Today’s blacklisted Americans: In Iowa the oppressed fight back
Not yet cancelled, at least in Iowa.
Today’s story about blacklisting might actually be revealing a hopeful sign, albeit only one which is still not resolved entirely in favor of freedom.
Our story begins in October 2020:
In October, David Johnsen, the dean for the college of dentistry at the University of Iowa, sent a mass email to the college criticizing an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump. The email condemned the barring of certain types of diversity training that aim to promote “anti-American race and sex stereotyping.”
A conservative student, Michael Brase, “replied all” to the email, asking clarifying questions and sparking discussion on the email chain of about 1,200 students, faculty, and staff. Between two email threads, 18 emails were exchanged over the topic. According to the Daily Iowan, in one of his follow-up emails on the thread, Brase says “simply do the trainings without intentionally race/sex scapegoating people in those trainings. That shouldn’t be that hard.”
According to The Gazette, administrators at the university then summoned Brase to a disciplinary hearing for “unprofessional behavior.” The letter used to summon Brase included warnings of “dismissal” based on his actions.
This is very typical of our modern fascist and bankrupt academia. While partisan Democrats and leftists always have the right to say anything they want, and use all resources — some that are entirely inappropriate — to spread their message, partisan Republicans and even non-partisan neutrals have no right to question this behavior, and if they do must be punished immediately.
In this case however Iowa elected officials actually appear to be doing their job. After getting his disciplinary summons, Brase immediately contacted his local legislator, complaining that this behavior by administrators in a publicly financed institution seemed unjust and wrong. And unlike most modern legislators, who routinely run for the hills when such issues are brought before them out of fear of being called racist, these legislators heartily agreed with Brase.
They immediately called hearings requiring Johnsen to testify. Simultaneously the university canceled Brase’s disciplinary hearing. More important, when Johnsen testified he publicly kow-towed for his own misbehavior.
“I would like to start by apologizing,” said Johnsen, according to the Waterloo Courier. “Michael’s comments in front of the committee on Wednesday laid bare his concerns and fear that he felt regarding his educational future at our college, and, for that, I’m sorry.” Johnsen vowed that he would never again use his voice “in an official capacity” to push personal political opinions. He also promised to review the committee and process that punishes students for violations of professionalism.
“Since October, we’ve been reviewing what happened, how the process worked and didn’t work, and we’re working to implement steps that will prevent this from happening again” said Johnsen.
Sounds good, eh? Well, whenever in the past leftists have make such apologies, it has routinely been only to deflect criticism and cool things down so that when the heat is finally off they can then resume their fascist behavior, oppressing some other innocent for daring to disagree with them.
And in this case it appears that Iowa elected officials are anticipating that game and are not accepting the apology at face value.
Republican lawmakers, however, were not pleased with the explanation and apology.
“This isn’t a second chance,” Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann said. “This is a repeated, decade-long and possibly and probably longer feeling of hundreds of students, if not thousands, that there are two different sets of rules. So as much as I greatly appreciate, dean, your efforts and look forward to seeing them implemented, I expect the entire university, all of you, to come up with a systemic policy.”
One Democratic lawmaker even said she agrees that the University of Iowa made a mistake.
We shall see. If it were up to me I would have Johnsen fired, along with every one of the administrators who worked with him to try to blackball Brase. How can anyone trust any policy they implement? They goal remains to get segregation reinstated, only this time with minorities in charge and whites oppressed.
The legislature should have them replaced by others who really understand freedom of speech, and who also know the appropriate venues for expressing it. More important, they should be replaced by individuals who do not advocate the racist policies advocated by Critical Race Theory, the “diversity training” that Trump banned from all government agencies.
Finally, big kudos to Michael Brase. Not only did he not back down, he fought back aggressively. The result was a victory for his freedom of speech and a blow against the new racism in academia.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Not yet cancelled, at least in Iowa.
Today’s story about blacklisting might actually be revealing a hopeful sign, albeit only one which is still not resolved entirely in favor of freedom.
Our story begins in October 2020:
In October, David Johnsen, the dean for the college of dentistry at the University of Iowa, sent a mass email to the college criticizing an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump. The email condemned the barring of certain types of diversity training that aim to promote “anti-American race and sex stereotyping.”
A conservative student, Michael Brase, “replied all” to the email, asking clarifying questions and sparking discussion on the email chain of about 1,200 students, faculty, and staff. Between two email threads, 18 emails were exchanged over the topic. According to the Daily Iowan, in one of his follow-up emails on the thread, Brase says “simply do the trainings without intentionally race/sex scapegoating people in those trainings. That shouldn’t be that hard.”
According to The Gazette, administrators at the university then summoned Brase to a disciplinary hearing for “unprofessional behavior.” The letter used to summon Brase included warnings of “dismissal” based on his actions.
This is very typical of our modern fascist and bankrupt academia. While partisan Democrats and leftists always have the right to say anything they want, and use all resources — some that are entirely inappropriate — to spread their message, partisan Republicans and even non-partisan neutrals have no right to question this behavior, and if they do must be punished immediately.
In this case however Iowa elected officials actually appear to be doing their job. After getting his disciplinary summons, Brase immediately contacted his local legislator, complaining that this behavior by administrators in a publicly financed institution seemed unjust and wrong. And unlike most modern legislators, who routinely run for the hills when such issues are brought before them out of fear of being called racist, these legislators heartily agreed with Brase.
They immediately called hearings requiring Johnsen to testify. Simultaneously the university canceled Brase’s disciplinary hearing. More important, when Johnsen testified he publicly kow-towed for his own misbehavior.
“I would like to start by apologizing,” said Johnsen, according to the Waterloo Courier. “Michael’s comments in front of the committee on Wednesday laid bare his concerns and fear that he felt regarding his educational future at our college, and, for that, I’m sorry.” Johnsen vowed that he would never again use his voice “in an official capacity” to push personal political opinions. He also promised to review the committee and process that punishes students for violations of professionalism.
“Since October, we’ve been reviewing what happened, how the process worked and didn’t work, and we’re working to implement steps that will prevent this from happening again” said Johnsen.
Sounds good, eh? Well, whenever in the past leftists have make such apologies, it has routinely been only to deflect criticism and cool things down so that when the heat is finally off they can then resume their fascist behavior, oppressing some other innocent for daring to disagree with them.
And in this case it appears that Iowa elected officials are anticipating that game and are not accepting the apology at face value.
Republican lawmakers, however, were not pleased with the explanation and apology.
“This isn’t a second chance,” Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann said. “This is a repeated, decade-long and possibly and probably longer feeling of hundreds of students, if not thousands, that there are two different sets of rules. So as much as I greatly appreciate, dean, your efforts and look forward to seeing them implemented, I expect the entire university, all of you, to come up with a systemic policy.”
One Democratic lawmaker even said she agrees that the University of Iowa made a mistake.
We shall see. If it were up to me I would have Johnsen fired, along with every one of the administrators who worked with him to try to blackball Brase. How can anyone trust any policy they implement? They goal remains to get segregation reinstated, only this time with minorities in charge and whites oppressed.
The legislature should have them replaced by others who really understand freedom of speech, and who also know the appropriate venues for expressing it. More important, they should be replaced by individuals who do not advocate the racist policies advocated by Critical Race Theory, the “diversity training” that Trump banned from all government agencies.
Finally, big kudos to Michael Brase. Not only did he not back down, he fought back aggressively. The result was a victory for his freedom of speech and a blow against the new racism in academia.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Hello Mr. Zimmerman.
Dean Johnsen will be stepping down as dean of the dental school in June. Great job by our legislature to monitor the activity of public based institutions in Iowa.
It would be instructive to see the emailed questions Mr. Brase posed, so that we may do the same or similar when in the same situation.
“Finally, big kudos to Michael Brase. Not only did he not back down, he fought back aggressively. The result was a victory for his freedom of speech and a blow against the new racism in academia.”
My advice: hold the kudos until he graduates and is awarded ALL the necessary licenses and approvals needed to actually practice dentistry, whether from the state medical licensing board, American Dental Association, license to prescribe drugs from DEA, etc.
Perhaps the Leftists will only learn to keep their activism more under the radar. But, this clearly indicates that the open punishment of Non-Leftist Dissidents (NLDs) will no longer be overlooked.
At least in Iowa.
They goal remains to get segregation reinstated, only this time with minorities in charge and whites oppressed.
Well, not really. Though some want to flip the power dynamic, some only want to exacerbate the ‘issue’ to maintain the grievance culture. Because grievance means you can promise something to someone for their votes.
The legislature should have them replaced by others who really understand freedom of speech, and who also know the appropriate venues for expressing it.
And those people would be whom in academia? Whence come they? Not anyone who has come through the proper accrediting organizations would be acceptable after our decades of progressive ownership of the “elite” institutions. (And by “elite” I don’t mean Ivy League and such; I mean the overall institutions that are “elite” – the schools, the “knowledge worker” upper echelons, the boardrooms, etc.)
And, yes, kudos to those involved here, who did nothing more than be sane and reject an extreme form of Progressivism.
Actually keeping him in power and forcing ( and monitoring him ) to create systemic solutions to the fascism they display sounds pretty useful. Then fire him.
What you are calling fascism is actually communism. The fascists fought against the communists. We are not facing any threats from fascism, the fascists all died. The few neo-fascists who exist are not threatening to censor anybody. Study history much?
“The death of Hauptsturmführer Connolly”
The Man in the High Castle S1E9
https://youtu.be/jNjSAUMy0vY?t=35
1:10