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Resentment

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Clarissa

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These discussions about PC speech codes are posted to everybody on campus except for students. The janitorial personnel, the cafeteria workers, the support stuff, the building management. These are working class folks who don’t have the educational and cultural capital or the leisure to stay updated on the politically correct jargon.

Day after day, they hear that they are racist, hate-filled, transphobic, homophobic, evil, etc. Day after day, they are being hectored at work by people of upper social classes about how the basic things they think they know about life are not only wrong but bigoted. And they are afraid to say anything because they are easily dispensable plus there is no way they can win a debate with a person who has a PhD in social justice or whatever.

So they seethe and then they hear Donald Trump ridicule these PC tormentors, and they like it. They think he’s on their side. And it’s not the right conclusion to draw but it’s understandable. And we can heap abuse and burn with righteous indignation all we want. But it only aggravates the issue.

15 responses to “Resentment”

  1. Anon for this one Avatar
    Anon for this one

    Somebody once scandalized my colleagues by explaining that in order to learn a certain thing you needed to be “bright.” They were horrified that somebody would openly state that some students might lack the ability to do certain things at a high level. This is one of those things that people in non-elite institutions are not supposed to speak of, except perhaps in certain types of coded language.

    I tried to explain this to a staff member (whose ethnic and gender identity are not exactly privileged) and the staff member was just baffled that professors would deny that some kids are not smart enough for certain things. The staff member thought it was just an obvious fact of life. I tried to explain why this is not something that you can state openly in front of certain faculty and they just did not get it.

    Also, I tried to speak up for the person who liked “bright” students, and my colleagues accused me of a great many sins against intersectionality. It did nothing to improve my attitude toward my institution.

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    1. Anon for this one Avatar
      Anon for this one

      I should add that my therapist has a PhD and he also thinks this is insane. He thought it was manifestly obvious that some students are not capable of pursuing certain subjects at the highest levels.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        Yeah, I know what my next session with my analyst will be about and I pity him already. :-)))

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    2. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      It’s also a cherished Soviet principle of teaching that if students are failing the fault lies 100% with the teacher.

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  2. el Avatar
    el

    \ These discussions about PC speech codes are posted to everybody on campus except for students. The janitorial personnel, the cafeteria workers, the support stuff, the building management.

    What do you mean posted to those people especially? Surely, the janitorial personnel and the cafeteria workers at least do not have work emails. If the messages are posted on walls, the students see them too.

    Also, who speaks with the janitorial personnel to check their speech codes? I thought neither students nor professors were likely to do that. I am sure the janitors could care less about some discussions somewhere; their lives are too hard for that. Are you sure you are not projecting your concerns on janitors and cafeteria workers? I can believe secretaries and such caring, but not janitors.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I know for a fact that the fellow who cleans my office is seething and so is the building manager. They have seethed to me, so that’s how I know.

      I haven’t spoken to the cafeteria workers in a while, but of course they have work email. That’s where we get updated about salaries, holidays, campus closures, regulations, etc. It would be really bizarre if we excluded cafeteria workers from work email. We are bad but not that bad. :-)))

      But this is all beyond the point. People turn on the TV and hear the same indoctrination all day and every day. Shows that depart from the indoctrination a bit get cancelled. Movies don’t get funded or get bashed if they do. This is far beyond a single situation on a single campus. This is a cultural environment where anybody who is just a bit different is met with screams of “Shut up, you bigot!”

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    2. Mike Avatar
      Mike

      These days, absolutely everyone who works anywhere has an email address, except maybe lawn crews working illegal (undocumented) jobs, and I bet even some of them do. If you work for a university or a corp, you have an email address, at least in the US. I’ve found that pretty much without exception (partially because I used to be the one to assign those email addresses).

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  3. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    What do you mean posted to those people especially? Surely, the janitorial personnel and the cafeteria workers at least do not have work emails.
    You underestimate the amount of bureaucracy involved with any sufficiently large organization. They all have an employee email and an employee login portal. Trust.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Yep. Exactly. You can disconnect if you want but it’s a complex procedure that you need a couple of PhDs to navigate. Plus, there is an added problem that you can only disconnect from the whole thing, not from parts of it. So you’ll start missing important announcements. Tax information, closure times, etc.

      I have been here for years, and every year somebody begs to be excused from the discussions (usually blue-collar workers or terrified first-year TT people), and are told that it’s unrealistic.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        It’s especially, you know, weird when professors start sharing mile-long discussions of how they feel about Hegel or start threads with LGBTQIA+ in the title. Not because anybody is homophobic but because the letter soup looks prohibitive to non-academics. Every once in a while a working class person would pipe up about something they care about, and people start oozing condescension.

        Isn’t it beautiful to live in a classless society like this? :-)))

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  4. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “Day after day, they are being hectored”

    People don’t enjoy being lectured and preached at by people who consider themselves to be better? Who knew?

    Maybe they need to ramp up the lecturing and preaching until the lower downs learn to love it!

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      The darn bigots need to be taught their place! It’s all in the name of inclusivity, so it got to be good.

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  5. jamesbradfordpate Avatar
    jamesbradfordpate

    Reblogged this on James' Ramblings.

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  6. Omega Man Avatar
    Omega Man

    If the Democrats really are against Trump then why are they throwing the election away? Despite the MSM’s best efforts, the Democrats are looking and behaving more and more like buffoons who have no desire to govern responsibly. The Kavanaugh debacle for one convinced a great many people that the Democrats are a party with no integrity, no decency, and absolutely no honour. Why are they doing this to themselves?

    Those deplorables who cling to their guns and religion were once the backbone of the Democratic Party, but then they were abandoned. These were the very same people who at one time were your most loyal supporters.

    The Democrats need to first get back to their roots, that is listen to the working class, and secondly they need to regain some semblance of dignity if they ever want to regain the trust of the people.

    Please do your best to get the Democrats back on track!

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Yes, exactly. All this and more. And to answer your question, this seems completely improbable but it looks like they think this unhinged screeching and buffoonery is actually working and attracting the masses to them.

      The Democratic leadership is beyond clueless to allow the party to be taken in this direction.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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