A student at Reed College has been banned from class for denying the existence of “rape culture” in the United States and arguing that the oft-repeated statistic that one in five women are raped at college is bogus.The 1-in-5 statistic has been debunked more than just about any other statistic in recent memory. Facts are never an impediment to the left, though.
Jeremiah True, 19, received an email from professor Pancho Savery on March 14 telling him he was making his classmates so uncomfortable that he was no longer welcome to participate in the “conference” sections of his Humanities 110 class, a course which focuses on the art and literature of classical Greece, according to BuzzFeed News.
True says he sparred with his classmates on a variety of issues, but says it was his criticism of the 1-in-5 rape statistic that ended up being the tipping point.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Truth Is No Defense
How do you even deal with people so nuts that they think that that banning a college student from class for being right is entirely acceptable:
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9 comments:
Apparently the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, believes that 1 in 4 women on college campuses will be sexually assaulted during their campus experiences (from her editorial in the newest AFT magazine).
And she knows this because she herself claims that she was assaulted while a junior in college.
of course, they never think this through: if the number of rapes on American college campuses is much higher than most countries in the world, why do women even want to attend? The next step is, of course, to kick men out, since they're clearly out of control rapists.
Never let facts stand in the way of a good narrative, though....
The thing is, the 1/5 stat, as dubious as it may seem, (and I lean towards the not true side) can't be proved either way. The only stats that are relevant are college students convicted of rape divided by number of people attending the university. You don't get to make up numbers by saying "It's underreported" but you also can't say for sure that it's wrong -- because rape is underreported.
The larger issue is, why can't you discuss it like adults? And why should you worry about someone you disagree with having their feelings hurt? And, I'm assuming this was civil discourse. If the guy was being antagonistic? My opinion changes.
How did this mindset take over--discomfort is necessary for growth, is a GOOD thing--what a bunch of wusses who are afraid of IDEAS! When will the pendulum swing to intelligence and common sense again?
Hope they refunded his tuition, but guessing that was not even considered.
Yeah, Maxutils--if the guy was just being provocative on purpose, then I have little sympathy for him (although I have even less for the 1-in-5 Truthers). It's hard to know, at a distance, just what his behavior actually was.
pseudotsuga … clearly you know facts the rest of u don't. My assumption was that, in a discussion oriented class, he was stating his opinion. But, if you know that he didn't believe in what he was saying and was just trying to be a jerk? I guess I could side with you. I once took an interpretative US History course which took a decidedly left leaning approach, as did the professor … and the other 7 students in my class. I'm sure my comments made many of the other students uncomfortable -- but you know what happened? The professor, who probably could have not disagreed with me more recognized the value in hearing point of view other than one's own -- and I wound up with the highest grade in the class. If only all biased professors could be so … well, unbiased.
I should clarify, because you did qualify your response … but can you think of any reason whys male student would take such a class to espouse views he didn't believe in just to make women upset with him? Doesn't strike me a really good strategy for getting dates ...
Max, I'm sorry I didn't qualify clearly enough, but I think you caught on. I agree with you that there may indeed be something funny going on with this guy. I also think it strange that such a discussion could be had about the art and literature of ancient Greece, too, but classrooms can sometimes drift off tangent (or be pushed off tangent, which is a possibility for Mr. True, if reports of his behavior and character are to be believed.)
No, that's on me. I didn't read carefully enough. If he were leading the class in to irrelevant divergences … then, yes, kick him out. But NOT before the Professors talks to him about his concerns.
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