[Peace-discuss] Why UIUC is not successfully policing the limits of allowable debate

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss]

The wizards of obfuscation: "Pay no attention to that neoliberal man behind the curtain."

"Maria LaHood [of the Center for Constitutional Rights] said that in just the last few years, there were over 200 cases of people at universities being reprimanded, fired, or even litigated against for making anti-Israel statements..."


On Sep 21, 2014, at 2:07 PM, David Green via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> Dey provides plenty of evidence to discount his thesis that those defending Salaita display a "paranoid style." It would seem that the shoe is on the other foot, given the McCarthyite nature of the proceedings. Hofstadter's PS thesis was a way of discounting the centrality of class conflict with the red herring of "status anxiety" from Populism to McCarthy. Liberal arts faculty may suffer from some of that, but they need to realize the valid class/neoliberal roots of their affliction.
> 
> DG
> 
> 
> On Sunday, September 21, 2014 1:39 PM, C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/columns/2014-09-21/jim-dey-salaita-fight-generating-wild-theories.html
> 
> 
> What Jim Dey actually exposes is the neoliberal panic at the weakening of its Zionist prop. That's what's revealed by the Salaita affair. 
> 
> Suppose Salaita had 'tweeted' what he did about Hamas, instead of Israel? Would we ever have heard a peep (or a tweet) about it?
> 
> Of course for the last 40 years - since the establishment of post-Vietnam Gleichschaltung in the universities - no careful faculty member would have said such things (about Israel - attacking official US enemies is OK). The fact that the academy has to move to suppress something that would not have occurred antecedently is a sign of panic. The lid is coming off.
> 
> Dey's fevered assertion that "There's nothing there!" is a clear admission that there is. We should to point out the interests being served by the contemporary university. They're not just Zionist. We should talk more about neoliberalism as the real enemy - that's the talk Dey is trying to scotch (so to speak).
> 
> --CGE
> _____