[A_Duck]

One thing we know is that few of the people debating this have actually read Plato's Symposium

A thing you can right now do is read it (1-2 hours): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1600/1600-h/1600-h.htm#link2...

Or just the two sections in question:

Aristophanes’ myth of split humans (7 minutes): https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/eros/platos-other-half

Diotima’s ladder of love (20 minutes) https://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/103/jowett_symp_A.htm

[allturtles]

True, but I think it's rather beside the point. Administrators shouldn't be censoring materials from professors' syllabi.

[watwut]

Nah that is fine.

The issue is only when professor suspect of being liberal changes assigned reading in any way. That is the only possible big issue

/s

[jtbayly]

Core curriculum is always controlled by the university. The professor can sometimes make requests and get them approved.

[pvillano]

Imagine fearing the consequences of "people are not gay by choice, but because they are each halves of a eight limbed cartwheeling sphere". Young minds cannot handle such dangerous rhetoric

[aestetix]

Don't forget the extremely loaded context surrounding Alcibiades.

[nerdsniper]

I have no idea what this context is.

[codyb]

I've heard an uptick in derogatory terms being thrown around recently and while unsurprising, it sure is sad.

Recent events...

- Went to a concert, an underage kid with a fake ID couldn't get a beer, turned to me and goes "Isn't this guy a f----"

Uh... well, he may be making your night less enjoyable, but I don't see why gay people have to catch strays cause of it...

"I don't think I'd call anyone that" was my response, and "it's okay to be gay" was a follow up

- My boss said something was retarded. I'm a bit wishy washy on the r-word myself as, while I'm friends with people with Down Syndrome and other maladies, it never occurred to me to relate the word to them (especially since they're generally really very nice people)

It's similar to how I never associated the word spaz with... I dunno what it is... multiple sclerosis or whatever, apparently that's a very common association in the UK, but I'd never heard of it (the association)

But now I've stopped using it entirely, although in this case I did not correct my boss (who I respect as a person and enjoy working for very much)

- One of my other friends called something "gay" recently

"Don't call things gay bro" was my response. As my mom explained to me in sixth grade "even though you don't really even have an idea what it means to be gay, when you say that negative things are gay, you're implying that being gay is negative, but gay people just are themselves and don't deserve that"

I became the "don't say gay kid" at school after that and I'm damned proud of it

All these losers trying to turn back the times to put gay people back in the closet give me "peaked in middle school" vibes, and it's sad to see that it's also slowly becoming normalized with people who I don't even think have that inclination or care to say prejudiced shit again too

[mrec]

> I never associated the word spaz with... I dunno what it is... multiple sclerosis or whatever

Usually cerebral palsy, I think, or (less commonly) epilepsy. I'm not sure it's still that common in the UK; I don't think I've heard it in the wild since the 80s [1], though some of that may just reflect the people I talk to as I get older.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Deacon#Blue_Peter_and_cul...

[happymellon]

> It's similar to how I never associated the word spaz with... I dunno what it is... multiple sclerosis or whatever, apparently that's a very common association in the UK, but I'd never heard of it (the association)

It is a shortening of spastic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_(charity)

[BLKNSLVR]

Something I've noticed under Trump is how a country's leadership does actually affect the behavior of the people under that leadership.

Trump's openly crude behavior is normalizing such behavior amongst the impressionable.

And society will be worse for it for a long time to come.

[Dig1t]

Language police are extremely uncool; going around telling people which words they are allowed to use mostly just hurts your own cause. It has the exact same effect that an old Christian woman scolding kids not to use swear words has. Eventually people realize that your magic words give them power and it becomes cool and useful to start using them in the exact opposite way you want them to.

The only way for you to achieve the goal of making sure nobody’s feelings are hurt by words is to take away the power of the words. You only give the words MORE power by reacting to them.