Read on Twitter
I'd like to tell you a quick story about the guy who tried really hard to get me fired about two years ago. This is him. I'm going to refer to him as "Joe" even though that's not his real name.
Joe responded to one of my tweets that at the time was getting a bit of traction. In this tweet I suggested that much of Genesis isn't "historical" because, well, it isn't. Joe didn't like that.
He promptly lashed out, and then said that he was going to block me because he didn't have any more time or energy to "waste" on me. And block he did. But then Joe continued to obsess over this exchange for DAYS.
(Apologies at this point for the various formatting on these screenshots. Most were sent to me by colleagues who were helping me keep tabs on him.)
Here's one from after he blocked me where he calls me a blowhard and an asshole and accuses me of endangering the faith of my students. Also apparently I have poison!
Joe's obsession continued throughout the afternoon, and apparently no one was really engaging him. But clearly my tweet had offended his delicate sensibilities!
The next day Joe decided to take things to the next level and hashtag my employer. This didn't work.
Then he decided to tweet his nonsense at the president of the college. He accuses me of bullying (remember, I'm literally blocked at this point and have been for days). One of my students had replied to him with a question, which apparently counts as bullying.
The president's response was appropriate: he blocked him.
At this point Joe thought he would try to get another president involved. This didn't work either.
At any rate, this went on for the better part of a week, and as far as I can tell, no one was really engaging him. All of this is happening inside of his head.
Because many of Joe's tweets contained threatening language, our campus police got involved, and a private investigator was hired. We now know a LOT about this guy. And it turns out he's actually pretty boring. Just a troll with a persecution complex.
I count myself fortunate. Our provost and president touched base with me at a number of points during this "ordeal" to make sure I was doing ok and to make sure that I knew I had their support. I know that this is not always how these things play out, and that is unfortunate.
There are a few things that I find odd about the impulse among certain conservatives to silence college professors. First, there's always this charge of indoctrination. Trust me when I say I have no interest in indoctrinating my students. Helping them learn to think? Yes.
But second, there's also often an underlying charge that conservative free speech at colleges is somehow under fire because X or Y professor is a liberal. Or something. So the solution is to take away the free speech of the professor? Doesn't make much sense to me.
The last I checked, "free speech" doesn't mean "you can speak freely only if I agree with what you're saying." But this is apparently what it means to some.
It seems to me that most of the people trying to cancel college professors don't have much actual experience with higher education in general. They operate with a caricature in mind, which is a remarkably dangerous thing.
At any rate: with colleagues reporting that they're being flooded with e-mails because of comments they made about a recently deceased conservative demigod, I've been thinking a bit about my buddy Joe. Here's that pic one more time.
