Free Speech and Creepy Liberalism

Yeah, I think it would actually have made the article more credible if they had just acknowledged that, but then again he was p much just acting like every libertarian I went to college with so maybe they're deaf to it

I mean I can also def remember being that kind of sexually frustrated, overeager know-it-all mansplaining dork a few times in college, not from a right/libertarian perspective but probably with similar effect.

Baffert: My horse is a victim of cancel culture pic.twitter.com/PgWWtiidAI

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) May 10, 2021

Cancel Culture Killed My Dog

Cancel Culture is the NAME OF MY DOG

Yooooooo, who’s going to get their philosophy degree from Bari Weiss/Joe Rogan university?

Was sure it would be about the framing of this shit.

pic.twitter.com/GJb8kCc7oj

— Sally Hines (@sally_hines) November 8, 2021

Kathleen Stock is on faculty at the new university, so it all connects: https://www.uaustin.org/

Trying to imagine what these courses will be like. How many different ways can you be daringly racist?

You have to get niche and use ethnic slurs not seen since the 18th century.

What's Latin for "No Refunds"?

Caveat emptor

That time a libertarian I met in China used that as the basis to argue against any regulation or certification of dentists, lmao. (He was ‘Murican of course.)

Isn't that why Rand Paul made up his own medical org for accreditation?

the only thing that could make dentists worse is doing away with licensing. can you imagine. i always think of this https://abc13.com/thom-tillis-hand-washing-restaurants-comments/503061/

“I said I don't have a problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says we don't require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom," Tillis said to audience laughter. "The market will take care of that."

I remember those comments, I call him Poop Hand Thom now

it IS kind of interesting how willing conservatives are to embrace reactive policies like "wait for restaurants to get customers sick/killed, then the market will take care of it", whereas in terms of national security, they are ok with pre-emptively deporting people who just look the wrong way color.

It’s a one-fork flowchart - “is this a benefit to capital? Y/N”

Ah, I wondered if there was talk of the Forbidden Courses University anywhere. Insane grifting from the purportedly cancelled.

If they had the courage of their convictions — or if they had convictions — they'd locate in some libertarian paradise like rural South Dakota. Instead they get to make noise about moving to freedom-loving Texas, while settling in a liberal metropolis full of coffee shops and bike lanes.

Who will be the Aaron Rodgers Chair of Doing Your Own Research?

Second major resignation from a key post at Bari Weiss' unaccredited grifter university since it went public this monthhttps://t.co/QT4gJxYDAj

— Andrés Pertierra (@ASPertierra) November 15, 2021

Will he have to return his gold-plated skull calipers?

Andrew Sullivan was on 60 Minutes this weekend - anybody know if it was a plug for Grifter U., or for Substack "conservatism" more generally?

"calipers" is a fabulous word

but CALPERS is just another cryptic acronym

By mutual & amicable agreement, I'm stepping off the Board of Advisors of U of Austin #UATX, wishing them well. I'm concentrating on Rationality (the book) and Think With Pinker (the BBC radio & podcast series) & won't be speaking on this further. https://t.co/xgo7exT61C

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) November 15, 2021

Stinker out

he was revealing himself a bit too openly with that one

what is cryptic about CALifornia Public Employees Retirement System? It's not a particularly imaginative acronym

Thanks, sarahell. I never realized it before this moment, but now I see that if you expand CALPERS to show all the words it has abbreviated, suddenly it isn't even remotely cryptic! Anyone can figure it out! I'll try this with other acronyms and see if that trick works with them, too!

Sometimes I get it confused with CLASPERS, because I'm a shark pervert.

I put calpers on my pizza

Skull CALPERS

all I'm saying is that California is a very populous state with a lot of government employees and one of the main reasons people choose to work for the state government is benefits such as a pension, administered by CALPERS, from which they receive immense volumes of correspondence throughout their careers and retirement. This is not to be confused with CALSTERS -- the California State Teachers Employee Retirement System, which is separate.

oh, so that's what you were saying. sorry, that went right over my head. I'll try to pay better attention in the future.

Or CALPIRG, those bright-eyed kids with the card tables.

aiui many exhibits in the Ghislaine trial are shown only to the jury and a lot of stuff is heavily redacted, but I’m just going to wildly speculate that Pinker showed up in one too many photos from Epstein’s private collection

xp - idk to me, a cryptic acronym, is either one where you have no idea how the acronym was derived from the name of the thing, or one where even if you know what the full name is, it is still unclear what the thing actually is or does.

Like compare these in terms of "cryptic-ness"

BUTT - Bouncing Undulating Twerking Tool

vs

BUTT - Bettering Understanding Transitional Talismans

can a mod add a new ILX autoreplace?

Michael Eisen has been canned from eLife. He’s tenured at Berkley so it’s a stretch to describe it as “being canceled.” Twitter is filled with posts about free speech in defense of Eisen and, in a variety of ways, Eisen is representative of creepy liberalism.

I usually don’t have feelings or opinions about these culture or political issues but I, for whatever reason, can’t stop thinking about this today. Eisen is a great scientist but Eisen was a terrible editor.

There’s also a personal component for me. Because of his following and position he’s the major example of being a bipolar academic on social media. I genuinely feel like I’m a moment from posting something really dumb.

he can be a terrible editor and suck in a variety of ways but if he was removed from a post due to retweeting an onion article that's still worthy of condemnation.

I agree. Nevertheless, the eLife letter claims it’s because of multiple (unnamed) incidents. I believe this wasn’t entirely about posting The Onion article. Especially when that’s, compared to some of his other posts, relatively innocuous.

My first thought when I see stories like that--and I freely admit I know nothing more about this case than what you have posted here--is that there was probably sexual misconduct at the back of it.

I agree. Nevertheless, the eLife letter claims it’s because of multiple (unnamed) incidents. I believe this wasn’t entirely about posting The Onion article. Especially when that’s, compared to some of his other posts, relatively innocuous.

― Allen (etaeoe), Tuesday, October 24, 2023 5:10 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

could you just…say what’s on your mind here? his canning is facially, incontrovertibly preposterous. what other beef do you have exactly?

Posted about this case because it just seemed the weirdest one. But I see tweets like "an academic has been suspended" or "I lost a freelance gig" etc.

Utterly vile. "Free speech" as conducted in liberal democracies is an utter sham.

Unsurprisingly, the craven art world seems to be operating similarly as many universities— Artforum Fires Top Editor After Open Letter on Israel-Hamas War

More on that kerfuffle— artworks have been returned and artists told to “stay in line.”

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/26/artforum-artists-gaza-ceasefire-martin-eisenberg/

"In the future we'll launder money and dodge taxes with only ethnic cleansing-supportive art."

A paragraph from that Intercept link that jumped out

The authors of the response letter — the joint directors of Lévy Gorvy Dayan, which has gallery spaces and offices in New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong — curate shows with some of the most prolific and highest grossing artists in the world, both living and dead. Their website lists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Joel Mesler, and Adrian Piper as representative artists and collaborators. Dayan is the granddaughter of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli politician and military commander who is alleged to have ordered the country’s military to attack the American naval ship the USS Liberty during the Six-Day War of 1967