My Experience of a Far Left, SJW Infested University Campus

[annabenedetti]

Then you really aren't paying attention.

I'll take that under advisement. :chuckle:

 

[Totton Linnet]

I believe that many conservative views are morally superior. Not all, but most.

That's because you do not work at MacDonalds

 

[lovemeorhateme]

Actually, only infantile people want that. Mature people welcome those with differing opinions, so long as they can socialize reasonably and respectfully. In fact, mature people appreciate the differences among us as being a positive part of our overall life experience. It's the infantile self-centeredness that some people exhibit that is problematic, not their ideological differences.

If I met a "rabid feminist", as you describe them, I would be very curious about them. I'd want to know what they're thinking and why they think that way. And I'd be very curious about how they see me, even if it were in a negative light.

The student unions at my university and many other universities across the UK are full of infantile people who want to infantilise those they deem to be oppressed. From 'no platforming' speakers for spurious reasons to banning sombreros in case they cause racial offence. There have also been bans on certain newspapers (only right-leaning ones) lest they cause offence. It seems the student unions think that students aren't intelligent enough to make up their own minds so they do it for them.

I was very curious about the feminists I met when I first arrived at university. My knowledge of feminism was limited to the woman's suffrage movement. Now, having learned what they stand for and seen how they treat dissenters I want nothing to do with modern, cry baby feminism. Whilst women in some countries are treated like dirt, feminists in the west mew about "manspreading" and "sexist air conditioning". It's puerile nonsense.

 

[lovemeorhateme]

What's weird, and sad, I think, is that you think that matters. I think that you think that holding those "morally superior" views makes you a morally superior man. Superior, enough, that it's OK for you to pass judgment on everyone else rather than being curious about them, and about their views. Rather than learning anything from them, and from their views, you automatically just condemn them, because they aren't your views. Because, in your mind, if they aren't your views they must be morally inferior views: not worth your bothering to understand beyond the point of recognizing them as being different.

Believing oneself to have morally superior views does not equate to believing that I am morally superior. I'm just as broken as anyone else, I've messed up and sinned as much as anyone else and I don't see myself as better than anyone else. You've made one massive judgement on me there which is unfounded.

What I think you fail to understand is that the people I'm referring to really do see themselves as morally superior to someone like me. They are smug, condescending, rude and arrogant. They believe that anyone with conservative views is "dangerous" and has no place on a university campus which is a "safe space" for all "oppressed people". (Everyone except straight, white, Christian men.)

 

[lovemeorhateme]

Now you're just inventing "them" and inventing what you want to imaging is going on in their minds. When in fact, you have no idea what's going on in their minds.

A college contains hundred and sometimes thousands of students, and they are not all thinking the same things. That's for certain. So your absurd negative generalizations, here, only make you look silly and unreasonable.

"Them" would be the student union; the leaders of student politics and those with the power to ban things or people from the university campus. Recent studies have shown that student unions in the UK are four times more likely to ban something than the universities themselves.

 

[Quetzal]

Believing oneself to have morally superior views does not equate to believing that I am morally superior.

Would you like to try that again?

 

[lovemeorhateme]

I do not tolerate attitudes and opinions that are intentionally harmful to others. I am unapologetic about that and could care less about what you think about that.

"Intentionally harmful to others" is a very vague and subjective phrase. What one may deem to be intentionally harmful to others, others may not. So who is the final arbiter on what is harmful and what isn't?

 

[lovemeorhateme]

Would you like to try that again?

No, I stand by my statement. I do not believe that I am superior to any other person. Comprende?

 

[Quetzal]

"Intentionally harmful to others" is a very vague and subjective phrase. What one may deem to be intentionally harmful to others, others may not. So who is the final arbiter on what is harmful and what isn't?

Not it isn't. Any amount of empathy can give you a clue as to how to act in a way that doesn't present you as a jerk.

 

[lovemeorhateme]

Why can't you just let it go and say nothing? Instead of trying to get on your moral high horse, worry about your own life and let them worry about theirs. It is really that simple.

When asked a question on a controversial subject, why should one have to let it go and say nothing? In my case, I'm studying a degree which requires me to share my views at times. I could lie, but why should I compromise my integrity to appease others?

 

[Quetzal]

No, I stand by my statement. I do not believe that I am superior to any other person. Comprende?

Thanks for clarification, that statement threw me. :up:

 

[Quetzal]

When asked a question on a controversial subject, why should one have to let it go and say nothing? In my case, I'm studying a degree which requires me to share my views at times. I could lie, but why should I compromise my integrity to appease others?

Delivery is important. If someone asks you a direct question, that is one thing.

 

[lovemeorhateme]

Not it isn't. Any amount of empathy can give you a clue as to how to act in a way that doesn't present you as a jerk.

It very much is. Some would say the simple statement "I'm against gay marriage and believe marriage should be between one man and one woman" is intentionally harmful towards others. Some would say it's not. So who's right?

 

[PureX]

When asked a question on a controversial subject, why should one have to let it go and say nothing? In my case, I'm studying a degree which requires me to share my views at times. I could lie, but why should I compromise my integrity to appease others?

Why do you want to study philosophy if you don't want to learn from and about the ideals of others, and you don't want to field their criticism of yours? That's what philosophers do.

 

[lovemeorhateme]

That's because you do not work at MacDonalds

I come from a poor family who always voted for left wing parties. I've never been wealthy, I don't have lots of money. Yet I still firmly believe in a conservative world view.

 

[Quetzal]

It very much is. Some would say the simple statement "I'm against gay marriage and believe marriage should be between one man and one woman" is intentionally harmful towards others. Some would say it's not. So who's right?

The real detail about a statement like that is "why?" That answer is really what tells people the kind of person you are. Many of the common answers to that are hurtful and seek to isolate or promote a moral superiority over someone else.

 

[lovemeorhateme]

Why do you want to study philosophy if you don't want to learn from and about the ideals of others, and you don't want to field their criticism of yours? That's what philosophers do.

I'm learning all the time about the ideals of others and I am quite happy to listen to criticism of my own. One then formulates arguments to defend your position and attack someone else's position. Arguments and counter arguments then go back and forth. If one realises that their position can't be defended then it's best to abandon that position. So don't patronise me by telling me what philosophers do, thanks.

 

[lovemeorhateme]

I wondered if you'd consider the possibility. I hope you will. Also, you left unanswered the first part of my post to you, as to whether you showed less respect for them than they did for you.

I think you need to realise that I am reacting to their behaviour. I try to respect everyone but some people make that incredibly hard to do.

 

[lovemeorhateme]

It doesn't have a place in the discussion, although it seems to me you that you chose an extreme example so you could justify marginalizing them. Try substituting feminist for jihadist in your above and then please explain your thinking.

I believe that it does have a place in this discussion. The whole point was finding a view which one can justify to marginalise. I've already stated in this thread I'm a staunch defender of freedom of speech, something that many at university seem to hate. Freedom of speech applies only to those who share the same views as the student union. Anyone else can just be marginalised. There are few right wingers on my university campus, but of those who are all of us have shared similar experiences.

So it's okay for you to denigrate/use pejoratives for them? Why?

Why not?

You've given a lot of "if" scenarios. Since you've been reluctant to venture an opinion in a student union discussion, you don't actually know what would be said to you. It might be something you don't like, and that would be your opportunity to listen, and then offer your viewpoint. And perhaps be pleasantly surprised.

As stated much earlier in this thread, I could have included a lot more in the OP but chose not to so as to keep the post as short as I could. I've had two other occasions where I've been directly confronted and forced to share my views or else lie about them and neither were pleasant experiences. One was on the question of Israel and Palestine when approached by some activist SJWs on campus. The other was on the migrant/refugee crisis, again when approached by SJWs on campus. In addition to this I have seen first hand the reactions to some of my right wing friends in similar situations. They didn't venture their views but were faced with little choice but to share them.

You realize you've just made some pretty sweeping overstatements there?

Sweeping overstatements? Not really. If someone is an SJW then it's highly likely they will hate someone like myself. Have you ever visited Tumblr and seen some of the SJW pages on there? I may have used a broad brush but the SJW movement demands it.

"There have been cases..." That's the second time you've referenced other than your own personal experiences on your campus, which (and please correct me if I'm wrong) seems to be limited to an abortion discussion. What have been your own personal extracurricular experiences in expressing a different point of view?

See above for more information about my experiences on campus. Outside of university I feel free to share my views, but not at university as it's ruled by a liberal 'elite' who make Marx look right wing.

 

[annabenedetti]

I'm learning all the time about the ideals of others and I am quite happy to listen to criticism of my own. One then formulates arguments to defend your position and attack someone else's position. Arguments and counter arguments then go back and forth. If one realises that their position can't be defended then it's best to abandon that position. So don't patronise me by telling me what philosophers do, thanks.

PureX made a good point. If you can't see it, its no wonder you're having trouble at university.