education

Equating harassment with protest, and denying due process

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged education journalism law on by

The situation with harassment of Jewish students and the Trump administration’s actions is a mess where serious wrongs turn up on all sides. It’s vital, and difficult, to evaluate actions on principles rather than on tribal criteria. On the one hand, there is harassment and intimidation that hides under the innocent name of “protest.” On the other, there’s the improper invocation of laws and denial of due process against people accused of doing that.

Governmental overreach is the bigger concern, especially when the current executive branch is aggressively expanding its power. At the same time, intimidation on campus is a serious concern, and downplaying it as mere “protest” only gives the administration’s actions a facade of credibility. An example is a Washington Post article with the headline “New Trump demand to colleges: Name protesters — and their nationalities.”
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Why America is dying

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged education liberty on by

In just over a month since Trump took office, America has begun a clear descent into strongman rule, with few signs it will be stopped. He’s gotten rid of qualified people in high positions, replacing them with loyal followers. He has enacted heavy taxes without Congressional action. He has tried to amend the Constitution’s birthright citizenship clause by decree. He’s loosed the ICE on cities; “border czar” Tom Homan has threatened, “I’m coming to Boston and I’m bringing hell with me.” Trump’s and Musk’s DOGE is a phantom entity, not an administrative unit authorized by any law, and it has scooped up sensitive information from government agencies with no accountability.

There’s outrage, to be sure, and more meaningless talk of “resistance” like what we heard during Trump’s first term, but not nearly enough solid opposition to Trump’s moves toward autocracy. The Republican Party has totally abandoned any limited-government positions it once held. The Democrats offer only a timid voice. The far left is worse than the Trumpist right. The Libertarian Party has ceased to be libertarian. I can only expect things to keep getting worse.
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Addressing an insane world 1

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged education SanityProject writing on by

Insanity is the default state of humanity. Ever since I can remember, people have been declaring that their present is Heinlein’s “crazy years.” It’s getting worse, though. People are openly applauding the thug who gunned down Brian Thompson in the street. A lot of them are undoubtedly the same ones who applauded the massacre of innocent Israelis in 2023. The current president of the US abused his power to pardon his son, and the next one has declared his intent to pardon rioters who invaded the Capitol in support of his lies. The latter wants to tax imports and kick out immigrant workers who contribute to domestic production, and people cheer the policies that will inevitably make everything more expensive.

It’s easy to give in to despair. You can give up on the world and just try to enjoy the show as it collapses. But it’s too easy and accomplishes nothing. Besides, there are two reasons not to call it quits.
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A frontal assault on free speech

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship education on by

The FIRE website discusses a “hate speech” policy being considered by a Wisconsin school district. It’s outrageous even among current attempts to stifle speech. Here’s the draft policy for the Baraboo school district, so you don’t have to take FIRE’s word for it.

It starts with the favorite lie of censorship advocates: “Hate speech is not protected speech.” It invents an exception to the First Amendment out of whole cloth.
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Recollections of Ergo

This entry was posted in History Writing and tagged education history MIT writing on by

Ergo: The Campus Voice of Reason. That was the name of our paper. Like all college students, we were more confident we were right than we should have been, but we stood apart from the crowd. As an organization, we were never “liberal” or “conservative” in the popular sense of the words. Our position was libertarian, strongly influenced by Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. Ergo challenged university administrators, the campus left, politicians, and academics. My association with Ergo helped me to develop a framework of thought that I still go by. My views on what is important and how to achieve it have changed, and so have some of my conclusions, but my basic principles have changed very little.

Ergo came into being during a time called the “sixties,” which lasted from about 1965 to 1975. The founder was J. R. M. Seitz, who allegedly acquired all the parts necessary to build an Atlas missile (except the nuclear warhead) on the open market. It was the time of the Vietnam War and urban riots. It was a time of protests and violence. People marched and occupied buildings. Some thought that totalitarian Communist states were a great idea. Others just wanted the government to stop drafting people and sending them into an undeclared war on the other side of the globe. Once I was punched in the nose, and another time the sweater I was wearing was set on fire. I can’t count the number of times I was called a fascist. Interesting times.
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Two views on open discussion

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship education on by

Is open discussion with minimal limitations a value or a danger? Here I try to understand the people who are afraid of it and answer their concerns.

The starting point for this post was a Code of Conduct posted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It doesn’t specify severe penalties for violation, though groups within W3C could in principle reference it as a basis for draconian rules. It recommends resolving issues by discussion in preference to censure or expulsion. So that much is OK. This code is much less of a problem than some which certain science fiction conventions have proclaimed.

Still, its list of “unacceptable behaviors” is broad, and that raises concerns. Many refer to remarks that have no place in a professional organization, such as “deliberate misinformation,” “personal attacks,” “unwelcome sexual attention,” and so on. Others, though, could be used to discourage or punish unpopular ideas.
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Hostility as a tool of persuasion 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged education psychology on by

A lot of people act as if mockery and denunciation are effective ways to convince others that they’re wrong. Not many of them, though, come out and endorse this principle. A Liberal Currents article called “Deradicalizing the Center” offers qualified support for it, though, and it’s not just a rant. It contains a lot of good thinking. I’d like to take a look at it to see what the author claims and argues.
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New Hampshire bill seeks to mandate book rating system

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary News and tagged censorship education libraries New Hampshire on by

A bill before the New Hampshire legislature, Senate Bill 523, is a frontal attack on school libraries in the state and the vendors that provide books to them. The bill is sponsored by State Senator Kevin Avard. It’s the kind of lunacy you’d expect in Kansas or Texas, not New Hampshire.

It would set up a bounty system for bringing complaints against material which is allegedly “harmful to minors.” Anyone claiming to be aggrieved under the bill’s terms would be able to sue for damages. A person bringing a successful suit would be guaranteed a minimum payout of $1,000. What Avard is trying to set up isn’t just a way to remove inappropriate books but a way to incentivize gratuitous challenges.
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Plagiarism accusations against Harvard’s president

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged education Harvard plagiarism on by

Taking a principled approach means that sometimes you support a person in one respect while being severely critical in another. I supported Harvard president Claudine Gay when she said that calls for genocide don’t categorically qualify as harassment. But now there’s evidence that she’s a repeat plagiarist, and that demands strong criticism if she is.

Update: Claudine Gay has resigned as president of Harvard University. See also the new paragraph at the end of this post.

Plagiarism consists of using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as original work. If you cite the source, it isn’t plagiarism (though it might be a copyright violation if you use too much). Sometimes it’s tricky to identify. Two people can have the same idea independently. Words can stick in your mind, leading you to use them without being aware that you’re lifting them from another author. Sometimes there’s just one good way to say something.
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Cancel culture goes mainstream

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged censorship education liberty on by

“One down. Two to go. This forced resignation of the president of @Penn is the bare minimum of what is required.”

That’s the kind of language you might expect from the Minister of Truth in a socialist dictatorship. It’s from Elise Stefanik, a Congresswoman from New York. The offense for which Stefanik and many others are seeking to remove three university presidents is the failure to regard advocacy of genocide unconditionally as harassment.
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