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Dr. Katja Thieme 👀 Profile picture
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13 Apr, 5 tweets, 2 min read
I read this.

I was curious about the arguments against the Scottish hate crime law.

The only claim that actually engaged with the law was that the verb “stir up” is metaphorical in an unfortunate way.
Nicolas is right.

I did not do it justice.

Behold!

Take 1.

Take 2.

The article, "a welcome counterblast" according to noted historian Niall Ferguson, objects to the hate crime law and its use of the verb "stir up" with the following argument. Image
Behold!

What Wikipedia has to say about the name of the Poker Club of which Adam Smith was an enlightened member.

[I'm laughing so hard.] ImageImageImage
This failed legal critique boils down to: as per the Scottish Enlightenment, the Scottish like to poke around and stir things up; but its courts will be incapable of distinguishing stirring lentils from stirring hate; now watch me stir my words into nonsense! Image

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More from @Katja_Thieme

Dr. Katja Thieme 👀 Profile picture
15 Apr
As I mentioned, I've been looking at #EricKaufmann's report on #AcademicFreedom. I want to share another head-scratching moment with you today. 1/

My earlier thread:
Top of the report is a set of questions for which he received answers from 803 US scholars in social sciences & humanities. Here are questions 1-3 along with the graph representing the answers. In the report, the answer key is: 1. support, 2. oppose, 3. neither, 4. don't know. 2/ ImageImage
Participants were given 1 of 2 versions of each question with either students or admin campaigning. There is a difference between the two. We might question answers being lumped together into "students/the administration" as well as the very odd "find work elsewhere" phrasing. 3/ Image
Read 18 tweets
Dr. Katja Thieme 👀 Profile picture
14 Apr
James Lindsay is a shitty writer who consistently fails at constructing and editing meaningful sentences.

This abomination of a sentence here, in Merkin's screen shot, boils down to the following main clause:

There is the bending of the university to the ideology. 1/
That's the key thing he's trying to say: There is the bending of the university to the ideology.

Silly, isn't it.

Everything else is needlessly puffed up around the main clause while also insufficiently connected to it. 2/
Starting at the end (because it's simpler):

There is the bending of the university to the ideology.
That has to be appreciated for what it represents.

(What does it represent? Why does it have to be appreciated? Nobody knows.) 3/
Read 7 tweets
Dr. Katja Thieme 👀 Profile picture
10 Apr
The question of whether academics who are Conservative/Republican-aligned in their political beliefs need more affirmative-action-style support to increase their numbers esp. within some research fields has been a hot one on Twitter lately. 1/
I watched this interview with #PeterBoghossian yesterday. He’s not the most mainstream character in this discussion; but he is working on his publicity and he is an active supporter of various organizations that push this idea. 2/
One point he made—I didn’t transcribe it—is that he thinks it’s hypocritical of the white president of his uni to make a statement against racism while not resigning his seat to hand it over to a BIPOC president. He also posted this recently. 3/

Read 13 tweets
Dr. Katja Thieme 👀 Profile picture
9 Apr
Below thread are my notes in #PeterBoghossian's words (marked with em-dash, sans commentary) from listening to this interview. I'll add only some comments (in square brackets) for issues pertinent to my work. 1/
-- Cognitive liberty is better than left, right dichotomies. Traditional categories don't apply. Two things:

-- 1) The cognitively liberal speak clearly & bluntly about evidence, discuss, converse without negative implication for truth-seeking. No reputational cost attached. 2/
-- 2) Correspondence theory of truth, there are truth and facts. There are better ways to move towards truth. 3/
Read 33 tweets
Dr. Katja Thieme 👀 Profile picture
9 Apr
University professor finds it mind-boggling that educational spaces are not public streets & squares and that those in charge of them have the mandate of safeguarding the educational mission, incl. by regulating offensive speech.
tracingwoodgrains.medium.com/contra-robby-s…
Read 6 tweets
Dr. Katja Thieme 👀 Profile picture
8 Apr
I’m no Willard, but I learned from him. Here is a play.

K [stands to one side of the stage; nods and smiles to an argument that’s just out of earshot]

U [walks onto stage from the other side]: Nodding to balderdash? Smiling to horseshit?

K: You yourself seem to talk horseshit. Image
U [to audience]: Always dismissing people who disagree with her, isn’t she? No surprise here!

K [to U]: Are you joking?

U: My lady, I will give you the benefit of the doubt! What I called horseshit was what you were agreeing to, not your agreement to it. [smiles to audience] Image
K: And by calling what I was nodding to horseshit, you were not also calling my nodding horseshit?

U: I was only trying to figure out why you could possibly be nodding to it.

K: Are you trying to make me believe that when you say horseshit you are asking me a question? Image
Read 4 tweets

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