Woozle/2022/04/20

Posted to "National Politics" on Nextdoor

Trumpists vs basic respect

Apparently trumpists believe that nicely asking a teacher to be respectful towards his students is a violation of academic freedom or free speech or maybe freedom of religion.

2022-04-20 US professor wins $400,000 payout after refusing to call trans student a woman

Basically:

• A public university prof addressed a woman student as "sir".
• He persistently refused to address her using appropriate female terminology, on the basis of his inaccurate belief that she was not a woman, due to her being transgender.
• On investigation, the university found an overarching problem with this particular prof: he was creating a hostile environment in the classroom (not mentioned: hostile environments suppress speech; a hostile environment in the classroom is harmful to the free and open exchange of ideas).
• The university rightly warned the prof that his actions were in violation of nondiscriminatory policies (i.e. being uncivil towards trans people in general and this one trans student in particular), and he could be fired if he continued.
• He sued the uni, but the case was dismissed by a federal court.

But then:

• In 2020, a three-judge panel from the sixth US circuit court of appeals ruled that actually yes, he could sue the uni, citing "intellectual diversity and academic freedom" and arguing that the uni was trying to "stifle debate" by "picking sides".
• All 3 judges were Trump appointees.

So basically: Trumpists think there's a debate in academia about whether trans women are women.

There isn't.

There are a few wingnuts -- even including profs like this one -- who choose to ignore every basic precept of science and civilization except when it happens to support their preconceived beliefs, yes... and on that basis, rage-farmers will pretend there's a real debate... but there isn't.

Just like global warming, just like evolution. This is settled science. Global warming is real, creationism is fake, trans women are women, and also the earth is an oblate spheroid in case anyone still thinks there's a debate over that too.