Kansas professor quits department chair

[opebo]

It is tragic news for the students that this professor has resigned.  Presumabely they will now be tought solely by cultists.  J-Mann, your tacit support of this brutalization is offensive.  Why shouldn't the man deride fundamentalists?  It was just speech, you fascist.

As for you Vorlon, why would anyone bother to make fun of the nasty cult of Islam?  It is very weak and very far away.  The US is already ruled by the nasty cult of christianity, so I would say that is a bigger priority to resist.

[opebo]

It's not tacit support -- I wish he would have gotten to teach the class instead of backing down.  My derision of him is because of his total disregard for any tact or delicacy in this.  Liberals are more than welcome to speak out as far as I'm concerned, but they've got to realize that when a large part of the population disagrees with them and doesn't respect their free speech, they need to exercise a little bit of discretion in the way they go about things.

I explained this to you in greater detail with specific reference to your own experiences in this thread, but I don't know if you saw it because I got no response.  Wouldn't you agree that discretion in the advocacy of change in the face of great opposition is a wise course of action?  See that thread,

Oh yes, I did witness a horrible injustice, and I did nothing.  But the forces of social control doing the injustice were (as is normally the case) the Police!  Obviously I wouldn't do anything against them - not only would it be foolish, it would have no effect whatsoever.  That situation was not at all analogous to this professor's situation.  A more apt analogy might be the angry emails I sent to friends back home, or the embittered conversations I had with girls effected or expat friends here about it.  If I had been beaten up by the State's goons for such criticism, that would have been analogous to this professor's plight.

[opebo]

I think it's very analogous.  The actors are different but the play is the same.  You didn't take on the police in any way because of a fear of retribution.  But what would have happened if you had yelled at the police or challenged them verbally?  Likely a beating...just for speaking. Instead, you fought (and are fighting) them by going "underground," so to speak, through private recountings of the incident.

Actually Thai police would be unlikely to beat a foreigner, particularly one as innocuous as I.  Nor did the professor do anything analogous to 'yelling'.  In fact, he sent emails, which is exactly what I did.

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No, J-Mann, speech is never the equivalent of throwing punches!  Nor are the Fundamentalists quite the same as the State, yet.  Though I fear they soon will be, and you seem disturbingly accepting of that idea.  How would you like it if the gays slaughtered your Pat Robertson?

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How could anyones email be 'objective'?  Naturally the man, being an educated, humane person, will despise fundamentalist christianity - so why should he have to hide this for fear of his life?  Anyway as you said these were his private emails. 

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Obviously your state is a lost cause, J-Mann.  It is Mississippi in the sixties (sorry, I just re-watched Mississippi Burning.. I know Mississippi hasn't changed).

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But the reaction should outrage you!  The fact that it doesn't, and the fact that you blame the victim is what inspires me to call you a fascist.

[opebo]

Scoonie, you're embarrassing yourself again.

There's nothing wrong with pointing out that all these libertarians on here are really Republicans, Joe Republican.

[opebo]

Scoonie, you're embarrassing yourself again.

There's nothing wrong with pointing out that all these libertarians on here are really Republicans, Joe Republican.

Um, what?  He started off with WMS, who is not a libertarian.

No, WMS is obviously a Republican, Joe Republican.

[opebo]

ing violent bigots get their way.

With the approval of these cowardly bigots on here!

[opebo]

ing violent bigots get their way.

With the approval of these cowardly bigots on here!

Alluding to me being a bigot makes no sense, Opebo, especially a cowardly one.  I've done much more than you have to fight fundamentalism in Kansas, and I've taken the heat for it, too.  Op-Eds that criticize fundamentalism in small-town newspapers don't exactly win you friends, but I at least made people think.  Op-Eds in college newspapers start all-out debates.

That statement was not directed exclusively at you, J-Mann, but at the many pro-thug posters in this thread.

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Your actions are commendable, but being abrasive should not be an excuse for physical violence.

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I really don't see what can be done to 'combat' this infestation, J-Mann.  No reasonable person would be a fundamentalist or be sympathetic to them, but alas the majority of people in America do not rise to the standard of reasonable person.

[opebo]

His little First Amendment exercise eventually got him an entire 6-pack of beer bottles across the face.  He lost an eye,

The perpetrators should be jailed for life, J-Mann.

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Hopefully not!  

[opebo]

I'm not a totally comfortable with the Religious Right, to say the least, but if anything the folks on the far "way-out" left who seem to taken delight in provoking Christians and other people of faith are even worse

No one 'provokes' them, Ben, this is their violent, intolerant nature comeing through.  Would you say that the right-wingers are 'provoking' we leftists by calling us 'loony'?  Would you say that gives us the excuse to resort to violence?  No, of course not.  Then why this special dispensation for the insane cultists?

[opebo]

My point, which I think you will concede, is that people with religous views are routinely very often presented less than favorably in the media.

No, not really.  The media does report when they say they hate gays, or when they beat professors, or when they blow up abortion clinics. 

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No more often than liberals are portayed as bleeding hearts, or elitists, or snobbish.  Of course in reality both of these stereotypes are largely true.

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It isn't about disagreement, Vorlon.  The religious are advocating, and enacting violence.  They privately beat professors and blow up abortion clinics, and politically they advocate robbing people of their freedoms.  People don't hate them because they're dumb or because of some minor disagreement.  They fear them because they are a terrible threat.

[opebo]

This is apalling news. Prepare for sane thinkers being 'beaten up' by fundamentalist scum all around America. I hope genuine Christians support this man.

Why would genuine Christians support a man who has spewed the most hateful things about them in his writing?

What did he say about them Bonno?  That they would beat those who disagree with them?  Turns out he was right!