Ed The Peter Boghossian Affair: Professor resigns from woke university: What now?

[tyr_13]

Bleugh...

I think a lot is being missed in this debate.

First off, who here thinks that post-modernist gender studies is a valuable field?

(I'm going to suggest the answer is close to nobody).

Next, who believed it was until Boghossian and Lindsay's Conceptual Penis destroyed its reputation?

Again, nobody. Literally nobody changed their mind. Why? Because those who thought it was a garbage field still thought it was a garbage field before and after. I mean I guess they just couldn't insert their Penis anywhere without having to pay first.

So, if anything, B+L only succeeded in failing at hoaxing because the gender studies and post-modernists etc... could just say that the actual gender studies journal rejected them. Sokal himself noted this: "Finally, it seems even less likely that this paper would have been accepted at a more prestigious gender-studies journal, such as Gender & Society, Feminist Theory, Signs, Feminist Studies, or Men and Masculinities. The bias towards articles presupposing a particular moral and ideological orientation—and the associated dulling of the editors’ capacities for critical thinking—may well persist at this higher tier, but its effects will be more subtle than a hoax like this could demonstrate."

Link

So, I guess that's why they tried to get papers published to some of the bigger named journals. In many cases, they actually failed, so again, some of the post-modernists will see this as a victory even though I suspect that most of the field is indeed garbage.

That said, this is not remotely like Andrew Wakefield who did real harm, so the comparisons aren't worth making.

Also, I don't think Peter Boghossian should have been fired for his tedious attention-seeking antics. And guess what, he wasn't!

The idea that he was astonished at the idea that the peer reviewers are human subjects, though, just speaks to his contempt for them. Treating human subjects ethically is exactly what IRBs were set up to do. Instead, Boghossian and Lindsay and Pluckrose have turned into the very things they claimed to be skewering.

They write and produce dense nonsense on platforms called "New Discourses" all about Marcuse and Critical Race Theory, and they spend almost all their time whining about their oppression and systemic biases. They are tedious whiny cultural commentators just like the postmodernists they claim to be critiquing.

I hate when a good post gets lost at the bottom of a page change.

But also, this is the thing that really drives home how little the 'anti-cancel culture' group care about intellectual honesty. If this were a case study to test the hypothesis that post-modern gender studies will publish anything because it's all nonsense, it gives evidence that falsifies the hypothesis. It's a bad vehicle to attack either post modernism or gender studies, even if one disvalues those for other reasons.

Because it's attacking the acceptable target though, the fact it fails on it's own grounds doesn't matter to them.

 

[mumblethrax]

I don't actually have any idea what anyone ever means by "postmodern x". For the most part it seems to be used as an intensifier. How is "postmodern gender studies" different from "gender studies"? Or "postmodern cultural marxism" different from "cultural marxism"? The obvious answer is that it isn't. It's equivalent to "gender studies, BOOOO!" or "cultural marxism, BOOOO!"

 

[Emily's Cat]

I don't actually have any idea what anyone ever means by "postmodern x". For the most part it seems to be used as an intensifier. How is "postmodern gender studies" different from "gender studies"? Or "postmodern cultural marxism" different from "cultural marxism"? The obvious answer is that it isn't. It's equivalent to "gender studies, BOOOO!" or "cultural marxism, BOOOO!"

Gender studies, almost all critical theories, and a handful of other cultural studies are all based on postmodern philosophy. They're all children of that movement.

 

[angrysoba]

I wonder if we are now going to find out what Peter Boghossian is going to do as the next stage of his "waging ideological warfare":

Will he be joining Ralson College?

He is telling people to donate to it instead of to universities that promote Diversity and Inclusivity

 

[angrysoba]

By the way, could anyone please explain to me what this Tweet by James Lindsay, and liked by Peter Boghossian means... It looks like notifications of crimes in progress in New York City, and James Lindsay has just labelled it "Social Justice has been achieved". Say, what...?

 

[smartcooky]

I wonder if we are now going to find out what Peter Boghossian is going to do as the next stage of his "waging ideological warfare":

Will he be joining Ralson College?

He is telling people to donate to it instead of to universities that promote Diversity and Inclusivity

The DIE rot... that is very revealing.

Like some here, he opposes the idea that his white privilege should be impacted by education being for everyone regardless of race or ethnicity

By the way, could anyone please explain to me what this Tweet by James Lindsay, and liked by Peter Boghossian means... It looks like notifications of crimes in progress in New York City, and James Lindsay has just labelled it "Social Justice has been achieved". Say, what...?

Occam's Razor holds that "he's an idiot" is probably the most accurate answer.

 

[angrysoba]

Ralston College ?

Is this a grift?

Very fancy website, but... who teaches there? What is it?

It seems to be the brain child of a "cultural commentator" called Stephen Blackwood, and established in...

...oh...

Ralston College is an institution of higher education that offers various programs such as symposia.[29] Blackwood announced his plans to start the college in 2010, but as of June 2021 it has not yet admitted students to its proposed degree programs.[30][31][32] It anticipates focusing on the liberal arts,[33] and has declared a commitment to freedom of speech, enshrined in its motto "sermo liber vita ipsa" ("Free Speech is Life Itself").

Still, it has a prestigious line-up....

Among the members of its Board of Visitors, are Vernon Smith, Heather Mac Donald, Harry Lewis, Ruth Wisse, Roger Kimball, and Jordan Peterson.

Who else? Well, there are some other big names, but they are dead now...

Also, Freeman Dyson, Sir Roger Scruton, and Harold Bloom were listed as Visitors before their deaths

Still, there must be some courses available right...

Anthony Daniels on Samuel Johnson's Rasselas

Andrew Doyle on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus

Jay Parini on Robert Frost

with many others following soon.

Anthony Daniels is likely to be the guy who writes under the name of Theodore Dalrymple, rather than the actor who plays C3PO, although frankly I wouldn't be that surprised either way.

As for Andrew Doyle, he is that "hilarious" guy who has that parody Twitter account called Tatiana McGrath. He writes for Spiked! (obvs) and did drama at school, so he should be pretty good at teaching Shakespeare.

Anyone think this looks a little Trump University-esque?

No wonder Peter Bohossian is rattling the tin for them; he's obviously going to get a job there.

 

[smartcooky]

Ralston College ?

Is this a grift?
Very fancy website, but... who teaches there? What is it?

It seems to be the brain child of a "cultural commentator" called Stephen Blackwood, and established in...

...oh...



Still, it has a prestigious line-up....



Who else? Well, there are some other big names, but they are dead now...



Still, there must be some courses available right...



Anthony Daniels is likely to be the guy who writes under the name of Theodore Dalrymple, rather than the actor who plays C3PO, although frankly I wouldn't be that surprised either way.

As for Andrew Doyle, he is that "hilarious" guy who has that parody Twitter account called Tatiana McGrath. He writes for Spiked! (obvs) and did drama at school, so he should be pretty good at teaching Shakespeare.

Anyone think this looks a little Trump University-esque?

No wonder Peter Bohossian is rattling the tin for them; he's obviously going to get a job there.

Well it certainly looks like it.... a disenfranchised, self-cancelled university professor, railing against diverseness and inclusion, carrying the water for a non-existent university.

 

[angrysoba]

Yep, pretty sure that Boghossian is now a GOP operative.

 

[angrysoba]

Also, he now has plans to help open a new grifty university (yeah, we already heard about that, you may say. No, I mean another one...) while also calling for the ending of funding and tenure to real ones.

Link

 

[Hlafordlaes]

... What I do know is that the Quran, for obvious reasons, says nothing whatsoever about the USA or suicide bombers, so I don't find it at all unlikely that the hatred that some Muslim extremists have for the USA and their willingness to sacrifice their own lives in a struggle against the USA may actually have something to do with "the consequences of U.S. foreign policy." Otherwise, why attack the USA and not, for instance, Iceland of Finland, which are much more secularized countries than the USA - and much easier targets?

To answer your questions, I suggest reading about the dynamics and aftermath of WWI in the Middle East, particularly in the reaction to the West, for the first time in centuries showing itself suddenly far superior in warfare, a shocking and profoundly transformative event, giving rise to schools of thought that are the foundational source for everyone from bin Laden to Khomeini. I also recommend reading what Muslim authors in the West and in Muslim nations say are the tenets of the faith with respect to war and peace. Just in the way of example, Mohamed was of the opinion that no treaty with any enemy should last more than 10 years, and be used to prepare for winning the next conflict. This jibes to a T with the nuclear treaty signed with Iran in its day.

I am of the opinion that words do matter, that cover rhetoric from a fanatic peanut gallery inspires absolutists of any stripe, and that Jan 6 and Islamic terrorism meet the exact same criteria for violence.

Edited by Agatha: 

Edited for rule 11. Do not bring up matters of forum management outside the FMF section.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I had heard of him, and knew of him as a grifter who has been trying to jump on various bandwagons to get clout. He's like Gad Saad in that he's always thought of himself as part of that well-known grifter club, the Intellectual Dark Web, but he's been left out because he wasn't interesting enough. LOL!

He's been trying to piss people off at his university for years by inviting people like Sargon of Akkad to give talks. Then when students react negatively he's been claiming cancel culture. It's been suspected that he has been trying to get himself fired for years, but when it didn't work he resigned.

I doubt anyone would give him a job in a university now, and he's not an A-lister in the griftersphere, so he'll have to make do with appearances on Epoch Times, Newsmax, and some other right-wing crank outlets from now on.

My take on this is he's a day late and a dollar short to jump onto the "cancelled lib professor becomes reactionary weirdo" bandwagon. The Weinsteins have that grift perfected, and I really don't see market demand for another.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

Certainly not me.

I have nothing but contempt and disdain for the whole field of Postmodernist Philosophy. Its full of pumped up self-important wankers who spend their lives pontificating on things little or no importance to anyone other than the rest of the pumped up self-important wankers. Most of them wouldn't know **** from clay even if they could smell it.

I rather like that. It matches my take on part of what postmodernism has been taken to be. Unfortunately, this beast is ill-defined, at least if I take the Britannica write up google gave me, as I wished to review what this term means to others.

However, and taking Britannica as example (no links; writing on a tablet and it sux), I would be more than happy to support a number of the points listed in the article, point 6 on language being a wonderful place to start. Briefly, it is trivial to show that language refers to conceptual space, and has no strict 1-to-1 with physical reality. A worthwhile pending debate for all who pride themselves as skeptics.

 

[d4m10n]

Yep, pretty sure that Boghossian is now a GOP operative.

Is Rufo really saying that flipping the VA gov office away from the newly incumbent party in the White House is somehow an ideological victory? If so, he should know that it happens every 4-8 years or so.

 

[angrysoba]

Is Rufo really saying that flipping the VA gov office away from the newly incumbent party in the White House is somehow an ideological victory? If so, he should know that it happens every 4-8 years or so.

Oh, he certainly believes so. And just to make sure there is no doubt, Peter Boghossian is now supporting someone called Blake Masters for the Senate in Arizona, while simultaneously clutching his pearls at the thought he is a right-wing tool...

Who is Blake Masters?

Masters was chosen by Thiel, among other employees of his, to help serve on the presidential transition of Donald Trump in November 2016.[11][12] In October 2019, Masters suggested he'd launch a primary challenge against Republican U.S. Senator Martha McSally, expressing concern McSally was not a good candidate, citing the 2018 United States Senate election in Arizona, which Masters said was a "winnable" race.

...Masters officially entered the race on July 12, 2021.[15] Promoting himself as "an America first conservative,[12][16] Masters announced a platform of opposition to H-1B visas and criticism of Big Tech monopolies. He called election integrity the "top issue" of his campaign, adding that while Biden was the Congressionally-certified president, "it's really hard to know" the winner of the 2020 US presidential election.[17] Masters supports the audit of the vote in Maricopa County

Link

Seriously?!? Does it get any more to the right than that?

 

[angrysoba]

Oh, sorry, this is Boghossian's "right-wing? Moi?" tweet...

 

[d4m10n]

The first poll answer "Get a job at another university because he is an academic who cares about teaching" is the least chosen one, but it may turn out to be the correct one.

https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/1457747152994668547

 

[angrysoba]

The first poll answer "Get a job at another university because he is an academic who cares about teaching" is the least chosen one, but it may turn out to be the correct one.

https://twitter.com/peterboghossian/status/1457747152994668547

LOL! If they ever end up with any real students of course.

Of course, this is not yet an accredited university, doesn't have any buildings, and barely has any teaching staff.

I wouldn't be surprised if it all ends up in lawsuits and in-fighting.

 

[Brainster]

It's also worth noting that the cause quoted for his investigation by the school board, was that he "violated ethical guidelines on human-subjects research". Also the ban from doing more research was only until he "completed training and could demonstrate that he understood how to protect the rights of human subjects".

The humans he subjected to his research were the editors and peer-reviewers where he submitted the bogus papers. I would put the eye roll there, but you might think I was kidding.

 

[angrysoba]

The humans he subjected to his research were the editors and peer-reviewers where he submitted the bogus papers. I would put the eye roll there, but you might think I was kidding.

Why are editors and peer reviewers exempt from IRB consideration?

The problem here is that they attempted to make this a "study". If they were simply writing some kind of expose, maybe they would have been okay, but if your "research" involves deliberately deceiving editors and peer reviewers, wasting their time and then holding them up for mockery afterwards, you cannot be surprised if an IRB frowns on that.