And the mushy centrists who gave these people oxygen share the blame for this. Your performative "listen to both sides" schtick helped give us new White Citizens' Councils. Great work, everyone.
"Well, speaking as a liberal, maybe if you intolerant antiracists didn't make these parents feel guilty about being white, we wouldn't have had these laws. If you really think about it, maybe it's wokeness that's the bigger threat to our schools"
I was told several months ago, by a prominent self-proclaimed defender of free speech and open debate, that my use of "fascism" to describe the school-board putsches was overwrought.
Saw this get shared on my TL. And I think it's the rhetorical equivalent of machine-gunning a mosquito. Moreover, this is the exact type of "nothing good is possible but at least we're not the GOP" rhetoric that alienates voters whether you like it or not. 1/x
Like, what's the audience for this? Some mythical Oberlin kid with a Che poster who thinks the Dems should seize the means of production? Or actual communities of voters (ESP communities of color) who just want some movement on things the Dems promise in return for their votes /2
I mean, sure, you can lecture these fictional hippies about how things work "in the real world," but read that language again and ask yourself: what does this person lecturing me *do* besides rationalize inertia? There's no there, there; it's just a frustrated screed /3
As this panel kicks off at #AHA22, I'm struck by the ways in which signifiers like "pizzagate" and "JFK Jr.'s return" have become totally commonplace as to not even prompt raised eyebrows. Like, we have a thing such as "pizzagate" that is, speaking bluntly, bonkers, and...meh, OK
As a historian, I find it so fascinating how quickly these tropes become not just part of the discourse, but so ingrained and normalized as to become banal. The internet is part, but not all, of that story I think.
Very cool that @profrichmond is able to join in via Zoom.
So this story is all around the internet, about the prof who hid a clue in his syllabus for someone to find $50. Then he posted it on FB, and predictably, it's gone viral and everyone is gloating about the lazy kids who didn't bother to "read the syllabus." BUT...(thread)
2/ None of these stories actually talk about this supposedly obvious clue, which seems odd, given no one claimed the supposedly easy-to-find cash prize. Instead, it's just a bunch of "students are so lazy and stupid" takes. But here is the actual syllabus (student screenshot):
3/ Almost every institution has common syllabus statements-the policy boilerplate everyone's required to include in their course syllabi. Instructors usually download it from the uni website and append it to the syllabi they've created, often with a heading like "univ policies"
Institutions bend over backwards to protect right-wing white students, but students of color are never extended even the slightest benefit of the doubt.
Every single bit of campus is a teaching and learning space. And @ASU has definitely taught these students something--these Black students have learned whose voices matter at ASU, and whose don't. They've learned who the university welcomes, and who it doesn't.
The Right has done for decades what it accuses the Left of doing: creating narrow limits for speech in order to drum up outrage and grievance, then deploy the resulting pressure to silence their opponents. And university admins fall for it every time (or sympathize with it, tbh)
It's a symbol of fertility and renewal from ancient Egyptian and pagan European rituals later co-opted by 16th century Germans and then 19th century Americans to celebrate a holiday that the early church timed with traditional solstice celebrations as a PR move.
Historians: SUPER FUN AT HOLIDAY PARTIES
Them: wow this mistletoe brings up such great holiday memories
Historians: let us tell you about the role of evergreen plants in ancient near eastern fertility rituals