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Noam Chomsky /Ralph Nader

 
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Richard Hawkes: The woman's analogy and the the man's response were both daft. Maybe they should get married. Then they can trade stupid analogies all day without having to bother the rest of us


The difference is that when the woman said that "All gun owners are potential murderers" she thought she was making an interesting point. So the geology professor responded along the lines, " By your logic, having a sex organ makes you a potential prostitute!"
He was not criticizing her for being a potential prostitute; rather, he was pointing out by analogy how stupid and meaningless her statement was. He did so by making a good analogy which would more easily be seen by everyone as stupid and meaningless. That was his goal; he made his point, and he was persecuted for doing so.
Back to Noam Chomsky, he is popular among people who despise mainstream American economic and political ideas because he is an intellectual who despises mainstream American economic and political ideas. He is more popular among Europeans than among Americans because relatively few Americans (mainly university professors) despise mainstream American economic and political ideas, but quite a few Europeans do.
[ February 04, 2004: Message edited by: Frank Silbermann ]
 
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What the student (Kletter) actually wrote was that current gun laws allowed "criminals, youth, and the mentally disabled to quickly and easily kill as many random people as they want".
Deming's response was that "Kletter's 'easy access' to a vagina enables her to 'quickly and easily' have sex with 'as many random people' as she wants." and that he hopes "Kletter is as responsible with her equipment as most gun owners are with theirs".
So it seems that the student's comment wasn't directed at gun owners in general (hardly the same as "all gun owners are potential murderers" and not nearly as daft as I thought it might have been), yet he still makes his point more personal and potentially offensive than it needed to be. http://www.cir-usa.org/recent_cases/deming_v_oklahoma.html
I don't know what kind of rules of conduct they have on US campuses for professors but he didn't deserve to be 'persecuted'. Assuming his article is a true account of what happened afterwards then it seems the Dean is a problem (not the university) and Deming has a good harassment case of his own. Deming should be free to spout his wisdom in all its dumbass glory!
How difficult it is to promote values of free speech and to create an environment where people aren't afraid to speak their minds for fear of being labelled as sexually promiscuous!
 
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For those who are interested in the Deming story, the original editorial and Deming's response can be found here - along with subsequent response to Deming. Seems to me Deming was acting like a schmuck, but the administrative response is quite disturbing if Deming's account is accurate. I pretty much agree with Richard's assessment above.
[ February 05, 2004: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]
 
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Sounds to me like they all deserve each other.
 
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Another example of the freedom of speech and expression allowed on colleges. I wish I had to actually look these up. The hypocrisy of the student complaining about the professor showing tolerance is quite funny though. Show total intolerance of someone else's beliefs but claim they are intolerant.
Being a catholic he is probably saying such horrible things as unborn babies should have a right to live. That beast.
 
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Originally posted by Paul Stevens:
Another example of the freedom of speech and expression allowed on colleges.


Punishing a philosopher/theologen from teaching philosophy because he discusses how he interprets these philosophical questions within the confines of his religion is one of the stupidest things I've heard. Hello... Acquinas anyone? What do they do, just not talk about questions of religious significance in that philosophy department?
[ February 05, 2004: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]
 
Michael Ernest
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Not too much, apparently, which is a good deal more in keeping with teaching philosophy today than teaching theology in the 13th century.
This article, much like the one on Deming, seems to confuse an academic setting and the 'free exchange of ideas' with the idea that any person with an advanced degree can teach any subject with any old slant that pleases them. We aren't told which course the complaining student was taking from Professor Tuttle, but I think would find frequent references to Catholicism in a course on, say, critical thinking, at least a potential form of proselytizing.
The facts of this case aren't available anywhere I looked -- there's just FIRE's editorialized account to go by -- but from what's available I can certainly imagine a chairperson's concern that courses in a state-funded school's curriculum declare a religious perspective. Change it from "Catholic-" to "Christian fundamentalist-" informed philosophical view and I don't think there's any question you'd have a problem.
 
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Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
Seems to me Deming was acting like a schmuck...


I just want to point out that, in this context, this is a humorous choice of word.
Heh heh heh... he said schmuck!
 
Jim Yingst
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I'm sure that was just a coincidence, EFH. My other possible choice was putz.
 
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