A petition at Stanford signed by 77 university professors is the first step in abandoning the Maxient reporting software tool that allows students to rat on one another.
Didn’t Hitler do that? He had children rat on their parents. Mao, Castro, and all great dictators have a system like that.
Students report microaggressions, students reading books they don’t approve of, like Mein Kampf, and anything that offends them.
The creators, Matthew Hark and his wife Celeste are now millionaires living in a $900,000 mansion with a vineyard. All they had to do for it was compromise free speech at American universities.
The opposing professors say it threatens free speech, and, of course, it does. Since the system allows anonymous reporting, it enables sneaky, cowardly people to harm people they don’t like.
The school administrators say the system is necessary to retain a peaceful and respectful culture on campus.
Other campuses are challenging it.
One of the 77 professors told the Wall Street Journal that it reminded him of systems in place in the Soviet Union and China.
At Stanford, students can use the system to report a Protected Identity Harm Incident, defined as conduct targeting an individual or group based on characteristics like race or sexual orientation.
The system defaults to anonymous reporting, allowing students to describe how they saw bias, which would trigger an inquiry within 48 hours.
Both parties are then contacted, but participation in the inquiry is optional. Administrators would then work with the students to resolve the matter.
Professor Ivan Marinovic said the system reminds him of the way residents in the Soviet Union, East Germany, and China. The professors are encouraged to alert authorities of anti-government rhetoric.
“It ignores the whole history,” said Marinovic, a business professor at the school. “You’re basically going to be reporting people who you find offensive, right? According to your own ideology.”
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