Video: How sci-fi fans put Firefly into the FIRE
posted at 9:45 am on December 28, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
Our friends at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) have a new video out this week recapping one of their most prominent victories over censorship in Academia — prominent because this case found a ready-made constituency of activists for individual rights. Fans of the cult TV series Firefly rushed to defend University of Wisconsin Professor James Miller after he was accused by campus police of creating a threatening environment by hanging a Firefly poster on his office door, a case in which FIRE prevailed. The video interviews author Neil Gaiman and takes a generally light-hearted tone — but delivers a serious message:
I wrote about the case in this October post. Kudos to Nathan Fillion and my friend Adam Baldwin for coming to Professor Miller’s defense, and especially to the fans of Firefly and Serenity (I’m a fan of both), but the serious point made in this video is that free speech should always have a constituency. Still, one has to smile when Gaiman says this:
There are people you do not want to upset in the world. And big groups of people you don’t want to upset would obviously include the politically disenfranchised who feel they have nothing to lose. And those that feel that the time has come for revolution. Then out on the edges beyond any of those are science fiction and fantasy fans whose favorite show has been cancelled in an untimely way.
I think I like that better than the quote from Miller’s poster. Also, FIRE has a contest for the most creative tweets promoting this new video, with $500 in prizes for the winners. Be sure to follow the rules, and let’s hope a Hot Air reader can win the big prize.
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THAT’S it. I just could not pull that one out. Getting old sucks.
dentarthurdent on March 27, 2013 at 1:53 PM
If the word was Muhammad this would be getting more press.
jrfromdallas on March 27, 2013 at 1:58 PM
Very nice find WCA – and nice writing Ace.
dentarthurdent on March 27, 2013 at 2:00 PM
I can’t help but wonder if it would get more press because the left-wing media would assume it was some wacko Christian doing it, or if it might get less press given it’s a left-wing academic doing it and they would fear the inevitable Muslim fatwas of death.
dentarthurdent on March 27, 2013 at 2:02 PM
Christianity is under attack in our educationsl system. Islam, not so much.
bw222 on March 27, 2013 at 2:10 PM
Only because the libs are actually afraid of the Muslims – who tend to blow up about insults – and they don’t want too insult their Muslim messiah in the WH…..
dentarthurdent on March 27, 2013 at 2:12 PM
This guy looks gay.
Schadenfreude on March 27, 2013 at 2:17 PM
This may already have been said, but why is it, that “intercultural communications” is aways about American citizens having to understand the culture of others, and never about students of other cultures having to understand us?
Screw “intercultural communications” courses, and get back to teaching plain old American History for a change.
waterytart on March 27, 2013 at 2:19 PM
I see stories like this and shake my head knowing that when Jesus returns, these Christ haters are going bend their knees and acknowledge who HE is even though they hate him, and then the dividing even unto the asunder begins, and there’s no where for them to hide.
44Magnum on March 27, 2013 at 2:24 PM
this is the instructor — please do not use “professor” although there are many professors who are not worth their weight in their sheepskin
http://www.fau.edu/scms/poole.php
wholefoodsrepublican on March 27, 2013 at 2:37 PM
This is another example of how a university education turns young people into more well rounded individuals. And if you disagree, you’re a foaming at the mouth fanatic.
ardenenoch on March 27, 2013 at 2:44 PM
depending on the severity of the First Amendment violation…
WFT????????????? A First Amendment “violation”? What the hell kind of a country have we become. Fire the dopey AA hire, period.
Twana on March 27, 2013 at 2:56 PM
For what it’s worth – most of that blame lies at the state level. The idea behind the inclusion of PE and other courses that seem entirely unrelated to the degree being sought is the “well-intentioned” idea of creating a well-rounded graduate. One of the theories used to be was that PE courses paid coache’s salaries – but I can’t validate the trusth of that one. I only know that each decade the PE hour requirement has steadily decreased. What used to be10 or more hours is now down to 1 – half a semester.
This “core curriculum” requirement is undergoing a serious overhaul before the fall of ’14 here – again state mandated – and we’re seeing a big cut in a lot of the “fluff” and more emphasis in major-relevant courses.
WhaleBellied on March 27, 2013 at 3:21 PM
Preety sad.
but then on the positive side… this man has shown that one person refusing to follow along, standing on principles can make a difference.
Sometimes all it takes is one. If only more of us would realize that.
JellyToast on March 27, 2013 at 5:39 PM
The _only_ circumstance I can see the original issue at all pedagogically sound is if the professor was explaining how the Japanese tested foreign traders by asking them to trample on the crucifix (maybe cross), and judged them by their reaction.
(The Portuguese would refuse; the Dutch would do it.)
The fact that a student was punished for not participating is, of course, patently ridiculous.
Scott H on March 27, 2013 at 6:49 PM
An important fact is missing from this story. As it turns out, Deandre Poole is also the vice-chairman of the Palm Beach County Democrat Party.
This is an important element of the story because it illustrates once again about how Democrats hate God.
Axion on March 27, 2013 at 8:29 PM
You find that ridiculous and not the whole exercise?
Happy Nomad on March 27, 2013 at 8:46 PM
It wasn’t traders tested — it was Japanese Christians. The practice was called e-fumi. You could die if you did not step on the fumi-e. A fumi-e was a picture of a cross, a crucifix, Jesus, or Mary.
http://www.fewmets.org/index.php?amount=0&blogid=1&query=e-fumi
http://haikutopics.blogspot.com/2006/06/shiki-fumi-e.html
unclesmrgol on March 27, 2013 at 10:35 PM
03-22-13 University Apologizes for “Stomping Jesus”
03-25-13 University Takes Action to Punish Student
This is criminal
entagor on March 27, 2013 at 11:32 PM
From his bio at the FAU website:
What a toolbag.
Bruce MacMahon on March 28, 2013 at 6:30 AM
This all goes back to federal college grants and loans. Before these guaranteed approval funding sources for college, a prospective student had to convince a lender that the degree he or she was going after would provide enough income to pay the lender back. Scholarships were also awarded based on the potential of the student and his/her major.
In the 80s I had to actually go to a bank and apply for and get my loan, but it was still guaranteed approval.
Now you just go to the financial aid office at the school and they take care of all the paperwork. Most students never even see the actual debt numbers or how much it’s paying for. I had to take my son into the FA office to find out.
So schools can offer classes in completely useless, utterly wasteful things like “intercultural communication.” They can offer degrees in African American Womens Studies. They no longer have to produce producers, they can pump out takers, people who will end up working in ever growing bureaucracies ticking people off just trying to get their car registration renewed. They will work at coffee shops, increasing the guage in their ear every few months, collecting food stamps and voting Democrat.
You will also notice that none of these useless degrees and classes are taught by conservatives. Ever expanding salaries and buildings and stables of professors (sorry horses, you are in many cases smarter) are justified cost wise, even in a down economy, with “it’s OK, our students can pay higher tuition with these neat government guaranteed loans”.
My son is being very careful to learn something usefull, at the best cost he can get. Hopefully next year I can help him avoid any more loans.
But the numbers of students graduating with degrees only usefull at some government funded department of diversity, or hate speech avoidance center is growing every year. And ALL of us producers pay for the loans (especially when the whole bubble bursts), grants and welfare of them.
PastorJon on March 28, 2013 at 5:02 PM
From Deandre J Poole’s “academic” precis [ht, wholefoodsrepublican, above, here]:
Interesting formula, that . . .
But based on the “lesson” we’re reading about, why did he not include “intolerance and communication?” Or, perhaps more to the point, he should have listed “thuggery and communication” Clearly, those were categories he was personally demonstrating!
I think every kid in that class should be given the opportunity to withdraw from the course, and be fully reimbursed. Certainly Ryan Rotela is owed some form of recompense, and there would be no legitimate purpose involved in his returning to that class.
Secondly, you really have to wonder what a “mediated message” is or means in Deandre’s mind?
In a broad sense, my own read of one applicable survey is that a “mediated message” these days seems to be a term widely utilized whilst engaging in an academic pursuit that, in particular, is focused on that vast and rapidly increasing storehouse of media-created images and portrayals of African Americans in our culture, and the effect these “media-created” images have in perpetuating “messages” tending to perpetuate stereotypes, or which otherwise subtly stigmatizing African Americans. Thus, a negative or positive “mediated message” can arise out of cultural portrayals of real persons [e.g., O.J. Simpson], or of fictional characters [e.g., Dr. Lanie Paris in Castle]. At least, that’s the way I take it. And, in general, it seems to be more focused on exposure of what is referred to as “racialism,” and less on overt “racism,” although I’m not sure where that line is drawn by it’s various proponents.
But clearly for Deandre J. Poole, PhD, the term seems to include anything he personally detests — an obviously very broad category!
Stomp on Jesus? What a tool!
Gee, I wonder if FAU offers anger management courses? If so, the “teacher” should be sent back to school.
And by the way, in case no one else noticed it, Dr. Deandre J. Poole also wears another hat when not abusing students at FAU.
Deandre Poole is also, as noted by the Fox story, the Vice-Chairman of his local Democrat party organization — the Palm Beach County Democratic Party.
Huh!! Why am I not surprised?
Trochilus on March 29, 2013 at 11:22 AM
Again, as noted by the Fox story:
So . . . is the “mediated message” vis–à–vis the mission of the Palm Beach Democratic Party now being subtly shifted by the Professor away from the old one of “carefully counting ballots” cast back in the 2000 Presidential Election, to a more hands-on [or should I say feet-on] stance . . . i.e., demanding that college students “stomp on Jesus” as an object lesson in intercultural communications?
Well, I say good for Rick Scott demanding a full accounting of the incident from the University.
By the way, you think the school gets any state or federal funding? Not that that would matter, of course.
Trochilus on March 29, 2013 at 12:07 PM
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