I wanted to comment on Dispatch, to Robert Tracinski's article. Under his article in a post, Jennifer Coakley writes (after summarizing that Tracinski is over blowing this whole "Whiteness" as racist trope):
"My point: I do not think there is as much to fear here as we are being asked to fear."
My Response:
I used to think this way too. In 2017 Rochelle Gutiérrez was bounced around the news and social media for claiming that Mathematics was racist. Specifically that Math's "Whiteness" is what gives white people an advantage in math. Ms. Gutiérrez was a nobody in Mathematics. She had a degree in education--and was nothing special in that field either. No way that could catch on. But then Columbia University Teacher's college held a special conference on it. And she got this spread in the American Mathematics Society https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201807/rnoti-p791.pdf. Probably the most prestigious Math Journal in America.
An organization of over 23 Math educators from a variety of colleges and universities around the country, providing continuing education credits to elementary and high school teachers.
As a software developer I used to attend "White Hat" and "Black Hat" conferences --no more. Red Hat Linux is now referred to as RHEL, and I am sure that will soon change as well. "Bugs" can't be used to describe code errors. "Master" and "slave" can no longer describe how a device controller is connected. Developers (usually teens) used to affectionately call themselves "CodeMonkeys." In many ways, these are minor and I can live with it. But the worst is the demand by employers to have their developers go through old code to remove and replace potential "bad" words (some of which are keywords for compilers). The various levels of commitment to this process has led to all kinds of incompatibilities across code bases.
So maybe Tracinski can be forgiven for thinking this might lead to something bigger. But more importantly (which you obviously missed) was Tracinski's presentation of just a few reasons why these individuals are important for study. What is astonishing is the unabashed irrationality on display by those who should be the most rational. As a society we are literally removing our ability to think about subject after subject. But hey, I'm sure that won't be a problem.
I want to point out that this isn't merely a "left-right" phenomenon. With "Q", "BAP" and "Faith" on the right, and "woke" on the left, we are just not in a very good situation.
I have read Roger Kimball’s 1993 review essay of James Miller’s biography, Very interesting, but "That Foucault was a not-so-secret pedophile" is not mentioned at all. For such an accusation another serious source is necessary.
Lmao you sent Michael Anton that email 😂😂😂
Thank you for the summary of horrors.
I’m afraid it’s all quite overwhelming. Where do we start?
I wanted to comment on Dispatch, to Robert Tracinski's article. Under his article in a post, Jennifer Coakley writes (after summarizing that Tracinski is over blowing this whole "Whiteness" as racist trope):
"My point: I do not think there is as much to fear here as we are being asked to fear."
My Response:
I used to think this way too. In 2017 Rochelle Gutiérrez was bounced around the news and social media for claiming that Mathematics was racist. Specifically that Math's "Whiteness" is what gives white people an advantage in math. Ms. Gutiérrez was a nobody in Mathematics. She had a degree in education--and was nothing special in that field either. No way that could catch on. But then Columbia University Teacher's college held a special conference on it. And she got this spread in the American Mathematics Society https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201807/rnoti-p791.pdf. Probably the most prestigious Math Journal in America.
There's now an organization called "Equitable Math" which produces this: https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/1_STRIDE1.pdf
Amherst has an "inequality" course in the department of Mathematics (though, due to the pandemic has not been offered for a couple of years now) https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/mathematics-statistics/courses?display=curriculum
and this: https://achievethecore.org/page/3344/dismantling-racism-in-mathematics
An organization of over 23 Math educators from a variety of colleges and universities around the country, providing continuing education credits to elementary and high school teachers.
But this happens in other ways too.
Bret Weinstein, at Evergreen State, (a social activist professor in biology) thought like you until this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhbAavmUpLo
You can read his explanation of what happened here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-campus-mob-came-for-meand-you-professor-could-be-next-1496187482
Nicholas Christakis, at Yale, thought that way until this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f56xgHHZQ_A
Bari Weiss thought like you until she had to resign from the New York Times and write this: https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter
As a software developer I used to attend "White Hat" and "Black Hat" conferences --no more. Red Hat Linux is now referred to as RHEL, and I am sure that will soon change as well. "Bugs" can't be used to describe code errors. "Master" and "slave" can no longer describe how a device controller is connected. Developers (usually teens) used to affectionately call themselves "CodeMonkeys." In many ways, these are minor and I can live with it. But the worst is the demand by employers to have their developers go through old code to remove and replace potential "bad" words (some of which are keywords for compilers). The various levels of commitment to this process has led to all kinds of incompatibilities across code bases.
So maybe Tracinski can be forgiven for thinking this might lead to something bigger. But more importantly (which you obviously missed) was Tracinski's presentation of just a few reasons why these individuals are important for study. What is astonishing is the unabashed irrationality on display by those who should be the most rational. As a society we are literally removing our ability to think about subject after subject. But hey, I'm sure that won't be a problem.
I want to point out that this isn't merely a "left-right" phenomenon. With "Q", "BAP" and "Faith" on the right, and "woke" on the left, we are just not in a very good situation.
Bravo to Robert Tracinski! An excellent response to the woke bullies.
I have read Roger Kimball’s 1993 review essay of James Miller’s biography, Very interesting, but "That Foucault was a not-so-secret pedophile" is not mentioned at all. For such an accusation another serious source is necessary.