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From my perspective as someone who has become familiar with Amy Chua only recently, what is going on is your typical college campus cancel culture story. Amy Ch

From my perspective as someone who has become familiar with Amy Chua only recently, what is going on is your typical college campus cancel culture story. Amy Chua authored Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and is a political moderate wary of tribalism, and is now the target of ideologically progressive students, administrators, activists, and news media. The push against her is due to her affiliation with Brett Kavanaugh (speaking in support of him and sending law students to clerk for him), her support for stern/focused parenting that is (relatively more) common among Asian parents, and because she is not going along with the progressive monoculture on college campuses. While those are the true motivations in my opinion, the attacks against her are built around a different set of issues, which are allegations against her husband of improper behavior that remain unproven (and never brought to a court of law to my knowledge), and are being used as a guilt by association to attack Chua. There are further allegations that Chua herself did the same to a lesser extent by hosting occasional dinner parties with students invited (which frankly seems normal among Professor-grad student relations), and those too remain unproven. It’s all one big ball of character assassination attempts with nothing concrete beyond repeated attention drawn to it by news articles like this. For those not familiar with Chua, I recommend listening to her yourself on one of the many podcasts she’s appeared on. For example she’s been on podcasts from Vox, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Megyn Kelly, Coleman Hughes, and a Chris Hayes. I found her to be intelligent, articulate, and insightful. She represents a diverse voice that colleges desperately need today and I hope Yale doesn’t make the mistake of diminishing her role in the community based solely on flimsily allegations and social pressures.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> Amy Chua authored Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and is a political moderate She also authored World on Fire. "Political moderate"?
- jollybean 5y ago
  'World on Fire' is something more people should read, not for it's political leanings or bias of which there is aplenty, but because there's quite a lot of information in there regarding trends and ideas in 'other places' i.e. 'outside America', particularly in Asia which never seem to penetrate the fairly insular American bubble. Almost all of the 'controversial' social issues in the US are fairly contextualized to the 'US experience' and this becomes a huge problem as these social ideals are exported. Outside the US bubble almost everything is completely different ... requiring a completely different context to try to start to grasp why things might be viewed differently. To the people on outside looking in, and especially to ex-pats/immigrants living in the US, all of these social issues are going to look very different in ways that are basically impossible to express without some form of contextualized understanding that just doesn't exist in most popular forums including the more intellectual spots i.e. New Yorker, The Atlantic etc. - and on campus. A 'sensitive issue' from the other side of the spectrum -> 'gun rights' is kind of a good example of this. I've had so many discussions with very intelligent Americans about the issue who didn't seem to be able to grasp how safe and normal civil society could be without open gun access. (Edit: not blaming all Americans here obviously, it's just something I've come across) Forget arguments about 'what should be done' - all of that aside - it was like there was a total inability to contemplate a different context for crime guns etc.. That's a really, really odd position to be in, debating someone who delegitimizes your own lived experience in a different country because there's some kind of 'mental block' (bad term) and they can't fathom that it could even be real - when in fact it's the literal reality for most 'rich' nations outside the US. Chua is not even close to 'radical'. She's a little populist surely, but nominally her arguments exist well within the bounds of reasonable civic discourse. I do believe that most of the OP's comments are effectively valid, in that with her 'hat in the populist ring' she becomes part of that circus and will therefore become a target / participant in the stupid, ugly, petty little feuds on campus - which it should be noted are going to be 'sided' often on the basis of 'perceived ideology' etc.. Edit: I should add, it's a little shameful that people even on HN have to resort to 'throwaway' accounts to have basic opinions on issues. To think this is actually a place where there's a lot of good discussion to be had and even this places gets petty ... is not a good sign. 'Use your words' is what we tell children, it would apply equally here and everywhere else. (i.e. not ad-hominem, casual remarks, gotcha statements, instinctive/arbitrary voting).
  - robmccoll 5y ago
    Re: throwaway accounts - No one has to resort to throwaway accounts. Using one is a choice made by the user for fear of being judged. The stakes are pretty low, but perhaps if you believe strongly in an position, you should stand by it. If you don't, then be careful about stating it in terms of absolutes and consider that you may end up engaging in a discussion that could change your mind. Engaging in discussion in good faith, giving others the benefit of the doubt, and being willing to apologize first should go a long way. To me it just seems like many are too willing to double down and die on nearly any hill.
    - jhanschoo 5y ago
      We live in a society where expressing opinions or facts may cause retaliation that a reasonable person would consider unjust. For example, someone living in Hong Kong who wants to criticize the recent political developments there but not in a situation to insulate themselves from the recent illiberal policies will have to either shut up or put identifying information out. Similarly for an employee warning against an employer that they are not in a position to resign from.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> Amy Chua authored Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and is a political moderate She also authored World on Fire. "Political moderate"?

jollybean 5y ago
'World on Fire' is something more people should read, not for it's political leanings or bias of which there is aplenty, but because there's quite a lot of information in there regarding trends and ideas in 'other places' i.e. 'outside America', particularly in Asia which never seem to penetrate the fairly insular American bubble. Almost all of the 'controversial' social issues in the US are fairly contextualized to the 'US experience' and this becomes a huge problem as these social ideals are exported. Outside the US bubble almost everything is completely different ... requiring a completely different context to try to start to grasp why things might be viewed differently. To the people on outside looking in, and especially to ex-pats/immigrants living in the US, all of these social issues are going to look very different in ways that are basically impossible to express without some form of contextualized understanding that just doesn't exist in most popular forums including the more intellectual spots i.e. New Yorker, The Atlantic etc. - and on campus. A 'sensitive issue' from the other side of the spectrum -> 'gun rights' is kind of a good example of this. I've had so many discussions with very intelligent Americans about the issue who didn't seem to be able to grasp how safe and normal civil society could be without open gun access. (Edit: not blaming all Americans here obviously, it's just something I've come across) Forget arguments about 'what should be done' - all of that aside - it was like there was a total inability to contemplate a different context for crime guns etc.. That's a really, really odd position to be in, debating someone who delegitimizes your own lived experience in a different country because there's some kind of 'mental block' (bad term) and they can't fathom that it could even be real - when in fact it's the literal reality for most 'rich' nations outside the US. Chua is not even close to 'radical'. She's a little populist surely, but nominally her arguments exist well within the bounds of reasonable civic discourse. I do believe that most of the OP's comments are effectively valid, in that with her 'hat in the populist ring' she becomes part of that circus and will therefore become a target / participant in the stupid, ugly, petty little feuds on campus - which it should be noted are going to be 'sided' often on the basis of 'perceived ideology' etc.. Edit: I should add, it's a little shameful that people even on HN have to resort to 'throwaway' accounts to have basic opinions on issues. To think this is actually a place where there's a lot of good discussion to be had and even this places gets petty ... is not a good sign. 'Use your words' is what we tell children, it would apply equally here and everywhere else. (i.e. not ad-hominem, casual remarks, gotcha statements, instinctive/arbitrary voting).
- robmccoll 5y ago
  Re: throwaway accounts - No one has to resort to throwaway accounts. Using one is a choice made by the user for fear of being judged. The stakes are pretty low, but perhaps if you believe strongly in an position, you should stand by it. If you don't, then be careful about stating it in terms of absolutes and consider that you may end up engaging in a discussion that could change your mind. Engaging in discussion in good faith, giving others the benefit of the doubt, and being willing to apologize first should go a long way. To me it just seems like many are too willing to double down and die on nearly any hill.
  - jhanschoo 5y ago
    We live in a society where expressing opinions or facts may cause retaliation that a reasonable person would consider unjust. For example, someone living in Hong Kong who wants to criticize the recent political developments there but not in a situation to insulate themselves from the recent illiberal policies will have to either shut up or put identifying information out. Similarly for an employee warning against an employer that they are not in a position to resign from.