angryowlet:

philosopherking1887:

Was briefly tempted to write “don’t @ me” in my course syllabus, in regard to a paper I think I’m going to assign that was written by a conservative jurist and legal scholar.

Now imagining students responding to the paper by saying “OP is a racist capitalist shill but go off I guess”

To be fair, though… the guy is arguing that engaging with literature doesn’t make you morally better. His own moral flaws, given the obvious evidence that he’s very well-read, only tend to reinforce his point.

@philosopherking1887 Wait a minute, I’m confused. Is the guy’s self-burn intentional or a happy byproduct of his own ignorance? 

The self-burn is not intentional… though he’s reflective enough to know that he doesn’t live up to the standards of the supporters of ethical criticism.

The reason I want to assign the paper is because the guy makes a lot of good points, but I’m worried that my students will have the same purist mindset that you see all over Tumblr and will dismiss him out of hand based on some questionable comments, or after looking him up on Wikipedia. The irony of that reaction, though, would be that his moral Problematicness actually speaks in favor of his thesis. I’m worried that my students will be too locked into a sectarian moralistic mindset to recognize that.