Teachers: What is the worst mistake you made your first year teaching?

Asked on Quora.

My answer.

Yelling at a class. This is never a good idea. However almost new teachers at one point or another often feels compelled to do so. Having a difficult class certainly feeds into the impulse. I did so on several occasions in year one. Instantly regretted it each time and have not, in my sixteen years of teaching since then, ever done it again. I am a far better teacher for my decision to avoid such action.

The problem with yelling are all too obvious upon further reflection. While you may have an immediate response that appears favorable

• You lose all credibility with the class in the long run
• It never makes you feel better
• There are far better methods of classroom management
• It is the antithesis of the kind of behavior that you wish to ultimately cultivate with your students.

Criteria for being a dictator

The problem with the word dictator is that it has been thrown around so carelessly that it is on the verge of losing meaning. So let us reclaim it. To begin with a dictator is not by definition a political figure that one doesn’t like. I know, for some that everyone they hate is literally Hitler but in all seriousness a deferral to the subjective is never a solid way to define a political term.

For a person to be described as a dictator I would argue that they need to fill the following criteria -

• terminate open opposition nationally,
• clamp down on free elections,
• restrict forums for criticism (often associated with the shutdown of the non-government press),
• rule without deference to an independent legislative body,
• effectively consolidate the judiciary under the executive wing,
• establish barriers beyond an acceptable norm to prevent the removal of said dictator from power.

Now there is the notion of the benign dictator who may ‘relax’ several of these categories, but never to the extent to which they ought to exist within a free democracy. This is often where the grey area around the use of this term seems to reside.

Asked on Quora - Is Noam Chomsky one of the greatest minds since Isaac Newton?

My answer

Maybe if you were sampling his relatives and the student radicals who keep the Chomsky cult alive. Yes.

From an objective sense. No bloody way. Not even close.

Noam Chomsky has made a significant contribution to linguistics. Give him that. I do value his critique of our media system (all the more relevant now) and his take down of postmodernism, however he does not fall into the greatest minds category. Not by a long shot.

Politically he has been a walking disaster despite the fanfare given to him by the hate-America crowd.

Check out the list of his lies

http://www.paulbogdanor.com/200c....

In the field of Physics alone (since you bring up Sir Issac Newton) I would place Bardeen, Bohr, Boltzmann, Curie, Einstein, Faraday, Feynman, Fourier, Gauss, Gell-Mann, Heisenberg, Hubble, Laplace, Maxwell, Noether, Pauli, Planck, Rutherford, Schrödinger , Weinberg, Witten ahead of him.

That is just one discipline.

If we go across the intellectual bandwidth Chomsky can barely hold a candle to Darwin, Pasteur, Hayek, Hegel, Cantor, Euler, Russell, Wittgenstein, Turing etc.

In fact even in the contemporary sense there are far great minds alive than Chomsky today - Kripke, Tau, Perelman, Searle and Thorne. That was just off the top of my head.

What is your reaction to the arrest of Julian Assange?

My answer on Quora.

My reaction is mixed.

As much as I appreciate access to information and the freedom to challenge existing political infrastructures, I cannot count myself as a true fan of Julian Assange. While I understand his willingness to expose the lack of transparency in the establishment and his unmasking of various deep state actors, I am not convinced that he is a person of integrity.

He does not appear to take responsibility for his malicious actions (many of which have life threatening consequences) and I do not see him as acing in the best interests of the US (partisan politics aside) when the dust clears.

Although the case is far from settled I am still concerned by his connections with various Russian sources and the fact that he personally seems to see himself as being above the law. There is a giant ego component to his actions. WikiLeaks and Israel Shamir | Andrew Brown

Having said that though there is a definite positive side to Assange. Organizations such as Wikileaks provide a vital function. They force governments to be more sincere with their actions, expose various double dealing by the powers that be and provide for a more comprehensive understanding of the political dynamic. As a student of history I welcome their input.

Julian Assange Profile: Julian Assange

Now I realize that conservatives are divided on this issue. Tucker Carlson for one has thrown his support behind Assange while Ben Shapiro is vocal in his criticism of the man. Libertarians tend to give Assange the benefit of the doubt while traditional conservatives often view him through a less enthusiastic lens. He is nothing if not complex.

So let us step back for a moment and look at the reason why Julian Assange rose to ‘fame’ in the first place.

Background

Australian-born Assange is the director and founder of the information disseminating platform Wikileaks. By his own admission he describes himself as a market libertarian but has historically skirted around conventional political labels. Prior to 2016 he was regularly regarded as a man of the left. Assange has a well documented history as a hacker that goes back to his teen years. Wikileaks notoriety is partly a function of its ability to acquire information from various hacked (or leaked) sources.

In 2010 Wikileaks started publishing a series of leaks illegally provided to him by intelligence analyst Bradley Manning (later Chelsea Manning). Included in the leaks were the war logs on Afghanistan, Iraq and various US diplomatic papers that collectively fall under the category of Cablegate. All in all it is believed that Manning passed on to Wikileaks close to 750,000 documents. They were largely published between April 2010 and April 1011. (You probably meant 2011 instead of 1011 here. I doubt he helped shape the military career of William of Orange. ;-))Many of these documents were designated as containing classified and very sensitive information.

The US government launched a criminal investigation of Wikileaks and has worked with various allies to bring him to justice. In November 2010 Sweden issued an arrest warrant against Assange over rape and sexual assault allegations, that he has of course denied. He did surrender to the British police in December 2010 but failed to defeat the motion for extradition and then after breaching bail fled and was offered asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. This was his home until April 11th 2019 when his asylum was withdrawn.

While the Swedish rape charges were dropped in 2017 he could see the rape charges against him reopened. Swedish prosecutors considering request to reopen Julian Assange rape case. At present the British authorities are holding him in custody for skipping bail. The US government is going after him for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and are seeking extradition.

Wikileaks in the past have actually played a role in releasing information pertaining to human rights abuse and government irregularities. These include extrajudicial executions by the police in Kenya, numerous cases of corruption in the Arab World, the Petrogate scandal in Peru and Chinese government clampdown on unrest in Tibet.

When the 2010 document dumps were released Assange was applauded by a host of characters on the left that included Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay , Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Jeremy Corbyn (then a Labour back-bencher). Predictably the fellow travelers in the media - Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Tariq Ali, Michael Moore and Daniel Ellsberg (of Pentagon Papers fame) - came to his defense as well.

Assange also had his fans on the Libertarian right and became somewhat of a celebrity, winning awards from the Economist, Le Monde, Amnesty International and the Sydney Peace Foundation for his endeavors.

Then in July 2016 Assange went one further and won over a new subset fans with his exposure of leaked documents on corruption in the DNC that showed how the party acted to quash the aspiration of Bernie Sanders’ campaign, to benefit Hillary Clinton. The release forced the resignation of DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Assange added to this with the so-called October 2016 surprise where 2,000 e-mails were published by Wikileaks detailing the relationship between the Clinton Campaign and various power brokers. These are believed to have been obtained from the John Podesta hack. The Clinton campaign accused Assange of being in the service of Russia. He fired back by claiming that they were resorting to ‘a kind of neo-McCarthy hysteria’.

DNC circa 2016 Source: Ben Garrison

Assange’s animosity to the Clintons is clear. He fell afoul of the Obama Administration in 2010 but is not on board with Trump either. Some have accused him of being Anti-American to the core. The jury is out on that one.

Now for the tough part. Why do I have a mixed reaction?

The problem is that Assange seems answerable to only one person. Himself. He appears to take no responsibility for the consequences of his actions. Some of his leaks included details of Afghans who informed on the Taliban, the methodology of how the CIA sustains its undercover operations, not to mention classified documents on terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. He has also exposed personal detail on various ICE agents.

There is no doubt a fine line here that he is walking as he confronts the critical divide between private and personal spheres. Those concerned by national security have a strong case against Assange.

Clearly his arrest at this time is being motivated by several factors. The Ecuadorian government cut the legs off his support structure (which of course they are entitled to do) but the motivation for such action is not that simple. Some have suggested that they did so in response to am IMF loan. IMF Executive Board Approves US$4.2 Billion Extended Fund Facility for Ecuador. Others argue that there was more direct pressure by various American sources. A Human rights challenge is likely to follow. The issue over freedom of the press is front and central. Is Julian Assange’s arrest a threat to freedom of the press? Depends on whom you ask.

The saga will hopefully unravel with time but if he does pay the price, which could be severe, a vital question will remain.

How will future whistleblowers be protected from the reach of the state for legitimately exposing those in power who abuse and misuse their platform of operation?

With the scandals around the Obama era FBI and the NSA this question is as pertinent as ever.

Sources:

1. WikiLeaks
2. WikiLeaks' 'cablegate' dump: 10 biggest revelations
3. The 4 Most Damaging Emails From the DNC WikiLeaks Dump
4. Free-Speech Groups Support WikiLeaks Move to Dismiss DNC Lawsuit - BNN Bloomberg
5. UN privacy expert says Julian Assange's privacy 'may have been breached' in embassy

Is there an increase in antisemitism in the US?

My amswer on Quora

Yes and it is being driven by three sources - The Far Left, the Far Right and various promoters in the Islamic world.

Left-wing and right-wing anti-Semitism are both evil

However and perhaps more worrisome, is how it has been mainstreamed by Media sources such as the New York Times, who time and time again cross the line from legitimate criticism of Israel to downright anti-Semitism.

The New York Times criticized for anti-Semitic cartoon

The Infamous NY Times Cartoon - Pretty much hit most anti-Semitic tropes other than the Jewish money theme.New York Times Antisemitic Cartoon Shocker

Now the US is not an intrinsically anti-Semitic country. In 2015 the ADL published https://global100.adl.org. The document extensively details antisemitic rates across the globe. Based on the sampling it appears that 9% of Americans have Anti-Semitic attitudes compared to 26% worldwide. However in a population of just over 237 million adults, this does translate into a value of 21 million, which in absolute terms is extremely high.

The ADL also carries out a yearly review of Antisemitic Incidents. Here are two findings from their report.

Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents: Year in Review 2018 (Both points taken directly from the source).

• In 2018 ADL recorded 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.
• 2018 included the deadliest attack on Jews in the history of the U.S.: The massacre of 11 Jewish worshipers, and an additional two more injured, at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh by a white supremacist in October. The Pittsburgh attack was one of 39 reported physical assaults on Jewish individuals in 2018, a 105% increase over 2017. A total of 59 individuals were victims of assault, not including the police officers injured at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

Memorial outside the Tree of Life Source: Time Magazine

This increase in violent antisemitism seems consistent with a worldwide report on Antisemitism released on May 1st 2019 by the Kantor Center. Antisemitism Worldwide 2018 Report is Released. Its chief finding is described below

The number of the major violent cases monitored by the Kantor Center team has increased by 13%, from 342 to 387. The countries with the highest number of cases are the US (over 100 cases); the UK (68); France and Germany (35 each); Canada (20); Belgium (19) the Netherlands (15); and Argentina (11). It should be noted that the numbers of reported cases in Eastern Europe have been much lower in comparison to Western Europe, going down from 12 cases in the Ukraine in 2018 to a few in each of the other countries.

So how then do each of the sources contribute to this loathsome trend?

Far Left

The Far Left had always had a Jewish problem - Karl Marx's Radical Antisemitism. The Soviets carried on this legacy with action. The Status of the Jews in the Soviet Union and After Lenin, Soviet Anti-Semitism Grew.

The sentiment persists in the West - MPs have shone a light on the tide of anti-Semitism engulfing the Labour party. Jeremy Corbyn in the British Labour Party has been deservedly taken to task for this - J. A. Hobson, Jeremy Corbyn and the history of left-wing anti-Semitism.

Jeremy Corbyn - Source: Financial Times

The same is true in the other parts of Europe - Anti-Semitism in Europe Today Comes Mostly from the Left | Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs .

In a global world that knows no borders to information, anti-Semitic venom can spread quickly and it has. It is endemic in the Far Left of the US and appears to be moving into the mainstream.

We have already seen how Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have stoked the fire here with remarks about Jewish money and dual loyalty. However the problem runs deeper. Some call it the ‘New Anti-Semtism’ as it all too often uses the vector of anti-Zionism to carry its message.

While legitimate criticism of Israel is necessary.How does one criticize the actions of Israel without being labeled an anti-Semite? The Far Left all too often goes beyond this - holding the Jewish State to a ridiculous standard (that it would not use for any other country), relentlessly denying Israel’s rights to defend itself and ultimately calling for the destruction of the Nation. We see this with Marc Lamont’s “From the River to the Sea.” - which any observer on the Middle East will tell you is code for the destruction of Israel.

The problem on the Left is well documented. Read Antisemitism and the American Far Left and Jews and the Left | YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

For those interested in the way those on the far left rationalize their antisemitism here is a quick six pointer of common phrases used. 6 Things Left-Wing Anti-Semites Say

1. “I’m not anti-Semitic, I’m just anti-Zionist!”
2. “Jews are a historically privileged group!”
3. “Jews are white”/“Jews have white privilege.”
4. “Jewish people are good with money.”
5. “It’s not terrorism, it’s activism!”
6. Comparing anything happening in the Occupied Territories to the Holocaust.

Far Left wing antisemitism has been very vocal in the US especially on University campuses. Campus Anti-Semitism Archives - Tablet Magazine and Anti-Semitism on Campus: Overview,

There are however writers on the left who are concerned about antisemitism on their side of the political aisle. Paul Berman is one such person The Left and the Jews: A Tale of Three Countries - Tablet Magazine. Oliver Kamm is willing to speak out on this in the UK.

The Far Right

The Far Right is a cesspool of anti-Semitic activity. Websites such as Stormfront and the Daily Stormer promote this bile, however it is given further airing by online message boards such as 8chan and 4chan. Some have proposed banning these sites but this will likely make the situation even worse. Why Blocking Hate Sites Like 8chan May Only Make Them Stronger. I tend to agree with the latter opinion.

In the world of the Alt Right there is a definite anti-Semitic component and a fixation with the so-called Jewish Question. The leading proponent of this view is Kevin MacDonald, an American psychologist, who sees Judaism as a ‘group evolutionary strategy’. MacDonald believes that Jewish survival action has been directly (and indirectly) responsible for the growth of ‘liberalism’ in the US and the ‘Immigration crisis’ on hand.

His views (expressed in a trilogy - The Culture of Critique series), have been resoundingly criticized by Steve Pinker, Sander Gilman and John Tooby (all three have solid credentials in the social science fields that MacDonald draws from). As it stands, the overwhelming academic position with regard to MacDonald is that he exists within a nexus fusing pseudoscience with anti-Semitism. He is not the first to trod down this path. and will likely not be the last. However in the Alt Right world he does enjoys a celebrity status. The Culture of Critique series - Wikipedia

Kevin MacDonald Source: Mercury News

From the manifesto of the Tree of Life shooter it is clear that the ‘Jewish Question’ figured prominently in his thinking. The same is true of the Poway Shooter. This is extremely disturbing. Anti-Semitism Is Thriving in America

Of further concern is how Far Right Anti-Semites make common cause with those on the Left. Why is a known racist backing Somalian-born Ilhan Omar?

Islamic Angle

Anti-Semitism in the Islamic world is well documented. Like other hot spots for this hatred it has spread globally and the US has not been immune to its growth.Anti-Semitism in the Arab/Muslim World. A look at the ADL report, posted earlier indicates that anti-Semitic opinions are extremely common in Muslim majority countries. Here is another version from Pew.

Source: Islamic Extremism: Common Concern for Muslim and Western Publics

A great deal of this is driven by conspiracy mongering such as the suggestion by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that there were no Jews in the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001. Anti-Semitic cartoons, Holocaust denial are a regular feature of the media in Middle Eastern countries. Calls to annihilate Israel are not uncommon. The Middle East Media Research Institution (MEMRI) provides a regular glimpse into this world to reveal this type of hatred. Gaza Activist Maryam Abu Moussa: We Will Throw Jews Into Ditches Like Hitler; Trump's End Will Come At The Hand Of A Palestinian Boy. I wish I could say that it is rare but it isn’t.

Do the rants against Jews happen in the US? Definitely. Imam Who Called for Annihilation of All Jews Is in Fact Routine and North Philadelphia mosque officials apologize for anti-Semitic statements delivered in sermons by guest imam.

Now there are Muslim voices taking a stand against anti-Semitism who should be applauded. Muslims & Arabs against Antisemitism. What is needed is for such positive sentiment to gain momentum.

Is Donald Trump the Problem?

I have written at length on this topic in an earlier answer. Gavin Kanowitz's answer to Why do people call Donald Trump antisemitic when his policies have been decidedly pro-Israel?

Donald Trump may be a lot of things but he is not an anti-Semite. His response to both the Tree of Life and Poway were first rate and indeed he may be one of the most philosemitic presidents in recent history.

His support for Israel and his pro-Jewish position have placed him in the cross-hairs of a great deal of the Alt-Right who see him as a traitor. Both synagogue shooters expressed great negativity toward Trump in this regard and he is regularly vilified on Alt Right message boards.

Poway Rabbi called Trump a ‘mensch per excellence’ Source: Times of Israel

What is disturbing though is the fact that Congress refuses to deal with the anti-Semitic issue specifically and when it had the opportunity to do just that, it dropped the ball. Democrats Put Off Anti-Semitism Resolution After Fierce Backlash.

There are many Democrats who are as strongly opposed to anti-Semitism as are their Republican colleagues. While they may take issue with Trump on a myriad of other topics, this should not come at the expense of allowing the Corbynesque elements of their party to dictate the discourse here with respect to Jew hatred.

Fortunately there is some positive movement in this regard gaining traction. Bipartisan slate of senators introduce resolution condemning anti-Semitsm - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Additional Sources

1. The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti‑Semitism – review
2. https://www.thejc.com/news/world...
3. Quick Reads Archive - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
4. Paul Berman on New Left & antisemitism
5. Alarm Grows In France Over Anti-Semitic Violence
6. Anti-Semitic incidents dramatically rose in Washington over 2018
7. https://www.thejc.com/comment/co...
8. When the Anti-Racists are the Racists: The Case of British Left-Wing Anti-Semitism