Here’s a corker, but what would you expect in a soupy climate of Intersectionality? It was inevitable that someone would eventually see Nazis as a marginalized and oppressed group, and rush to their defense. And so, as this BuzzFeed story reports, a residence counselor at the Very Woke School of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst went to bat for Hitler (click on screenshot).
Third-year student Nicole Parsons, fed up with hate crimes occurring on her campus, put up this sign in her dormitory window:
And the inevitable result in a school like that:
Parsons, a junior at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told BuzzFeed News on Sunday that she decided to put up the sign after a swastika was drawn over a “Happy Hanukkah” sign on a resident assistant’s door the first week of December.
“I thought maybe if I hang the sign up, maybe the person who drew the swastika will see it and see someone condemning their actions, even if the administration doesn’t do it,” she said.
The university’s highly promoted initiative on campus is called “Hate Has No Home at UMass” aimed at rejecting “all forms of bigotry and hatred.” As part of its initiative, the university has documented 19 hate crime incidents on campus since September.
Parsons said she didn’t expect the university to take any issue with the sign.
But a week after posting the sign in her dorm window, she received an email from a Residence Director asking her to remove the sign over “issues of inclusion.”
Here’s that email, given to BuzzFeed by Parsons:
Inclusion? You might object to a public display of profanity, but of course the school is a public university and even profanity qualifies as free speech. But Mr. Papazoni, full of eagerness to deal with “hate speech”, informed Ms. Parsons that she was in fact practicing it: her sign wasn’t inclusive for Nazis! That’s hilarious.
After some outcry, the University apologized on its Facebook page:
As for Parsons, she took the sign down because her roommate objected to the attention they were getting. But Parsons is moving off campus next year, and will definitely put the sign up again.
While I think this Nazi business is way over the top (seriously, how many Nazis are there at her school?), she has the right to display it, and the reaction of her Residence Director is a hoot. But what else can we expect in these Pecksniffian days?
h/t:Luana
Satire is surpassed once again. This one never even occurred to me!
No one is born a Nazi, just like theists they make a choice and those choices are not protected as the circumstances of birth are protected.
We have every right, and indeed responsibility, to judge people by their choices in life, not the circumstances of their birth
It is probable that some avowed Nazis, and related varieties, were born and raised in their far right environment.
We are not born with any prejudice
Being indoctrinated is not the same as being born
Our skin color, our race, our eye color are all circumstances of birth
Beliefs, even if indoctrinated are not circumstances of birth and therefor not protected
+1
“F*ck Nazis”? Are they like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld?
No F*ck for YOU!
(And I felt the need to self-censor. Otherwise it just felt a bit too course for my taste)
There. Is. No. Excuse. Someone has errantly been awarded and found gainful employment with some unfortunate credentialing. That person or persons (most likely the plural) should be invited to an office with nobody but themselves in it, presented with a letter titled “I hereby resign” with a blank signature line, and the door closed heavily on them.
On this one I actually wonder if the objection was that the term “Nazi” can include huge swaths of people in some circles. It might have referred to actual Nazis or it might mean “Republicans” in some people’s minds – these days it’s hard to tell. Remember that antifa uses phrases like “punch a Nazi” and have then physically attacked anti-Marxists or Trump supporters, saying they are ‘Nazis’ or ‘supremacists’, for example.
While I understand your concern, the sign is pretty emphatically directed towards ‘Nazis’. I think that this is a clear case of ‘if the shoe doesn’t fit’.
What nazis? Whoever drew the swastika was a run-of-the-mill jerk, not a national socialist.
The better way to go would be to investigate some and find out who the person was that put the swastika up and then make sure that was made very public. The light of day and a little sunshine is always best for a cockroach.
The only practical way that I know for this to happen, and to have the accusation stick, is to have surveillance cameras pretty much everywhere. Lots of reasons to object to that.
Unless this person lives under a rock, it may not be as hard as you think to find out.
It would then rest on someone ‘telling’, and then the accused would simply deny it. It won’t stick.
Come on Mark. If I had the guy and knew he was the one, I’d have his name and picture up all over the place. Generally these guys are not too bright. He could deny all day long, just like Trump. Know what that stupid president did yesterday in Iraq. Told the troops he got them a 10% raise this year. And now the Iraqis want our butts out. That is what a one day trip from this moron gets.
I don’t want to go back and forth on this, but what would be ‘if I had the guy’? The evidence has to be pretty specific, not vague.
Me either but maybe my imagination is in a different direction. Let’s say I was a student on this campus and the need was to find out who done it. Bad actor that I am, and with my last name, don’t think it would take long to get there. I just think it would be much more productive than a sign in the window.
Well, Ms. Parsons’ sign no doubt made Nazis at U. Mass feel unsafe, or even anxious about their existence. Moreover, just as we are told incessantly about moderate Islamists, we should consider the feelings of the millions of moderate Nazis. These are the people who didn’t personally invade Poland or Denmark, or personally murder any Jews or Roma, but just got good feelings from cries of “Blute und Eisen”, and the orations of der Führer.
I always had a soft spot for Colonel Klink and Sargent Shultz
And don’t forget Herr Flick of the Gestapo!
I like how they are still clutching pearls over profanity. I thought colleges were for adults?
No doubt they are for adults, as opposed to not a few of the current batch of college students. But I trust that alumni, who donate to their alma mater, can bring their young children into the student center coffee shop and reasonably expect that they will not be inescapably subjected to the mellifluous, dulcet vocabulary of noble rapper and human being Young Dolph and his ilk. If campuses can tolerate and accommodate neo-Nazis than they can also children.
Almost as disturbing as the idea that Nazis should feel welcome, is the administration’s concern that the sign has “…created mixed emotions in the community”. This is perfect for a university because now there is the opportunity to discuss those “mixed emotions” and learn something. This is what university is meant to be about! But no, instead the sign should be removed because mixed emotions are painful and pain needs to be avoided at all costs.
Nazis have feelings too! LOL
I think the language of the sign with the profanity was distasteful and should have been removed. But the reason the university gave was just as bad. If such profanity do used is free speech that cannot be forbidden by the university to be displayed in a dorm window than someone has gone too far in defining free speech and the rights of the university. But the university should have come up with a.better reason, one which would pass free speech and constitutional muster to require the sign hi be taken down. They have well paid lawyers who should have been able to come up with something that would have worked without saying Hagar Nazis should be inclusive.
I typed “that” or thought I did. How auto correct changed what I typed to “Hagar” us a real mystery.
I like the idea of “Hagar Nazis”. My autocorrect changed something simple like “keep” to Kierkegaard yesterday.
“If such profanity do used is free speech that cannot be forbidden by the university to be displayed in a dorm window than someone has gone too far in defining free speech and the rights of the university.”
With respect, fuck that.
Are you arguing that the university should have the power to censor bad language?
I think the university’s final tweet got it about right. They deprecate bad language but are not going to forbid it. (Roughly what PCC does here, actually. And I did consider ‘bleeping’ the f— in my first comment there but decided to leave it up to make the point).
cr
+1
Would “fuck Muslims” have been appropriate as well ?
Both are ideologies. I would see it as inconsistent to allow one and not the other, regardless of any sympathy one may or may not have to either, both, or none of those.
Personally, I would allow both.
Yes, fighting hate with hate, simply does not work. It would proceed all the way to #*@% crippled, albino, transgender, poor midgets before it woke anyone up. To a more effective slogan like hug a Nazi to show them they are a human being and do not need to be identified by their hate to make them feel whole.
Muslims are a people not an ideology. Fuck Islam would be acceptable but Fuck Muslims would not in my view.
I see a difference. Brainwashing of children into their parents’ views is much rarer for political ideologies (like Nazism) than for religions. Nevertheless, I would also allow both.
Forget Nazis. How ‘bout Tacomans of Czech heritage? When are we going to be recognized and get free stuff? I’m tired of paying money that I have to earn for stuff. It’s not like I voluntarily became Czech!
Reblogged this on The Logical Place.
Mr. Eddie Papazoni is a profoundly ignorant person. I wonder if he ever took a course (in high school or college) in 20th century history. Assuming he has not, this incident illustrates the value of the humanities in creating people we can remotely call educated.
I’ve seen the word ‘woke’ here several times. Could anyone explain what ‘woke’ means? ‘Awake’? ‘Woken up’? Seems to have no sense.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke
It us an unfortunate word that has slipped into usuage. It should be forthwith ignored.
I disagree. Ignoring it will now make the phenomenon go away.
“not”
Seems fair enough to me. Selectively allowing “Fuck X” signs only when group X is sufficiently disliked is a dangerous road to go down. No single institution should have the power to determine who can and cannot be criticized.
I don’t have a strong opinion on whether “Fuck X” signs should be universally allowed or disallowed. My preference would be that the right exists, but nobody feels the need to exercise it.
I seriously doubt the person who drew the swastika was an actual nazi. But the student who made the sign apparently thinks campus is swarming with nazis. Another product of the hysterical, hyperbolic rhetoric of the regressive left.
After Charlottesville, I cannot blame anyone for feeling so.
Charlottesville was completely overblown. A hundred sad white supremacists stood around making some sad speeches, then were swarmed by thousands of antifa thugs intent on mayhem & violence, including smashing up vehicles.
Yet the Antifas killed nobody, while a leftist counter-protester was murdered. But this is not what I meant; I meant the reaction to this event. I have personally read hundreds of comments to the effect that because Ms. Heyer had “wrong” views (i.e. not a white supremacist) and expressed them publicly, she deserved her death. I find this very worrying.
Berkeley, Portland, Charlottesville — antifa are the initiators of the violence every time. They, too, believe anyone with the wrong views deserves to be punched, burned, or have their car windows broken. And, believing themselves ‘on the right side of History’, they think that somehow the ‘nazis’ won’t ever punch back. I don’t believe Heyer deserved to suffer any physical harm. But she was recorded that day saying she was “looking for trouble”. Be careful what you wish for.
What I find most worrying is how anything even slightly right of radical left — from the rare actual white supremacy, to support for trump, all the way to favoring limits to immigration or even recognizing sex differences — is lumped under the rubric of ‘nazi’, with all of it deserving of silencing or violent suppression.
I thought maybe Alice Walker, the Women’s March “leadership,” and the rest had actually joined the Nazi Party, and the U was be woke and inclusive.
Sign reminds me of this cover of a DK song: