I’m really sick of people looking at problems within our society, that emerged out of specific historical and cultural circumstances, and trying to blame it on brown people. Fuck that. It’s just people who can’t deal with looking at themselves and their society and seeing the problems therein. But if we don’t deal with our problems, we’ll never fix them.
“You can’t trust those Arabs,” say the people who have fucked them over every single time…
I don’t think it’s a competition. They’re all instances in the Shittyverse.
white supremacy.
No. There are millions of Christians who manage not to be ignorant assholes. Religion is often used as a tool by oppressors but it is not the root problem.
… worst ∗verse in the multi-ulti-ultiverse?
Christians are no more monolithic than any other huge group of people. Fascists and their co-travelers cannot abide critical thought or objective analysis. No need to go further than that.
As someone that works in a Texas institute of higher-ed, this will never come to pass. Even if it did eventually pass the Texas legislature, it could never be implemented. This is currently purely a gesture, a public display of the world they wish they could create; a world in which a select few white men have unquestioned control over every aspect of society.
“When people show you who they are” has never rang more true, and not only do we need to believe them, we need to remember for as long as any of them are still around.
Really? Because they’ve came for tenure here in GA…
As someone who studies history, we need to stop doing this very thing. BELIEVE them, because they seeking to tear down a democratic society, and a university system that is autonomous and protects the rights of the people within it are at odds with an authoritarian state. Given EVERYTHING else they’ve done these past few years, which relatively comfortable people shrugged off as “just a gesture” that has now come to be ACTUAL threats to ACTUAL people who are not white men, continuing to do so is incredibly dangerous.
This was literally the US not too long ago. In LIVED MEMORY, there were people who did not have full civil rights. I get that you’re a scientist, but this kind of thinking right there is why history and the humanities matter in higher ed (and k-12 education, too) just as much as STEM - because people think it’s just a list of names and dates, when it’s the study of how things change, why they change, and how they can change in the future given a set of historical and current circumstances. YES, we can go back to these days. It’s entirely within the realm of possibility… people who study this stuff (YOUR colleagues in academia, in fact) have been ringing alarm bells on the rebuilding of the white supremacist state in America, and we need to listen to them.
I mean, FFS, they just tried to over throw the US government not 2 years ago! I thought we were done with this “well, they don’t really mean it” stuff. YES! They fucking mean it! 
This bill made me think of a name for Trump’s new political party should he need one; The MAWA Party: Make America White Again!
Not really, no. That’s not how the accreditation system works. For reference, check out the many accredited religious universities that do teach such things.
When it comes to those who hold power in a society like ours, I read these “gestures” as statements of intent. Implementation for them then becomes a matter of finding a workaround to the pesky obstacles put in their way by liberal democracy (and, of course, in undermining liberal democracy itself).
Every attempt by these fascists to implement their programme has to be taken seriously and countered immediately. After January 6 and Dobbs, we can no longer assume that these are just empty and performative gestures meant to keep the rubes on-side. We also can no longer assume that strong liberal democratic institutions and general prosperity will save us.
This! Only we can save us. The sooner we realize that this is truly an existential battle, the better. The fascists realized this years ago, which is why tney have been willing to commit so wholeheartedly, while we have been more “NBD, it’s all for show.” Thd events of the last few years should have put an end to that train of thought permanently. To quote the climax of Larry Niven’s Footfall, “No, this is not a negotiating strategy. They are coming to kill you. And they will.”
So, what’s it gonna be?
Yes, because that’s exactly what they are! You’d think people would have wrapped it around their minds the kind of county they want to create, but apparently, people STILL think it’s just hot air… well, maybe ask the women denying due to lack of medical care for miscarriages if this is just hot air… or the family of trans people weighing whether or not they need to fucking LEAVE their homes to be safe…
in response to this post?
Of course they fucking mean it.
My post ain’t coming from a place of we don’t need to do anything, because this can’t happen. It’s coming from a place of it can’t happen because we are and will do whatever it takes to stop it.
I’d like to think I’ve posted enough on the bbs that it would be completely obvious I’m not blind to the history or present state of this fight. 
It’s also a signal to all the misogynists in the university to keep up the good work like they have been all along.
The right wing lie that college is a bastion for women and minorities and a big happy safe space has always been a lie. Always and there never has been even a little truth in it.
I can’t speak for others, but my response came in reaction to your characterisation of this bill as “purely a gesture” that could never be implemented. There may have been a time when it could have been looked at that way, but that time is long past.
Was it? You mentioned that you saw it as “performative” or rather purely a gesture, when it’s clearly not. I’d argue we must come from the position that it CAN happen, rather than assuming that everyone across the university will stand against this shit. They will not, if their own privilege is on the line.
This is why the “purely a gesture” line surprised me, because you normally have such measured, informed responses…
You know, that statement is worth truly exploring, because although authoritarianism is pretty global, what with alll the kings and god-emperors and whatnot there have been across the globe, Fascism is pretty much something that did start in Europe. I suspect that the democratic movements sweeping away the old monarchies left room for it to arise as we know it.
And here I was, all ready to call Texas Republicans Idirans (a reference to Iain Banks’ novel Consider Phlebas which I highly recommend), although now I think they aspire more to become the Affront (from his other Culture novel Excession). But now you have me thinking about the truth of your statement, how European fascism came to be, and how it’s different from prejudicial feelings of superiority that have always plagued our species.
Nah, I’m sticking to calling Republicans Idirans from here on out. They really are space monsters committed to enforcing their idea of a divine caste system on the universe.
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