Many such cases.

Ohhhh yes, I remember that.

I mean, honestly, that’s the annoying thing about this “debate.” You swat one argument down and it’s just parroted to you again by a different source. A million Captain Obviouses who all think they’ve independently arrived at a devastating argument.

We gotta learn how to fight

They could never in a million years win on a level playing field because they are, above all else, lazy. They’re hoping they can strong-arm their dopey bullshit into the classroom and the history books through sheer force. But we don’t work that way.

It must drive them nuts that the corruption possibilities are so penny ante

You cannot prove to these people that you’re impartial or rigorous because they *don’t care*. They hate you, personally. They hate that their kids become your students and listen to you. They hate that people laugh at them and respect what you have to say. The only thing to do is fight.

A community of scholars and workers will fight; you cannot BELIEVE how fast E. Gordon Gee will sell you out.

You’re right, it is. Just this week I was telling them about the origins of Ethnic Studies departments and hoping some of that message got through.

What gets me isn’t so much the fuck-ups—like, things are hard, sometimes they go off the rails, OK—but the CONFIDENCE with which they move past the last fuck-up to order the next disastrous thing. And when we object, they treat us like dimwitted children!

Lord, I’d forgotten that the Regents appealed the judges’ orders to release the letter not once but *twice*.

Yes, but at that point they’ll be long gone.

+ a lot of them want to keep their heads down and skate to the next cushy job somewhere else. I know it’s hard to believe, but I genuinely don’t think they care about the university as you and I understand it.

I mean, I’m speculating, but I think a lot of this stuff they wanted to do anyway. And a lot of it, like academic freedom, they don’t actually GAF about. They’d prefer us to shut up and get grants. And I think they get a lot of direction from the regents, who are morally bankrupt. I also think +

That’s lovely to think about!