Jordan Peterson book banned and university invite rescinded.

I don't see how one murderous form of authoritarianism is any worse than any other form of murderous authoritarianism.
If it's racist, does that somehow make it worse?

 

You have to put yourself in the same place as Germans were.

Germany was a **** hole until Hitler made improvements. Such as they had no jobs. Hitler cured that.

 

Some of my ancestors were Germans who escaped this nonsense. If a job is more important to you than basic human integrity, you don't deserve a job. If you were out of work and we're offered a job killing anyone who criticized Clinton, I trust you'd decline.

 

I was in Germany and do not claim German ancestors. Ancestry.com did mention Germany though. But not significantly. We trace almost entirely to England, Scotland, Wales and Norway.

When Germans were starving and money was worthless, Hitler sounded like a hell of a good deal. We elect Democrats. They approved Hitler.

What is the damned Democrat platform? About what we can get by supporting Democrats and take it from our own neighbors.

I consider that flat out Evil. But find posters here who call them evil. And bet me, we will elect more of them over time. We keep screwing the pooch.

 

Lack of recognition of individual rights: individual rights do not exist. They are a social construct, a construct not extant during the vast majority of human history.

Lack of critical thinking skills, lack of rational thought: that counts towards stupidity, not ignorance.

Lack of awareness: nobody can predict the future.

 

I bet you would accept it if you were hungry enough or your family was hungry enough.

 

You can bet all you want. Some people have declined that offer, and kudos to them.

 

Rational debate and discourse presume individual rights. That's why we appeal to reason and logic in these discussions instead of threats.

Then we agree that he was stupid. Awesome.

People (well, non-stupid people) can rationally predict that rabid racial authoritarianism will have some negative fallout.

 

Nonsense. Aristotle, et. al. produced a lot of rational debate with no concept of human rights.

Then you will have to explain how Hitler beat out all the intelligent ambitious Germans to become Chancellor.

 

Whatever his conscious "concepts" were, rational debate still presumes the right of listeners to disagree.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor. You really going to play make believe that anyone who is appointed to a role is maaaaaagically proven to be more intelligent than the person they defeated? Really?

 

Actually this is incorrect. Peterson said he would have no problem using whatever "gender pronoun" a student asked him to use. The only thing he objected to was a federal law requiring it. He characterized it as "forced speech", which is a violation of the freedom of speech. The university took his public policy statement to mean something far different from what it actually meant. Same thing with Google and the James Damore memo. But subtlety isn't most people's forte.

 

Its all about preference. Its not really my cup of tea, but I feel it was worth listening to. I think we can agree that even if we thought it was the worst writing in the world, we would not try to silence him.

 

I need a right to disagree with you? If I disagree, I simply disagree. It is not a "right."

Not magically. If Hitler were stupid an intelligent man would be able to outmaneuver him politically and be appointed in his stead.

 

Try to silence him? No. But refuse to publish his views personally? Yes. Which is what is actually happening. No one is stopping him from his speech, they are just refusing to promote it themselves, which is well within their rights.

 

The period of his fellowship was only for two months and he planned to make lectures on Exodus. Cambridge University has made a right move by distancing itself from this controversial figure from Canada. The Student Union applauded the decision, too. Cambridge's Faculty of Divinity looks incredibly modern from the outside.

 

Thereby trampling on his right to disagree and stifling rational debate.

 

But does he deserve that controversy?

Being controversial alone isn't reason enough for that figure to deserve distancing from.

If that was the case, anyone who had anyone strongly disagree with them would be in that boat.

 

The only reason I know who he is, it that students here in the US were protesting his speaking engagement. They absolutely tried to silence him. Banning a book falls along those lines as well.

 

I'm responding about current western civ.

My pop was unfortunate enough to grow up under Hitler. I know all to well the mindless horrors of the totalitarian state. Unfortunately, 70 years later everyone is again embracing the state. Bad move

 

It depends what those presumed individual rights are, doesn't it?

 

I've seen other quotes and it seems likely he'll have spoken on the issue more than once. Regardless, the University is entitled to make it's own judgement on his suitability to work for them.

 

The devil is in the details.

 

The point is that the university was wrong about him. They can make their own judgements, but when those judgements are made on false information, an injustice has occurred. I'm reminded of Socrates, who was condemned by the Athenians for being an atheist. But Socrates wasn't an atheist, Socrates was portrayed as an atheist in the plays of the time, and it was this portrayal that was lodged in the Athenians' minds when they condemned him. When people are asked, "Who said, 'I can see Russia from my house'?" they answer, "Sarah Palin." But it wasn't, it was Tina Fey portraying Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. But that's not how people remember it.

 

It's a university not a prison.
University is all about looking for truth and exchange of ideas. Without it, there is no university, but middle age library.
It certainly look like the same thought process which led the human race to the dark middle ages.

 

It is much worse than that.
It is not the wrong that is done to Peterson, nor about justice.
It is about the University betraying the principle it was built on.
It is about losing intellectual integrity.
It is about betraying the human race, no less.