Re:

“Look at this chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist’s arrogated entitlement. 
All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes.”

— (((Christine Fair))) (@CChristineFair) September 29, 2018

Professor C. Christine Fair,

Saludos from Santiago, Chile.

I’ve not written anything quite like this, and I am not quite sure how to begin it.

I’ve been around the block a few times and seen some vile stuff, but nothing quite like that remark from your Twitter feed.

Yeah, I’m a white guy, and on top of that, I’m straight as an arrow. Sue me.

I’m not going to go into attack mode, though. Others have probably done that far better than I.

I just wonder, though: what do you really think you accomplished with that tweet? Do you think such remarks do anything to heal the divisions that are tearing American society apart, much less further the mission of your institution (whatever it is these days)?

Or maybe something as breathtakingly constructive as trying to heal divisions is not your aim.

Maybe your aim in writing that was just to piss people off, so you’d get a predictable reaction.

And from the top comment on your Facebook page, it looks like you got one.

Not here. You see, Christine, I’ve been following the decomposition of academia for over 25 years now.  And you know something? A lot of us, out here in the boonies, have written folks like you off.

But I just have to say what is clear: you can’t possibly be interested in what is true and factual, much less what is right, or fair, or just. If you were interested in truth, you wouldn’t have called Brett Kavanaugh a “serial rapist” when there isn’t the slightest scrap of evidence the accusation is true.

Just chalk it up to my perspective as a white guy who doesn’t live in your academic corner of the universe where all straight white Christian men with conservative ideas are history’s criminals, where we are guilty if accused, and deserve to die miserable deaths and be castrated afterwards and our nuts fed to swine while your ilk laughs.

So sorry about that.

Make the best of it.

The only thing you could accuse me of is being a masochist, and you would be right. You see, Christine, I left academia several years ago, having gotten the message that my small voice wasn’t going to change anything, and I saw stuff like this coming.

I moved overseas, married a chilena (women here really are women, not … whatever you’ve become, up there in the former Land of the Free).

I’ve noted that free speech seems to apply to you. This:

The views of faculty members expressed in their private capacities are their own and not the views of the University. Our policy does not prohibit speech based on the person presenting ideas or the content of those ideas, even when those ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. While faculty members may exercise freedom of speech, we expect that their classrooms and interaction with students be free of bias and geared toward thoughtful, respectful dialogue.

How nice that your wise administration has your back. Not so much for this person:

“[Kavanaugh accuser Julie] Swetnick is 55 y/o,” [Dean William] Rainford wrote. “Kavanaugh is 52 y/o. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys? If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with&by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim & she the perp!”

From your university president, John Garvey (obviously going boldly where no administrators have gone before):

Rainford’s tweets of the past week are unacceptable. We should expect any opinion he expresses about sexual assault to be thoughtful, constructive, and reflective of the values of Catholic University, particularly in communications from the account handle @NCSSSDean. While it was appropriate for him to apologize and to delete his Twitter and Facebook accounts, this does not excuse the serious lack of judgment and insensitivity of his comments.

Rainford has led the National Catholic Social of Social Service since 2013. It is my desire that he continue to lead the school. But in light of these recent actions I have suspended him as dean for the remainder of this semester. Rainford understands and accepts this decision. Associate Dean Marie Raber has agreed to serve as Acting Dean during that time.

Double-standard at Georgetown? Who’da thunk it?

Well, Christine, I’d like to think I’ve made my point. Not holding my breath for confirmation of that, of course.

I presume you’ve heard, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this afternoon (it’s 7:15 pm in my time zone as I write this).

Do have a very nice rest of the weekend, Christine.

But stay away from books like Heather MacDonald’s new one The Diversity Delusion (St. Martin’s Press). Your head will explode on contact. Friendly advice from your friendly neighborhood straight white Christian male. (Oh, I will also add you to my prayer list, that somehow your worldview might become a little less violent, bitter. and hateful.)

And don’t worry that I’ve started trolling you or something because I accessed your Facebook page to link to it. I assure you, I have better things to do with my time.

Sincerely yours,

Steven Yates, Ph.D., Philosophy

Writing from Santiago, Chile.