11 months of lockdown (49/365)
Feb. 18th, 2021 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartI realised today that I've now been working almost exclusively from home (bar a few weeks in late September and October when I was going into the office twice a week, before restrictions tightened up again) for eleven months now. No wonder I'm feeling a bit fed up with it, even if I actually do quite like working from home (Zoom fatigue is definitely a thing, but I think it may actually be less bad than actual-interacting-with-people-in-the-same-room fatigue, apart from not getting the bits of space to walk between meetings) and don't think I'd ever want to go back to working in the office full-time.
I'm also more than a bit fed up about the Government's proposals to strengthen free speech at universities, by which, clearly, they mean "protect the rights of reactionary forces to refuse to co-operate with attempts to address institutional bias and inequality". The proposals themselves seem to be based on a small number of very small studies (one example references "4 out of 10" students who voted to leave the EU feeling uncomfortable expressing that in class, which (a) means more than half didn't; (b) turns out to have been based on a sample size of 64, so in actual fact 25 or 26 students had a problem; and (c) if it was 4 out of 10 Remain-voting students, or gay students feeling uncomfortable talking about their sexuality, I'm pretty sure they'd just be called snowflakes and told to get over it) and specifically reference decolonisation of curricula as "contested political ideologies that are not associated with a particular party or view" and which heads of department should not be allowed to impose on academics in their departments.
(Also, I see that Selina Todd, who I knew at university and used to think was quite sensible, is all over the media again explaining how she's been silenced for her transphobic views.)
I'm also more than a bit fed up about the Government's proposals to strengthen free speech at universities, by which, clearly, they mean "protect the rights of reactionary forces to refuse to co-operate with attempts to address institutional bias and inequality". The proposals themselves seem to be based on a small number of very small studies (one example references "4 out of 10" students who voted to leave the EU feeling uncomfortable expressing that in class, which (a) means more than half didn't; (b) turns out to have been based on a sample size of 64, so in actual fact 25 or 26 students had a problem; and (c) if it was 4 out of 10 Remain-voting students, or gay students feeling uncomfortable talking about their sexuality, I'm pretty sure they'd just be called snowflakes and told to get over it) and specifically reference decolonisation of curricula as "contested political ideologies that are not associated with a particular party or view" and which heads of department should not be allowed to impose on academics in their departments.
(Also, I see that Selina Todd, who I knew at university and used to think was quite sensible, is all over the media again explaining how she's been silenced for her transphobic views.)
