In 2020, back when we still had a faculty discussion board, an older colleague who was a professor of biology, posted something about COVID that today has been accepted as common knowledge. I don’t remember what specifically it was but it definitely wasn’t about the origins. I think it was something about how social distancing wasn’t going to stop the spread of a viral infection. In short, something very anodyne.
Immediately, a very left-wing professor said that the biologist had made a typo in his post which was identical to a typo that appeared in this same kind of information on some “far-right website.” Which must mean, the left-wing colleague concluded, that the biologist was reading far-right websites.
Weeks of humiliating grievance sessions ensued where the biologist had to prove he wasn’t reading far-right websites. He was an older colleague and chose to retire at the end of that year. The discussion board was shut down to “prevent the spread of misinformation.” I feel mega guilty for all this because I had started the whole discussion by posting that COVID was not dangerous to children. Thankfully, I didn’t make any typos.
I miss the biologist colleague and I still have no idea why it was OK for the left-wing professor to read far-right websites with such minute attention that he’d remember a typo on one of them and have a screenshot readily available to accuse others.
Clarissa's Blog 
Comply, submit, grovel, and bow to the monolith, or be exterminated.
But hey, how will the youths get exposure to a broad variety of views and cultures outside their family without our lovely unis?
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That’s why I break out in hives whenever somebody at work starts going on about how we teach “critical thinking.” Neither critical nor thinking are acceptable around here.
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Do they have *any* idea how normal Americans view the uni system these days?
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The enrollments keep dropping yet the idea that it’s what and how we teach is considered completely ludicrous.
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They don’t seem to have any notion that you can’t have a uni without students, and in order to keep having students, you need parents onboard.
Deciding to become a cult that pressures young people to sever contact with their families was not a good strategic move, and even if they stopped today, it’s gonna take a long time for people to forget about that.
Saddling people with ruinous debt: also not cool.
These are the headlines we’re seeing: https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1949816358629523582
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Every revolution needs it’s useful idiots. Enter the left-wing professor scrutinising the Web in order to catch out unwitting heretics. This is how witch-hunts are born. Especially when there are no witches.
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“I still have no idea why it was OK for the left-wing professor to read far-right websites with such minute attention”
I think you do, but are resistant to the thought….
Do the phrase “cтукач” ring a bell?
From the outside it seems blindingly obvious that the left is using informers. How could they not? They are a necessary part of any authoritarian system.
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To be really true to Stalinist form, we should have subsequently hounded the narc off campus for accessing right-wing websites. This goes to show that we aren’t perfect at this yet. There’s room to grow.
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“To be really true to Stalinist form”
Well history doesn’t repeat exactly, but it rhymes. I’d say the system isn’t as radical and I wouldn’t be surprised if the nasty piece of work that ‘found’ the tell-tale typo did it for free (and clout).
But any system built on lies will need a network of political informers. Lies don’t sustain themselves they need a _lot_ of structural and institutional support to not come crashing down.
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Do you think regular people with below-average social skills can do anything in academic social circles socializing to make being an “informant” less socially acceptable?
I don’t tolerate social situations when there’s pointless irrelevant gossip about other people’s political views (when I conversation goes to “I heard that so-and-so is a racist” I just leave), but my intolerance usually just means I leave the situation and make things awkward for myself and I’m not sure it changes anything.
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Your colleague was lucky all things considered: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/23/us/mike-adams-dead-university-of-north-carolina-wilmington-tweets
I guess his comments were not as public and not as easily considered racists as the example above. All that for a couple ill considered tweets.
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It was a terrible time but given the degree of the Left’s current revanchism, I’m afraid we’ll see much worse things after 2028. We should enjoy this respite until then.
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