I know an American History teacher who called his course "Sex and Slaughter". It was very popular, and probably would have been even more so, if the original name he'd suggested had been approved. (Fucking and Fighting)
University Threatens Criminal Charges Over Firefly Poster
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Yeah! Poor little guys! Why can't you leave them to their sex, drugs and keggers? They need such a sheltered environment at that age to prevent warping their little minds!Grimh said:
You guys are lucky. My high school got started my junior if high school. We voted to be called the Pirates but the Hippy Parents found it "too evil" even though the school in the town over was the vikings, so we ended up being called the buccaneers. *Sigh* I hate hippies sometimes.Boba Frag said:
Course when we had a school camping trips we were allowed to fish but had to let them go after, because seeing the cute wittle fishies get killed and eaten would make the small children cry apparently.
Health and safety (I know that's not what it's called, but it's the same principle). The assumption that everyone's a retard who'll cut off their head with a paperclip if left alone for five minutes.
Goddammit. I may live in a shitty country, but i bet you this will not happen if one of the professors here would put up a poster here. Well, I'm not 100% sure, but you get the point.
Also, i really wish that even one of the professors at my Uni would be as awesome and cool to put up such a poster...
Also, i really wish that even one of the professors at my Uni would be as awesome and cool to put up such a poster...
I'm a huge Firefly fan, but it's still not an appropriate message to post on your door. What is this telling students-- that he's going to kill them? I'm pretty sure the administration were dicks about this, but this guy is also an asshole. Who am I supposed to cheer for?
This is silly. There is no way that the quote could ever be interpreted as a threat. If anything it advocates controlled pacifism 'so long as you don't point a gun at me, I won't point a gun at you.'
People in authority love a good fight, don't they? So long as it's a fight that they think they can win. I wonder how many campus rapes took place while the campus police were busy trying to take down some vaguely offensive posters.
People in authority love a good fight, don't they? So long as it's a fight that they think they can win. I wonder how many campus rapes took place while the campus police were busy trying to take down some vaguely offensive posters.
The truth is, the University probably doesn't like some other views the professor may have, so they were looking for a reason to give him the smackdown. This reeks of a half story. No one would go about it the way they did. The university police chief wouldn't email him about it, they would have asked in a respectful manner if he could take it down. They would have approached him like adults, not angry children.
Truthfully, american higher education has really declined. This is not the first professor of not to have this happen to them. It also happened to Walter Block. They accused him of being racist because he said Kobe Bryant is probably not a world class cellist because he allocated a lot more of his free time to playing basketball rather than the cello. There was once a time when colleges were the bastion of free thought and non censorship, now they censor things as much as anyone and you aren't allowed to not agree with your professor on social issues. What a joke.
Truthfully, american higher education has really declined. This is not the first professor of not to have this happen to them. It also happened to Walter Block. They accused him of being racist because he said Kobe Bryant is probably not a world class cellist because he allocated a lot more of his free time to playing basketball rather than the cello. There was once a time when colleges were the bastion of free thought and non censorship, now they censor things as much as anyone and you aren't allowed to not agree with your professor on social issues. What a joke.
Last I checked, the university I last attended gladly supported the display of a picture of a 20' tall aborted fetus with the word 'Murder' written out underneath of it as a week-long display in the main quad, and I get the feeling this kind of freedom of expression is tolerated on campuses across the nation.
If this particular school champions freedom of expression on one hand while judging against someone else's attempts to do the same on another hand, well then, we have us some good ol' fashioned hypocrites who really need to examine their belief structures and how their university chooses to foster and support the dissemination of ideas from all comers. This is doubly true if they take state money.
I would never attend any school that doesn't allow a professor the ability and the right to voice or display his opinions without fear of reprisal. If this is the stance of those at the university of Wisconsin, I would make it my duty to ensure my kids, if such a thing should happen, would not be attending this university under any circumstances.
One day it's a poster leading to criminal charges. How long before it's the notes from a lecture? The line needs to be drawn exactly where it's been drawn since pretty much the day we've had a bill of rights, and that's exactly at the levels of unprotected speech we all observe. The kind of expression that directly targets hatred or violence against certain groups, can cause panic (FIRE!!!!! FIRE!!!), or the pornographic stuff. Nothing about the above falls under unprotected expression, and it took an extreme level of shoe-horning to attempt to classify both of these items as unprotected expression. The school cannot say they are a champion of freedom of expression if they choose to squelch the above items. They just cannot.
If this particular school champions freedom of expression on one hand while judging against someone else's attempts to do the same on another hand, well then, we have us some good ol' fashioned hypocrites who really need to examine their belief structures and how their university chooses to foster and support the dissemination of ideas from all comers. This is doubly true if they take state money.
I would never attend any school that doesn't allow a professor the ability and the right to voice or display his opinions without fear of reprisal. If this is the stance of those at the university of Wisconsin, I would make it my duty to ensure my kids, if such a thing should happen, would not be attending this university under any circumstances.
One day it's a poster leading to criminal charges. How long before it's the notes from a lecture? The line needs to be drawn exactly where it's been drawn since pretty much the day we've had a bill of rights, and that's exactly at the levels of unprotected speech we all observe. The kind of expression that directly targets hatred or violence against certain groups, can cause panic (FIRE!!!!! FIRE!!!), or the pornographic stuff. Nothing about the above falls under unprotected expression, and it took an extreme level of shoe-horning to attempt to classify both of these items as unprotected expression. The school cannot say they are a champion of freedom of expression if they choose to squelch the above items. They just cannot.
While I think this is an overreaction on the school's part, I can see where they are coming from on the first poster. Not everyone is like us and knows what firefly is or the charm of Mal; If someone went around saying this willy-nilly to everyone they met eventually someone would consider it a threat Granted if that up there ^ is the poster then I think it's put into context: the guy on the poster said that. The school, presumably, has a code of conduct which addresses something like this. and would have been better served asking him to take it down citing the violation. then removing the poster for him if he chose to ignore the warning.
On the other hand, Miller was incredibly foolish to think attacking the school's security by implying they were fascist would squeeze by without notice. My sympathy for his cause died when he did that, and I'm sure anyone who is in the "fascist regime" (probably those judging and subsequently punishing him)feels the same.
I know I would have moved Mal into my office, and replaced it with something that was acceptable (as per the code of conduct) but just as over the top like a poster of Morena, Gina, Jewl, and/or Summer (to keep with the theme) in her/their underwear/bathing suit and scrawl something about bombshells, not bombshells on it with a marker. the students who knew what was going on would catch the joke, the ones who still liked firefly would recognize a fellow fan, and more importantly, the security would have less traction in the meeting that is to come regarding this.
tl,dr: the school was acting in it's rights (but is stupid) and Miller behaved like a child(and is stupid).
On the other hand, Miller was incredibly foolish to think attacking the school's security by implying they were fascist would squeeze by without notice. My sympathy for his cause died when he did that, and I'm sure anyone who is in the "fascist regime" (probably those judging and subsequently punishing him)feels the same.
I know I would have moved Mal into my office, and replaced it with something that was acceptable (as per the code of conduct) but just as over the top like a poster of Morena, Gina, Jewl, and/or Summer (to keep with the theme) in her/their underwear/bathing suit and scrawl something about bombshells, not bombshells on it with a marker. the students who knew what was going on would catch the joke, the ones who still liked firefly would recognize a fellow fan, and more importantly, the security would have less traction in the meeting that is to come regarding this.
tl,dr: the school was acting in it's rights (but is stupid) and Miller behaved like a child(and is stupid).
Seriously think about it, if a person decided to light a University up, it won't be because some poster had a reference to violence in it.
Really? People are getting worked up over this? There has to be some bigger problem that the police can deal with.
And the fallout of that incident had a bunch of college students demanding the right to protect themselves, which was denied several times. Because no university security was able to handle Cho. Plenty of people think this is a good idea, but making people angry and inhibiting them is not a good way to prevent violence. So now you have people like the "threat assessment team" running rampantly around, when it was the rules put forth by these very type of people that enabled Cho to do what he did, not Cho's ability to get a handgun.zehydra said:
As an aside, I invite you to read about the big push to rehabilitate criminals (which is what allowed psychology into the prison systems) in the 1960's. I know Cho was not a criminal or considered criminally insane, but the rules set forth are what allowed Cho to slip past all the things that let him do what he did.
Interesting.. what is it about our "idiotic" gun laws that makes this ok?syrus27 said:
I guess the first one might be offensive if you only read the first half of it and/or you're a foreigner with no concept for quoting... But the second one was obviously satirical and the only possible reason to take it down would be because the "threat assessment team" has a grudge against the teacher.