The latest from the shitshow that the leftist-infested academy has been turning into more and more. (h/t Maverick Philosopher, additional related link there) Aside from the obviously suspicious circumstances of this tenure-track person's firing, and the obviously credible depiction of all-too-familiar "woke" smear tactics involved, there is an entirely valid point the author raises:
I did not enjoy the protection of tenure (I was, however, tenure-track), but we should not rely upon tenure to uphold free inquiry. Academic health is not served by a message that tenure can only be secured by those prepared to embrace political orthodoxies. After all, if tenure is intended to protect people who challenge dogmas and orthodoxies, why would we support a system that punishes non-conformists and that sieves them out before they are capable of safely challenging prevailing views?
Gee, ya think?
The blatant hypocrisy of the tenure system, from an academic-freedom standpoint at any rate, is now laid bare. Not just a system of tenure under the currently prevailing leftist-scum-infested shitshow, but any system of tenure whatsoever: from a intellectual-freedom-loving standpoint, what legitimate function does it serve? Why in the everloving fuck should anyone, anywhere be made to feel afraid to speak their minds?
Not just in the academy, but corporations, or . . . anywhere. It's an unphilosophical world where there are punishments for intellectual honesty. I don't give a fuuuuuuuuuuuck if intellectual honesty makes someone annoying, unpopular, or "uncomfortable" for others to be around. (Why can't these others fucking deal with it? What the fuck is their problem? [Note: this is not to say that other factors besides intellectual honesty can make someone annoying, unpopular, etc. But that's not the issue here. All too many people don't value intellectual honesty or intellectualism very highly, and they are annoyed or made uncomfortable in its presence, and that's a problem with them.]) Intellectual honesty is the one paramount value I embrace, and intellectual dishonesty (among the kinds of which is intellectual laziness) the one thing that really grinds my gears; it is the #1 cause of the world's avoidable problems.
What the fuck, is the idea of a free and fair marketplace of ideas utopian, or something?
The blatant hypocrisy of the tenure system, from an academic-freedom standpoint at any rate, is now laid bare. Not just a system of tenure under the currently prevailing leftist-scum-infested shitshow, but any system of tenure whatsoever: from a intellectual-freedom-loving standpoint, what legitimate function does it serve? Why in the everloving fuck should anyone, anywhere be made to feel afraid to speak their minds?
Not just in the academy, but corporations, or . . . anywhere. It's an unphilosophical world where there are punishments for intellectual honesty. I don't give a fuuuuuuuuuuuck if intellectual honesty makes someone annoying, unpopular, or "uncomfortable" for others to be around. (Why can't these others fucking deal with it? What the fuck is their problem? [Note: this is not to say that other factors besides intellectual honesty can make someone annoying, unpopular, etc. But that's not the issue here. All too many people don't value intellectual honesty or intellectualism very highly, and they are annoyed or made uncomfortable in its presence, and that's a problem with them.]) Intellectual honesty is the one paramount value I embrace, and intellectual dishonesty (among the kinds of which is intellectual laziness) the one thing that really grinds my gears; it is the #1 cause of the world's avoidable problems.
What the fuck, is the idea of a free and fair marketplace of ideas utopian, or something?
Do I even need to ask what sages like Socrates (who was sentenced to death for being honest/"annoying", for godsakes...), Plato, Aristotle, et al, were they revived to speak authoritatively today, would say in response to such questions?
What a fucking joke.
[Addendum: Is social media structurally dishonest? Consider: "likes" are what drive social media, but "likes" entail a popularity contest, not the encouragement of honesty and truth. Of course social media is structurally dishonest, and that's the #1 cause of why social media is such a widely reviled toxic shitshow. The old discussion formats - listservs, Usenet - didn't have this problem. Fuckerberg, Dorsey, Huffman and the other war-profiteers of "likes" can stuff it.]
[Addendum #2 (3/11/2020): Leiter quotes Kathleen Stock on twitter: "The problem with academic feminist philosophy is that it’s run like a fiefdom, not like a normal open philosophical discussion. There are things you are just not allowed to say, and people you are not allowed to offend. Quality suffers, and to [the] rest of [the] world, it shows." (Fucking twitter and its cognition-diminishing character limits, huh?) Now, just replace "academic feminist philosophy" with "academia today," and definitely keep the "to the rest of the world" part, and you might see just what a fucking joke this all is. This is sickness, folks.]
[Addendum: Is social media structurally dishonest? Consider: "likes" are what drive social media, but "likes" entail a popularity contest, not the encouragement of honesty and truth. Of course social media is structurally dishonest, and that's the #1 cause of why social media is such a widely reviled toxic shitshow. The old discussion formats - listservs, Usenet - didn't have this problem. Fuckerberg, Dorsey, Huffman and the other war-profiteers of "likes" can stuff it.]
[Addendum #2 (3/11/2020): Leiter quotes Kathleen Stock on twitter: "The problem with academic feminist philosophy is that it’s run like a fiefdom, not like a normal open philosophical discussion. There are things you are just not allowed to say, and people you are not allowed to offend. Quality suffers, and to [the] rest of [the] world, it shows." (Fucking twitter and its cognition-diminishing character limits, huh?) Now, just replace "academic feminist philosophy" with "academia today," and definitely keep the "to the rest of the world" part, and you might see just what a fucking joke this all is. This is sickness, folks.]
