At Western University's Ivey Business School—Canada’s top-rated business program—students recite pre-scripted social-justice jargon to fulfill mandatory course requirements.
“How has your socioeconomic status impacted your development and performance of gender?”
Not nearly as well as the line of coke I snort so I can perform my gender in front of thousands at the Rogers Centre.
“What is the relationship between your gender and your sexual orientation.”
They're on speaking terms.
"Why do you think educational systems haven't taught about the Inuit way of knowing and being?"
Guessing that with them living up near the Arctic Circle & us being down here in southern Ontario, we're never going to run into each other, so, who cares?
"How has your ethno-cultural background influenced your perspectives and experiences of gender?"
It's complicated. The French part of me wants to fuck everyone I see, the English part of me wants to colonize everyone I see, and the German part of me wants to bomb the shit out of the other two. With all the fucking, colonizing, and fighting going on we don't really have time to focus on gender but the French part of me is definitely a heterosexual little whore and that German bastard is KINKY!"
“Thinking about the ecosystems model, and the attributes it describes, please reflect on how the salience of your positionality has changed over time.”
Look I don't think it's any of your damn business what 'positionalities' I favour! But they're all way too acrobatic for a tightassed, stiff-necked wokemonster like *you*, so don't even think about getting together with me after class!
I would totally get points for choosing to answer all questions.
Not sure what I'd get for the questions. Maybe expelled. ;)
It sounds like higher education is in its most radical Gang of Four stage. They need to be toppled sooner rather than later. That won't happen on its own. Opponents need to strategize, come up with a strategy, fund it and launch the campaign in the real world. Oppo research. Hit pieces in the media. And the rest . . .
Using American politics as an example, it would be unproductive to involve far right organizations like the Heritage Foundation or insane/cynical conspiracy mongers of the kind who infest the American right. They'll discredit the effort and try to hijack it to their own ends.
Tonight Jon, I read your post out loud with different voices for the Uni and yours. (Yours was the sane, logical voice. The Uni’s was the high pitched, lecturing school marm voice.)
Hubby and I laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and…….with horror and distain keep reiterating “salient positionality” yet knowing this is supposedly an institution of higher learning.
It is total horse hockey!
Thank you for (although painful to read) sharing this idiocy within Canadian tax funded institutions. This is the kind of whackaloonery that drove Richard Bilkszto to the brink.
Thank you for exposing this DEI nonsense. It is hard to believe that this propaganda is being forced on students in business school. Yet it is. It will only stop when universities realize that students, parents and others in society do not approve of this form of indoctrination and will not support it. Students and parents can vote with their feet. Alumni, community members and business leaders may also want to reconsider financially supporting institutions like Western University or forming partnerships with them.
This is actually a lot better-written than the 'indigenous cultural safety training module' we had to go through in med school, the first part of which informed us that the concepts of evolution and common descent of man were western colonial constructs and a creation myth about a raven finding humans in a conch shell was equally valid as an explanation for the origins of humans.
It's far more likely to do with higher levels of disagreeableness. I know plenty of women who think this is crap. They would never say that in public, usually for various reasons which run the gamut from "be kind" to "I don't want the trouble."
I do think we can do with more cantankerous Glorious Bastards in academia, though. This new crop more resembles mice than men (or women).
Theory as a field is pretty fuzzy---and this isn't even good Theory...it's just a bunch of terms and phrases more or less thrown together. But that doesn't matter because the words are just place-holders for the essential message: victims are GOOD (as well as better than the BAD oppressors), and we must worship them on the basis of this moral imperative.
One thing I've noticed is that those with post-secondary education have a seriously bad habit of outsourcing their critical thinking to the experts, without much discernment as to the epistemological traditions of the fields in question. There actually *is* a hierarchy when it comes to research as to what is considered the strongest for evidence, but I rarely see people think this through. Usually, a paper being published in a peer reviewed journal--any journal--will do, especially if the journal is considered prestigious.
And if I am recalling correctly, we Canadians have a particular malaise the Americans and Brits don't share--we trust our institutions still and push-back tends to be viewed as *anti-intellectualism* rather than a shade of *antiestablishmentism* with a dash of class-analysis.
Of course, what you are suggesting--that warm fuzzy feeling of smug satisfaction one gets from being morally superior to the filthy rabble--is certainly a factor. In fact, I am of the opinion that such feelings are the bigger driving force, but I wanted to comment. So I did.
Yes, let's talk about theory as a field. It's not theory in the scientific sense, is it? Judith Butler isn't getting NSF grants to validate queer theory using the scientific method, right? Isn't theory simply a heap of transgressive opinions made unassailable by being called theory? What gives this field legitimacy and power?
When I hear someone pontificating about theory in the humanities or whatever one calls the field that harbors gender and critical studies, I want to be like Alice and yell: "Who cares for you? You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
Unbelievable stupidity. This all sounds based on the way Marxist-Leninist compulsory rote and study sessions were conducted before the fall of communism in the USSR.
Read the writings of dissidents and even just fed up citizens who wrote about this prior to1990.
I met a few people who managed to get out of Russia. This all reminds me of what they told me back then.
The worst of cancel culture and bitter attacks on ‘heretics’ seems to be inspired by Mao’s Red Guards behaviour in the 1960s ; fortunately, not with the horrific violence that so often accompanied it. I was a teen then, and I recall the stories coming out of China at the time.
The left in Canada is not the left I felt a kinship with for so long.
They have gone down a rabbit hole, to be sure and I have not gone with them.
I'm not convinced progressives are leftists. Or at least, I don't think we're working with a right-left axis anymore, strictly speaking. You have to add authoritarianism axis along the y and then you get progressive authoritarians in all their *ahem* SW sock-wearing glory.
Most rational people are irritated or outraged by this absurd nonsense, yet it persists and arguably, continues to expand. The isolated voices that repeatedly call this out are obviously insufficient in motivating the courage to push back. Without that collective courage I fear we are destined to experience the inevitable violence that will follow. We've been lulled into being unconditionally and irrationally tolerant of the very things which will tear us apart.
10/10 sarcasm, would read again.
“How has your socioeconomic status impacted your development and performance of gender?”
Not nearly as well as the line of coke I snort so I can perform my gender in front of thousands at the Rogers Centre.
“What is the relationship between your gender and your sexual orientation.”
They're on speaking terms.
"Why do you think educational systems haven't taught about the Inuit way of knowing and being?"
Guessing that with them living up near the Arctic Circle & us being down here in southern Ontario, we're never going to run into each other, so, who cares?
"How has your ethno-cultural background influenced your perspectives and experiences of gender?"
It's complicated. The French part of me wants to fuck everyone I see, the English part of me wants to colonize everyone I see, and the German part of me wants to bomb the shit out of the other two. With all the fucking, colonizing, and fighting going on we don't really have time to focus on gender but the French part of me is definitely a heterosexual little whore and that German bastard is KINKY!"
“Thinking about the ecosystems model, and the attributes it describes, please reflect on how the salience of your positionality has changed over time.”
Look I don't think it's any of your damn business what 'positionalities' I favour! But they're all way too acrobatic for a tightassed, stiff-necked wokemonster like *you*, so don't even think about getting together with me after class!
I would totally get points for choosing to answer all questions.
Not sure what I'd get for the questions. Maybe expelled. ;)
It sounds like higher education is in its most radical Gang of Four stage. They need to be toppled sooner rather than later. That won't happen on its own. Opponents need to strategize, come up with a strategy, fund it and launch the campaign in the real world. Oppo research. Hit pieces in the media. And the rest . . .
Using American politics as an example, it would be unproductive to involve far right organizations like the Heritage Foundation or insane/cynical conspiracy mongers of the kind who infest the American right. They'll discredit the effort and try to hijack it to their own ends.
Tonight Jon, I read your post out loud with different voices for the Uni and yours. (Yours was the sane, logical voice. The Uni’s was the high pitched, lecturing school marm voice.)
Hubby and I laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and…….with horror and distain keep reiterating “salient positionality” yet knowing this is supposedly an institution of higher learning.
It is total horse hockey!
Thank you for (although painful to read) sharing this idiocy within Canadian tax funded institutions. This is the kind of whackaloonery that drove Richard Bilkszto to the brink.
Thank you for exposing this DEI nonsense. It is hard to believe that this propaganda is being forced on students in business school. Yet it is. It will only stop when universities realize that students, parents and others in society do not approve of this form of indoctrination and will not support it. Students and parents can vote with their feet. Alumni, community members and business leaders may also want to reconsider financially supporting institutions like Western University or forming partnerships with them.
Geez sounds like a social work class on steroids. Scary as hell.
I‘m so glad I attended UWO back when it was a legitimate university. Now as a parent, there’s no way I’d be paying for my kid to be learning this b.s.
This is actually a lot better-written than the 'indigenous cultural safety training module' we had to go through in med school, the first part of which informed us that the concepts of evolution and common descent of man were western colonial constructs and a creation myth about a raven finding humans in a conch shell was equally valid as an explanation for the origins of humans.
...I might emigrate after all. Good god.
I'd laugh if I weren't so busy crying.
And how much are these students paying for the privilege of being indoctrinated by this crap?
28K a year
Spot on.
For years now, men have slowly dropped out of higher education. While unfortunate, I have to think: maybe they're the smart ones....
btw, this article should be required discussion material at any university/college welcome seminar
It's far more likely to do with higher levels of disagreeableness. I know plenty of women who think this is crap. They would never say that in public, usually for various reasons which run the gamut from "be kind" to "I don't want the trouble."
I do think we can do with more cantankerous Glorious Bastards in academia, though. This new crop more resembles mice than men (or women).
Oh my gods.
What bullshit.
Theory as a field is pretty fuzzy---and this isn't even good Theory...it's just a bunch of terms and phrases more or less thrown together. But that doesn't matter because the words are just place-holders for the essential message: victims are GOOD (as well as better than the BAD oppressors), and we must worship them on the basis of this moral imperative.
One thing I've noticed is that those with post-secondary education have a seriously bad habit of outsourcing their critical thinking to the experts, without much discernment as to the epistemological traditions of the fields in question. There actually *is* a hierarchy when it comes to research as to what is considered the strongest for evidence, but I rarely see people think this through. Usually, a paper being published in a peer reviewed journal--any journal--will do, especially if the journal is considered prestigious.
And if I am recalling correctly, we Canadians have a particular malaise the Americans and Brits don't share--we trust our institutions still and push-back tends to be viewed as *anti-intellectualism* rather than a shade of *antiestablishmentism* with a dash of class-analysis.
Of course, what you are suggesting--that warm fuzzy feeling of smug satisfaction one gets from being morally superior to the filthy rabble--is certainly a factor. In fact, I am of the opinion that such feelings are the bigger driving force, but I wanted to comment. So I did.
Yes, let's talk about theory as a field. It's not theory in the scientific sense, is it? Judith Butler isn't getting NSF grants to validate queer theory using the scientific method, right? Isn't theory simply a heap of transgressive opinions made unassailable by being called theory? What gives this field legitimacy and power?
When I hear someone pontificating about theory in the humanities or whatever one calls the field that harbors gender and critical studies, I want to be like Alice and yell: "Who cares for you? You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
Exactly (I as thinking of Butler, myself) - but everyone too afraid to say the King (or Queen, or some non-binary Royal) has no clothes...
Unbelievable stupidity. This all sounds based on the way Marxist-Leninist compulsory rote and study sessions were conducted before the fall of communism in the USSR.
Read the writings of dissidents and even just fed up citizens who wrote about this prior to1990.
I met a few people who managed to get out of Russia. This all reminds me of what they told me back then.
The worst of cancel culture and bitter attacks on ‘heretics’ seems to be inspired by Mao’s Red Guards behaviour in the 1960s ; fortunately, not with the horrific violence that so often accompanied it. I was a teen then, and I recall the stories coming out of China at the time.
The left in Canada is not the left I felt a kinship with for so long.
They have gone down a rabbit hole, to be sure and I have not gone with them.
I'm not convinced progressives are leftists. Or at least, I don't think we're working with a right-left axis anymore, strictly speaking. You have to add authoritarianism axis along the y and then you get progressive authoritarians in all their *ahem* SW sock-wearing glory.
"Unbelievable <strike>stupidity</strike> malevolence."
FTFY
...fortunately, not with the horrific violence that so often accompanied it.
That is the next step.
Most rational people are irritated or outraged by this absurd nonsense, yet it persists and arguably, continues to expand. The isolated voices that repeatedly call this out are obviously insufficient in motivating the courage to push back. Without that collective courage I fear we are destined to experience the inevitable violence that will follow. We've been lulled into being unconditionally and irrationally tolerant of the very things which will tear us apart.