I am actually ambivalent about the Georgia law that would allow religious groups to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. I don’t think I would vote for it I were in the Georgia legislature, but I understand the concerns of the Christian community.
However according to this article in the Daily Beast “Disney released a statement saying the entertainment juggernaut would cease all film production in the state if HB 757 is signed into law. The boycott includes its subsidiary movie studio, Marvel.At least 20 Fortune 500 companies, including Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, UPS, and The Coca-Cola Company, have lined up to urge the governor to veto the bill. The coalition includes Google, IBM, Marriott, Microsoft, AMC, Viacom, Nordstrom, Dow Chemical, and Verizon. Time Warner, which owns Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting and CNN, also joined the effort.”
Even if I were vehemently opposed to the law, it should give me concern that major American corporations have decided it is legitimate to use their financial clout to effectively blackmail the state legislature to pass/not pass laws they want or don’t want. What would the left say if the same approach was used to stop environmental laws or other laws they want. Isn’t this the same corporate influence in government that Bernie Sanders rails against?
We have courts to decide what is the balance between the power of the majority and the protection of rights guaranteed by the constitution or other laws. To let corporations use their power over people’s jobs and livelihood to coerce elected representatives to vote for or against a bill should frighten anyone who believes in liberal democracy.
When we open the door to corporate giants to make their clout felt in causes we like, you can bet that they will not stop with altruistic goals. You can bet the power we so willingly given these giants today will be used, sooner rather than later, to more brazen profit driven schemes.
The ends do not justify the means. We can never trade the fair value of people’s votes just for a political win in the short run. We should ask ourselves what will be tomorrow’s cost for today’s victory.
At the University of Arizona, Freedom of Thought Is on Life Support
From the Article:
Are student-protesters trying to bankrupt their universities? If activists at the University of Arizona get everything they want—including a whopping $500,000 diversity budget—the administration would have to raise tuition rates through the roof to keep up with costs.
A coalition of left-leaning student organizations at U of A has organized itself into a grievance group, the Marginalized Students, and published a list of demands. Their list will not surprise anyone who has read the outrageous set of demands recently issued by Western Washington University students, who spell history with an “x” (where the rest of us put the “i”) to avoid gender connotations and are seeking the creation of an entirely new college for social justice indoctrination.
The Marginalized Students want U of A to force all employees of the college, and some students—including everyone who works for the student newspaper—to undergo cultural sensitivity training. They want trigger warnings, and they want faculty members who fail to use them to be punished. They want optional separate living communities for students of color, gay students, and women (the marginalized don’t like to share safe spaces, it seems). And they want diversity—a whole lot more diversity. Half a million dollars worth of diversity, in fact.
“It is important to note that these are Demands, not simply requests or suggestions,” wrote the students. “These represent thoughtful, meaningful reforms that are necessary in order to affirm the expectation of safety and real life equity. Should these demands not be met or properly negotiated to our standards, we will mobilize our students. Additionally, we will inform prospective students, faculty, staff, as well as previous faculty and staff, alumni, and anyone else who will listen of the problematic climate that is perpetuated on this campus.”
My Thoughts:
Can you say “Cultural Revolution?” Marxian critical theory drives this whole movement, and true to their roots, they have no regard for freedom of thought or expression, only for imposing their ideology. I had several professors tell me directly that the entire Bill of Rights should be abolished because it interferes with the more important goal of social justice. And, importantly, only critical theorist are capable of achieving social justice. Thus, all other political and philosophical views must be suppressed “for the greater good”.
These people are far more dangerous than most people realize.
In a few very narrow topics I am a genuine expert. In a good many more topics (though still rather small in actual number), I am highly knowledgeable. On the vast majority of topics that come up I either have a basic working knowledge, or can bluff my way through a conversation by knowing what questions to ask. Then there are those things that I can’t even begin to discuss without looking like a rube.
I think this pattern is true for most people.
There is simply no way anyone can spend the time and energy necessary to become truly an expert in more than a small group of things. To get to that level one must have both the theoretical understanding of the topic coupled with years of practical experience to work out how the theory behaves in the real world. This is equally true for educational policy as it is for plumbing. Simply knowing about something from books or classes cannot make one an expert, unless we are talking about being an expert in the theory alone. All too many college professors believe they are experts in things at which they have little or no practical experience. On the other hand it is very difficult for most practitioners to see beyond their immediate surroundings to the larger, big picture, concepts. It is this myopia that formal education/training is very useful in correcting. That education need not be in a formal classroom, but the larger perspective of why things are done in a certain way is imperative if one is to be a real expert. Continue reading “Of Experts and Pseudo Experts”
I recall a visit I made a couple of years ago to the home of a low income family with whom I had spent over two full years assisting as a social worker. I was delivering a donated computer so that the family, which included a bright sixteen year old high school student, a struggling seven year old and their semi-literate mother, could get internet access. I had promised them a computer because I found that even grade school teachers make the middle class assumption that there is a computer in the home, and high school teachers regularly give homework assignments to be done via the internet; yet, this family, like many with whom I worked, did not have internet nor even a computer. I had recently received word that the younger child would be retained due to a lack of academic progress.
As I spoke I found myself, not for the first time, putting the burden of the younger child’s success on her older sister. I did not like doing that but the older sister was the only one in the home capable of providing the daily assistance the seven year old needed if she were to have any chance of academic success. I had, by that point, been pressing this child to help her younger sister for two years. It wasn’t fair, I didn’t like putting that responsibility on a teenager, but I saw no other hope for her little sister. I knew full well that it was her mother’s responsibility to provide such assistance, but in this case, a single mother who is low functioning and semi-literate was simply not up to the task.
It is a trite cliché, but true none the less: life isn’t’ fair. Continue reading “Of Opportunity”
The Cognitive Dissident 
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