An Academic Grudge Turned into a MeToo Panic(reason.com)
reason.com
An Academic Grudge Turned into a MeToo Panic
https://reason.com/2022/03/14/how-an-academic-grudge-turned-into-a-metoo-panic/
9 comments
I'm sure the legitimate justice system can be misused alongside the others in various unethical ways.
A slippery slope: we've reached a point where, with some kickback, institutions like the media can nearly silence dissent from a manufactured truth to whatever end. A witch-hunt/moral crusade, leaving fame and fortune aside a bit, is a potential consequence of this dissent. The true believer can, has, and will silence, punish (or kill) a dissenter, as their mere voice and presence risks the crusade by humanizing the dissenter and threatening the discourse on which its built. Given that many of the crusaders are true believers, a sense of dignity seems to follow the process, thus the rush of the crusade's actions and the enrolment of more crusaders wishing for even greater truth and justice. I can see this rapidly spiraling out of control, with or without government support.
La lanterne? She's always been waiting.
A slippery slope: we've reached a point where, with some kickback, institutions like the media can nearly silence dissent from a manufactured truth to whatever end. A witch-hunt/moral crusade, leaving fame and fortune aside a bit, is a potential consequence of this dissent. The true believer can, has, and will silence, punish (or kill) a dissenter, as their mere voice and presence risks the crusade by humanizing the dissenter and threatening the discourse on which its built. Given that many of the crusaders are true believers, a sense of dignity seems to follow the process, thus the rush of the crusade's actions and the enrolment of more crusaders wishing for even greater truth and justice. I can see this rapidly spiraling out of control, with or without government support.
La lanterne? She's always been waiting.
Sexual misconduct is rampant in academia. The power dynamic is beyond fucked. I know of a professor who started fucking his undergrad while married. He's now divorced, promoted to head of the department, and trying to marry his now-graduate student.
My SO has a PI that comments on clothes, touches arms, stares at chests, and plays abusive mind games. Why? Because he can. Because a graduate student can't do anything about it without derailing their career. And professors don't do science, the grad students do. This is the root cause of the replication crisis. "Follow up on this fraudulent study because it helps my network. No, you can't do real science."
My SO has a PI that comments on clothes, touches arms, stares at chests, and plays abusive mind games. Why? Because he can. Because a graduate student can't do anything about it without derailing their career. And professors don't do science, the grad students do. This is the root cause of the replication crisis. "Follow up on this fraudulent study because it helps my network. No, you can't do real science."
I don't disagree with you, but there's more to it than that, in that there's often additional things going on. The article alludes to some of this stuff but it's the tip of the iceberg.
I know, for example, fellow female graduate students who made it a point to seduce and check off male faculty on lists, often high profile or attractive. One of them ended up getting a job because of this and marrying their goal. This is something mentioned in the article, that resonated with me because I'd seen it in person.
Some of these same people would later go on to have relationships with postdocs and students, all the while bemoaning male faculty who were in relationships with students. Their female friends who were seeking out senior male faculty somehow ended up being both abused and manipulated, but also the manipulators in their minds, leading to all sorts of paradoxical positions and internal conflict.
I've also seen cases where both parties really are trying to maintain boundaries, but work together daily often for long hours, are similar in interests and personality, and eventually get involved emotionally even though they're trying to avoid it. It's not like undergraduate-faculty relationships that are one-to-many and relatively superficial.
Then there's all the stereotypical stuff, male faculty harassing female students at parties and whatnot, after class, etc.
Everything about this article rang true to me, even the nonsexual aspects of it. All of it.
I know, for example, fellow female graduate students who made it a point to seduce and check off male faculty on lists, often high profile or attractive. One of them ended up getting a job because of this and marrying their goal. This is something mentioned in the article, that resonated with me because I'd seen it in person.
Some of these same people would later go on to have relationships with postdocs and students, all the while bemoaning male faculty who were in relationships with students. Their female friends who were seeking out senior male faculty somehow ended up being both abused and manipulated, but also the manipulators in their minds, leading to all sorts of paradoxical positions and internal conflict.
I've also seen cases where both parties really are trying to maintain boundaries, but work together daily often for long hours, are similar in interests and personality, and eventually get involved emotionally even though they're trying to avoid it. It's not like undergraduate-faculty relationships that are one-to-many and relatively superficial.
Then there's all the stereotypical stuff, male faculty harassing female students at parties and whatnot, after class, etc.
Everything about this article rang true to me, even the nonsexual aspects of it. All of it.
No, there isn't more to it than that. One party has power over the other. They don't get to entertain intimacy, whether or not they initiate.
The article mixes takes and facts and is entirely suspect. It's excusing behavior to vilify a perceived opposing tribe. Know what matters at the end of the day? Any modicum of accountability in a system with no oversight. Even if this one story is true, there are thousands more where the abused students do not spend their life grinding their axe. They just pick up the pieces and move on. Or kill themselves and/or their professor.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucla-shooting-2...
https://badgerherald.com/news/2021/04/27/toxic-tenured-profe...
The article mixes takes and facts and is entirely suspect. It's excusing behavior to vilify a perceived opposing tribe. Know what matters at the end of the day? Any modicum of accountability in a system with no oversight. Even if this one story is true, there are thousands more where the abused students do not spend their life grinding their axe. They just pick up the pieces and move on. Or kill themselves and/or their professor.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ucla-shooting-2...
https://badgerherald.com/news/2021/04/27/toxic-tenured-profe...
Power imbalances are a fact of life, where do you draw this arbitrary line of people being equal enough in power to interact certain ways? It's not obvious and seems nebulous to me. Furthermore, consider the possibility that many of these situations benefit and/or are consciously intended by both parties specifically because of the "power imbalance", like the parent poster described with undergrads trying to get in with higher level faculty, while the higher level faculty reciprocate for their own reasons.
> One party has power over the other. They don't get to entertain intimacy, whether or not they initiate.
Parent post was not denying that. There are indeed long-standing norms in non-corrupt societies that require avoiding even the mere appearance of impropriety whenever unequal power relationships may be involved. But this just goes to prove that neither side should be seriously entertaining intimacy, and that keeping "lists" of people you want to improperly fraternize with would be especially problematic behavior.
Parent post was not denying that. There are indeed long-standing norms in non-corrupt societies that require avoiding even the mere appearance of impropriety whenever unequal power relationships may be involved. But this just goes to prove that neither side should be seriously entertaining intimacy, and that keeping "lists" of people you want to improperly fraternize with would be especially problematic behavior.
[deleted]
Academia and media have essentially set up an alternative justice system which is currently being misused to settle grudges or for career or financial benefits. Once it’s there though, it can be creatively misused and let loose on all sorts of undesirables. Whistleblowers, people not criticizing Russia hard enough, government critics, etc, etc.