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• TheLincolnian

This article suggests that Plato and Aristotle were Italian.

As a Greek-American, I am deeply offended.  Italian imperialists conquered and colonized my ancestral homeland for centuries.  I was so triggered I found it difficult to focus on the rest of the article.

— The class read "Plato and Aristotle, … Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, Marx, Weber and Foucault,” i.e., "economically privileged white males from five imperial countries (England, France, Germany, Italy and the United States).”  (Not sure who the American is …)

• ASCB

Excellent post!  I’m Italian and on behalf of the Roman Empire I apologize.  But I, too, am offended: Greece colonized Sicily at some point.  I don’t recall when or for how long but I do know that I’m terribly outraged.

Another good point you made: who’s the American?  I guess they’re confusing the Englishman Locke with an American Founding Father.  I guess Google isn’t available in California.

Finally, they don’t like Foucault?  Really?  His whole argument was that logic and reason were fantasies made up by rich white men to keep them rich.  You’d think they’d recognize their ideas’ progenitor.  Also, I think Foucault may have been gay; if so, this editorial clearly is homophobic.

• Alastor

In that Foucault is arguably best-known as a swinger, I’m astonished that he is not on the Approved List!

• Reynardine

Foucault’s works are at least a half century old by this time, making them sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and speciest.

We’re post-post-modern now.

...
• Alexa

This is awesome, the only thing I’d like to say is, why stop at social sciences and humanities?  White cis men shouldn’t have control over other curricula either!  I’m an engineering student, and too many engineers pretend that structures of oppression have nothing to do with the "hard sciences.”  This is bullshit.  We have to push instructors in all disciplines to open their curricula.

...
• mark abrams

Besides cis-gender what about cis-species and trans-species?  Why aren’t there courses on designing for trans reptiles?  Surely climbing stairs can’t be pleasant for those who have snakes’ brains in human bodies.

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• Self-Abusin’ Pete

"Sometimes, we were so uncomfortable that we had to leave the classroom in the middle of lecture.”

It was horrible.  We were subjected to the presentation of ideas that made us uncomfortable.  At a university!

• Caucasoid88

Berkeley, no less.  Where mental clout is supposedly recruited.

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• Big Bird

The world and academia does not revolve around Gender and white male guilt.

• Gunnar Thalweg

Easy for you to say.  You’re yellow and eight feet tall.

• Big Bird

I’m white and 6’6 which I guess makes me guilty of something?

• Gunnar Thalweg

Yes, it does.  Stop oppressing others, immediately.

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This Shouldn’t Happen

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Rather Than Killing Liberty, How About Killing Muslim Jihadis and Their Enablers?

UK prime minister wants backdoors into messaging apps or he’ll ban them | Ars Technica

Your ruling classes will not easily admit to having made an error that cannot now be fixed.  [They] will prefer oppression to freedom, if that brings at least the illusion of peace — and many may even think they are right.

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Martha MacCallum [Fox News]:  Leaders... in Canada, and Australia and Paris... [have] all said quite clearly that the battle is against Islamic extremism.  Why is that so hard [for the U.S. government] to say?

Marie Harf [State Department Deputy Secretary]:  Well, it’s not hard to say but it’s not the only type of extremism we face. I would recommend people look at this administration’s counter-terrorism record…  Much of it is Islamic.  But some of it is not. So we’re going to focus on all of the different kinds of extremism.  With a heavy focus on those who do this in the name of Islam.  We would say falsely in the name of Islam. But there are other forms of extremism.

MacCallum:  Tell me, what other forms of extremism are particularly troubling and compelling to you right now?

Harf: Well look, there are people out there who want to kill other people in the name of a variety of causes.

President Barack Obama has a moral responsibility to push back on the nation’s journalism community when it is planning to publish anti-jihadi articles that might cause a jihadi attack against the nation’s defenses forces, the White House’s press secretary said Jan. 12.

"The president … will not now be shy about expressing a view or taking the steps that are necessary to try to advocate for the safety and security of our men and women in uniform” whenever journalists’ work may provoke jihadist attacks, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House’s daily briefing.

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The lethal attack on Charlie Hebdo, and the firebombing of a tabloid in Germany, has brought out a major contradiction in the Religion of the Press, and a lot of members of the press are demonstrating their confusion in how they respond.

Exit Wounds: On Condemning Charlie Hebdo After The Attacks

...a minority [of those commenting on the Charlie murders] have made it clear that whilst they also condemn the murders, their condemnation is qualified, usually in the form "They didn’t deserve to be killed, but…”.  The ‘but’ refers to their disgust at Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons, and necessarily following from that, disgust that people are supporting or praising the paper...  For this minority, the attack on freedom of speech by violent Islamists is a trivial concern – the priority is instead criticising Charlie Hebdo for their sense of humour.  This is an attempt to shift the focus of the discussion away from the murdered journalists and police officers and towards the sensibilities of this minority and their taste in cartoons.

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We have all been conned.  You see, the big news is not what has been happening in France the past couple days.  No, the news of consequence occurred in Nigeria on the same day as the Charlie shootings.  It will be ignored because it does not fit the narrative.

On Wednesday, a Muslim army attacked a group of small towns and villages.  Two thousand (2,000) people are reported dead, with hundreds more dragged off into slavery.  Why is this being ignored by MSM?

In the case of Charlie, talking heads will be busy for weeks debating whether the cartoonists’ ‘‘provocative’’ actions led to righteous indignation among Muslims, which erupted furiously.  When done, obfuscation will be the order of the day.  As for the kosher market killings, well, if Jews were not wantonly killing Palestinians and occupying Palestinian land it would not have happened.  Again, relativity will prevail – six of one is a half-dozen of another.  There will be no really bad persons and Islam will remain ‘‘the religion of peace.’’

But, in Nigeria, the helpless victims of Islam had done nothing to provoke violence other than simply being non-Muslim.  These villagers were not in the business of printing cartoons unflattering to the prophet and they were not staunch defenders of the hated Zionists.  Nope, they just were not Muslim and that was enough to bring down the wrath of god. Muslims behaved as Muslims do when no one is watching.

Oh, the Nigerians are not white or Western, which means they are uninteresting.  Their fate has no relevance to the West. What happens on the ‘‘dark continent’’ stays on the dark continent.  As an aside, Boko Haram (‘‘Western education is forbidden’’) is officially named, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad (‘‘People Committed to the Prophet’s Teachings for Propagation and Jihad’’).  As I said, there is nothing to see here.

There will be no great debates about ‘‘fundamental,’’ ‘‘radical,’’ or ‘‘faux’’ Islam when it comes to the dead in Nigeria and their killers.  Dead in their thousands, they will make hardly a blip on the radar screen during any news cycle.  Herds of news people will not trample the grass of Nigeria looking for great scoops and endlessly debating cause and effect and defending the benign nature of Islam.  Because of this, you see, the actual murderous nature of Islam will remain hidden from view.  That is the story.  Again, consider: Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad (‘‘People Committed to the Prophet’'s Teachings for Propagation and Jihad’’), aka Boko Haram.

I love Paris …

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