He later explained he was only talking about the professor’s
politics, which like … I studied English lit for four years, three of
them at one of the most left wing colleges in the UK, and every single
time I’ve had any sense at all of a professor’s personal political
views, it’s been based on offhand comments and had nothing to do with
the core analysis. They might teach a political reading of a particular
work, but that’s it.
(The other irony is that Eliot and Pound’s criticisms of other
writers (including Joyce!) are filled with their personal
politics)
If he really meant that that the best literature professor he had in
college approached the material with “100% insight, 100% integrity, 0%
politics, [and] 0% signaling,” why mention Eliot, Pound, and Joyce at
all? The authors’ identities are entirely extraneous to his supposed
point, and bound to confuse people.
> intentionally
This is the funniest part. His tweet says, verbatim, "0% politics". It doesn't say anything about *whose* politics. And yet he expects the reader to ESP their way into understanding that he's *only* talking about the professor's politics -- or else they're *intentionally* misreading him. Because it's so fun to intentionally misread things!
One of the only things I like about the descent into hellworld that has been the last four years is that it's irreversibly poked gaping holes in the veneer of authority in general. It's clearer than ever before, in my living memory, that the powerful and the well-respected are just regular, fearful and biased human beings like everyone else.
>And yet he expects the reader to ESP their way into understanding that he's only talking about the professor's politics
It's so much worse. They think, as long as their professor didn't explicitly say something like 'Pound's poetry was influenced by his fascism, and fascism is horrible', then it's "0% politics".
However, they very fact that such subject matter is being *selected by the professor* is a statement of what we should pay attention to. If his/her (not 'her' here probably lol) class never even throws out a sentence about it's context, then it's that much more worse. The politics *are* being taught, just lumped into other concepts that are [*impressed upon you to* "bring you to tears"](https://twitter.com/primalpoly/status/1143883444654489600).
So this is basically the angry gamer with zero life experience who says that a white, cisgender, male protagonist is not political, while any other kind of protagonist *is*.
Only he's a professor at an institution of higher learning, in charge of leading young minds into the future. A large part of whose job is specifically understanding these kinds of biases. Cool.
Yes, except:
>A large part of whose job is specifically understanding these kinds of biases
As an evo psych professor, his job is justifying current biases (or folklore) about 'modern civilization', sex, gender roles, and biological explanations in general.
Edit: no, not those non-Western ~~biases~~ common sense.
politics is when someone has an opinion that makes me uncomfortable, and the more uncomfortable it makes me feel, the more political it is
[deleted]
starting to think the caveman sex weirdo might have some bad opinions
He later explained he was only talking about the professor’s politics, which like … I studied English lit for four years, three of them at one of the most left wing colleges in the UK, and every single time I’ve had any sense at all of a professor’s personal political views, it’s been based on offhand comments and had nothing to do with the core analysis. They might teach a political reading of a particular work, but that’s it.
(The other irony is that Eliot and Pound’s criticisms of other writers (including Joyce!) are filled with their personal politics)
If he really meant that that the best literature professor he had in college approached the material with “100% insight, 100% integrity, 0% politics, [and] 0% signaling,” why mention Eliot, Pound, and Joyce at all? The authors’ identities are entirely extraneous to his supposed point, and bound to confuse people.
Unless, you know, he’s full of shit.
By the Minute Jeff, by the minute!
When you’re saying you approach Ezra Pound with 0% politics, you might be hiding something.
Link to Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/primalpoly/status/1143881879768068096?s=19
ok the grumpy millennial troll cabal intentionally misread him, time to call off the dogs
or
it’s okay to reason about someone’s politics as long as they’re dead
How can you study Ezra Pound without discussing politics!!