This political trend right now that is propagating the notion that legislatures should have the final say over the academic work done at colleges and universities is absolutely, nightmare-inducingly chilling.

Clearly responding to anyone who begins with a “fuck off” is a dubious idea at best but nonetheless.

Not surprised about the deletion, to be honest. It’s too bad, really, because I spend a fair amount of time thinking about this very question and yet still am no closer to knowing where I stand. Absolutely I think racism/sexism/classism/homophobia etc should and must be critiqued, but reasonably and in a way that…

Yes, that is what I take from your post. Deploying words like “barbaric” and “beasts” is taking a page straight from the old imperialism handbook. While in your country “those” disgusting rituals are banned, many others are not, and indeed are widely and openly practiced. Certainly there’s an important discussion…

Whoa. The racism/ethnocentrism is really unnecessary. We (I assume you’re American, though no countries are exempt). We participate in a vast number of practices seen from the outside as “barbaric.” Generally people are terrible but pretending we don’t have our own disgusting and dangerous customs is dangerously naive.

I keep getting deleted in responding to (an)other commenter so I’m responding broadly here to some sentiments I’ve seen in the comments:

Obviously the reply is meant for the initial post rather than you, burnthem. I thought maybe your non-greyness could make mine stick.

I posted this originally but was dismissed (I think, I’m new to Kinja) twice with a directive to fuck myself but...

Wow jeez, okay...? I think this is an important conversation and I’m not trying to whitewash anything away. If it’s not something you’re interested in discussing that’s fine, but telling me to “fuck myself” is absurd and unwarranted.

I’m not sure why my comment disappeared the first time but....

I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I’m really tiring of this kind of rhetoric, which I think is precisely as misogynistic (and in other cases, racist) as anything the right throws our way.

To be fair, AIDS.