Do you think that the saturation of critical-theory, intersectionality studies, etc, within higher education is a bad trend that facilitates bad outcomes in public policy and civil society? I think it’s bad. If you think it’s a good thing, that’s your business, but it likely means we’re at an impasse.
Do you think that the saturation of critical-theory, intersectionality studies, etc, within higher education is a bad trend that facilitates bad outcomes in public policy and civil society? I think it’s bad. If you think it’s a good thing, that’s your business, but it likely means we’re at an impasse.
If you believe that the trend is negative, then I think you have to consider the possibility that criticism of the trend will be pointed towards participants in the trend at all level of the hierarchy. I agree that being a new PhD doesn’t covey a lot of status upon the recipient. Part of the reason we’re in this mess is because of the jarring overproduction of postgrads.
There is no Pope of postmodern nonsense, one single person or machine at which to aim criticism – that’s part of the reason it remains to resilient. Maybe 2% of the people in that ecosystem are the Claudine Gays. The other 98% want to be one of the Claudine Gays.
Re: your question about the country club tweet, of course I would think that attacking a person for such a tweet would be absurd because I think the rationale is absurd. People *do* attack people on Twitter for such things, though – luckily, they’re less successful now than they used to be in the time of Justine Sacco.
My ideal is that it will someday be as unappealing to publicly announce a critical-theory postgrad as it is to enthusiastically announce that you got a job at a company that manufactures nitrous oxide canisters to sell to adolescents. You may disagree, but that’s where I have my sights set.
As with every discussion about social media pile-ons, there will always be an awkward interaction between “how bad is this?” and how bad something has to be before it justifies cruelty to otherwise unremarkable people.
Personally, I don’t think people should generally get piled on for announcing their new job at Philip Morris or Nestle or whatever evil company you want to point to (I’m unclear on whether your nitrous oxide example actually exists, or whether it would be legal if it did, so I hope you’ll accept these as substitutes). So you’re clearly more accepting of online mob behaviour than me. However, since I also do indeed see the underlying issue here very differently to the way that you do, I can appreciate that I’m unlikely to be in a good position to influence you; I’ve certainly seen this dynamic on the left, many times.
In my final paragraph, I was thinking of a real company known as Galaxy Gas. I was actually considering using Philip Morris in my comparison (I know Nestle is still controversial but I’m not as informed on the current state of that), but I chose Galaxy Gas because it’s such an unambiguously odious brand. Look them up – there are probably companies that cause more harm on a global scale, but Galaxy Gas is just *so* slimy.
I’m sure we won’t change each other’s minds, but I thank you for your responses and the time and thought you put into them. I hope that other readers may take something constructive away from our exchange.
Do you think that the saturation of critical-theory, intersectionality studies, etc, within higher education is a bad trend that facilitates bad outcomes in public policy and civil society? I think it’s bad. If you think it’s a good thing, that’s your business, but it likely means we’re at an impasse.
If you believe that the trend is negative, then I think you have to consider the possibility that criticism of the trend will be pointed towards participants in the trend at all level of the hierarchy. I agree that being a new PhD doesn’t covey a lot of status upon the recipient. Part of the reason we’re in this mess is because of the jarring overproduction of postgrads.
There is no Pope of postmodern nonsense, one single person or machine at which to aim criticism – that’s part of the reason it remains to resilient. Maybe 2% of the people in that ecosystem are the Claudine Gays. The other 98% want to be one of the Claudine Gays.
Re: your question about the country club tweet, of course I would think that attacking a person for such a tweet would be absurd because I think the rationale is absurd. People *do* attack people on Twitter for such things, though – luckily, they’re less successful now than they used to be in the time of Justine Sacco.
My ideal is that it will someday be as unappealing to publicly announce a critical-theory postgrad as it is to enthusiastically announce that you got a job at a company that manufactures nitrous oxide canisters to sell to adolescents. You may disagree, but that’s where I have my sights set.
As with every discussion about social media pile-ons, there will always be an awkward interaction between “how bad is this?” and how bad something has to be before it justifies cruelty to otherwise unremarkable people.
Personally, I don’t think people should generally get piled on for announcing their new job at Philip Morris or Nestle or whatever evil company you want to point to (I’m unclear on whether your nitrous oxide example actually exists, or whether it would be legal if it did, so I hope you’ll accept these as substitutes). So you’re clearly more accepting of online mob behaviour than me. However, since I also do indeed see the underlying issue here very differently to the way that you do, I can appreciate that I’m unlikely to be in a good position to influence you; I’ve certainly seen this dynamic on the left, many times.
In my final paragraph, I was thinking of a real company known as Galaxy Gas. I was actually considering using Philip Morris in my comparison (I know Nestle is still controversial but I’m not as informed on the current state of that), but I chose Galaxy Gas because it’s such an unambiguously odious brand. Look them up – there are probably companies that cause more harm on a global scale, but Galaxy Gas is just *so* slimy.
I’m sure we won’t change each other’s minds, but I thank you for your responses and the time and thought you put into them. I hope that other readers may take something constructive away from our exchange.