I’d planned for my next post to be a book review, but someone sent me a link to the video below because it perfectly captures everything I’ve been saying in this series of posts. The college professor in this video is a walking, talking (but barely-thinking) example of the postmodernist mindset described by Stephen Hicks in Explaining Postmodernism.
Now, set aside whatever opinions you have on illegal immigration, illegal immigrants, build the wall, don’t build the wall, etc. That’s not the issue here. The issue is how a college professor – an actual COLLEGE PROFESSOR at Cal State University – deals with logic, evidence and language.
As Hicks described in his book, postmodernists view everything in terms of The Oppressed and The Oppressors. When the speaker cites statistics showing that illegals commit federal crimes at a higher rate than the legal population, the professor immediately tries to blame it on “structural racism” – a term I’d wager a week’s pay she can’t define in fewer than 250 words, most of which will be gobbledygook.
But the really fascinating/horrifying part comes later, when the professor says that by citing these statistics, the speaker is engaging in conversation that is “oppressive.” There it is again, exactly as Hicks describes in his book. According to postmodernists, free speech is oppressive if the wrong people are allowed to speak freely.
(I always think of that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “Come see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I’m being repressed!”)
But speech isn’t just oppressive, ya see:
Speaker: So that means that you, a faculty member at an American public university, paid for by taxpayer dollars, are conflating speech with violence.
Professor: Yes. Speech can be violent.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the wackadoodle belief that leads to the cancel culture. If we don’t like what you’re saying, you’re committing violence – so we can shut you up to protect ourselves from the violence. (Or in the case of antifa, we can engage in true, physical violence and then claim we were merely protecting ourselves from your speech “violence.”)
Putting her postmodernist-induced lunacy further on display, the professor wants the speaker to ask the audience if they feeeeel violence has been committed on them. Do we rely on logic, proof, some kind of reasonable evidence actual violence has taken place? No, according to the professor, if people feeeeel violence has occurred, then violence has occurred.
It doesn’t require much imagination to see where this lunatic logic leads: people don’t like what they hear, they decide they feeeeel violence has committed, and they respond with actual violence. We’re already seeing that happen.
The speaker responds like a person with an actual functioning brain:
No I haven’t asked, because no violence has been committed on you, because violence is not a subjective feeling. Violence is an objective fact. I can objectively gauge whether or not someone has become violent.
Objectivist vs. subjectivist mindset. Again, exactly as Hicks describes in his book:
Objectivist: if it’s true, I’ll believe it.
Subjectivist: if I believe it, it’s true.
The speaker goes on:
And I would say to you, as a faculty member at a taxpayer-funded university, this is the foundation of liberal education. If you cannot understand that there is a difference between speech and violence, you don’t understand anything that undergirds the liberal arts or liberal education. And that is a real shame. And I say this with all respect and with great distress for our universities, if our teachers don’t understand the difference between ideas and violence, between speech and violence, then they are in no position to educate the next generation of Americans.
But they are educating the next generation of Americans, some of whom go on to work at Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. That’s why the cancel culture is invading those platforms. And that’s why Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are starting to suck.
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Exactly…this is terrifying Tom. We live in scary depressing times. This will not end well. The types of people who believe this sort of evil nonsense are the same sorts that produced the Cultural Revolution in China and the Soviet Union.
The parallels are worrisome.
Somehow things seem different this time. Just look at GQ magazines timeline as an example.
https://mobile.twitter.com/GQMagazine
The feminization of men.
That’s just one example.
Also things like transsexuals reading books to children in schools and libraries.
And things like children transitioning via hormones and surgery to opposite genders.
Notice how things went from LGB, to LGBT, to (I kid you not) LGBTQQIAAP
Now they (whoever they are) are coming after our children.
Something sinister is going on and it’s happening right under our noses.
Now more than ever our 1A and 2A must be protected.
I always wonder about the Asexual part of that one. Have people who aren’t interested in sex dealt with a lot of abuse? Was there a time when bigots would go to bars where people who aren’t interested in sex hang out and beat up the patrons?
Amusing. But imo has nothing to do with abuse, at least not nowadays.
Gentlemen,
May I inform you of the Protocols Of Zion? I’m not accusing any group for carrying them out. I’m just nothing that they seem to be carried out.
You’re suggestion this all fits with a plan for Jewish domination of the world? I’ll have to ask my wife if she’ll let me in on the plan.
Not to really get into any kind of argument on this but what I have been told by people who are experts on politics, Zionists have blurred the line between Zionism and Judaism. Most of the Zionists act like Jews but are actually atheists. Zionism is a political force while Judaism remains a religion. I know many Jews who do not share the beliefs of the Zionists and want to live in peace with the rest of the world.
@Tom May I ask if you’ve read the Protocols? As I wrote I am not accusing anyone and of course I do not believe “All Jews are in on it”. I’m just noting that past and current events align well with them.
Patrik –
may i inform you that you are referring to a proven Russian forgery and are infesting this conversation with a known and repeatedly proven defamatory falsehood and conspiracy theory that has been used many times – and still is – to harass, attack and commit protracted and ugly violence on Jews worldwide?
And Tom, please tell your lovely wife that our mass meeting to take over Cleveland shopping malls is well overdue because SOMEONE’s calendar software got hacked!
I’ll keep her posted, but she’s been busy with the chickens, the girls’ school activities, and planning world domination.
JillOz
I know very little about this document but even if it is a forgery, conspiracy or whatever, why can’t Patrik ask questions? In just one sentence, you managed to attack his question in many ways-
“proven Russian forgery”
“infesting this conversation”
“proven defamatory falsehood”
“conspiracy theory”
To which I ask, so what?
Also can’t ignore how you felt the need to “inform”, suggesting anyone with questions is not already informed or intelligent enough to make them. You also wrote – “has been used many times – and still is – to harass, attack and commit protracted and ugly violence on Jews worldwide”. Suggesting asking questions is like violence, which is what the whole post (speech can be violent) is about! The irony is astounding.
Based on Patriks comments, it seems he’s is trying to find out what the heck is going on with this world, as are many. Saying he can’t ask questions is a cheap non-argument. People see what’s happening to our society and are demanding answers. And eventually they will get the answers whether some like it or not.
Let him ask questions.
I think it’s time we wrap up the worldwide conspiracy discussion. It’s not exactly germane to this blog.
So well said Tom. You’ve really nailed it in this series. Thank you Sir.
Greetings from Patrik in Sweden.
We live in a world where we’ve been lied to about many things. No, the Earth is not flat but there may be a problem with the current Solar system model we all believe is true. Take a look for yourself: http://www.tychos.info
Three interessting videos about the media and how they mislead and deceives for money and power + muslim deathtreats and deplatforming of critics.
Tommy Robinson Banned by Facebook and Instagram – The BBC Panorams Continues (David Wood Ph.d)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=my079cdbm3g
Whitewashing Islam – 20 Errors on 20-20 (ABC News) Acts17 Apologetics
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ5Bwj3iTrg&t=162s
Muslim Apologists Conspiring to Censor and Deplatform Critics of Islam (Don’t mind the food eaten in this video, he has the same humour as you Tom 🙂 )
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SnCIxAdACsg&t=58s
The western media has gone full retard and you never go full retard! 🙂
Side topic to the post… I attended a presentation by the dean of the school I dropped my youngest at this fall. As the Dean began to exult the virtues of a “liberal” education he felt the need to pause and explain “liberal” in this context is not a political ideology but an educational philosophy based on the Latin ‘liber’ or free – the goal to create students who know how to use their minds for reason, logic and thinking as independent individuals.
The exact opposite of the professor in the video.
Yup. True liberals believe in free speech.
thanks Tom; thanks for continuing to speak of these issues; as a child, George Orwell’s “1984” was almost seen as a parody; an exaggeration; so whilst I did read many of Orwell’s works, “1984” just seemed science fiction and too way out to be believed; , but in the 1960s,; too much flower power, rock and roll, freedom etc.
Now it all seems much more possible; thanks for talking about these issues; I now feel the Anointed are all about central control; pass regulations; laws; rules; impose taxes; as they KNOW what is best for us all; they have GOOD INTENTIONS, and on that solely should they be judged; if their results are far from what they promised, just them only has have GOOD INTENTIONS.
The video clip is all the issues of Tom Sowell; he articulates so well what Prof Sowell speaks of so eloquently too
Indeed. It will be, uh, interesting to see where this lunacy leads.
I also read John Brunner – Stand On Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up etc. and thought “this must never happen here”. meanwhile my contemporaries were reading these books and thinking “that’s a really good idea!”
His dystopias were based on what he read in The Guardian and New Scientist (back in the day when journalism still existed) and projecting them into the near future. Sometimes he was way out, sometimes he was spot on.
The Anointed approach each fresh issue; with the same strategy;
1. The Crisis
2. The Solution
3. The Results
4. The Response
many will have started reading this blog and Tom’s work; from the cholesterol story; it fits the above perfectly;
one can cast around; and look at contemporary topics; and see in them exactly the same structure
1. The Crisis ……… warn of rapidly impending doom …. name your topic ……..
2. The Solution ……. this involves changing one thing only: eg cholesterol (or insert your own phrase)
3. The Results ……. they don’t eventuate as promised …… predictions do not come true (please see cholesterol)
4. The Response .. always a refusal to talk facts; always explain away “paradoxes” or anomalies; endlessly obfuscate;
…. only judge the Anointed by the fact that they have GOOD INTENTIONS …….
“free speech is oppressive if the wrong people are allowed to speak freely.”
It is always the same pattern. Sowell didn’t write about The Anointed and dietary policy, but when I read his books, I recognized the pattern immediately.
Even worse is when they create the crisis. Racketeering at the highest levels, or conspiracy theory?
Money and power are usually the goals, as well as domination of the relevant “narrative”.
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
As Hawkeye Pierce said in MASH, “I don’t know what you just said but I will fight to the death your right to confuse me.”
and there is another worldwide crisis at present; that some suggest have threads of the above in it also;
What do you expect? It’s California. No offense to level-headed Californians.
Really wish there was a way to give them a few states as an experiment so they can start their own country, so to speak, and leave everyone else alone. Then they can try their idea of utopia. Would surprise me if it all didnt burn down in a couple years. Although, they do have some disastrous wildfires which some argue are made worse by their regulations.
Anyway, we do already see some of the effects of these ideologies. Such as human poo and drug needles on the streets and playgrounds, unaffordable housing, etc.
Watching that video, it’s funny how she implies statistics are racist. Sure statistics can be biased or skewed, but thats not the argument shes making.
That’s how the United States was supposed to work. The federal government was supposed to have very limited powers and leave the states to determine their own policies. If we’d stuck with that plan, there would be far less bitterness in politics because we wouldn’t be voting for who gets to impose his vision on everyone in the country.
Indeed. Although it feels like the last decade things have really snowballed. To the point where you almost forget about the problems with government. It’s a social movement, a cultural shift that’s moving so fast, most didn’t see it coming and haven’t had time to react to.
Or maybe I’m just getting old. Maybe both.
It’s definitely accelerated and really picked up speed when iGeneration (as Jonathan Haidt calls them in his book “The Coddling of the American Mind”) went off to college.
Just four years ago when I was moving, I’d moved to California if money had been no object. Now? I’m glad money was an object.
The moving trucks are generally headed the other direction these days.
Now California has effectively shut down freelance journalism in the name of creating jobs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXOSSI8ijns
WTF?!! How can that law possibly be constitutional? (Of course, my guess is that most California lawmakers have never read the Constitution, and I suspect quite a few have never heard of it.)
State and local governments violate the constitution often enough, and do enough damage, that there are law firms (e.g., the Institute for Justice) dedicated to fighting government organizations for civil liberties.
One major problem with giving the government a lot of power, as in this case, is that it leaves little recourse if you are unhappy with your situation–in this case, being stripped of your career and income.
Yup. Sad but true.
It would have helped with the guy had allowed the professor to talk and not talk over her. He also didn’t say where he got his numbers from. The “government” is pretty vague. And yes, his numbers contribute to racism.
Listen again. He did cite where he got the numbers.
“From the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Homeland Security.”
How do numbers contribute to racism?
I think we got the gist of her comments pretty quickly. Everything is racist. And sexist. And homophobic. And…
The professor’s biggest concern is that some of her students are pulled over–in all likelihood, for traffic violations her students don’t mention–and questioned when the vehicle isn’t registered in their name? That’s what happens: they pull you over and ask for your license, registration and proof of insurance. And yes, if you don’t look or sound American, they might ask you for your passport or military ID, too. For this, we need to shut down free speech?
BTW…why is that the anti-free speech people never seem to know anyone who’s had their car stolen?
Yes, for that they want to shut down free speech.
Subjectivist: if I believe it, it’s true.
That is the exactly modus-operandi of the Trump embarassment and all of his supporters.
I think you’re article is targeting the wrong group.
If I were a betting man, I’d bet the college professor in this video isn’t a Trump supporter. I also haven’t seen Trump supporters arguing in favor de-platforming people who disagree with them. If you have examples of that, I’d be happy to take a look.
Haha, Tom. You’re dancing around the edge of politics so you’re going to get the crazies commenting about racist statistics and evil Trump supporters. I’m itching to comment to them but I know how they hijack a thread and try to shut it down exactly as you have described. I enjoy your blog and we don’t need them coming after you!
I appreciate that you recognize what happens when the comments become overtly political.
This really isn’t even a liberal vs. conservative issue. True liberals are as upset by crazy-left’s desire to stifle free speech as conservatives.
LeBron James comments re free speech are a clear example of “cancel culture”—something he, having not attended college, undoubtedly learned in high school or on the street. In his mind, anything that threatens his NBA income and wealth, including criticisms of a brutal communist regime, are a form of violence!
I was on the criticize Lebron bandwagon but now i don’t care.
You know why? Whatever’s going on in China has been happening for years. Yet many of the things we buy are made there. No one cared until a celebrity was involved. But no one is asking the mega US corporations that produce there to be held accountable in the same way. Many Americans still buy Made in China.
In a free country speech is protected but violence is not. The only way to outlaw speech is to equate it with violence. This is what they have succeeded in doing.
I wonder how many children these days are taught “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”
I believe they were taught “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words I don’t like are a threat to my very existence and I have the right to respond violently.”
I just turned that into a meme.
Hats, too, apparently.
“I never would have hit him, but the hat he was wearing really pissed me off and I had to do something!” 🤦♂️
http://www.stationgossip.com/2019/10/new-video-leftists-sucker-punch-put.html
I get a page blocked message, but I can imagine the (ahem) “logic.”
They’re on to you. 😉
Here is the video minus the article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vf22N1_8nE
This shit will finally stop when someone responds to an unprovoked attack by shooting the dumb bastards. Remember the ‘knockout game’? First time someone wasn’t knocked out by the punch and responded by shooting the dumbass, the game became considerably less popular.
Amazing to see these mental midgets acting exactly like brown shirt brigades while yelling “Nazi!” at people who aren’t bothering anyone.
Yes. I’m 55, so close to you in age. I have liberal friends I’ve had since childhood and we can have political debates without arguing and screaming. Even they are afraid of the new left that is taking over. No matter your left wing bonafides, if you say anything hinting at moderation at all, they attack. A few have been pushed to the edge and are telling me they are going to support Trump. Of course, they whisper it, lol.
P.S. Still slowly losing weight on a modified Perfect Health Diet. I’m thinking of going full carnivore for the winter. Have you ever tried it?
I went full carnivore for a few weeks. I felt fine, but didn’t notice any significant improvements either.
Piers Morgan and other thoughtful liberals have also made the point that this lunacy by the fringe left is going to help Trump.
I went carnivore for a while. It didn’t do a thing for me, even though I thoroughly enjoyed eating it. People cite several papers and books, ie, Blake Donaldson’s “Strong Medicine”, where he puts patients on a meat only diet. What they leave out is the fact that after a certain time frame, Donaldson and others add food back into the diet. They observe how the body reacts, then recommend keeping the foods that do no harm and toss the ones that don’t. I think it wrecked my gut health, too.
What modifications have you done with the Perfect Health Diet? It is so confusing because you have Drs. like Perlmutter recommending certain foods that Jaminet say you need to eliminate.
I’ve been thinking about, and moving toward eating seasonally, mimicking what would be available to my ancestors at different times of the year. In the fall I’m eating more fish and game, with my carbs being only squash, potatoes, onions, and the occasional bit of sourdough bread. So right now more protein and less carbs than Jaminet’s recommendations, but still close to his percentages. I’m thinking of going carnivore for the winter months with maybe the occasional potato. In the spring I’ll eat lots of green leafy vegetables, berries, fish, rabbit and chicken. (We raise both.) Summer would be heavy on the fruits and vegetables, honey; so more carbs and less protein. I’ve really come to believe in biochemical individuality, with no one diet perfectly suited for everyone. So I’m experimenting to see what works best for me.
Thank you for this extremely interesting and helpful series, Tom. I remember a Catholic priest who used to say that some people had been “educated into imbecility,” and I’ve seen young people leave college with far less reasoning ability and good sense than they had when they entered it. This series has been a real eye-opener as you explained why and how this is happening. Now we need to figure out a way to fix this mess!
My dad referred to it as “educated beyond their intelligence.” I don’t know what the solution is. These people are so embedded in academia, it could take years to get rid of them.
Homeschooling and online degrees. With the internet nowadays anything’s possible, and less expensive
Not just academia, I saw much the same in industry (manufacturing). The old guard managers were engineers and worked their way up. They were interested in finding solutions to problems.
Then the decision was made to import “trained” managers. They were interested in finding blame and excuses. The ultimate was to blame a department whose fault it couldn’t possibly be, then use the fact they couldn’t fix it to prove they were to blame all along. The corollary of course was that if you solved a problem you had “taken ownership” of the problem, and therefore also the blame, not acceptable. So a simple problem turned into a long term nightmare, but gave birth to many meetings. I was once told completely straight-faced that “customers were ordering the wrong items”. The real problem was that the factory lacked capacity to make the items the customers needed and they preferred to lose customers rather than employ subcontractors.
The only way to get rid of this Idiot Brigade is to give them a glowing reference and a Golden Parachute so they can go screw someone else’s business up.
In the move towards fixing the situation I would like to see the federal government establish an appropriate list of bonafide majors that are actually beneficial to our country. Stop sending tax dollars to institutions that are teaching students how to tear down society.
You have far more faith in the federal government to decide what’s bonafide than I do.
They’ve done that for decades by squawking about the “STEM shortage.” I may have commented about this recently, but colleges are now churning out two to three times as many STEM graduates as there are STEM job openings.
Excellent series, Tom! One of your other posters recommended Vox Day’s “SJW’s Always Lie”, which I was intrigued enough to load onto my Kindle. (Fabulous book and you have very smart followers!). Until we successfully push back against the post-modernist schtick,we will continue to kick away at the common sense foundations of society. It means not standing on the sidelines, but standing up for truth in the face of nonsense. I also applaud your approach of mocking them with their own tools.
Yes, we have to push back and speak up. As Edmund Burke said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
The smart followers are what makes this fun for me.
So she’s telling people to become violent, thus causing traffic jams (which must be good for the environment) and other mayhem in order to get their way.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/greta-thunberg-suggests-extinction-rebellion-protesters-should-break-the-law-during-demonstrations-135414064.html
Professor: Yes. Speech can be violent.
Don’t put up with this this, and the problem is destruction of language. If you were to have a debate with someone who spoke only Zapotec, it would be clear that no useful discussion could occur, as any exchange of ideas requires agreement on the meaning of sounds and symbols.
So when you detect the first signs of English-like NewSpeak babble, ask the emitter to define a few words that might arise in the conversation, such as “violence”, “hate”, “male”, “female” or even “logic”. Who defines the terms controls the debate.
I’ve found asking a loon to define the terms he or she is throwing around is highly effective — as in the loon quickly exits the debate.
Or with some loons, it ends with you being blocked on Twitter. You know when that happens, you done something right.
I’ve apparently done right many times.
Believe it or not, a petition has been sent to the Oxford English Dictionary instructing them to remove all words which disparage women. You Just Couldn’t Make This Up.
In all fairness… Dennis (Michael Palin) didn’t cry “violence” and “repressed” until King Arthur (Graham Chapman) actually put hands on him. Apparently, even Monty Python thought “speech is violence” was too improbable a concept.
Let’s hope comedy troupes never buy into the “speech is violence” nonsense.
I cannot imagine what a Three Stooges short would look like if they took all the violence out. Opening and closing credits?
The scenes where Curly dressed as a woman would be still be allowed, but only if we all agreed identifying as a woman means he IS a woman.
College is overrated anyway. “Gender studies” and other useless majors are the ones that result in what we see in the video. And also college grads living with their parents and up to their eyeballs in debt. Learning of skilled trades should be encouraged. “Gender studies” has no tangible value to society. But we always need plumbers, electricians, welders, and truck drivers. All of these trades make good money and many of them come without the huge price tag and leftist indoctrination of college. And the fact that academics look down their noses at these people is ironic because when they turn on a light, it’s thanks to the work of the skilled trades.
Agreed.
So a mathematician decides to become a plumber because it pays better. On his first day of tareraining he is asked to derive the area of a from the radius. He sets up the integral, but the area comes out negative. As he stands at the white board he hears the class whispering in unison, “Reverse the order of integration.”.
Out of curiosity I searched for a definition of postmodernism philosophy and one result was dead on, it said, ” A Description Postmodernism is difficult to define, because to define it would violate the postmodernist’s premise that no definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths exist. ” My conclusion is that postmodernism would be impossible to define conclusively.
Yup, it means whatever they want it to mean … and we’re all supposed to know what it means now and agree to it.
IIUC your method of refuting post modernism was to be even more postmodern. Maybe post contemporary?
Huh?
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