[BerkeleyDailyPlanet] OOPS

[Updates from the Berkeley Daily Planet]

Dear Planet Subscriber,

You might be wondering what my last email was about.  Many (well, 3 or 4)
have inquired.  What happened is that the irreplaceable NextDoor.com had a
thread started by a nice person who was giving away Black Lives Matter
signs.  The thread was invaded by a surly fellow who seemed to disagree.
One of his arguments for his indefensible opinion was this:

""Recently, a UCB professor expressed concern about an atmosphere of
intolerance and a demand to conform to specific ideologies. Of all places,
this should not be occurring in higher institutions devoted to exploration
of ideas, but it's happening there more than anywhere else now.
https://threader.app/thread/1271219776606687233 "

In response, after reading the linked rant I posted my own counter-rant,
the mysterious one which you received:

"I read the cited article by the person who claims to be a member of the
faculty at the University of California at Berkeley. As an alumna of that
institution, if he (I assume it's a man) really is teaching history there
I'm embarrassed because the quality of the work is so poor. His logic is
pathetic. His prose is turgid. He uses $5 words where simple English would
be better, and several times he uses them incorrectly ("actionable" "ad
hominems"}. In the good old days the conservatives were literate and witty,
but this is just second-rate sulking. Since he's too cowardly to sign his
name I won't bother to debate his easily refuted half-baked ideas. Others
on NextDoor and elsewhere have done a good job of doing so. If he does
teach at Cal, I hope he's correct when he implies that the vast majority of
his colleagues would think he's an idiot. Otherwise I fear that my alma
mater is going seriously downhill. "

I tried to send a copy to myself, but through some Gmail mystery I
accidentally sent it also to the ~1000 Planet subscribers. I''m sorry, but
I urge you to consider this a subscriber bonus.  And you really should
click on the link to the supposed "professor" to see what bad writing and
worse thinking look like.

Stay Well,

Becky
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