Elizabeth Bruenig has defined her brand of public intellectualism as centered in ethical theory and yet she consistently shows the opposite of any moral commitment to her fellow citizens.
Bruenig knows that when she QTs small accounts they will be subjected to bullying that will make this site unmanageable at best and psychologically distressing at worst. Yet she does it all the time. In this case, the bullying has been anti-semitic
I'll also add that wielding asymmetrical power to encourage bullying is a way to suppress criticism. Imagine if a professor encouraged the entire class to mock a student w/ a dissenting opinion. They might not feel comfortable dissenting again. It's bad intellectual behavior.
Finally, accusations of anti-semitism should be treated seriously. The accusations against Matt Bruenig have been made in good faith. People who defended him said he was trolling. If so, he was invoking anti-semitism to make people mad. This would also be worthy of criticism
If E Bruenig wants to defend her husband, she should do so in a thoughtful way. Joking about "anti-Swiss sentiment" is mocking allegations of antisemitism more generally &, yes, will probably encourage people to say antisemitic things, including making fun of Jews as "hysterical"
Yes, I don't buy the trolling excuse. Importantly, tho, even if it were "just trolling," it's still bad behavior. Why would you invoke bigotry in order to make people mad? If you do so, you could cause harm, including undermining the seriousness of bigotry
Would you ever think of making a joke about this vile history? A joke about the measuring of physical characteristics, an act that has been used in genocide & other acts of ethnic/racial persecution? It's not a good joke to make.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Mangy Jay

Mangy Jay Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @magi_jay

18 Jun
Something I think about a lot is how, growing up in AK, I was never taught about anti-Native racism, at least not in elementary school. We were taught about Native traditions, but not anti-Native discrimination. This was despite the fact that such discrimination was all around us
We were taught about anti-Black racism. This education was terrible. There used to be racists and then Martin Luther King marched and then The Dream was achieved & all was well. Nothing to worry about now. Anti-Native racism wasn't mentioned at all.
In 5th grade, a Pakistani friend was called an anti-Black slur & I wrote an anti-racism manifesto for the playground. It's good that I did this. It's bad that I didn't even know my Native friends--and even my cousins--were experiencing the same. It was like I was blind to it.
Read 6 tweets
18 Jun
I think familial connections are worthy of scrutiny. The Ricchetti case seems potentially problematic. The other cases seem fairly normal, such that it's regular for people who are married to each other to be in similar fields and/or for their kids to go into similar fields
"Having connections" is not in & of itself abnormal or nefarious. The important Qs are: Are there conflicts of interest? Are children working directly under their parents? Are they qualified for the jobs? And were there unfair hiring practices?
My dad was the vice provost of my university. When I applied for jobs there, we reviewed nepotism rules. It was fine for me to get a job at the uni. It would not have been ok for me to have been my dad's assistant. Nor would it have been ok for him to have input in hiring
Read 7 tweets
16 Jun
Mr. Lamar Johnson has spent 26 years in prison for a crime to which other men have confessed. Even local prosecutors think Mr Johnson has been wrongfully convicted. However, he is unable to get a new trial due to the state AG & Supreme Court. news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-…
Mr. Johnson has been languishing in prison for *years*. I respectfully ask that people retweet his story to put pressure on public officials in Missouri. Please include the name of the AG--Eric Schmitt--in tweets. Schmitt is standing in the way of justice. Get his name trending.
Eric Schmitt-State AG of Missouri--is working to deny an imprisoned man a trial even though other men have admitted to the crime AND local prosecutors think Mr. Johnson was wrongfully convicted. At the very least, Mr. Johnson deserves a trial.
Read 8 tweets
15 Jun
I keep seeing "White Fragility" referenced as the text given to white academics in workshops on diversity, anti-racism, white privilege, etc. Has this book been specifically recommended by Black academics/activists/specialists or did white people just pick it out for themselves?
I am fully supportive of academia taking a very pro-active anti-racism approach that extends far beyond a single day of training. However, when I look at some of the descriptions of this stuff, I wonder about the specifics of the approach (even though I share the common goal)
This kind of activity seems to be designed to mitigate how much POC have to deal w/ white feelings. That's a good goal, but it also seems to have ended up as white people reading a book by a white woman (that has been criticized by Black experts) & talking about white feelings
Read 7 tweets
14 Jun
As an anxious person, I'm pretty superstitious, just as a matter of checking all my bases. Yet, despite being scared of things like spilling salt or looking the wrong way at a ladder, I am still willing to say, w/ confidence, that Ukraine joining NATO will not lead to nuclear war
There's a thing called Mutually Assured Destruction. Russia doesn't want it. And if you go on twitter and claim they do, you don't understand the country at all.
Now there's the slightly less hyperbolic claim that Ukraine joining NATO would trigger just a regular war with the U.S. (not nuclear). This is very unlikely. Russia likes proxy wars & micro-aggressions. Militarily & economically, they would be at a disadvantage in a war w/ the US
Read 8 tweets
14 Jun
I realized something interesting about tankies' "The Soviets ended the Holocaust!" rhetoric. By painting the liberation of the camps as valorous due to humanitarianism, as well as centering Jewish victims, these same people are adopting a Western (US) frame, not a Soviet one.
Fetishization of the red Army/Soviet objectives has always been offensive & inaccurate. What's interesting about this *specific* trope is that those who engage in it are revealing their framing of historical events--as well as their assignment of value--is Western in nature
The Soviets did not sell themselves as liberators of oppressed Jewish people, due to antisemitism & other factors. And, given all the red Army had experienced, both during the war & at home, their reaction to victims & camps was fundamentally different than that of Allied forces.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(