Among the usual claims about a trillion Uyghurs being murdered in concentration camps and the women being sterilized, the “professor” also claimed that Uyghurs weren’t recognized as one of China’s 55 ethnic minorities (they are) and that Islam is banned in China (it’s not) They didn’t provide any sources too lmao
Yes, they’re a white liberal
No, there wasn’t a single mention of Palestine
How do you become a Professor when you can’t even be bothered to google what the fuck you’re talking about? Does saying “China bad” give you a PhD now? The level of academic dishonesty is staggering, aren’t universities supposed to take this stuff seriously? Surely there must be a way to report professors spreading racist conspiracy theories as fact. It’s not just a political thing, the intellectual laziness is so extreme they cannot even get the most basic background facts right. At this point I would be surprised if they know which continent China is in.
But hey, at least they got to trivialize actual genocides by putting them next to the Uyghur “genocide”
If I pulled any of this shit in a paper - no sources, lies debunked in two seconds - I would at a minimum instantly fail the class and probably face a serious risk of being suspended and/or expelled for academic fraud.
Even if they doubt the western narrative, saying something about it just paints a target on their own back. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of arguing against the existence of the uyghur genocide and being told by someone who likely “supports israel’s right to self defense” that you’re being islamophobic. Liberals wield these words without any connection to reality, so getting fired for “islamophobia” and/or “genocide denial” would be very damaging to an academic’s career. Look at what happened to Norman Finkelstein - and he’s not just an academic, he’s devoted his study to the history of Palestine. His family died in the Holocaust, but even that wasn’t enough to protect him from academic ruin.
I just don’t feel right not doing anything about someone laundering lies of literal terrorists. I want to leave at least some impact beyond whining about them on RMP - anonymously if possible. Zionist students have free reign to terrorize and assault Arab students and hold genocidal hate rallies with one Zionist fuck holding a “kill them all” sign with zero consequences while the admin sends out emails fearmongering about antisemitism. Oh and also some creepy old Zionist showed up to threaten to rape and murder Arab students. So publicly opposing the western narrative is inviting death threats and physical attacks.
Depending on how shitty the professor is, if you write what they want to hear but voice criticism in class you might be able to effect some pushback and make an impact on other students while also not tanking your grade. The whole “academia” thing encourages lively debate (
) so the professor might feel pressed to allow in-class discussion where they’d feel less compelled to humor pushback in an assignment they’re grading in private