Bespoke translation by yours truly. Original article [A] by Danisch
There are now metrics and measurements, or at least a book about that, on how many professors are being removed from universities for political-ideological reasons.
Epoch Times: "Whoever rocks the boat must go": Study examines the removal of critical professors
Ah, look at that. Now the professors get a taste of the way they treated me back then.
Looks like it's not that so long ago with the inability to fire public servants.
I had the same experience as a postgraduate back then.
That is so familiar to me.
This, too, is so familiar to me, back then they wanted to avoid even mentioning me at all costs.
I know about this from the 90s, but I have also perceived this change of direction from 2021 on. Before 2021, they were primarily having issues with those who didn't "fit in" with academia, while the political-Stalinist "cleansings" rather started in 2021, to trim everything to an ideology, so everyone who didn't fit the direction the political wind was blowing got thrown out.
But it isn't the case that it is exclusively "against the right wing", but against everything that doesn't toe the line:
They are throwing out everything that doesn't sing precisely the song that is being dictated.
And then they tell you "Follow the science" or "science denial" when you don't submit to their dictation.
That's where the big cleanings are happening, for very different reasons. It reminds me a bit of the Nazi era, they also made use of the opportunity to get retribution on private grievances by giving the dirt on people.
And it looks like they are simply making professors targets just for being professors:
That apparently is about the Marxist-communist principle of fighting against every hierarchy. Among which are very clearly the "gender studies" ("quality is a myth") in which it was about installing any moron into every position.
And now they systematically, one after the other, eliminate anybody who still has something to do with performance evaluation. Like I described it already: With my constitutional complaint that, among other things, had the goal of freeing the grading of dissertations from arbitrariness and enforcing legal criteria, I faced precisely the constitutional judge and gender chick Susanne "quality is a myth" Baer, a proponent of this ideology of performanceless equality, herself a lobbyist for those who are incapable, the dictatorship of the incapable.
Bingo! And this is precisely why my constitutional complaint has been shot down by the gender priestess. Because they reject all performance evaluation and replace it with political arbitrariness, and I wanted to achieve exactly the opposite.
This is precisely what I have been writing articles about for 25 years.
But what is missing here is the question of the extent and the way of how the feminization of universities through the women's quota has contributed to this, whether this herd behavior is typically feminine.
Distance measuring
There are now metrics and measurements, or at least a book about that, on how many professors are being removed from universities for political-ideological reasons.
Epoch Times: "Whoever rocks the boat must go": Study examines the removal of critical professors
Ah, look at that. Now the professors get a taste of the way they treated me back then.
It is rare that professor layoffs make a big noise. Often, the only thing you see are individual short notices. But a study which is now published as a book shows that the dark figure is apparently very high, and that there is a growth in numbers. And you can also see a structure that contributes to these layoffs.
Looks like it's not that so long ago with the inability to fire public servants.
"Whoever rocks the boat must go!: The removal of critical professors from universities" is the title of the book by two [female] authors who, as [female] professors, both experienced how quickly you can lose your once-certain existence and your workplace at a university for no discernible reason.
I had the same experience as a postgraduate back then.
For eight years, Heike Egner was a university professor for geography and regional research at the university of Klagenfurt, Austria. There, she was the head of an institute since 2011. In May 2018, she was dismissed without notice by the principal "out of nowhere". She first did not hear about any concrete reason.
That is so familiar to me.
Because of their own experiences, they conducted a scientific study on "removals" of professors in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Because no scientific platform wanted to publish their latest study, it has been published as a book.
This, too, is so familiar to me, back then they wanted to avoid even mentioning me at all costs.
[emphasis added by Danisch, also later]What was the motivation for your study?
Egner: The impetus for this study was the experience that these dismissals are not rare individual cases. Particularly in 2018, there have been a lot of sudden layoffs. We wanted to know the reasons behind this. Because, as scientists, after being laid off through no fault of our own, from our point of view, we are, that is my hypothesis, a bit more interested in understanding than people who don't work in science. Scientists want to understand everything. When I don't understand something, I suffer. The study helped me a lot in better understanding what could be the reasons behind the layoff.
What are the main findings from the interviews from the 60 laid off professors?
Uhlenwinkel: What is peculiar is a rise of the cases. Our first case of the 60 we examined goes back to the 90s, from then on, there have always been a few individual cases. But from the 2010s, there was a case almost every year, and in 2018, the cases of layoffs of professors suddenly increased without any discernible reason.
In the reasoning for the layoff, it is mainly about an accusation of leadership misconduct and primarily against women. In 2021, a new layoff reason appeared: ideological insubordination, which was mainly against men.
I know about this from the 90s, but I have also perceived this change of direction from 2021 on. Before 2021, they were primarily having issues with those who didn't "fit in" with academia, while the political-Stalinist "cleansings" rather started in 2021, to trim everything to an ideology, so everyone who didn't fit the direction the political wind was blowing got thrown out.
But it isn't the case that it is exclusively "against the right wing", but against everything that doesn't toe the line:
Egner: Now you could think that it's only about certain political stances, so the layoffs were maybe caused by the general political direction of the professors. This assumption cannot be proven. In fact, we covered the entire political spectrum, from far left to far right, everything is present. The political outlook of the most affected professors is somewhere in the center.
They are throwing out everything that doesn't sing precisely the song that is being dictated.
And then they tell you "Follow the science" or "science denial" when you don't submit to their dictation.
For Switzerland, but especially Austria - it plays no role in Germany - it was peculiar that 80 percent of the affected professors were foreigners, including in the combination foreigner and woman. In Austria, the laid off professors were often Germans.
That's where the big cleanings are happening, for very different reasons. It reminds me a bit of the Nazi era, they also made use of the opportunity to get retribution on private grievances by giving the dirt on people.
And how did you find the affected professors?
Uhlenwinkel: We found the most cases in news reports. However, after the publication of our first study on professor layoffs there were a few former professors who contacted us and said: "I have experienced exactly the same thing." In addition there are the cases that were pointed out by affected professors because they knew that the same thing happened to someone else.
Egner: Yes, the dark figure, the actual number of university staff with similar experiences, is much higher. In spite of ensuring their anonymity, it has been hard to get the affected professors to speak about their cases. Often, many of them completely withdraw out of shame for what they experienced. From a few affected professors, we have learned that they became really ill from the experience, mentally or physically or both.
In addition, we only focused on the professors in our study. We also know of many cases from the so-called non-professorial teaching staff, so everything below professorships, who were affected by targeted removals.
There, it was not as much about the accusation of leadership misconduct like among the professors, but commonly about a very blunt "ideological insubordination", which we first saw in 2021. On all other levels, it also was a layoff reason.
And it looks like they are simply making professors targets just for being professors:
Uhlenwinkel: Because, in the meantime, the base assumption has become that professors per se have an unjustified position of power, no matter whether there was a legitimate use of power, such as when, for example, the job description also includes evaluating the performance of others. [...]
That apparently is about the Marxist-communist principle of fighting against every hierarchy. Among which are very clearly the "gender studies" ("quality is a myth") in which it was about installing any moron into every position.
And now they systematically, one after the other, eliminate anybody who still has something to do with performance evaluation. Like I described it already: With my constitutional complaint that, among other things, had the goal of freeing the grading of dissertations from arbitrariness and enforcing legal criteria, I faced precisely the constitutional judge and gender chick Susanne "quality is a myth" Baer, a proponent of this ideology of performanceless equality, herself a lobbyist for those who are incapable, the dictatorship of the incapable.
Egner: When performance requirements in university education are already being perceived as a nuisance and it is possible for those who aren't as capable getting their certificate by means of complaining, then we've got a problem.
Bingo! And this is precisely why my constitutional complaint has been shot down by the gender priestess. Because they reject all performance evaluation and replace it with political arbitrariness, and I wanted to achieve exactly the opposite.
This is precisely what I have been writing articles about for 25 years.
But what is missing here is the question of the extent and the way of how the feminization of universities through the women's quota has contributed to this, whether this herd behavior is typically feminine.
