Binger wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:50 pm
So, is it okay to mention Brandt's motivation?
Sure. My interpretation is that our politics have gone nutty, and people are attacking others as though the opposition does not deserve to live.
This can be conservatives against progressives or progressives against conservatives.
Lots of ugliness going around.
So, we just had a student leave our program. I won't name names obviously. But this student, from what I can gather, was the epitome of a liberal snowflake having a meltdown. And that led this person to resign precipitously from teaching a class and leave our graduate program altogether.
From outward appearances, it seems that the first problem this person experienced was when a professor of European extraction did not speak about issues of race in the progressively prescribed fashion. This happened last year. The student had a fit and refused to work with that professor any longer.
The department coddled the student and allowed this person to work for another professor in the program.
Then, this year, one of our administrators sent a letter to the students reminding them to be civil to each other. This student made the issue personal and resigned from the program, citing the behavior of "certain male professors" as the reason for leaving. In other words, the student is now accusing professors in the program of being sexist without providing any details to back up the accusation.
I saw the email the administrator sent. It was extremely diplomatic, simply reminding all students to be civil to other students, and no gendered or racially insensitive language was used.
Sorry, but this is absolute madness. And, that this student would implode in this way, for the flimsiest of reasons, in a fairly progressive academic department that offers classes on racism in the Classics, has a DEI committee, etc., is evidence that there is a real problem.
Oh, maybe it is just one troubled student. And I guess there are always people out there who will fly off the handle and do idiotic and even deadly things. But it seems like, these days, political intolerance is the big flashpoint.
