away from controversy, but also not being gratuitously offensive).

thanks for your thoughtful reply.

it's as moronic to call for banning left wing historians as it is to disrupt guest speakers who lean right of center.

that said, I subscribe to Daniel Patrick Moynahan's viewpoint: "Everyone is entitled to their own viewpoint. Not to their own facts . .. "

 

[connieb]

here's a helpful book

https://www.google.com/#q=books on how to tell when someone is lying&tbm=shop&spd=16070195947275260240

I've actually already read it. I spend a lot of time interviewing people who have committed some type of fraud... so I have done a lot of research on lying and body language.

connie

 

[Arkady]

I tried to develop a list of commencement speakers. they ALL turn out to be faculty members (in the past decade or so). no notable politicians, entertainers, capitalists, or activists.

Apparently, that's a decades-long tradition at U Chicago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...y-of-chicago-solution/?utm_term=.b76d82cec326

Harvard tends to have famous people as commencement speakers, including Republicans (Souter, Powell, and Greenspan), and centrists (Bloomberg).

Unfortunately for Republicans, I don't expect there to be any big surge in Republican commencement speakers at elite universities for the simple reason that the sane form of Republicanism has largely become a thing of the past. How many major Republicans are there today similar to Souter and Powell, or Michael Bloomberg (a former Republican)? So many of the sensible Republicans have been driven out of the party (Bill Weld, Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter, William Cohen), or have radicalized to try to stay relevant (McCain, Romney). The current form of leading Republican is a national embarrassment, and the people who run highly respectable universities are going to be really reluctant to besmirch their valuable brand by handing a podium to a halfwit or a hatemonger.

 

[freyasman]

you're lucky. although a college degree doesn't guarantee a good job, in many places its now "the price of admission" for an interview.

high school diplomas are more or less worthless in major cities.

My DD-214 gets me in a lot of doors that a college degree won't open.

 

[marvin martian]

I'm happy to see a push-back against rhetoric about "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" coming from someone other than a right-wing troll. I believe strongly in academic freedom and in the value of confronting ideas that make you uncomfortable. So, I really didn't like the way the debate seemed to be breaking down between smart people willing to sacrifice free speech on the altar of sensitivity, on the one side, and dumb trolls outraged that anyone would take issue with their intentionally vile speech, on the other. There's a middle ground there, where people self-police with a goal of getting the most productive exchange of ideas (meaning not shying away from controversy, but also not being gratuitously offensive).

Your disdain for the civil rights of people with whom you disagree never fails to disgust me, even though I know it's par for the course among the progreSSive neo-Klansmen.

 

[as seen on tv]

Apparently, that's a decades-long tradition at U Chicago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...y-of-chicago-solution/?utm_term=.b76d82cec326

Harvard tends to have famous people as commencement speakers, including Republicans (Souter, Powell, and Greenspan), and centrists (Bloomberg).

Unfortunately for Republicans, I don't expect there to be any big surge in Republican commencement speakers at elite universities for the simple reason that the sane form of Republicanism has largely become a thing of the past. How many major Republicans are there today similar to Souter and Powell, or Michael Bloomberg (a former Republican)? So many of the sensible Republicans have been driven out of the party (Bill Weld, Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter, William Cohen), or have radicalized to try to stay relevant (McCain, Romney). The current form of leading Republican is a national embarrassment, and the people who run highly respectable universities are going to be really reluctant to besmirch their valuable brand by handing a podium to a halfwit or a hatemonger.

fortunately, most speakers don't seize the moment for political advocacy. instead, they speak about how great responsibility comes with an education comes from a great university.

the last commencement I attended was bucknell. Elie Weisel spoke.

let's pigeonhole him - is he conservative or liberal?

 

[as seen on tv]

My DD-214 gets me in a lot of doors that a college degree won't open.

I counseled a neighbor boy who thought it would be appropriate to spend $$$$ to get a 4 year degree in "food service and hospitality management" with the following thought experiment.

"who do you think Marriot is going to hire first? A graduate with a degree but no experience? Or someone with 3 years practical experience in food service and lodging for the navy or air force.

 

[Deleted member 21794]

Apparently, that's a decades-long tradition at U Chicago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...y-of-chicago-solution/?utm_term=.b76d82cec326

Harvard tends to have famous people as commencement speakers, including Republicans (Souter, Powell, and Greenspan), and centrists (Bloomberg).

Unfortunately for Republicans, I don't expect there to be any big surge in Republican commencement speakers at elite universities for the simple reason that the sane form of Republicanism has largely become a thing of the past. How many major Republicans are there today similar to Souter and Powell, or Michael Bloomberg (a former Republican)? So many of the sensible Republicans have been driven out of the party (Bill Weld, Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter, William Cohen), or have radicalized to try to stay relevant (McCain, Romney). The current form of leading Republican is a national embarrassment, and the people who run highly respectable universities are going to be really reluctant to besmirch their valuable brand by handing a podium to a halfwit or a hatemonger.

McCain and Romney have radicalized????? Huh?????