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Dec 4th 2021

TO UNDERSTAND THE culture wars, it is worth considering what happened between Jordan Peterson and a large red lobster in Cambridge University on a recent evening. Namely, nothing. Which doesnt mean it wasnt important. On the contrary: how it came to pass that nothing was allowed to happen between Mr Peterson and a student dressed as a lobster matters a lot.

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First, the lobster. For those (non-lobsters) who have been living under a rock for the past five years, a primer. Mr Peterson is a Canadian academic who, depending on your viewpoint, is either monstrous or magnificent, but who is, all agree, a phenomenon. His book, 12 Rules for Life, has sold over 5m copies and is an intriguing read. It passes briskly from the biology of lobsters to Eden, original sin, Buddhism and the suffering soul. It is peppered with admonitions to stand up straight with your shoulders back and tell the truth. The effect is as if St Augustine had been reincarnated as a life coach, with added input from your mum.

For those who like this sort of stuff (mainly young men), it is wonderful: bracing; inspiring; manly. For critics (of whom there are many) Mr Peterson is propping up the patriarchy with cod biology about lobsters. (At one point he uses lobster hierarchies to explain why men should walk tall.) While the sides bickered, Mr Peterson became a sensation. He speaks in arenas, appears on talk shows and news programmes and almost always manages to annoy. His interviews (one in 2018 with Cathy Newman, a news anchor for Channel 4, was particularly excruciating) are tense, taut and watched by millions.

In 2018 Mr Peterson happened to sit opposite Douglas Hedley, a Cambridge professor of the philosophy of religion, at dinner. Mr Hedley invited him to take up a visiting fellowship. It seems likely that neither quite knew what they were getting themselves into: the invitation was prompted not by lobsters or talk shows but a shared interest in Jung and Biblical symbolism. What happened next was a textbook cancellation.

Not many complaints are needed to constitute the quorum of a controversy today. Earlier this year a podcaster criticised Brian Wong, Who was Never, Ever Wrong, a story by David Walliams, a comedian turned childrens author, for reinforcing harmful stereotypes about Chinese people. His publisher, HarperCollins, said it would remove the story from reprints. Mr Walliamss series has sold 2m copies, and that book had 6,691 reviews on Amazon, almost all five-star. Yet a single complaint ended in censorship.

In Cambridge, problems began when some students complained about Mr Peterson. The faculty reneged on the invitation in an inept Twitter announcement before Mr Peterson had even been told. The pretext was that he had been photographed next to someone wearing a T-shirt reading Im a proud Islamophobe. When asked to clarify, the divinity faculty remained silent; a press officer for the university explained that they dont wish to be interviewed about events that happened nearly three years ago. The department is home to students of Thomas Aquinas, original sin and early Judaism. Perhaps three years ago was just too fresh.

Little of this is surprising. British universities are, as is clear from the treatment of Kathleen Stock, hardly distinguishing themselves as bastions of free speech. Ms Stock recently resigned from a professorship in philosophy at Sussex University after a years-long campaign of harassment by students and faculty. But in Cambridge there are signs of a pushback. In 2020 a group of academics led by Arif Ahmed, a philosophy professor, rejected an amendment to university regulations that would have restricted their free speech. They forced the university to accept that academics should not have to respect everyones views, but merely tolerate them. More recently they kicked an attempt to set up an anonymous online-reporting tool into the long grass.

Then a handful of academicsincluding Mr Ahmed and James Orr, a divinity lecturerturned their attention to Mr Peterson. Not because they are diehard fans (they arent) but because, as Mr Ahmed says, there had been a grotesque violation of academic freedom and a stain on our reputation. Bureaucratic cogs started to turn. Committees were dealt with, halls booked, security organised and invitations issued. The vote to ensure tolerance helped: now critics had to put up with Mr Peterson. Nonetheless, says Mr Orr, it took an awful lot of time.

The bloody history of the 20th century can lead to a misapprehension about free speech. It is thought to be lost suddenly, to stormtroopers in the night. In fact, freedoms are almost always first removed bureaucratically, with processes made steadily more onerous, whisper campaigns started by colleagues, a word in the bosss ear. Bertrand Russellanother academic kicked out of Cambridge, in his case for pacifismwrote that the habit of considering morality and political opinion before offering a person a post is the modern form of persecution, and it is likely to become quite as efficient as the Inquisition ever was.

The academics persisted. The cogs turned. And on a cold, clear Tuesday evening, a talk took place. There were trestle tables and people ticking off names. Mr Peterson, slender and brittle as a blade in a sharp blue suit, spoke for over an hour to a satisfied audience. The lobster appeared, shouted something about feminism and scuttled through a side door. No one expired from offence. The sky did not fall in. Votes of thanks followed. Mr Peterson was thanked. The audience was thanked. The lobster was thanked.

It was all quite humdrumand that was the point. When people think of defending freedom of speech, they also turn to the dramatic: to Voltaire and defending to the death. But that is rarely necessary. Speech can be silenced by bureaucracyor saved by it: by cogs turning; by trestle tables and people with lists; by insisting on clearly stated rights. And by votes of thanks to lobsters.

Read more from Bagehot, our columnist on British politics:Boris Johnson should pick fights with conservative institutions (Nov 27th)Britains establishment has split into two, each convinced it is the underdog (Nov 20th)How Boris Johnsons failure to tackle sleaze among MPs could prove costly (Nov 10th)

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Jordan Peterson and the lobster"

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Jordan Peterson and the lobster - The Economist

Yamiche Alcindor speaks onstage during day 2 of Politicon 2019 at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., October 27, 2019.(Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Yamiche Alcindor, previously a White House correspondent for PBS, will be transitioning into a role covering Washington more broadly for NBC, the network announced Tuesday. She will continue to host Washington Week for PBS.

Over the years, Alcindor has built a reputation as one of the most partisan reporters in the mainstream press, using her seat in the White House briefing room as a soapbox for progressive politics, despite working for the taxpayer-funded, and ostensibly nonpartisan PBS.

Heres a taste of what NBC will be getting out of its newest employee:

-This summer, Alcindor said the debate around the Biden administration-backed For the People Act which would have federalized Americas elections systems was really an argument over what is American democracy and who should have access to it? and whether or not we want America to be the place that the Founders flawed as they may have been the Founders wanted it to be.

-Alcindor asked National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan,how President Biden plans to convince especially our European allies that former President Trump was an anomaly in some ways, all of the things that he did to in some ways traumatize those leaders calling into question the need for NATO? Whats the plan there and is there concern that those scars are gonna be deeper than his ability to address them?

-At Bidens first press conference as president in March, Alcindor preceded her question for the president on the border crisis by asserting that youve said over and over again that immigrants shouldnt come to this country right now. That message is not being received. Instead, the perception of you that got you elected as a moral, decent man is the reason a lot of immigrants are coming to this country and are trusting you with unaccompanied minors.

-On MSNBC last November, Alcindor said Bidens burgeoning cabinet, feltlike the Avengers, it felt like were being rescued from this craziness that weve all lived through for the last four years and now here are the superheroes to come and save us all.

-Alcindor praised Biden for characterizing Republicans as trying to bully people into being sicktrying to bully teachers into teaching in unsafe environments, on Joy Reids show in September.

-After Republican Glenn Youngkin won last months gubernatorial election in Virginia, Alcindor quizzed Biden on what Democrats should possibly do differently to avoid similar losses in November, especially since Republicans are now successfully running on culture wars issues and false claims about critical race theory?

-When White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefed the press for the first time in May, Alcindor noted that she pledged, Karine Jean-Pierre, to be truthful with the press, and that, of course, is a marked difference from Joe Bidens predecessor, former President Trump, explaining that it felt different.

-In August, as the Biden administrations plan for withdrawing from Afghanistan blew up in its face, Alcindor insisted that the president was not running away from the responsibility for its failure.

-Last September, Alcindor described those who defended Kyle Rittenhouse as the part of his [Trumps] base that think that its okay for a 17-year-old to shoot people in the street who are unarmed, who are at a protest, who are upset about the way that the federal government is treating African-Americans.

-Alcindor chided the Biden administration for not backing Congresswoman Maxine Waters and her advice that people become confrontational if Derek Chauvin was not convicted of murdering George Floyd, saying I wonder why the White House isnt coming to the defense of Rep. Waters given the fact that she is facing an onslaught of attacks by, I would say Republicans, I wonder why the White House isnt saying, We back what she said about being confrontational.

-After Biden took office, Alcindor pushed the administrations line that on vaccine distribution what you have is a Biden administration that is, as Vice President Harris said, starting from scratch, and that is really, really hard. That claim was disputed by even Dr. Anthony Fauci, an outspoken critic of the Trump administration.

Send a tip to the news team at NR.

Continued here:
Remembering Yamiche Alcindor's Greatest Hits - National Review

What do masks, library books, critical race theory (CRT), and transgender rights have in common? While this may sound like the beginning of a really bad joke, these are all issues that local school boards across the nation hear about frequently from their constituents. The concerns about these issues arent always expressed in the nicest ways, either. In fact, angry expressions over these issues have led to death threats and harassment, leading some school board members to request police protection or to resign their positions. Commonly dubbed culture war issues because they are highly politicized, school board disruption has gotten so bad that Saturday Night Live did a skit about it.

In Texas, its not just concerned citizens that are complaining. Politicians are cashing in on the fears of their right-wing base by issuing edicts, holding town halls, and leading charges against school districts. State Rep.Matt Krause, Chair of the House Committee on General Investigating, notified the Texas Education Agency that he is initiating an inquiry into Texas school district content, according to an article and anOct. 25 letterobtained by The Texas Tribune. Krause included a list of 850 titles that he believes some people may find objectionable. Krause was then running for Texas Attorney General in a crowded field of candidates but has since dropped out.

Not to be outdone, Gov. Greg Abbott issued his own edict about library books but to the wrong people. In a November 1, 2021 letter to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), he reminded the organization that their members have a collective responsibility to determine if obscene materials exist in school libraries and to remove any such content. When TASB Executive Director Dan Troxell informed Governor Abbott that TASB is merely a school trustee membership organization and has no regulatory authority over schools, Abbott responded by accusing the organization of abdicating their responsibility in the matter and directed the Texas Education Agency, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and the State Board of Education to address the issue by developing standards to prevent the presence of pornography and obscene content in Texas public schools, including in school libraries.

In their fervor to motivate their base, some legislators are taking it a step further and involving their local communities. Rep. Steve Toth an evangelical minister and the author of the bill outlawing the teaching of critical race theory received support in a November 15, 2021, Facebook post from Grace Woodlands Church calling on church and community members to attend a November 16th school board meeting of the Conroe ISD to tell them to stop the teaching of Critical Race Theory, Trans-Genderism, Hyper-Sexuality, Value Shaming, Political Activism, and Virtue Signaling. No definition of any of these terms nor any evidence that the district was teaching any of this was provided in the post.

Some policy and legal experts think that folks like Krause, Abbott, and Toth may be in danger of trampling on the first amendment rights of students through their efforts and that politicians are ill-suited to lead in such decisions. Texas public schools employ certified librarians who carefully choose books to be inclusive of all students, said long-time education lawyer Blake Powell of the Powell Law Group. Local school districts have policies in place to allow parents to have choices in their childrens education and to be able to limit what their own children read.Librarians should be allowed to run libraries and teachers should be allowed to teach. Subject matter experts should be driving our curriculum; not politicians.

Current legal policy is based on the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case Board of Education v. Pico which allows school boards to remove books because they are pervasively vulgar but not because members simply disagree with their content.

Still, others believe that these efforts are designed to discredit public schools in an overall attempt to privatize them for economic reasons. Carol Corbett Burris, the Executive Director of the National Network for Public Education believes, The culture war attacks on public schools are just one more front in the war on our neighborhood public schools. Faux grassroots groups are being funded by the same individuals and foundations that promote voucher legislation and the expansion of charter schools. Their objectives are clearincrease unhappiness withpublic schools; force responsible citizens to resign from boards and, if elected, further gut education funding and support.

As evidence of this, Burris and others point to a recent fundraising letter by the far right-wing think-tank Texans for Public Policy Priorities (TPPF). TPPF sent a November 8, 2021 letter to potential donors in an effort to raise $1.2 million dollars to institute what they call massive education freedom reforms by mobilizing 10,000 citizens in each of 60 legislative swing districts in order to break the indoctrination of our children from Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity, and socialism. TPPF claims to already have one donor that has provided $600,000 (rumored to be Tim Dunn of Empower Texans fame. Empower Texans suffered disrepute when they were tied to the surreptitious taping of former Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen in an effort to take down twelve Republican House members in the 2020 election primary cycle).

According to TPPF, if they are successful Every child in Texas will have an account, held in the Texas Education Agency. Parents will draw from that account for the educational services they choose in the schools they choose. It could pay for add-on services if their child is going to remain in public schools or tuition for private schools of any stripe, faith-based or not faith-based.

Some believe that TPPFs vision is pragmatically problematic, citing that the direct provision of public taxpayer funds to private entities, whether they be parents or private institutions is a voucher something the Texas Legislature has voted down repeatedly since 1995. Additionally, questions of the separation of church and state loom large in the proposal. Under the TPPF plan, Christian and Jewish taxpayers will likely be paying for students to attend Islamic schools; Islamic taxpayers will be paying for students to attend Christian or Jewish schools, and they could all conceivably be paying for students to attend schools run by the Church of Scientology or the Wiccan religion. Based on the comments in their letter, it could be assumed that TPPF supports this type of system including taxpayer support for a school that teaches atheism.

To make matters worse, very few allegations are supported by factual data by those claiming schools are indoctrinating children in what they consider unsavory issues. Out of the letters and comments of concern previously mentioned only Gov. Abbott and Rep. Krause gave any specifics. Abbott mentioned a few books that were already removed from two school districts out of over 1,000 districts in the state and Krause mentioned his list of titles many of which dont qualify for removal under the aforementioned federal law.

These efforts in Texas follow a national push by extremist politics to take over school boards based on allegations that districts are teaching critical race theory. The Center for Renewing America, run by former Trump administration official Russ Vought, distributes atoolkitthat encourages conservatives to reclaim their schools by taking over local school boards through campaigns focused on opposition to critical race theory. The Leadership Institute offers training on how far-right candidates can take over their school board and runs a program called Campus Reform which encourages students to expose the leftist abuses on your campus including the teaching of CRT.

Funded by wealthy donors and far-right-wing foundations, they seem to be having some success in Texas. In places like Cypress-Fairbanks ISD the third-largest school district in the state long-term and well-established trustees are being replaced over culture-war wedge issues like CRT. After a controversialResolution Condemning Racism was approved by the board of trustees in September of 2020, Rev. John Ogletree an African American was defeated amidst allegations that the district was promoting CRT. Ogletree is the founder and pastor at theFirst Metropolitan Churchin Houston, Texas, and the president of the board ofPastors for Texas Children (PTC) a statewide public school advocacy group. Ogletree had been a member of the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Board of Trustees since 2003.

Not everyone is silent about the far-right efforts. Rev. Charles Foster Johnson, Executive Director of PTC responded to the defeat of Ogletree by saying, For Godly Christian servants like Rev. John Ogletree to be slandered withlies abouthis character is beyond outrageous. It is morally despicable. Rev. Ogletree is a faithful pastor who discharged his responsibility before God to call out racism. He did so with obedience and courage. It may come as a news flash to the morally confused folks at TPPF, but it is not racism to call racism for the sin it is: racism.

According to staff writers forReform Austin, This appears to be a nationwide strategy by conservatives to take over school boards and cultivate a farm team of candidates for higher office. If thats the case, there could be plenty of opportunities for far-right candidates in 2022 to get elected. With several Texas Senators and over two-dozen House members deciding not to run again due to redistricting maps, the field could be wide open for ultra-conservative candidates launching campaigns on the back of these attacks on public schools.

Indicative of this is the fact that leaders of both committees for public education in the Senate and the House are not returning to Austin. Sen. Larry Taylor Chair of the Senate Education Committee has resigned in the face of stiff opposition by Rep. Mayes Middleton for his Senate district. Middleton was allegedly recruited to run against Taylor by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick Taylors boss. In the Texas House, long-time former Chair of the House Public Education Committee, Rep. Dan Huberty will not return. Both Huberty and Taylor have years of experience chairing their respective committees and their departure will undoubtedly leave leadership and power vacuums.

With the filing deadline set for December 13, 2021, the complete list of candidates for offices is not yet final but it looks like those wishing to ride to success from the current culture wars are positioning themselves quickly.

Overall, Texans are more satisfied with public schools than before the COVID pandemic the majority rating them an A or a B with 78% indicating that their schools learning models are very effective or somewhat effective. There seems to be little to no evidence for contentions that the schools are failing or that many of them struggle with the issues raised by the far-right wing. If Texans want to preserve the common good that they receive through their public school system, they will vote for pro-public education candidates.

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What Do Masks, Library Books, Critical Race Theory, and Transgender Rights Have in Common? - Reform Austin

WINK NEWS

The governor wants to bring back the Florida State Guard. He announced Thursday that it would be under his control.

Governor DeSantis said, we also want to make sure that we have the flexibility and the ability needed to respond to events in our state in the most effective way possible.

The Florida State Guard is a voluntary civilian military force that hasnt been around in Florida since World War II.

The governor envisions the state guard supporting the Florida National Guard for emergencies like hurricanes.

Jonathan Martin, chairman of the Republican Party of Lee County said, we cant guarantee that the President of the United States is going to want to help a state thats going to overwhelmingly vote for his opponent, whoever it is in 2024.

State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith said, that seems to be very dangerous political territory, given how Governor DeSantis has been so willing to use his position to further inflame the culture wars in Florida and in the United States.

UCF political expert Aubrey Jewett said DeSantis intentions arent completely clear, but one thing is for sure, Governor DeSantis is seeking either for political reasons or perhaps because he really thinks its a good idea or some combination of those two things, to show that he is separate from the national government, that hes in charge, that he disagrees with the president on a number of policies.

22 other states have some form of a state guard.

Related

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SWFL leaders reacting to governor's plan to bring back the Florida State Guard - Wink News

Gov. Ron DeSantisPhoto: Shutterstock

The Florida Department of Education has yanked down an anti-bullying portal on its website following questions about content designed for LGBTQ students. They say the information is under review.

The department removed links to a state anti-bullying policy, bullying prevention efforts, ways to support minority students, and LGBTQ advocacy groups during the purge of life-saving information. It is unclear what information needed to be reviewed.

Related: 7th grader dies by suicide after classmates told him hed go to Hell for being gay

The information was pulled down after a right-wing news service with ties to Steve Bannon and Donald Trump inquired whether or not the site was in violation of the states Parents Bill of Rights.

The law, passed earlier this year, says public schools cannot infringe upon parents fundamental rights to raise their child according to their beliefs. The law, a nod to the culture wars over LGBTQ rights and examinations of Americas racist history, covers healthcare, education, and mental health.

The portal had recommended to administrators that they should be careful when discussing a students actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity with parents so they didnt accidentally out the student. Following guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the department instructed teachers to protect childrens privacy.

Critics say this guidance runs afoul of the new law that gives parents total control over their kids.

The portal was designed after the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. The state established the Office of Safe Schools to fight student bullying and provide safe learning environments.

Originally posted here:
Florida Dept. of Education yanks anti-bullying resources from website - LGBTQ Nation