Social media = social life and discourse = politics make sense in a political system where individuals cannot influence all, or at least the most important, institutional influences on their lives. Twitter is far less the downfall of civilisation than a concentrated expression of the alienation of people from politics and their governments from power. It reflects the state of the world more than it creates it. — fdrake
All that deep learning stuff on your posting habits is to map you onto a consumer identity, this is why social media synergises so well with advertising. You first have that advertising allows the commodification of potential; your potential attention increases the expected revenue through exposure to goods you may purchase, making the codification of your personality valuable intellectual property (yes, you don't own your cyberspace image, that is terrifying).
You then have the site explicitly tailoring the goods it shows you to maximise the purchase chance. This has the effect of associating a revenue stream, literally, with your eye movements and left mouse clicks. — fdrake
Or whatever martyred heretic we'd like to talk about. — fdrake
So, are unsightly ivory towers a bug or a feature of a healthy discoursal landscape? — Baden
Under capitalism, education is a commodity, and is democratised by consumerism - the customer is always right. So professors have to win popularity contests just like the rest of us. And in particular, academics that deliberately put themselves in the public eye by publishing controversial political pieces in the mainstream media need to toughen up and stop whining about witch hunts when they meet some opposition and become somewhat unpopular. Folks that want unquestioned tenure should stay in their ivory towers and and only talk to other tenured academics. i never complain about the ones I never hear about. Government advisers deserve the blame for everything, don't they? — unenlightened
Both are professors, one graduate of Yale, another graduate and PhD from Cambridge and both have long extensive academic careers.Scruton and Paglia are not academics, they're wannabe celebrities. — unenlightened
Western Europe has a Muslim problem, and it is particularly acute in Great Britain, which is more intimately linked to constitutional traditions and procedures. The French are quietly aghast at the presence of five million Muslims in their midst and are endeavoring to cope.
But the threat to it is not, this time around, in the shape of a continental army threatening invasion, or Nazi bombers darkening the sky. The threat now is the Muslim immigration. There are fewer Muslims in Britain than in France — two million — but that’s still a lot.
There are many interpreters of the true meaning of the commandments of the Koran. But among them are men and women who are prepared to end their own lives for the satisfaction of defying the British way of life.
Latest privileged white academic in the firing line for having incorrect views is Camille Paglia. It was only a matter of time I guess.
Art students are trying to get the social critic fired from a job she has held for three decades — jamalrob
"The girls have been coached now to imagine that the world is a dangerous place, but not one that they can control on their own … They expect the omnipresence of authority figures … They’re college students and they expect that a mistake that they might make at a fraternity party and that they may regret six months later or a year later, that somehow this isn’t ridiculous? To me, it is ridiculous that any university ever tolerated a complaint of a girl coming in six months or a year after an event. If a real rape was committed go frigging report it …"
I want to de-platform people who say the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax perpetrated by gun control proponents.
You disagree? — frank
I don't usually watch videos posted online, but that is inspiring. The guest, Leon Castillo, was absolutely brilliant - so gentle, thoughtful and respectful. I wish he were the US president. The conservatives: Buckley and Meyer, were also civilised, polite and deferential. The mood was one of trying to jointly work towards a solution, rather than trying to score points off one another, which is what modern political discourse in the media so commonly is. — andrewk
How far we are willing to go do "de-platform" someone, and what that actually means, can only really be answered by looking at specific cases. — VagabondSpectre
We don't all have an equal platform in these places either. Those with more money, fame, charm or even just dumb luck have a platform that others don't. Again, how is adding 'political correctness' to that list any more arbitrary? — Isaac
Journalism in newspapers, political rhetoric on soapboxes, complete bollocks on facebook, and in universities -smart people talking carefully and clearly. — unenlightened
And again, what in the quote is about white supremacy?What's interesting about Buckley is that he's illustrative of how normal conservatism and the alt-right cannot be so neatly separated. Mainstream conservatism has routinely platformed and turned a blind eye towards white supremacy until it is no longer because tenable to do so (e.g. when the language because too explicit). — Maw
But it feels like we've just discovered a new kind of siege technology, and it's changing the landscape: — VagabondSpectre
From the evidence of the thread I see:
1) The curmudgeonly unfortunately-not-yet-mummified Scruton losing one of his sidelines as a government advisor for some ill-judged use of language with the accusations against him appearing to be at least partly trumped up.
2) Camille Paglia being unsuccessfully assailed by some students exercising their free speech rights to punish her use of her ivory tower to fire thoughtless missives against sexual assault victims.
3) Talking turd Alex Jones falling foul of social media company guidelines that, like our guidelines, result in the banning of minor talking turds on a regular basis.
The ideological warfare seems to be getting along fine and fears of peace seem greatly exaggerated. — Baden
Paglia says what she says because she believes women are strong and able to deal with the situation. — I like sushi
By policing ideas on the platforms we do follow, we're just increasing demand for niche platforms that will cater directly to whatever it is we're censoring (and also inflating it (especially to rebellious youth) by making it seem forbidden). — VagabondSpectre
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