Comments on: On the Nature of Academic Freedom and Bob Cohen on Pete Seeger

By: Gregorio Cinquanti

Gregorio Cinquanti — Sun, 16 May 2010 08:22:59 +0000

Fascinating post. Many thanks for posting

By: Done for the Semester « The New Centrist

Done for the Semester « The New Centrist — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:55:44 +0000

[...] surprise me he is part of the hate Israel contingent. Bluetruth has more info. So does Ron Radosh (h/t to Bob and [...]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:53:33 +0000

“How can you claim to defend free speech and impose a code of political correctness at the same time?”

Am I reading the argument that follows correctly to say that when a person who can’t see how free speech can exist in the context of imposed political correctness then advocates political correctness (find some way of stopping Robinson from speaking freely) that he is therefore opposing free speech?

By: Dirkish

Dirkish — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:10:29 +0000

lol “Has Seeger ever thought of taking his Clearwater project over to China which has been leaping forward in the past three or four decades in its effort to poison the world’s air?” The answer is: “probably”. One man can only do so much good in the world, and Mr. Seeger has done more for this country in his 90 years than you will ever accomplish in yours.

By: mahir

mahir — Sun, 03 May 2009 08:04:44 +0000

Pete Seeger considers himself a link in a chain. The same could be said for Ron Radosh – he’s part of a chain that stretches from Joe McCarthy. Seeger has tried to be meticulously fair on Israeli-Palestinian affairs – if anything, he’s probably been too reluctant to criticize Israel. If he hadn’t privately been appalled by some Israel’s actions, it would have been deeply disappointing. There are plenty of Israeli Jews who are willing to compare the actions of the IDF with those of the Nazis. But hardly anyone in America dares to do it, for the fear of vultures such as Radosh pouncing on them and accusing them of antisemitism. This incredibly stupid attitude is contributing to Israel behaving more and more like the fascists who committed genocide agaisnt European Jews in the 1930s.
Pete Seeger stands tall at 90. Radosh can’t help reinforcing his own stature as a perennial pygmy by his gratuitous criticism of someone of whom all Americans ought to be proud.

By: Barbara Todish

Barbara Todish — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:52:30 +0000

What about each of us including the media (because we are all only practicing to READ MEDIA, we really are, or need to be,experts in READING OURSELVE)accepting responsibility for allowing distractions to be mistaken as “life” while we all(mostly) go on accepting as “reality” that people are dying in wars, famines, due to capital punishment “laws”, and we continue to have our “fix” of negativity in our “drug” of choice: a “reality” stream of unconsciousness that lulls us with a “limitation high” of: “It has to be this way,” “Thats just the way it is,” “It’s hopeless”. What about the advice to me: “You have to focus on one thing to make a difference”, “You have to eliminate what will prevent you from being taken seriously” (meaning keep skeletons in your closet, remain sick by stuffing your emotions, only allow ego and dram to be vicarious by expressing yourself via images of celebrities).All these limitations ARE what needs to be dealt with. Instead of worshipping the limitations we need to demonize and villify THEM instead of any human being. But we first must become HUMAN by embracing our vulnerability by finding strength in the resilience that dealing with our self hatred brings. Then we can we can begin to admit that our social roles, our various cultures,ie what we get our identity from is just PRACTICE for the really tough job ahead of being uniquely HUMAN because when we emerge from the PRACTICE “game” of pre or virtual life that is when we want to FLOW free in authentic life but instinctively know that unless everyone can do so, my Freedom “flow” is instead a freedom “flaw” due to defensivenss. Well I AM focussing on one thing. It just happens that one thing is that my life is secondary to feeling that I have done my best to make a difference even if it takes making everyone, even myself, uncomfortable. I have succeeded at being kicked out of Kabbalah class, kicked out of a so-called? professional academic association, Justice(!)Studies Association, The ACLU prefers to consider that I am threatening them when I say that I am going to tell the NEW YORk Times that even they are made uncomfortable with my issues involving freedom of speech (being open about being formerly homeless, with PTSD and prostitution in my past 23 years ago)that have resulted in being fired and/or replaced by universities.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:34:37 +0000

Robinson is a Jew-hater, regardless of what religion his parents were born into. Can anyone imagine the outrage if this sort of bile were directed at any other ethnic group in America? Somehow I think that if this was a “Stormfront” type nutjob sending his propaganda to students, the establishment (read: the Left) would rightly be calling for his head.
What the hell is “sociology”, anyway? Leftoid claptrap, that’s what.
Oh, and “Andrew” (Comment #10) is a complete idiot, who himself probably has a “degree” in “sociology” from the “university” of California at Santa Barbara, or something of similar worth (such as toilet paper).

By: Professor Guvinoff

Professor Guvinoff — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:24:28 +0000

10. Andrew

Methinks thou fire rapidly.

By: altalena

altalena — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:31:01 +0000

Most of the comments on this post thus far have been abstract and theoretical. The concrete reality is quite different, and can be expressed in a few simple axioms:

1. Any advocacy that results in the murder of children is apodictically evil.

2. The Jew-hatred spewed by Professor Robinson will — as such Jew-hatred always has in the past — ultimately lead to the dead and mutilated bodies of Jewish children.

3. Therefore, Professor Robinson’s preachments are apodictically evil, and have no place in the academy or in any civilized community. No amount of talk about academic freedom can change that fact.

Professor Robinson should be booted from the University of California system, and ostracized from any and all teaching jobs.

After that, he can go to hell.

By: ROB

ROB — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:37:03 +0000

One would assume that a “historical sociologist” would have some minimum historical sense. The Warsaw ghetto was created by Nazis with one ultimate purpose: the destruction of every person who would be confined there. Under no reasonable view could this be compared with the Gaza incursion which had no such purpose.