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28 Jun, 9 tweets, 2 min read
1) Here's a short thread combining thoughts on @CT_Bergstrom et al recent warning paper about the potentially catastrophic impact of ad-driven social media, algorithmic search, etc. *and* ... what's going on with 'critical race theory':
2) In particular I'm concerned about the possibility that many if not most adults' intellectual life is strictly in the form of reading and responding to online bullshit on Twitter, FB, etc.
3) By 'intellectual life' I mean time and energy dedicated to thinking through ideas and their implications. I worry that the social media effects we all talk about for being bad--misinformation, disinformation, filter bubbles, amplification, etc. ...
4) ... are both compounding and compounded by the way social media and online punditry fill a preexisting intellectual vacuum. Like, Bowling Alone plus social media. ...
5) And I think these are precisely the conditions in which well-resourced bad actors can go on like 'Critical Race Theory is rooted in postmodernism rooted in Marxism etc etc.' and it's totally plausible to a lot of people for whom this is the closest thing to intellectual life..
6) ... even as this is just a flaming pile of bullshit. I also wonder whether a negative externality of punditry-driven / social-media-driven intellectual life is the erasure of intellectual diversity, but not for the reason we think. ...
7) I.e. not because of filter bubbles, but because since everything in online punditry is treated as a consumable debate it's easy to trick yourself into thinking you now know something about the topic and can assimilate *all sides* into your preexisting worldview. ...
8) Ie it may be the case that for intellectual diversity you need not only 'information' but also the form and structure of live human beings (recognized as such) attached to various ideas and committed to a discussion that isn't primarily a performance. ...
9) I don't think participation in online punditry is wrong (I obviously participate), but perhaps I find myself caring less & less abt what Rufo or any other fool makes up and more and more about policy & getting shit done. I don't know if it's right, but it's where I am. /end

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More from @AaronRHanlon

Aaron Hanlon Profile picture
27 Jun
1) A searching thread on how to advocate for people in less advantaged positions than mine. I.e. I’m asking for *your* thoughts and advice, no matter who you are, not offering mine. The issue that prompted this for me is …
2) I read as approachable in a lot of ways but also as someone with the privilege to stand up to people. [Both are for the most part true.] So I’m a go-to person for a lot of students and contingent colleagues who’ve been ignored by those who are supposed to hep them. …
3) I also have a very particular sense of justice, bordering on pathological, which means I honestly relish righting wrongs. I mean, I wrote a book on Don Quixote and that wasn’t an accident. But here’s a snag:
Read 8 tweets
Aaron Hanlon Profile picture
20 May
1) Here are some context notes about the tenure review process for journalists and others commenting on the @nhannahjones case. Observing these might help reduce confusion and misinformation:
2) The substantive academic merit case for tenure is decided by a committee typically called something like 'tenure and promotion' or 'promotion and tenure.' It's widely regarded as the most challenging, arduous committee to be on bc of how extensive and rigorous the process is.
3) At larger institutions that committee makes recommendations after a similar process happens at the level of the department or school (school of journalism, of engineering, etc.). But in either or both cases, the recommendations of such committees are where the substance is. ..
Read 14 tweets
Aaron Hanlon Profile picture
10 May
The poll questions are very poorly designed. This is one way to get Frankfurtian bullshit with data, i.e. polling designed without truth as its objective. Touting this poll is straightforwardly irresponsible.
'Inherently' introduces an unnecessary confound: One could agree there's structural white privilege (much closer to the claim of mainstream CRT) and disagree that such privilege is 'inherent.' Those are substantial conceptual differences not registered in the data. Total failure.
Similarly, dealing in absolutes (as below) introduces a catastrophic error into the question: One could view race as a very important component of identity to study in school *without* believing it's 'the most important thing about [a person].' Fail.
Read 4 tweets
Aaron Hanlon Profile picture
9 May
1) Some thoughts about faculty governance in higher ed. and being in the position to change things for the better. ...
2) Actually governing and running a college is complicated and a ton of work, much of it the kind of work that too many faculty look down on. I say this based on ...
3) my first year as a dept. chair, hiring, writing staffing requests, managing the curriculum, &c &c and having now served on committees for reevaluating the college core curriculum, for developing free expression policies, for developing first-year orientation and ...
Read 12 tweets
Aaron Hanlon Profile picture
6 Apr
@conor64 I think what would have the greatest impact is reversing the adjunctification trend. Particularly if we take seriously the conjectures about faculty self-censorship. About 75% of the professoriate works off the tenure track, not protected by academic freedom.
@conor64 Another, further afield idea would be to incentivize more collaboration between departments and divisions, such that the viewpoint diversity already present isn't concentrated in disciplinary enclaves. At present I think this has some negative externalities, including ...
@conor64 ...a distorted media image of what academia is like, which focuses on a few lefty depts. while giving e.g. biz schools a (relative) pass and a tendency to form disciplinary 'teams' with distorted impressions of people in other disciplines. No point in viewpoint diversity if...
Read 4 tweets
Aaron Hanlon Profile picture
11 Feb
1) Dreaded thread on why I think the response to postcritique is so vitriolic. Short version: Because literary studies is a discipline in search of an application.
2) Before I go on, I'll say from the outset that many in lit studies explicitly reject the idea that the field *should* have an application. My opinion is that's fine if you want to do book clubs, but if you want an institution you can't ignore that difficult issue. But anyway...
3) The evidence by this point is overwhelming that when lit scholars talk about 'method' we're actually just talking about ourselves: 'ways of reading,' 'how we argue,' 'phenomenology of reading,' etc. etc.
Read 24 tweets

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