Woke college kids? They are more like monstrous toddlers
Academics share cancel culture worries online
SCOTS academics are banding together to fight back against the ‘woke’ students they accuse of stifling free speech.
a web forum has been set up for university staff to share stories of politically correct undergraduates and colleagues.
Students are compared to ‘monstrous toddlers’ while lecturers say they are in a state of ‘fear’ about the possible consequences of falling foul of them.
The GC academia Network website contains some allegations about Edinburgh University, which is at the centre of a row over a lecturer who was targeted by students over claims of alleged racism.
One entry relating to the university states: ‘It is as though academic colleagues believe there are some trans/trans ally students who are monstrous toddlers, ready to throw a strop if they hear anything that invalidates their “true self” and report the offending tutor to the Staff Pride Network Committee, widely seen as bullies.’
The post continues: ‘I’ve never actually come across any of these monstrous toddler students... but the fear, which is based on things that have happened to the most highprofile GC women [gender critical staff who question some of the demands of the transsexual lobby] academics in my school and others, is tangible.’
another post from someone ‘checking in from the University of Edinburgh’ states: ‘The postmodern thought and language police are very active. Their latest is an instruction to check our course materials for “cisnormative” assumptions [the belief all humans are cisgender, i.e. have a gender identity which matches their biological sex] and monitor ourselves, our students and each other for “microinvalidations”. My life wouldn’t be worth living if I was to object out loud. Between the thought police... and the managers who nod approvingly from their rainbow-themed Zoom backgrounds, it’s all unpleasant.’
another entry on the site, from someone claiming to be a former student at an unnamed
Scottish university, tells of being ‘unfriended and blocked’ after writing on social media about a convicted rapist who had self-identified as a woman to get into a female prison.
The online network describes itself as a ‘group of academics working in higher education’.
It said: ‘We are concerned about the ongoing erosion of women’s sex-based rights... and the treatment of those – mainly women – who speak out.’
an Edinburgh University spokesman said: ‘We are committed to defending freedom of speech and expression, as long as it is carried out within the law and in a respectful manner.
‘given the size of our community, it is inevitable that the ideas of different members will often conflict.’
a Scottish government spokesman said it ‘fully supports rights to freedom of expression – and believes universities to be places where [this] should be promoted and fostered – but not where that harasses or distresses others’.
‘Thought police are very active’