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[sebastian_dangerfield]

A side point to all this discussion of free speech that I think is fascinating is how discussions of progressive scholarship are used to telecast class.

If one can talk about things like intersectionality and critical race theory and seem open to the concepts, he telecasts that he went to the sort of school where these things are taught. He also telecasts he works in a job where he makes enough money to be able to mentally engage these concepts.

It's a way to signal one is well read and a bit affluent. I've scored points by having read White Fragility last year. Little would anyone know I did it in reply to a thread here.

There's definitely a herd mentality at work here, and an abuse of language. You hear these new words adopted and used in pieces, or in conversations, and it reminds me a good bit of the corporate lingo people use to look smart, to create barriers to entry that make it seem like they're engaged in some complex thinking that's actually quite pedestrian.

I wonder how many people nodding along with DiAngelo and telling others to read that book are doing so because they're thinking to themselves, This is what people who are well thought of, who are considered enlightened and successful, think. Trump people would never treat these concepts seriously or run in circles where they're considered. Definitely a lot of peer pressure at work.

I think anthropology departments need to develop a curriculum in Herd Mentalities and Social Climbing. Then someone could write a book, Upper Middle Class White Insecurity.

ETA: Another corollary point regarding this free speech debate is that cancel culture might only exist to protect bogus theories. That it may have stemmed from a need to protect that which crumbles in the face of skepticism. Trump lies all the time, so he needs to employ cancel tactics constantly. I think a lot of the "academics" behind some of the far out gender studies realize their work is more narrative than hard science, and don't want it subjected to the buzzsaw of the scientific method.