A Yale Law Student Sent a Lighthearted Email that school says is oppressive

https://freebeacon.com/campus/a-yale-law-student-sent-a-lighthearted-email-inviting-classmates-to-his-trap-house-the-school-is-now-calling-him-to-account/

by tomohawk • 5 years ago

45 28 5 years ago

freebeacon.com

0des• 5 years ago

"trap house" has also become generic slang for any place where young people can score beer.

Journalists, please get a clue.

analognoise• 5 years ago

Can you fill the rest of us in too?

orangepurple• 5 years ago

Query the urban dictionary

selcuka• 5 years ago

From Dictionary.com [1]:

trap house
1. Slang. a place where illicit drugs are bought, sold, or used.

[1] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/trap-house

cafard• 5 years ago

My wife served on a grand jury a couple of years ago, and told me that a "trap house" is a house in which neighborhood gangs can stash their firearms, and perhaps other contraband.

83457• 5 years ago

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=traphouse

traphouse Originally used to describe a crack house in a shady neighborhood, the word has since been abused by high school students who like to pretend they're cool by drinking their mom's beer together and saying they're part of a "traphouse". "Did you hear about the traphouse? Ben's mom got everybody beer and they got turn't." - Annoying High School Fuckboy by stking February 25, 2015

NikolaNovak3• 5 years ago

In which sense? That seems to be about right. I enjoy Urban Dictionary definition very much for this entry :D

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=traphouse

happytoexplain• 5 years ago

That is indeed one of the ways the term is used. Certainly not the most relevant one. Regardless, you should try not to be so insulting about getting a piece of slang "wrong", despite the popularity of insulting journalists.

refulgentis• 5 years ago

Yeah, you shouldn't email every single one of your colleagues in a professional situation telling them you're throwing a party themed for trap houses and serving fried chicken and apple pie. Some context might get lost.

SamPatt• 5 years ago

Oh no, a loss of context! Anything but that.

The student offered to speak personally to anyone offended. Talk. Like adults do.

Instead the administration tried to bully him and threaten his career unless he apologized for being racist, a claim based on the absolute flimsiest of pretenses.

Good for him not caving. Nonsense like this needs to be challenged.

readflaggedcomm• 5 years ago

I wouldn't assume they were just triggered by implicit patriotism of serving American foods.

mfcl2• 5 years ago

Part of what made the email "triggering," the administrators told the student, was his membership in a conservative organization.

That's it? Just being associated with a conservative association can help trigger something like that?

fennecfoxen• 5 years ago

Have you been on a university campus lately? If so, how is this even a question?

Yes. It is the explicit opinion of many activists and the occasionally-spoken opinion of most university administrations and administrators that the point of the university is to effect social justice, and this is done by promoting the left wing and crushing Republicans in any way that it is reasonable to achieve. This has gotten worse in the past 5 years but is only the tail of a long trend dating back decades. The university faculty and administrators unfailingly vote Democrat by massive margins [1]; indeed, educational attainment (ie time spent at university) is a key predictor of politics. They hire accordingly. Public schools in principle must pay homage to the first amendment, but sometimes this is only enforced by lawsuits [2].

Meanwhile Republican idiots in Congress demand that we blow up all institutions of higher education (or at least cut funding and impose ideological tests.)

Welcome to our democracy in 2021 where everyone who matters is a deranged ideologue. Abandon all hope, sir.

[1] liberal arts college, professor registration https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/31/2/homogenous_the_p...

[1] Pew Research finds that 17% of Democrats and 79% of Republicans are worried about professors bringing their politics into the classroom, probably indicative of which politics https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/08/19/the-gro...

[1] NYT: "Think Professors Are Liberal? Try School Administrators" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/opinion/liberal-college-a...

[2] Just an easy-to-Google sampling from one organization which has defended multiple viewpoints (including at least one pro-antifa case) not in support of ideological assessments but simply the proposition that free speech at state colleges sometimes takes lawsuits: https://www.thefire.org/victory-student-stopped-by-campus-po... https://www.thefire.org/victory-lawsuit-settlement-restores-... https://www.thefire.org/victory-chicago-state-to-rewrite-pol... https://www.thefire.org/victory-college-settles-with-antifa-... https://www.thefire.org/cases/citrus-college-stand-up-for-sp... https://www.thefire.org/victory-texas-college-settles-free-s... https://www.thefire.org/victory-student-detained-for-passing...

mfcl2• 5 years ago

Recently, no I have not. Hence the question. I have to admit that while I read things get worse, it keeps shocking me.

google234123• 5 years ago

administration officials allege his membership in the conservative Federalist Society is ‘triggering’ and ‘oppressive’

Their offense offends me.

tmpz22• 5 years ago

Its interesting that you can click freebeacon.com in the HN title and view all the other HN submissions for this site.

dang• 5 years ago

You can do that for any site.

This particular site is banned on HN, like other primarily political sites, but users vouched for this post, which unkilled it.

NikolaNovak3• 5 years ago

Yes - that's part of basic functionality of hn and unrelated to specific site. Clicking on the site name as opposed to article title lists all submissions with that domain.

duxup• 5 years ago

Probably a dumb email to send everyone. Not sure it makes sense to call it "triggering"... but that also seemed to be the intent?

There seem to be stereotypes and now stereotypes of things people assume when they think of other... stereotypes? Very confusing.

All around kinda absurd.

uncoder0• 5 years ago

Where I'm from fried food of many types is common if not expected at medium to large gatherings. It keeps pretty well and is almost universally liked, especially when you have good sides. I think people are reading too much into every word because of the groups he's promoting.

db48x• 5 years ago

Universities are such terrible places these days; I can’t imagine how so many people want to subject themselves to that kind of intolerance. Good on this guy for not buckling under the pressure though.

NikolaNovak3• 5 years ago

I'm a fairly liberal / progressive person today ; I was way more ideologically so in my university days. There were a million and one parties events social groups et cetera that I had no inclination to be a part of. Some didn't interest me, some I dislike, some I vehemently opposed. But you go to university to experience and learn. Get exposed to ideas. We all have to be at least slightly charitable and try to take an invitation in spirit intended. Maybe this guy is a racist supremacist asshole. Maybe he's a nice friendly inclusive conservative chap. Invite was an invite. How far are we trying to right-think university experience? If I attended today I feel I'd be more scared of my liberal colleagues.

I am mildly surprised vegetarians are not the offended parry given references to fried chicken. I wish that were a snarky statement but I'm genuinely waiting for them to join the clamour.

kcplate• 5 years ago

I feel I'd be more scared of my liberal colleagues.

That’s because in a lot of cases they are no longer liberal despite using that word to describe themselves. What many are nowadays is damned scary intolerant authoritarian leftists hell bent on destroying the liberal values that a lot of us have been fighting for decades to achieve.

me_me_me• 5 years ago

This trend saddens me deeply.

I was religious person when entering university, and via exposure to idea that there is no god and discussion of the topic I lost my faith.

I was also exposed to and talk to a fascist (quasi-nazi), but somehow I am not a nazi.

Its because bad ideas die when exposed to the light of day and debate. Suppressing those only entrench people who believe in them. All of those 'well intentioned' students are doing way more harm then good. They also strike me as profoundly unprepared to what real life looks like.

spoonjim• 5 years ago

“Lighthearted” is pure editorializing.

hindsightbias• 5 years ago

Sometime I wonder if live in a parallel universe where I have the only copy of Kundera’s The Joke.

A Yale Law Student Sent a Lighthearted Email that school says is oppressive

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