<
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/26/i-had-threats-to-my-life-how-mob-attacks-on-social-media-are-silencing-uk-teachers>
"Teachers, headteachers and academics say they have been driven off social
media and made to feel intensely anxious – sometimes even facing death threats
– after their comments or work have been labelled too “woke” on Twitter or in
the rightwing press. While social media abuse is already common, teachers say
some of the attacks against them are part of a more orchestrated campaign. They
argue that while their detractors accuse them of being “woke” or part of
“cancel culture”, it is in fact they, the teachers and academics, who are being
silenced.
Parker was singled out by Turning Point UK, the recently imported British
offshoot of Turning Point USA, a Trump-supporting rightwing organisation.
Turning Point UK, which has 36,000 followers on Twitter, encourages its
supporters to report teachers and academics for “leftwing bias” on the
Education Watch part of its site, and often names individual teachers and
schools on its Twitter feed.
She has rejoined Twitter now, but approaches it with fear. “I find myself
asking ‘Am I going to get attacked for this?’”
Eric Lybeck, a presidential fellow at Manchester University’s Institute of
Education, who has been researching Turning Point, says: “We are in the midst
of a raging culture war and it is not the ‘woke’ side that are the aggressors
here. Many of these educators are simply trying to do their job and are being
hounded out of the public square by literal mobs.”"
Via Joerg Fliege and
libramoon@pluspora.com.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
