Friday, September 8, 2017

Perhaps the most pathetic sign of the university's decay to date

Infantilism reigns on one of the formerly foremost institutions of higher learning in the nation:

If there ever needed to be confirmation that Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro’s characterization of Leftist students at American universities as “snowflakes” hits the bulls-eye, the campus-wide announcementissued by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Alivisatos of the University of California, Berkeley, regarding Shapiro’s September 14 speech at the university offered just that.
Why?
Because within the announcement was this gem:
Support and counseling services for students, staff and faculty
We are deeply concerned about the impact some speakers may have on individuals’ sense of safety and belonging. No one should be made to feel threatened or harassed simply because of who they are or for what they believe. For that reason, the following support services are being offered and encouraged:
Student support services
This is disgusting on one level, and deeply disturbing on two others.

It's disgusting because it's such a vulgar indulgence in self-congratulation, like the concern is that Shapiro's appearance would sully the atmosphere of moral superiority that all these noble students, faculty and administrators have strived courageously to create.

It's deeply disturbing because it's blatantly totalitarian. It's a middle finger to the concept of free speech. And then it sets up those who came up with this as the arbiters of what is acceptable speech and and what are acceptable ideas.

It's also deeply disturbing because it takes the act of dumbing down what's left of our civilization to new lows.

This is truly vomit-inducing.

13 comments:

  1. I'm sorry, bwtfi Ben Shapiro? I'll have to google him to refresh my memory. I really think that intellectual and academic freedom will prevail. Whoever Ben is, the engineering students won't give a fuck and the med students will be too busy to care. And most of the rest would rather be partying.

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  2. You have absolutely no proof that intellectual and academic freedom will prevail and this blog offers daily, sometimes hourly, proof to the contrary. Western civilization is in its final stages of rot.

    Ben Shapiro is one of the most prominent conservative writers on the scene today. He currently edits The Daily Wire. Was with Truth Revolt before that, and Breitbart before that.

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  3. "Most of the rest of the world will be partying" . . . you're making my case.

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  4. I don't think you've fully digested that it was the school administration that came up with this offer of "support and counseling services." This is the official stance of the institution.

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  5. Most of the rest refers to the students, not the world and I used the phrase "would rather be partying," not that they necessarily are. Such is youth's perennial response to academia.

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  6. Why, because I believe in Americans who stand up for free speech outnumber those who would suppress it.

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  7. Um, sorry, but whether they outnumber the speech-suppressors doesn't count for much if the suppressors have seized all the positions of power. The numbers only come into play if this thing becomes real-deal armed conflict.

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  9. Always bringing up the option of armed conflict. What a preemptive presumption. Understandable from one who refers to taxation as seizure at gunpoint. See ya at the shootin' range.,,

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  10. The Left hates decent, normal, freedom-loving citizens, the Constitution and God and is codifying that hatred as policy in educational institutions and in law. This state of affairs won't go on in perpetuity without resolution of some kind.

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  11. I agree there and it should be resolution by law, not men, and law don't carry weaponry...

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  12. What is there to be resolved by law when the administration at UC Berkeley takes the official stance that Ben Shapiro's appearance is some sort of outlier, so much more greatly inflammatory than that of a "typical" speaker that it's going to offer this coddling?

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