The discourse in the zeitgeist
Maryam tells us about a new installment in the ongoing saga of…of…I don’t even know what to call it now, because it’s become so tangled and contradictory since Sam Harris’s worshipers joined the fray. Of bizarro-world reasons students come up with to claim she’s an Unapproved Person.
A student at Sheffield University messaged the University’s Atheists, Secularists and Humanists Society to suggest inviting Maryam to speak there. Here is the ASH president’s response:
Can you believe it?
“The discourse in the zeitgeist” – meaning the chatter on the bit of social media the writer is aware of, which hardly amounts to the discourse in the zeitgeist, if there even is such a thing. But it makes for an official-sounding “reason” for shunning someone, and that’s what counts.
But much more to the point is the writer’s squeamishness at a “hard anti-Islamist” approach. Should we be pro-Islamist instead? Or neutral? Does the writer realize that Islamism means sharia and all that that entails? Has the writer taken a look at Islamism in Saudi Arabia for example?
Then there’s the hopeless confusion about the conversation with Sam Harris – as if Sam Harris had been pro-Islamism and Maryam had been “divisively” against it.
And then – this is the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society – and it’s worried about relations with the Islamic Circle? But it’s an Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society. Can’t atheists have any place where they’re allowed to be atheist?
Then there’s the mention of “what happened at Goldsmiths” – as if that had been Maryam’s doing, when it was members of Isoc who disrupted her scheduled talk. The president of Sheffield ASH seems to want to give Sheffield Islamists a pre-emptive veto on inviting atheists to speak.
They had a conversation on Facebook.
“We really really don’t want her to feel undervalued or in some way unwelcome” – what do they mean “in some way unwelcome”? Obviously she is unwelcome – because Sheffield Islamists might go to her talk to disrupt it and try to bully her.
What a train-wreck.
I’ve had enough of this shit. These people are like small children, not adults.
Atheists can’t be atheists.
Feminists can’t be feminists.
But somehow Islamists, MRA’s and sex traffickers get to be whatever they want in case their feelings get hurt.
Train wreck doesn’t even begin to describe progressive leftist politics these days.
Sadly the right is having such an easy run of it, despite that fact we live in a time that is living proof that the economics, social and foreign policies espoused by and since the time of Reagan and Thatcher have done considerably more harm than good.
When you get past all the rhetoric, they are just craven and cowardly.
Shorter them: Please don’t get your feelings hurt. We can’t handle it when people get their feelings hurt. And Islamists have very, very fragile feelings.
Well, I don’t know why they can’t say that some people are passive-aggressive and some are just aggressive and neither are conducive to free debate.
I’m just pleased that someone else finds the phrase:
‘The discourse in the zeitgeist’
as worthy of mockery as I do. Nothing speaks to the vapid nature of a writer (and by extension thinker) more than a retreat into pseudo-intellectual babble.
Thankfully (for my home city) I understand Sheffield Humanist Society is looking to avail themselves of Maryam’s excellent talents as a speaker – which will make the charge that shunning her is somehow ‘pro-humanist’ ring even more hollow.
The discourse in the zeitgeist not conducive? How very sad. Perhaps they should speak of cabbages and kings instead.