The fracas at The Evergreen State College(TESC), which I think has permanently ruined its reputation, continues to gain traction in the mainstream media, though most left-wing venues have resolutely ignored the story. (Exceptions are the Washington Post and the New York Times.) I still think this is some kind of turning point that will hurt the reputation of Regressive and Authoritarian Leftists on American campuses, as the videos clearly showed them for the bullying thugs they are. Before Bret Weinstein was hounded off campus as a “racist” for writing a polite email refusing to vacate the campus on the Day of Absence in favor of black students, hardly anybody knew about TESC. Now a lot more people do, and criticism of the thugs is coming from both the Right and Left, though the Right seizes on the story more readily. That’s a pity, as freedom of speech is a progressive value.
The bullying is particularly odious as Weinstein has a long history of anti-racist work, and is about as far from being a “racist” as you can imagine, But in these days of Purity Tests, a simple email has branded him for life, at least on his own campus. It is the videos more than anything that have shown the students—and the professors who have happily indoctrinated them with postmodern ideas—for what they really are: fascists.
Here’s a new article inThe Weekly Standard,a conservative paper: “The whole world was watching“. An excerpt:
The first of the videos featured the May 23 invasion of Weinstein’s classroom at 9:30 a.m. by about 50 angry students provoked by what they characterized as Weinstein’s racism. He had objected to a college-sponsored Day of Absence on April 10, when white students, faculty, and staff had been encouraged to make themselves scarce on campus. This video was excised from YouTube for violating the site’s “harassment and bullying” policy after protesters complained it had been selectively edited to make them look like harassers and bullies. Fortunately for the curious, the much-copied video[JAC: the link is to a shorter video I found] is available in whole elsewhere on the Internet (the website Heterodox Academy claims to offer a 12-minute “unedited” version) and in snippets on YouTube of a 6-minute interview that Weinstein gave to Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on May 25.
The 12-minute video shows the husky, bearded Weinstein, clad in an outdoorsy-biology-prof black T-shirt, trying patiently to engage the students who have shut down his classroom in a “dialectic,” as he called it. Weinstein later described himself to Carlson as a “deeply progressive person” who had supported socialist-leaning Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primaries. But the Evergreen students captured in the May 23 video were having nothing to do with Weinstein’s attempts to lift the conversation to a high-minded, fancy-word “dialectic” plane:
“This is not a discussion—you lost that one! You said racist s—! Now apologize!”
Weinstein responded: “I did not!”
“Stop telling people of color they’re f— useless! You’re useless!”
“Yeah, resign!” screamed another student.
“Resign!” screamed yet another.
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The story is accompanied by a nice cartoon of George Bridges, the invertebrate College President being both cowed and filmed by the thugs who cornered and humiliated him (see video here).
After 58 Evergreen professors and 23 staff signed a “statement of solidarity” with the students, demanding a “disciplinary investigation” of Weinstein, and he and his family were threatened so severely that they had to leave their home, he and his wife Heather Heying, also a biology professor, have received lots of support from outside the College. Yet only a lone professor of biology, Mike Paros, has issued a statement of support for Weinstein. The story is in the local paper, the Olympian, and you can see it by clicking the screenshot below:
Paros’s letter of support was published in full at The Heterodox Academy;here’s an excerpt from that letter. Like Weinstein, Paros is a brave man:
This is a story of how a Democrat voting veterinarian working with mostly Republican livestock owners became a “bigoted” professor at a left wing progressive liberal arts college. It is about a collection of professors that are so blinded by their advocacy, that they cannot fathom different viewpoints. It involves a newly appointed President who believes in ideological safe spaces who endorsed a strategic equity plan that will hurt the very students it is trying to help.
I recently met with a student who was angry that she was told to shut up at a student rally, based solely on the amount of pigment in her skin. She did not comply, and was called a racist. I asked her if this bothered her. She said: “No, because I am not racist.”
To the faculty, too afraid to speak out: I urge you to walk toward the fire. After all, if this brave student is a bigot, then I guess I am too. They are just words. You will not lose your job, but you might lose your dignity.
The tale is about two men trying to save Evergreen. One is an absolute coward (Bridges) and the other is an ultimate hero (Weinstein). Who should be forced to resign? Weinstein reluctantly went on Fox News, because no other news source would pick up his story. His excellent op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal followed. Videos don’t lie, Weinstein’s logic prevailed, and cognitive dissonance set in amongst Evergreen faculty. This was the first time that I found out that those who watch Tucker Carlson are the “alt-right”. I should probably tell my family. Objections were made about whether Weinstein had mischaracterized Day of Absence/Day of Presence as “forcing” white students off campus. He didn’t, but why would this detail negate everything else that Weinstein wrote? When one is confronted with truths that contradict closely held beliefs, the mind begins to make outlandish rationalizations. The faculty email response will someday be used in psychology textbooks as a case study in group thinking.
Then our college President saw his opportunity. Evergreen administrators sent out ominous notices, labeling “free speech” advocates and persons who simply do not agree with “official” campus opinion as potentially violent. It was a desperate move, using fear tactics to rally the masses and prevent students from thinking clearly. This morning was the first time that I was actually nervous coming to campus. Not because of threats of white supremacists, but because I was worried that someone on campus would think that I might be one of them. And then we got the alert on campus. I could see the fear in some of our students faces, as I helped escort a student of color to her dormitory. Then I decided to stay on campus for a while. An administrator approached, and asked: “How did we get to this point?”
I guess safe spaces can be dangerous places.
Note that he accurately calls Bridges an “absolute coward”. I wonder if he’ll leave. I’ve predicted that Weinstein and Heying will, and it’s possible that TESC’s biology department will be gutted.
Finally, a few bits of news:
Evergreen students write letter of support for Weinstein (you can see the full letter here).
A group of 17 students, referring to themselves as Concerned Students of Evergreen, posted an open letter Tuesday condemning The Evergreen State College’s administration and some protesters for their actions and responsibility “in making this campus unsafe and inaccessible.”
“We reject the McCarthy-esque witch-hunting which has taken place,” the letter stated. “Simply crying racist has become sufficient to destroy credibility and empower accusers. This has been accompanied by vigilante action against those dubiously accused of racism, and this behavior has not been reined in by the administration.”
Evergreen faculty holds classes off campus.
Some students have refused to return to the campus, which has been coping with racial tension and outside threats in recent weeks. In response, several faculty members are using coffee shops, churches — even a community theater — as emergency classrooms and offices, Eltantawi said.
There are faculty and staff members who are worried about their safety too.
Evergreen’s commencement ceremony moved:
The Evergreen State College will move its commencement ceremony to Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium because of safety issues, college officials confirmed Tuesday.
Evergreen traditionally has an outdoor commencement ceremony in its Red Square on campus. [JAC: !!!] Cheney Stadium is about 35 miles from the Olympia campus.
In an email sent to graduating students and faculty obtained by The Olympian in a public records request, college president George Bridges wrote: “Evergreen’s commencement is a celebration of achievement, and a high point of the year for our graduates, their families, and our whole community. In consideration of recent events, and in consultation with the Evergreen Board of Trustees, I have decided we will celebrate commencement at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, on Friday, June 16.
“The stadium is a great, central venue, which is secure and offers plenty of seating and parking to accommodate our community,” Bridges wrote. . .
Bret Weinstein sets up a Patreon account.
I suspect this arose because he wants to tell his story to a wider audience, and of course his family’s financial future is now unclear. As of this morning, there are 180 out of 250 supporters initially envisioned, but I hope there will be more. There are rewards at various levels for contributing, including lectures on evolution. Consider supporting him. An excerpt:
Here’s what you can expect:
The Evergreen story is the tip of a very large and important iceberg. I am quickly going to move off of the details of Evergreen’s absurd descent into madness, and shift to discussing the larger implications for academic institutions, and the breakdown in discourse across civilization that it mirrors.
Many are also telling me that you want to hear deep, evolutionary analysis. My wife and I have been hearing from students for 15 years that this material must be brought into public view, because it is transformative. I don’t believe in fate, but I am a huge fan of serendipity. If you want to know why living things, including humans, are structured as they are and behave the way that they do: Stay tuned. The story is a surprising one, and many Evergreen students have found it revolutionizing of their world view.
Here’s my TEDx talk on the personal responsibility vortex.
Later today I’ll direct you to a nice Quillette piece on the causes and wider implications of the Evergreen State affair.
