This is not a short read.
But it is a beautifully crafted piece of satire on the dreadful culture-war assault on freedom of expression in academia. Worse in America, of course, but plenty of symptoms over here.
Enjoy.
ND
IMPORTANT UPDATE: What did I just write? Here's a very worthwhile crowdfunder (IMHO) for a lady academic being very badly treated indeed - by the Open University
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/almut-gadow-academic-freedom/
20 comments:
"a professor of modern European history who denies the Holocaust could be held to account for it; a professor of electrical engineering who does the same could not."
What on earth does "held to account" mean? And by whom should this 'holding' be effected?
Clearly his colleagues could ask him to describe the evidence for his case before they assign lecturing duties. Is that what's meant? I doubt it.
Or do they mean a kangaroo court of people should be assembled - people who will almost certainly have no specialised ability to assess his evidence, and in all probability with little relevant legal training - to do him down?
Personally I'd love to hear a serious, honest historian assess the case against the Holocaust having happened. I doubt I'd find such a case compelling, given that it did happen. But no doubt I'd learn that some widely believed evidence on the Holocaust is false. Indeed, consciously falsified. Because that's the sort of thing humans do, especially humans keen on building a career.
How many were murdered? Three million? Eight million? How on earth could I know? How, indeed, does anyone know?
Declaration of interest: as far as I know none of my family was involved in the Holocaust (on either side). But my father did describe seeing Belsen. Jesus Christ!
Oh well, perhaps I'd better read the piece now.
The piece is rather long - the last Americans capable of being terse must all be dead by now - but it is pretty good stuff. Indeed, the lack of brevity may be part of the satire - the sort of people he's guying being wordy buggers.
There is one accidental joy in it: the layout and font make it look just like an extract from the University of Cambridge "Reporter", at least as it was when I last saw it.
Which reminds me of the affair in the last few years at Cambridge whereby the Powers That Be tried to force a code of Wokeness on the staff. But the academic staff voted to veto it.
One part of the code insisted that academics "respect" anyone else's point of view. One prominent advocate of free speech said he really would not respect the point of view of someone advocating Nazi-ism. Tolerate yes, respect no. I thought it revealing that the PTB hadn't anticipated that argument.
I can't remember whether anyone pointed out that a demand to "respect" anyone else's point of view was anyway damned hypocrisy since the people who design such codes have no intention of adhering to them themselves.
For example, ... well, there's really no need for examples is there? Anyone who expressed scepticism about a fashionable platitude of the day would not be "respected", he'd be accused of being a platitude denialist, a patriarchal platitude-o-phobe and probably a racist to boot, and be bullied without mercy.
Delicious, I was taken in right to the end. Oh what a tangled web.
The odd thing about Wiki's coverage of say Auschwitz is that pretty much every reference (and there are many) are to fairly recent works i.e. post-1990.-
I'd expected there'd be lots of stuff written in 1945-6 about it, from war memoirs, occupation administrators etc, even if some was in Russian or Polish.
Odd. Is that the one where the Germans demolished the crematoria near the war's end, but they were rebuilt post-war, or is that somewhere like Belsen?
@Anon, I don't know but I have seen statements to the effect that quite a lot of the things tourists are shown at Auschwitz are post-war fabrications.
Alas, this sort of lying will lead gullible young men to think that the whole business didn't happen even though it undoubtedly did.
It's a price of lying. Pity that HMG didn't think of that when it started lying about Covid.
It's worse in the workplace.
The universities supply corporations with Diversity and Equality Officers (commissars) to comply with the Equality Act.
They quickly become the most powerful person in the organisation and force things like company logos being made rainbow coloured and breasts removed from women.
Those things aren't done to impress customers but to show employees who are in charge.
Breasts removed from women - Costa.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.txt
Surely ND will opine on this?
"“An investigation has been launched into the Embraer plane crash that occurred tonight in the Tver region. According to the passenger list, among them is the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Rosaviatsia said.
Earlier TASS had reported that ten people had died after a private jet crashed in Russia’s Tver region north of Moscow. The jet, en route from Moscow to St Petersburg, was carrying seven passengers and three crew."
IIRC the plane had earlier come from Africa, we know US/Ukr has assets inside Russia as I'm sure some of those drones were internal.
Bomb put on board there? After all, the story writes itself
"Gangster Putin terminates rival who challenged him".
I already did:
"you wouldn't put too much money on him celebrating Xmas"
http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2023/06/a-day-trip-to-rostov-on-don-and-points.html
PS - lots of people have been following, on the www 'radar' sites', various aircraft flying over Russia today
(more so than usual)
couldn't say whether that was before the "accident" or after
Finally (for now), it seems Utkin was with him. That's very significant, too. By all accounts, a highly capable commander
Flightradar24 on the subject. Apparently some are blaming Russian air defences which might explain the rapid change of flight profile
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/russian-legacy-600-crashes-near-tver/
Seems like it was just an accident with an apparently unidentified plane heading for Moscow.
... other wild theories available.
Video of the incident shows the plane literally falling out of the sky rather than some sort of uncontrolled descent. Not what you would expect after an 'accident'.
Bomb or missile.
The only intrigue is was Yevgo Prego on the aircraft?
Did Don Vladimir order it done?
Or Yevgeny fake his own death to allow him to take on a new identity in another country?
Surprised that only one of two Wagner aircraft was 'taken out' . An efficient operation would have got both to be sure.
He's now on a tropical island with Jeffrey Epstein.
Either way, Dearieme, Wagner couldn't march on Moscow with Prigozhin leading them, let alone now, in revenge, as some are so excitedly predicting.
It was Putin who wasn't meant to have made *last* Christmas. He's still there. :(
Septics are saying it wasn’t a missile. Could be lying of course.
A bomb leaves the field wide open again, with the Russian Government imho the least likely suspects.
Apparently the stewardess posted something about takeoff being delayed for “repairs” – was this planting time? Or the plane was apparently up for sale – some potential buyer with good footwork and a team on hand? Alternatively, what’s security like on the ground in Africa? You surely wouldn’t entrust it to locals.
Frogs who want their uranium supplies? Septics/MI6 military for obvious reasons? Ukraine ditto? Pick any two?
Frog intelligence sure make KGB look pretty cuddly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_de_documentation_ext%C3%A9rieure_et_de_contre-espionnage
The Russians the *least likely* suspects.
Would you like to buy a bridge? I have several to sell. All guaranteed.
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