Why does the term reactionary exist on the left?

[Karha of Honor]

Were you surprised by some of the high profile Ivy League incidents recently?

You'll have to be a bit more specific as I could list my complaints about the college system in America for dozens of pages.

Could you have imagined five years ago or 10 somehing as crazy as the Yale Halloween Costume quote unquote debate?

[CharlesPhipps]

My general perspective on the events at Yale there is that it is part of a larger nature of internet based pseudo-activism which basically is something that can be used as a bludgeon and directed largely indiscriminately. I don't think of this as a particularly academia-related incident so much as an internet based one as online campaigns of harassment are things which exist now so much that they are their own separate form of crime. There's a reason we have a word, doxxing, for it now.

If you mean the fact a bunch of Yale students, people who should by their very nature, be smarter and more self-aware than most got involved in an enormous organized controversy on the very pathetic hill to die on of "should white women be able to dress as Mulan for Halloween?" I don't think it's a particualrly new trend or a larger point on the left vs. right.

College is a time where students often find themselves persuaded to new causes as part of a broadening of social conscience be it right or left. The internet makes these things more aware to the public at large but I think it's an erroneous statement the pendulum is swinging particularly Left over Right as groups for the latter are just as common over the former. It's also something that has been part of the academic system since, well, the beginning.

Famously, Berkley Breathed (i.e. writer of Outland) visited campuses in the early 80s after growing up on the 60s only to find they'd shifted hard right with many students embolded by a desire to become conservative super-successful businessmen. The 90s to New Tens has done a bit of a shirt but the Left didn't leave either.

But that's just my perspective.

[Antiboyscout]

My general perspective on the events at Yale there is that it is part of a larger nature of internet based pseudo-activism which basically is something that can be used as a bludgeon and directed largely indiscriminately. I don't think of this as a particularly academia-related incident so much as an internet based one as online campaigns of harassment are things which exist now so much that they are their own separate form of crime. There's a reason we have a word, doxxing, for it now.

If you mean the fact a bunch of Yale students, people who should by their very nature, be smarter and more self-aware than most got involved in an enormous organized controversy on the very pathetic hill to die on of "should white women be able to dress as Mulan for Halloween?" I don't think it's a particualrly new trend or a larger point on the left vs. right.

College is a time where students often find themselves persuaded to new causes as part of a broadening of social conscience be it right or left. The internet makes these things more aware to the public at large but I think it's an erroneous statement the pendulum is swinging particularly Left over Right as groups for the latter are just as common over the former. It's also something that has been part of the academic system since, well, the beginning.

Famously, Berkley Breathed (i.e. writer of Outland) visited campuses in the early 80s after growing up on the 60s only to find they'd shifted hard right with many students embolded by a desire to become conservative super-successful businessmen. The 90s to New Tens has done a bit of a shirt but the Left didn't leave either.

But that's just my perspective.

Berkeley 1960's:


Berkeley Today:

[CharlesPhipps]

I remind people were so afraid of hippies that a bunch of them were shot on campus.

[Antiboyscout]

I remind people were so afraid of hippies that a bunch of them were shot on campus.

Yes, for protesting the Vietnam war, and I was called an anti Semite for opposing the latest Syria strike. It seems like being anti war and anti interventionist paints a target on your back.

[Admiral X]

youtu.be/UE-xgoHINOM

[TGLS]

After a careful reading of coverage of the events, I come to one conclusion. Radicals (who like their predecessors from the sixties, may not even be attending university), have a penchant for seizing control of a debate with hyperbole.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

And moderates, who feel comfortable with the status quo, tend to brand anything more action-oriented than their vague tribalist stance "radical".

[Karha of Honor]

My general perspective on the events at Yale there is that it is part of a larger nature of internet based pseudo-activism which basically is something that can be used as a bludgeon and directed largely indiscriminately. I don't think of this as a particularly academia-related incident so much as an internet based one as online campaigns of harassment are things which exist now so much that they are their own separate form of crime. There's a reason we have a word, doxxing, for it now.

If you mean the fact a bunch of Yale students, people who should by their very nature, be smarter and more self-aware than most got involved in an enormous organized controversy on the very pathetic hill to die on of "should white women be able to dress as Mulan for Halloween?" I don't think it's a particualrly new trend or a larger point on the left vs. right.

College is a time where students often find themselves persuaded to new causes as part of a broadening of social conscience be it right or left. The internet makes these things more aware to the public at large but I think it's an erroneous statement the pendulum is swinging particularly Left over Right as groups for the latter are just as common over the former. It's also something that has been part of the academic system since, well, the beginning.

Famously, Berkley Breathed (i.e. writer of Outland) visited campuses in the early 80s after growing up on the 60s only to find they'd shifted hard right with many students embolded by a desire to become conservative super-successful businessmen. The 90s to New Tens has done a bit of a shirt but the Left didn't leave either.

But that's just my perspective.

I got a trust fund. This is home here.. 50 of them in Yale, no one questions that women. 50 people from a top ranked US university acting like that? Youtube is 10 years old or something. When Steve Stiffler was popular this does not happen.

The people who have power are on your side of the spectrum in almost all universities.

[CharlesPhipps]

I got a trust fund. This is home here.. 50 of them in Yale, no one questions that women. 50 people from a top ranked US university acting like that? Youtube is 10 years old or something. When Steve Stiffler was popular this does not happen.

The people who have power are on your side of the spectrum in almost all universities.

Annoyed at stupid shit like white girls dressed up as Mulan is definitely a Left issue (as well as harrassing the opponents in that). The Right issues are not exactly covering themselves in glory either in academia but I'd rather not get into a "but they did X, which makes Y group better."