Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

America is doomed, an ongoing saga

During 2021, American voter party identification shifted from the Democrats to Republicans. 

Smarmy Jonathan Ichikawa still dissembling

Somehow Ichikawa (part of the miscreant team from Vancouver) thinks that the unfortunate disagreement (and, in part, misunderstanding) between the PGR editors, Professors Brogaard and Pynes, and Wiley-Blackwell, shows that I'm not honest (!).  (A reader sent me his tweet [we are mutually blocked on Twitter] stating, "Brian Leiter is not an honest person, and the PGR is intellectually bankrupt.")  Since I literally have nothing do with any of this (I appointed Brogaard as a co-editor in 2014, and then Pynes as another co-editor for 2017, at which point they were in charge, and I have only offered them advice about the PGR when asked, and that's it), this really is a stretch even by Ichihkawa's standards of dishonesty, which are, to be sure, peerless.  (Recall that when Ichikawa and Carrie Jenkins were challenged over their defamation of me, their own lawyer would not defend their statements as true [see #5], arguing only that they were "lawful.")

There are two other ironies here, beyond the "pot calling the kettle black."

Amy Wax and "the Asians"

At my law school blog, I comment on the latest travesty from Professor Wax.  She is certainly pushing the envelope on her academic freedom rights.

Do your own research on how to "do your own research"

Philosopher Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham) and psychologist David Dunning (of Dunning-Kruger Effect fame) comment.

America is doomed, part 414: millions of armed individuals may revolt if Trump doesn't win in 2024

That's the short version; here's a longer excerpt:

If armed violence erupts the 2024 elections, quelling it could fall to the U.S. military, which may be reluctant to take arms against U.S. citizens. In that case, the fate of the nation might well be decided by a simple fact: a big subset of one of the two parties has for years been systemically arming itself for this very reason.

"I hope it's just too crazy to happen here," says Erica De Bruin, an assistant professor of government at Hamilton College, who studies coups around the world. "But it's now in the realm of the plausible"....

DEI initiatives in action in the public schools

This would be laughable if it wasn't real:

They also recommend that people read a bunch of Robin DiAngelo books and brag that “more than 2,000 DCPS staff have participated in Courageous Conversation training.” But is Courageous Conversation training a good idea? This NYT Magazine profile of the company and its founder made it sound pretty bad:

    Singleton, who holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford, and who did     stints in advertising and college admissions before founding what’s now known as Courageous     Conversation in 1992, talks about white culture in similar ways. There is the myth of     meritocracy. And valuing “written communication over other forms,” he told me, is “a     hallmark of whiteness,” which leads to the denigration of Black children in school. Another     “hallmark” is “scientific, linear thinking. Cause and effect.” He said, “There’s this whole     group of people who are named the scientists. That’s where you get into this whole idea that     if it’s not codified in scientific thought that it can’t be valid.” He spoke about how the     ancient Egyptians had “ideas about how humanity works that never had that scientific-       hypothesis construction” and so aren’t recognized. “This is a good way of dismissing people.     And this,” he continued, shifting forward thousands of years, “is one of the challenges in the     diversity-equity-inclusion space; folks keep asking for data. How do you quantify, in a way     that is scientific — numbers and that kind of thing — what people feel when they’re feeling     marginalized?” For Singleton, society’s primary intellectual values are bound up with this     marginalization."

 

I don’t think Frankfurt School Marxists are going to take over society by injecting these ideas into K-12 schools or anything like that. What I do think is that time and money is being wasted on initiatives that are run by people who are somewhere between stupid and fraudulent.

America is mostly doomed, the latest poll evidence

Here, although it isn't all bad news.  Some excerpts:

Only 29% of Republicans today say that American culture and way of life have changed for the better since the 1950s, a substantial decrease from 46% in 2020 and a return to their opinion in 2016 (31%), prior to the election of former President Trump. Most Republicans (70%) say American culture and way of life have changed for the worse since the 1950s. By contrast, a majority of Democrats (63%) think that American culture and way of life have changed for the better, much the same as in 2020 (62%). Independents closely resemble the general population (48% better) and have also declined in this view since 2020 (57% better).

Just as a reminder, large portions of the U.S. were a de jure apartheid regime in the 1950s.  Onward:

Around three in ten Americans (31%) say that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. This share has remained steady throughout 2021, in August (29%), June (30%), and March (29%).

More than two-thirds of Republicans (68%), compared to 26% of independents and 6% of Democrats, believe that the election was stolen from Trump. These shares are even greater among Republicans who most trust Fox News (82%) and essentially universal among those who most trust far-right news (97%). Less than half of Republicans who most trust mainstream news agree (44%).

Brad Rosenheim (South Florida) and Dawn Sumner (UC Davis) are enemies of academic freedom

Two other choices quotes from the Boston Globe article about MIT faculty protesting the shabby treatment of Professor Abbot:

Brad Rosenheim, associate professor of oceanography at the University of South Florida, said EAPS did the right thing because Abbot’s opinionsconflict with the department’s official stand on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “It’s almost schizophrenic, in a way, to have a diversity statement and to invite somebody who espouses these views,” Rosenheim said.

The problem wasn’t Abbot’s political opinions, Rosenheim said. Rather, it’s the fact that he has so openly expressed them.“I could invite somebody else who has the same views as Dorian Abbot, but hasn’t written a Newsweek piece and hasn’t promulgated videos of it on the Internet,” Rosenheim said.

Nothing is too trivial to nonetheless inspire a grievance

Many in the STEM fields now use "JEDI" as the acronym for "justice, equality, diversity, and inclusion."   This, however, is offensive according to these academics (mostly from education schools).  One mathematician who sent this to me, singled out this passage from the article:

[T]he Jedi are inappropriate symbols for justice work. They are a religious order of intergalactic police-monks, prone to (white) saviorism and toxically masculine approaches to conflict resolution (violent duels with phallic lightsabers, gaslighting by means of “Jedi mind tricks,” etc.). The Jedi are also an exclusionary cult, membership to which is partly predicated on the possession of heightened psychic and physical abilities (or “Force-sensitivity”).

The mathematician added:  "At first I was certain it was Onion-style parody. But the rest is too sanctimonious. Maybe we *are* in end-times?"  Characteriznig the Jedi as "white" makes about as much sense as characterizing Plato as "white."  Vide Professor Reed.

21 million American brown shirts ready for action

Wow!

Who is vaccinated against COVID and who is not?

Interesting poll (based on self-reports, however) of the demographic breakdown of those who say they have been vaccinated against COVID:

• Whites: 66 percent
• Blacks: 76 percent
• Latinos: 71 percent
• Urban residents: 79 percent
• Suburban residents: 67 percent
• Rural residents: 52 percent
• White evangelicals: 59 percent
• Democrats: 88 percent
• Independents: 60 percent
• Republicans: 55 percent
• Republicans who support Trump more than party: 46 percent
• Republicans who support party more than Trump: 62 percent
• Democratic Sanders-Warren voters: 88 percent
• Democratic Biden voters: 87 percent
• Biden voters in 2020 general election: 91 percent
• Trump voters in 2020 general election: 50 percent
• White non-college grads: 60 percent
• White college grads: 80 percent

 

Alex Berenson, the world's dumbest journalist, redux

A good overview of the serial misinformation emanating from this malevolent buffoon, whom we've noted before.   Karl Kraus:  "No ideas the ability to express them:  that's a journalist!"

Fascists in Idaho target the public universities

CHE story here.  They should target me, since I am promoting Marxism and anti-Americanism, albeit not really in my classes (sorry), but at least on my blog!  And I favor repeal of the absurd Second Amendment.  (On the other hand, I don't "attack law enforcement" [the armed faction of the working class, after all] and unlike the Idaho fascists, I actually believe in free expression, especially in the universities.)

QAnon and survey responses

A props the QAnon craziness, a couple of readers point out that some number of survey respondents (maybe 4% on average?) are either inattentive to the questions being asked or simply mischievous.  That's worth remembering, but hardly reassuring given that the survey found one in four Republicans believed in a batshit crazy conspiracy theory:  if we discount the clueless and the pranksters, that still gets us 1 in 5 believing a batshit crazy conspiracy theory!  So America is still doomed!

Hawaii legislature moves to eliminate salary for tenured professor

While Republican legislatures are (rightly) attracting attention for their attempts to violate the constitutional and academic freedom rights of faculty at state universities, the threats to these rights are becoming an increasingly "bi-partisan" problem (recall, e.g., it was the Democratic legislature in California that pushed for the unlawful "diversity statements"); this shocking move by the Hawaii legislature is the latest example:

Senator Donna Kim, chair of the higher education committee, said the effort to sweep the position at the university was part of cost-cutting measures. The provision is in the main budget bill for the university.

“We need to control the costs and we need to make sure that our students in Hawaii are being able to afford higher education,” she said.

Two years ago, Kim requested from the university a list of professors who did not teach classes and did not bring in any extramural funding. She had at the time proposed cutting that entire list of about 100 professors, but that did not come to pass. This year, Vogel’s position [a cancer researcher] was the only one proposed to be cut. There are no classes taught at the cancer center, where he works. She said she did not have names associated with position numbers, but she was informed that the position’s occupant did not hold office hours and was hardly on campus.

25% of Americans think Trump is currently the "true President" of the U.S.

53% of Republicans believe that.  On the other hand, 14% of the poll respondents aren't sure whom they voted for in the 2020 election, so go figure.

"Indigenous science" is bad science

That's pretty clear; calling it pseudoscience presupposes a solution to the demarcation problem, which no one has.

(Thanks to Mike G. for the pointer.)

UPDATE:  If you're coming here from Justin Smith's aggressively dishonest characterization of this post and Professor Pigliucci's critique of including "indigenous science" in the Canadian science curriculum, do take the time to follow the link, above, and read what Pigliucci actually had to say--Professor Smith obviously didn't.

Yoga is banned in Alabama public schools...

...because it might, after all, lead to Hinduism!

(Thanks to John Styles for the pointer.)

America is doomed, part 328: One America News Network edition

This propaganda network, which makes Fox look responsible, has 1.5 million subscribers and is available  in some 35,000,000 households around the country. 

These people are all out of their minds

Female white Yale professor serving on a nearby town council makes a "point of order" while a male Black councilmember is speaking; the latter refers to her as "councilwoman," she demands to be called "Dr."  He declines (rightly so, the title is irrelevant in a democratic body--he's the only sane person in the mix!), she calls him a sexist on her Facebook page.  Now there's a petition denouncing her as a "racist" and demanding her removal from the council.

"Anywhere out of this world," said Baudelaire.

If Tucker "you're not as white as me" Carlson survives this latest fiasco, it will be further proof America is doomed

Amazing that he'd go there.

What the heck is going on in the Evanston, IL schools?

Evanston is a suburb just north of Chicago, where Northwestern University is located.  This interview with a parent there makes the school district sound like a nuthouse, a place where Ibram Kendi isn't viewed as a slightly ridiculous "anti-racism" grifter, but is instead the intellectual lodestar.  The interview is with Ndona Muboyayi, a parent, and member of the NAACP Evanston/North Shore Branch.  From the interview:

Mboyayi: One day my daughter told me she was taught that all white people are privileged and part of a system of white supremacy. My son said the same thing. So I reached out to my daughter’s teacher to find out what exactly was being taught. It was pretty much like she said: that all white people were part of this system of white supremacy, and that all white people, because of the color of their skin, had privilege. I said, “But that's not true.” And the teacher said, “Well, what do you mean?”

I have traveled a lot. My father was a university professor and taught in both the United States and Paris, France. And when I visited, I saw white people in public housing. I’ve been to Belgium and Switzerland and seen very poor white people. I’ve visited other parts of Europe. I lived in Canada for 10 years. There are poor white people in Canada as well. I’m not saying systemic racism doesn’t exist, but class exists too, and I don’t believe that all white people have privilege. That white person who’s living in the Appalachian Mountains, who has no means or prospect of changing their situation—do they, too, have privilege? Compared to me and my kids?

UPDATE:  An Evanston resident and parent of kids in the public schools there  writes:  “Your comment about Ibram Kendi isn't off the mark at all. Evanston Township High School's Family Action Network actually had Kendi on campus twice to give talks, once in 2018 and 2019. In 2020 they doubled down by having huckster Robin DiAngelo come and give a talk. The last thing you want to be caught doing in this town is questioning the dominant ideology."

Some further thoughts on Twitter

The first round of observations was so popular (especially on Twitter!), I thought I'd add a few more based on things I've learned and observed the last couple of months.

1.  I came across this interesting chart via Justin Weinberg's blog, which shows that the vast majority of U.S. adults do not use Twitter at all (thank God!), and that usage varies, unsurprisingly, by generation.  38% of those 18-29 use Twitter (the highest percentage), while only 7% of those over 65 use it.  I'm in the distinct minority in my age range (only 17% of those 50-64 use it), and I mostly use it to provide links to the blog for the benefit the readers who now follow the blog by Twitter. 

2.  This data is consistent with an e-mail shared on Twitter awhile back by the journalist Jesse Singal: 

"[T]he vast majority of both psychologically healthy and accomplished philosophers stay off twitter like their life depends on it. The vast majority of people I know in academic philosophy either ignore, mock, or disdain philosophy twitter." - professional philosopher in email

Although many Twitterati reacted with rage and denial to Mr. Singal's tweet, the claim about "the vast majority" is consistent with the data about usage by age alone.  (Are the non-users psychologically healthier and more accomplished?  Probably, but the preceding data are neutral on that.)   I strongly suspect that relatively few non-Twitter users "mock or disdain philosophy twitter" (although that would be a warranted response were they to look), and that most simply ignore it. 

Condescension from below watch: Matt Taibbi edition

It's clear the silly Taibbi--who is sometimes an amusing polemicist but is equally obviously a lightweight--did not understand a word he read, and didn't even read the "Repressive Tolerance" essay in its entirety (he doesn't realize that Marcuse is a Millian, and that his dispute with Mill is about the background conditions under which liberty actually produces good consequences).   I do not recommend reading the essay, unless one wants to be reminded that anti-intellectual hatchet jobs are not wholly proprietary to right-wing pundits.

(Thanks to Prabhu Venkataraman for the pointer.)

America is doomed, part 499: the Republican Party is crazier now than it was even before Trump

The new target is Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, daughter of the former Vice-President and an extremely conservative Republican--but not as crazy as some members of her party:

As she watched Mr. Trump and his supporters peddle conspiracy theories and promote what she called “the big lie,” Ms. Cheney became deeply unsettled by how many of her colleagues seemed so cavalier about Mr. Trump’s actions, friends and associates said. She was also bothered by the way Republicans cheered and mimicked the kind of behavior she expected of a foreign authoritarian leader but never from an American president....

“We control the true spirit and identity of America,” said [Representative Matt] Gaetz (Fascist-Florida), who is leading the effort to oust Ms. Cheney from the House leadership.

After his speech, Teresa Kunkel, a retired state employee, said that she had attended the rally because, as a Christian, she did not believe Ms. Cheney was being an honest representative for Wyoming. “She didn’t represent what we voted for,” Ms. Kunkel said. “She betrayed us — big time.”

The second impeachment of Mr. Trump last month, which Ms. Cheney supported, was an injustice, Ms. Kunkel added. “It’s like: ‘I didn’t like what you did, so you’re out. And we’re in the majority, so we can do that.’ That’s cancel culture,” she said.

Bear in mind that the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against certifying legitimate election results.   The majority!   Ms. Cheney was one of just ten Republicans in the House to support impeachment of the monster-child for the January 6 stormtrooper riot.

 

Is anyone surprised that a Trump-appointed commission about how to teach American history...

...produced reactionary garbage?  I assume not!

Chapman law professor and right-wing activist John Eastman spoke at the rally before the stormtrooper riot...

...and now some faculty want him fired.   The problem is he didn't commit a firing offense (as the University President recognizes).  He has not been convicted of a crime, only of world-historic stupidity and venality.  Lisa Leitz, a Chapman professor of peace studies, is calling for him to be fired because "his appearance at the rally and his past Trump campaign activities have scarred the university's reputation...it undermines the credibility of every faculty member."  Professor Leitz has obviously not thought very carefully about what she is saying.   No one, including her, would enjoy any academic freedom were the standard for termination "speech that, when it enters the public eye, 'scar[s] the university's reputation.'"   That standard would have surely justified the illegal firing of Steven Salaita, to take but one example.

Chapman has since announced that Eastman is retiring, and has agreed not to take legal action against the university.  (Eastman is 60 and has taught at Chapman for about 25 years.)   In other words, he and the University reached a settlement involving mutual release of legal claims, his agreement to retire, and in all likelihood a financial payout to Eastman to get him to retire.

 

There is no bottom to dumb, again

A friend of mine in New York City sent me this e-mail from the actual head of an investment firm.  It is below the fold.  No comment needed, the message speaks for itself.

Texas congressman: if the Georgia Senate seats go to Democrats...

...we'll go from "cold" to "hot" Civil War.

The Dunning-Kruger effect: just statistical noise?

With a whole blog category devoted to the phenomenon ("the less they know, the less they know it"), it would be disappointing if this is true.   But I'm sure it isn't, so there!

Some observations about Twitter, esp. philosophy-related Twitter

Max Noichl, a graduate student at the University of Vienna, made a map of philosophy tweeters (based on followers and retweets) which is making the rounds on Twitter.  I'm not really sure what it means, but it looks neat!  (Mr. Noichl offers some explanation here.)

Friends and colleagues like Leslie Green at Oxford and Queen's, and Eric Posner here at Chicago, used Twitter for awhile, but then gave up (Green later returned, but, wisely, doesn't engage).   I don't abandon the medium because I know some folks now follow the blog through Twitter links (my main activity on Twitter), and some of those I follow also post interesting material.   Prompted by the new Twitter map, herewith some observations about this strange medium:

1.  Putting aside those already famous, "success" on Twitter (i.e., lots of followers) seems to track three things:  actual expertise (e.g., about infectious diseases, about criminal law) which one shares on Twitter on a regular basis in long threads; championing a political or partisan cause on a regular basis, which attracts a flock of like-minded partisans; or extensive tweeting and extensive engagement with others (e.g, retweeting, responding, entering "dialogues" on Twitter).   There are outlier cases (e.g., Scott Shapiro, the funniest academic on Twitter, with his serial shticks), but most of the Twitter users with substantial followings (e.g., 30k or more followers) seem to fall into at least one of these categories, and sometimes more than one.

2.  Blocking nuisance Twitterati is, itself, a nuisance.  Twitter basically has all the worst features of an unmoderated comment thread on a blog or anywhere else in cyberspace, and so all the laws of cyber-dynamics apply.  "Condescension from below" is the primary form of expression for the average active Twitter user which, combined with the Dunning-Kruger effect, makes for a mess.

"Killology" and "sheepdogs"

Philosopher Susanna Siegel and a Harvard colleague comment.  If there were any doubts that large parts of America are nuts, this essay will eliminate them.

Now ZAS Berlin is flat out lying about the no-platforming of Professor Stock

Here on Twitter they have the audacity to claim: 

@ZASBerlin

Replying to

@Docstockk

ZAS had to retract the abstract because it did not fit to the scientific theme of the workshop (oppressive speech & communication) and contained language that was inconsistent with the values of the ZAS. We regret that the abstract went online.

11:38 AM · Dec 10, 2020·Twitter Web App

This is really shameless dissembling:   as we saw, Professor Stock's abstract was squarely on the theme of the session on "Bodies, Gender Identity, and Misogyny"; contained no inappropriate language (though apparently expressed a verboten point of view); and, in any case, Professor McCready has admitted to complaining about Professor Stock's participation which resulted in her being no-platformed (Professor McCready has now deleted her tweet confessing her role in this; being an innocent fellow, I didn't bother to take a screen shot, but I quoted it accurately in the prior post).  [ADDENDUM:   The Wayback Machine captured Professor McCready's tweet here.)

What is wrong with people in Boise, Idaho?

They're watching too much Fox TV I guess, but this is still grotesque:

In Boise, Idaho, public health officials about to vote on a four-county mask mandate abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday evening because of fears for their safety amid anti-mask protests outside the building and at some of their homes.

One health board member tearfully announced she had to rush home to be with her child because of the protesters, who were seen on video banging on buckets, blaring air horns and sirens, and blasting a sound clip of gunfire from the violence-drenched movie “Scarface” outside her front door.

“I am sad. I am tired. I fear that, in my choosing to hold public office, my family has too often paid the price,” said the board member, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. “I increasingly don’t recognize this place. There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all.”

Artist sues Vermont Law School to prevent destruction of murals depicting the underground railroad

The murals were deemed "offensive" by benighted students flexing their muscles, and the school caved, hence the lawsuit. As Nietzsche observed:  the "secret desire to be tyrants is [often] wrapped up in virtuous words!"

Here is the image in question (not sure it will all fix here, but enough will):

Students at McGill demand the university revise and restrict its notion of academic freedom

At least these not so crypto-fascists are direct about what they want!   Since McGill's status as a serious research university would evaporate over night were they to heed these demands, I assume nothing will happen...this time, anyway.  But that the students are not ashamed by their demands is stunning.

GPT-3 bot posts on Reddit for a week, and no one realized it was a bot

This may tell us more about Reddit than AI, however.

(Thanks to Blake Myers for the pointer.)

Blast from the past: when Robin James reported some important "theorizing"...

...that still hasn't seen the light of day alas.

The Governor of California should resign

What a disgrace.  It's pretty easy not to have a dinner in a restaurant while people are dying from an infectious disease and you're requiring everyone else to not do this.   He should be crucified for this selfish stupidity.

What is wrong with the people in Farmington, Missouri?

Their local public health official  received threats because she is trying to implement simple measures to reduce the spread of COVID.  It got so bad, she resigned and moved.  Farmington is about 75 mile from St. Louis.  What is wrong with the people there?  I hope to God I never have to set foot in that place, or any place so benighted.

Lord Kilclooney of Northern Ireland refers to Senator and VP-Elect Kamala Harris as "the Indian"

Old habits die hard.   But seriously:  what happens if the Mick loses his peerage over this?  Who gets it?  An Indian? A Colored?  A Yid?

The wrong "Four Seasons"

This is too perfect a mistake by the monster-child's minions; if it weren't real, no one would find it plausible.

Philosophy PhD didn't know Australia is a country, fails student for knowing that it is

Oy veh!

QAnon and age-old anti-semitic tropes

Great news that millions of Americans believe this stuff now!  I'll have more to say about this later, but right now I have to get on a conference call with other members of the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy to make some decisions about what kind of economy we want for 2021.

1987 NYT editorial appeals to a "consensus among economists" that there should be no minimum wage

A good reminder for whom the NYT really speaks. 

(I saw this gem via Alex Gourevitch's FB page.)

PGR haters are strangely self-unaware

Here is philosopher Udo  Schuklenk (Queen's/Canada) declaring that "no serious academic would...lend their time to" the PGR.

You can see a complete list of the several hundred "unserious" academics who "lend their time" to the PGR:  it includes Brian Skyrms, Anthony Appiah, Ernest Sosa, Penelope Maddy, Cristina Bicchieri, Paul Guyer, Timothy Williamson, John Hawthorne, Alex Byrne, Gregory Currie, Martha Nussbaum, Terence Irwin, Jennifer Lackey, Cheryl Misak, Calvin Normore, Ian Rumfitt, Carolina Sartorio, Susanna Siegel, Allen Wood:  "no serious academics"!

More on the U of Southern Maine's "Anti-Racism" Pledge

Philosopher Jason Brennan (Georgetown) has some pretty funny observations here; an excerpt:

This kind of thing generally cheapens the idea of anti-racism. Universities are rather sad and pathetic places, in general. They're the kinds of places where, when people claim to get worried about racism, rather than using their ample resources to combat serious problems of racism out there in the world, they instead just hire a bunch of diversity officers who then create milquetoast programming for their student bodies, who already tend to be relatively non-racist and anti-racist. It's like getting worried about starvation, so you then distribute extra snacks to your generally well-fed student body rather than trying to feed actual starving people in refugee camps. You have to wonder whether the point is not to combat racism, but instead to be seen as anti-racist.

One does wonder that, doesn't one?

Legal remedies for libel are not instances of "cancel culture"

I was astonished a couple of weeks ago when a British lawyer actually took J.K. Rowling to task on this score; lawyers, at least, shouldn't be so stupid.   Rowling was a signatory to the Harper's letter about "cancel culture." She didn't thereby forfeit her legal right to be protected from unlawful speech, such as libel.   "Cancel culture," of course, as we saw yesterday, has nothing to do with legal remedies for unlawful speech or action.

President of the University of Southern Maine understands neither academic freedom nor the First Amendment

You can't call on members of the community to sign an "anti-racism pledge," just like you can't call on them to sign a loyalty oath to American capitalism.   Of course, this isn't quite as bad as mandating as a condition of employment a profession of loyalty to the ideology of anti-racism (whatever that is:  "I won't join the Klan," "I won't use racial epithets"?, "I won't disagree with Black Lives Matter?"), but it comes to the same thing:  after all, the President has issued a public call for signatures, his staff has duly signed, so who would want to risk being branded a "racist" for failing to be counted?   But there are plenty of non-racist reasons not to sign:  e.g., doubts about what will count as "the conditions and structures" that allegedly support bigotry, doubts about who one is being asked to "stand in solidarity" with and doubts about their conceptions of "justice."   No one, least of all this blowhard President (who sounds more like the former politician he is), knows what it means to be an "antiracist...in all aspects of your life."   That the President goes on to quote the totalitarian wannabe Ibram Kendi certainly does not inspire confidence.

Jared Kushner eviscerated

God, if he existed, would bless the Lincoln Project!