Folks, here is a great article on the use of the term racism. The first half is too verbose and a bit belabored but the second half is great. Note that the author uses the same definition of Liberalism as the one I discussed recently, as a revolutionary understanding of the basic humanity of everybody.
A Great Link
Clarissa's Blog 
Thank you for the link! The reasoning and the language were outstanding. At some points, his post resembled speech writing in, for instance, its use of repetitions. Added the blog to my Favorites folder.
Unfortunately, the PC got even to the writer via content warnings and desabling comments:
“[Content warning: discussion of racism. Comments are turned off due to bad experience with the comments on this kind of material.]”
Hope you won’t ever choose to do it since comments contribute a lot.
I hoped to have this discussion on your blog, but so far only I have probably read it.
Will be glad to see more links to such good blogs in the future.
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“Will be glad to see more links to such good blogs in the future.”
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\ I think that people will write less and express interesting opinions less frequently if at all
One doesn’t have to blog under one’s real name. Many choose to be anonymous, and more will choose that in the future.
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If you write anonymously, how easy is it to attribute the stuff written by some other anonymous person to you and hound you over it? How can you prove a negative and demonstrate that you didn’t write “let’s kill little old ladies” anonymously somewhere?
Once it becomes acceptable to persecute people for online opinions, we are done for. There will be no online opinions. Just the eager sputtering of the approved party line.
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\ If you write anonymously, how easy is it to attribute the stuff written by some other anonymous person to you and hound you over it?
I disagree with your conclusion of “there will be no online opinions” since in this universe you can be accused of anything whether you write or not. Why not to write anonymously then for entertainment?
And there will always be people writing online, both anonymously and not. The intellectuals will be prevented from writing non-cliches under their real names, but the “deplorables” and Trump-like types will happily continue.
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As I said, there will be people trying to imitate the party line as faithfully as possible to demonstrate how good they are.
“The intellectuals will be prevented from writing non-cliches under their real names, but the “deplorables” and Trump-like types will happily continue.”
Hmmm, maybe it’s time to turn conservative.
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I think it’s all a game for those students. They are like children pulling apart butterflies without realizing they are destroying somebody’s career or even life since one’s career is central and so much effort went into building it. They do not really care about RL politics; the latter is only a means of scratching the itch of being special, or rather “special.”
Wonder who the snowflakes’ parents are voting for. Is being progressive a life stage they “outgrow,” so they (sub)consciously see Conservatives alone as “real adults” worthy of respect?
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“They are like children pulling apart butterflies without realizing they are destroying somebody’s career or even life since one’s career is central and so much effort went into building it.”
And then they will come up for all of us.
I wonder, do conservative students do that? Do they get people fired for referring to “the unborn” as “fetuses” or something like that? My students are mostly not the Bernie crowd, so I worry on personal grounds.
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Oh, I don’t write interesting opinions online under my own name. My social media is locked down because I once had a relative forward a chat to my grandfather and it caused a big hullabaloo. I don’t want or need the potential harassment or doxxing.
I think it’s just as likely from people regardless of political affiliation or politics.
“[Content warning: discussion of racism. Comments are turned off due to bad experience with the comments on this kind of material
It could mean nothing more than they are not interested in moderating a discussion. Even if most readers tend to think along the same lines, it’s still contentious. If you’re going away for a week, for example, maybe you don’t want to moderate any kind of discussion, because it is work. It’s more honest than Shakesville’s novella of rules.
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I wouldn’t worry about the effect of the PC police on slatestarcodex tbh. Most of his posts have truly gigantic comment sections, from people with very different views on the world.
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My posts also have large comment sections. It hasn’t been a problem until now but I have no doubt it will be soon.
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\ My posts also have large comment sections. It hasn’t been a problem until now but I have no doubt it will be soon.
How will it become a problem? You have a group of dedicated readers, so we won’t change. Do you get many spam and trolling comments that you delete in moderation?
Are you worried about your students finding the blog?
If we suddenly find ourselves in a truly dystopian reality of 1984-ish policing, you may make posts Friends Only, if you wish.
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My students do read my blog and love it . But these are conservative students. I worry what will happen if I go to work at a more liberal place. If you can fire Christakis so easily, think about the much more hard core stuff I’ve written.
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Don’t worry, lady, the true conservative commentators on this website are mature enough to understand your reasoned (if sometime wrong) viewpoints, and to address them with you at an adult level. In other words, we can talk.
There are one (maybe two) infantile middle-school-level haters around your website who post contemptible ad-hominem insults when conservatives disagree with their political opinions. Most of my fellow conservatives here are mild-mannered enough to ignore such provocations — but if I feel sufficiently provoked, my attacker is in for a rowdy, tumbling dogfight.
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Just stay away from racist comments, is all I ask for. And we’ll all be happy.
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I know one woman who shut down her blog making it friends only and then she discontinued it altogether because her neighbor who hated her special needs kids was going to try to mine it for harassment purposes.
It was not a political blog and it was innocuous.
It has almost nothing to do with politics. People are vicious.
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I’m not worried about neighbors disliking me. I’m worried about political retaliation.
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I mean, thousands of comments each post. But yeah, your situations are quite different. I’m guessing that what we’re seeing with the bullies is highly sheltered kids rebelling against what they perceive as parental figures. They really sound like 14-year-0lds discovering that mommy or daddy might be a hypocrite.
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\ I wonder, do conservative students do that?
Why not? Remember how some people can’t stop complaining about liberal PC censorship, while real censorship comes from religious students?
I googled and found:
[Nov 2016] Conservative Group Launches Watchlist For Liberal Professors
“Expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”
http://professorwatchlist.org/
AND
[March 2, 2017] An Iowa state senator wants to create a state law to require state universities to seek ideological balance among faculty members during the hiring process.
And that very same senator is now under scrutiny for his own educational history.
…
The proposal would institute a hiring freeze until universities in the state create balance in the number of faculty members who are Democrats and who are Republicans, within 10%. Professors could register as not being affiliated with a party to get around the rule.
http://college.usatoday.com/2017/03/02/iowa-bill-would-force-universities-to-hire-equal-numbers-of-liberal-and-conservative-professors/
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I’m all for publishing competing websites , lists or whatever. That I have no problem with. It’s hounding people, beating them and getting them fired that I oppose.
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Slatestarcodex! I don’t always agree with him, but he has lots of interesting things to say, and the later parts of this article were great.
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I do think white people down South are more racist than he gives them credit for, albeit much less racist than people up North think (and white Northerners are much more racist than they give themselves credit for.) The Southern Strategy was not that long ago. I do wonder how the civil rights movement would’ve been received in the North if we had any states up here that were 40% black. Probably a lot differently.
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Gov. Bullock says the Senate healthcare bill is “exactly what’s wrong with Washington, DC.” He’s in touch with that anti-politician populism we talked about. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard him say something like this.
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\ what we’re seeing with the bullies is highly sheltered kids rebelling against what they perceive as parental figures. They really sound like 14-year-0lds discovering that mommy or daddy might be a hypocrite.
I think this also stems from the declining despect for universities from students and everybody else, as can be seen from this comment to the linked article re Chu:
” I also find it amusing that she holds herself in such high regard. For all her advanced degrees, she is basically a glorified babysitter. And she can’t even do that right! ”
I think massive entrance of women and minorities also led to the declining respect (and wages?). That’s why it’s important for the university system to stress its dedication to professionalism, intellectual development and etc., while distancing the perceived role of universities from any words like “nurturing” or “safe / home environment.”
\ Students who work at Yale Daily News … Any professor who doesn’t praise them all day long and gives anything lower than an A on every assignment can become a target.
I thought (you said) students value professionalism, and love good professors even if they are tough graders. Is it different at Yale, or are most students there like I described, but a few special newspaper workers spoil it for everybody?
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These are not students, though. They didn’t come to school for an educational experience. They came for a religious one. They have experienced the Revelation and now want to extirpate heresy and destroy heretics.
This is not a new phenomenon. Historically, it’s happened everywhere from medieval Europe to Stalin’s USSR.
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I was shocked some Democrats were so insane-sounding:
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a new educational proposal: starting with this year’s freshman class, every student in the Chicago public school system will be required to show an acceptance letter from a college, a trade school or apprenticeship, or a branch of the military in order to graduate.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/04/rahm-emanuels-college-proposal-is-everything-wrong-with-democratic-education-policy
AND
Autistic children are more likely to share:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00221-017-4947-y
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