It tolls for thee
By Jeff Kouba
Here’s the saddest thing you’ll read today. An anthropology professor at UCLA is retiring early, another casualty of the mob.
The principal driver of the doublethink in my department and so many others at UCLA is fear of the woke faction.
Signs of this fear are omnipresent. Discussing whether to stop requiring the GRE (a standardized test, like the SAT) from applicants to our Ph.D. program, one colleague told a meeting of the biological anthropology subfield that he regarded the GRE as the most informative part of an applicant’s dossier, but that we had no choice but to vote to stop requiring it. Why? Because otherwise we would be regarded as racists. (I was the only person to vote against dropping the GRE requirement).
…
Why am I pessimistic? For a few reasons.
First, the younger faculty tend to be far more woke than their elders. Second, administrators and student protesters perform elaborately choreographed routines that inevitably end with the former enacting policies that they wanted to enact anyway, for which the latter’s public temper tantrums serve as a pretext. Third, now that standardized tests have been dropped from undergraduate application requirements, a growing number of students will be simultaneously unable to handle university level coursework, and predisposed to denounce their professors for heresy, having been chosen for admission on the basis on their leftist activism as high school students. Meanwhile, California’s K-12 schools are increasingly substituting mind-damaging political indoctrination for education.
…
The rise of alternative institutions, like the University of Austin and Ralston College, are very hopeful signs even though the work is slow-going. But until those new schools are built, I can’t bear to spend one more moment in a place that’s morally and intellectually bankrupt.
That’s it: I’m getting out.
Vast swaths of the culture have fallen behind the Woke Curtain. None more so than academia. Not surprising, since it was the incubator for this plague. I believe that eventually the woke madness will burn itself out because it is not a natural human state. But, untold damage will be done before that happens. Communism is a fair example. It is not natural for people to live effectively as prisoners in a police state and it couldn’t last, but it took a generation or two for the Iron Curtain to fall.
The young people whose heads are being filled with this swill are a lost cause. They won’t be reasoned with. They’ll continue to slither into society and infect the HR departments and faculty lounges and press rooms board rooms where they end up. We’ll have to wait till they fade from the scene, and that, sadly, will be a long time.
July 8th, 2022 at 6:26 am
Macy Gray now sees 5 lights: https://bit.ly/3PaQ3g1
People are complaining about Amazon’s “woke” Tolkien series coming out this September. I don’t think the complainers understand that it is impossible for a major studio to release any non-woke material. They literally have people on the set who do racial & gender nose counting, not only for actors, but for writers, show runners, etc. woke consultants “suggest” corrections to scripts.
Tolkien wrote a LOT of material. The Amazon series is not based on any of it. Why do you suppose that is?
July 8th, 2022 at 6:48 am
When I first heard the word “tenure”, I thought it was “ten-year”.
But that is not a bad idea and perhaps a way forward. NOTHING could motivate academia to wake up from woke than the loss of tenure and converting guaranteed life-time employment into a contract as an excellent way to shed academia of its worst influences.
Now, I understand that tenure is important to provide stability for long-term research. Some things take a long time and are controversial but there is a difference between studying cold-fusion and “A quantitative analysis of intersectional love in pre-Columbian marginalized communities.” While the former may be a waste of time and fortune, the later is not even that.
Why, I ask is tenure even needed for the liberal arts? Perhaps it is tenure in the arts that got us into this problem.
So, if someone wants to study queer romantic poetry, let them do it for ten years and if they can’t prove their worth, they can do it on their own dime.
July 8th, 2022 at 6:56 am
The new woke hierarchies in our military services, will also take a toll and in this case, it will happen sooner, rather than later. The take the jabs or else orders, are leading to the retirements, resignations and discharges of the trained war fighters. It’s not surprising that the majority of them vote Republican. Where the crap hits the fan comes when Biden sends troops into Ukraine, which he hinted at earlier this week, or some other war for a regime change, where will their cannon fodder come from? Will they draft woke universality students? Grab a few thousand of the illegal invaders and promise them citizenship for serving? It should be real interesting and frankly, quite fun to watch these wokies squirm.
July 8th, 2022 at 7:32 am
When do you suppose the woke community will arrive at the conclusion that inserting minorities into tv commercials, theater, film, literature, professional schools is not having an effect on the day to day lives of the protected classes supposedly benefiting from the intervention? Back in the Sixties with the civil rights movement spurring legal and social progress it was right around the corner, except it didn’t happen. Poverty and crime are still an overwhelming problem. So a new bogeyman had to be invented: systemic racism. An invisible ether throughout society. Anybody pointing to the explanation suggested in the Bell Curve was shunned, attacked, marginalized and ignored. Funny how sports got integrated because Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. No one complains about systemic racism in the NFL or NBA, even though whites are in the minority. The woke universe will achieve its goals only by dumbing down education and making crime pay.
July 8th, 2022 at 7:35 am
Anthropology is widely known as the wokest of the humanities.
July 8th, 2022 at 8:51 am
I’m holding out hope, as there appears to be a good “rear guard action” whereby we can at least do things like tell sporting authorities they will not allow M-F transexuals to participate in sports as women, and then you’ve got places like Hillsdale and Grove City.
I think the pushback will soon be quite nasty as well, because quite frankly, tests like the SAT, GRE, and such are first of all the biggest protection the poor and minorities have against admissions officers arbitrarily (and often not unreasonably) assuming their high school educations were garbage. There is also going to be nasty pushback because admissions officers know this, and hence the alternative to the GRE is going to be “well, we’re going to admit this student because he’s/she’s/xe’s the right race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and the like to meet our quotas.”
Professors subjected to a lot of students who clearly don’t belong in that institution are going to start to raise H*** about this, and quite frankly, students who see their classmates don’t belong are going to vote with their feet as well.
I give it ten years, tops.
July 8th, 2022 at 9:35 am
The problem is that a higher SAT score correlate strongly with actually graduating with a bachelors degree. People who score lower are more likely to not graduate. Since state colleges are taxpayer subsidized, the public has an interest in using entrance exams as a strong, even vital part of admissions.
Some two year colleges are open admission, meaning no SAT required. These colleges are notorious for their low graduation rate.
In Hawaii’s open enrollment, two-year community college system, less than 30% of students graduate within six years.
July 8th, 2022 at 10:00 am
An old rightcoast post that describes the “snowballing” that happens when you require that colleges (in this case law schools) try to increase minority enrollment:
https://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2007/01/more.html
The post is by Gail Heriot, who has since left rightcoast. The sole writer left on the blog is Tom Smith, a law prof at UC San Diego. Smith was in the news not too long ago because, after he had criticized the Chinese Communist Party, a group of Chinese national students at UC San Diego tried to get him fired for being a racist.
July 8th, 2022 at 10:23 am
MP, Anthropology degrees are also one of the most useless.
When I was in CA, one of my colleagues had such a degree from USC. Of course, that was back before wokeness infected people. She flat out told me that it was one of the easiest and cheapest degrees to get, so she chased it just to have a degree. To top it off, she was roommates with the President’s daughter, which is how she got her interview. I remember my Sales Manager, also a woman, was pissed off about even having to interview her and told me that if she was unsuitable, she would drop her as a candidate. She ended up getting the job and turned out to be an excellent Account Manager and team member. In fact, we trusted each other to be each other’s backup, while one of us was on vacation. Totally irrelevant, but she was also a smoking hot petite red head.
July 8th, 2022 at 10:51 am
From the Closing of the America Mind to the closing of the American classroom. Soon to be heard . . .
“We don’t need no education. All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall.”
July 8th, 2022 at 11:35 am
BREAKING NEWS!!!
The Associate Dean of Water Slides at the University of Minnesota, a $220K position, has glued himself to the sidewalk outside of Morril Hall to protest the rising cost of tuition.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
The Dean of Climbing Walls incensed at his irresponsible actions, tweeted, “How come this cis-gendered white male is being paid only $50K less than me!!
Riots ensued.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
The Dean of Deans at the U OF M announced a $50K bump in salary to all deans and a $20K bump to all associate deans to quell the rioting.
Esme Murphy reports: “This sad situation could have been prevented had the Republicans fully funded education.
July 8th, 2022 at 1:38 pm
JD, waters would never allow this
July 8th, 2022 at 4:03 pm
Greg, that was absolutely hilarious!
July 8th, 2022 at 4:44 pm
Bill, actually the greatest irony is that all deans got the bump, setting up lather rinse repeat cycle and even more rioting, bumps and hikes in tuition – all GOP fault of course!
July 8th, 2022 at 4:57 pm
It strikes me that the increasing politicization of various disciplines explains a lot of why so many “experts” use the appeal to authority fallacy. If you’re selected on the basis of your attributes rather than your abilities, you’re not going to want to actually present your data. It also explains why so many “research” results are so highly dubious.
July 9th, 2022 at 5:18 am
The black, lesbian Rhode Island Senator that recently made news for a re-election campaign that featured her twerking her thicc hams upside down had this to say to the bigots that cast shade on her:
“checks mantle* Yup. Still an Ivy League graduate and sitting state senator✨🍑💃🏽“
*Checks market for Ivy League grads*
Yup. As long as senile old pedophiles remain viable political candidates, and obese, mentally ill, dress wearing men are considered competent public health officials, there will be a market for 90 IQ Ivy League grads.
July 9th, 2022 at 9:36 am
🚨 Elon Musk says he is terminating $44bn Twitter deal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/musk-says-he-is-terminating-twitter-deal-11657315905
He was never going to do the deal. It was all a charade to so he has an excuse to sell his overpriced Tesla shares… Musk got rid of $10B at $1,000 per share. He knows they are going to $100.
Finally, for all the trolls and muck throwers who celebrated Musk “freeing” Twitter, well, they’ll just have to slum it up at Parler, Truth Social, Gettr, Gab, or wherever else they need to go.
July 9th, 2022 at 10:14 am
The voices in Emery’s head must be really loud today.
for all the trolls and muck throwers who celebrated Musk “freeing” Twitter
You know what regular people are concerned about?
The leader of the free world is not capable of reading from a teleprompter: https://youtu.be/cAIy9FHbZIE
Biden’s mental decline is accelerating. But don’t worry! We have Kamala as a backstop!
July 9th, 2022 at 11:33 am
Funding secured! ~ Musk
Because even Twitter knows that if people have a choice between a platform that engages in moderation that as a result shows them the door and one that doesn’t most people are going to go with the first option, leaving a platform that’s nothing but people like them on the latter.
Musk has been squirming trying to find a way out of the deal for some time now and in all honesty so far Twitter’s board have masterfully outwitted him to the ire of Musk. I continue to think the interesting question in the Twitter/Musk deal isn’t whether Musk has any plausible contractual basis for getting out of the deal (of course he doesn’t) but what a judge would/will decide to do remedy-wise.
July 9th, 2022 at 12:15 pm
How it started; How it’s going
July 9th, 2022 at 12:24 pm
^ Musk’s final settlement to not buy Twitter will be?
$500m
$500m—1.5bn
$1.5bn—$4bn
> $4bn
A very heartfelt Merry Christmas to all the M&A partners who will soon own second and third yachts 🥳
I’m most curious about whether Musk will keep his mouth shut on Twitter like you know his lawyers want him to, because I suspect that’s going to be very difficult for him. And once he starts he won’t stop. He absolutely will not be able to stfu…
July 9th, 2022 at 12:36 pm
“Wisconsin Supreme Court rules absentee ballot drop boxes are illegal”
lmao
Seems to me, that if the fraud boxes are illegal today, they were illegal in 2020. If they were illegal in 2020, then the ballots the degenerates stuffed into them are not valid.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 40% of Wisconsin’s ballots were absentee. Most of the illegal fraud boxes were in Milwaukee and Madison, where the degenerates are, Q.E.D.
If just 10% of the absentee boxes were stuffed into fraud boxes (it was more likely at least 60%), then Drumpf won in WI.
Just like he said he did.
July 9th, 2022 at 12:41 pm
I’m thinking the ham twerkin’ black lesbian aught to be good for another few million GOP votes.
Although it won’t do much to help the US (we’re really beyond saving IMO), the November bloodbath the degenerates are facing is going to be fun to watch.
July 9th, 2022 at 1:10 pm
No Surprise, market manipulation is Musk’s best talent. The reverence some people have for him is alarming. This whole thing was a publicity stunt for a man who’s genius is putting him increasingly out of touch with reality. I’m just thankful he doesn’t have an appetite for politics.
July 9th, 2022 at 1:22 pm
Honey baby; I’ve got an Ivy League degree, and I’m a sitting Senator!
My Butt’s been wiped!
Ladies and gentlemen; your Demented, Degenerate, Democrat party! lmao
July 9th, 2022 at 1:22 pm
Honey baby; I’ve got an Ivy League degree, and I’m a sitting Senator!
My Butt’s been wiped!
Ladies and gentlemen; your Demented, Degenerate, Democrat party! No mean tweets! lmao
July 9th, 2022 at 1:23 pm
My Butt’s been wiped!
Ladies and gentlemen; your Demented, Degenerate, Democrat party! No mean tweets! lmao
July 9th, 2022 at 1:28 pm
Honey baby; I’ve got an Ivy League degree, and I’m a sitting Senator!
July 9th, 2022 at 1:30 pm
What really tops the cake is, there are people out there who are mind numbingly stupid enough to be worried about Twitter…no, I’m not kidding.
We’re surrounded by absolute morons.
July 9th, 2022 at 1:59 pm
There was a day when Swift wasn’t just laughably bad takes. But I can’t remember how long ago that was. Musk never supported free speech. There are plenty of places online that you can go to state whatever you want.
July 9th, 2022 at 2:30 pm
Jeff Kouba: Our institutions of higher learning are a smoking wreck.
MP: An old rightcoast post that describes the “snowballing” that happens when you require that colleges (in this case law schools) try to increase minority enrollment.
Blade Nzimande: Get a load of what Ivy League schools are turning out these days, lads.
rAT Emery: Hey, hey…look at me! My butt’s been wiped!!
It’s nice to see that his mind drifts off into the nether, Pedo Joe still has his enthusiastic crew of tribute trolls
lmao
July 9th, 2022 at 4:53 pm
Yesterday
CBS News: ‘Looking back, did past Dems fail by not codifying Roe v. Wade over the past five decades?”
Kameltoe Harry: “I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believe that certain issues are just settled.”
And she gave that answer a moments careful consideration; it’s the best she can do.
This is what a 80- 90 IQ government looks like, lads. And the federal bureaucracy is shot through with these nitwits. This is a direct consequence of race based quotas in universities, allowing drug addicted, addle brained, mentally ill degenerates and illegal aliens to vote and failure to follow through on investigating the obvious theft of the 2020 election.
July 9th, 2022 at 5:01 pm
#TONIGHT: State Senator, @MackDistrict6, receiving backlash for her TikTok video posted over the holiday weekend.
She tells @ABC6, “This is a very typical misunderstanding of what joy and self-expression looks like.” More from the Senator and community members tonight at 11.
Anyone that has witnessed what happens in an urban fast food restaurant that runs out “dat sauce”, knows what black joy and self-expression looks like.
July 11th, 2022 at 9:53 am
If you measure purely by download speeds, we are better off now than at any time in history.