Eighth Day of Xmas

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

eight swords for sparring,

seven sins for scouring,

six signs for praying,

five 5-star reviews,

four pairs of shades,

three seals of love,

two friends-in-arms,

and a Fencing Bear in a MILO tree.

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Enough of the SJWs and their dispiriting nonsense. What of the scholarship which justifies universities’ existence in the first place? It need not be dependent on the corrupted universities; encouragingly, there is a real appetite among the educated public for serious works on history, literature, and philosophy. The internet has long held out the promise of fulfilling this desire, and many websites have started to make academic work accessible to the general public, while also filtering out some of the worst aspects. 
More encouraging still is the community of enthusiastic amateurs on Twitter and on various forums and blogs, many of whom do original research of their own. One of its best aspects is that it is completely free from the existing framework of academic discourse. Just as philosophers as late as the 17th century had to engage with a stultified and hidebound Scholasticism, modern scholars must wade through a vast corpus of secondary literature which often suffers from the same mind-rot as Fulton Brown’s accusers. The online amateur community, by contrast, uses JSTOR, Google Books, and university libraries to pick out the best of current scholarship while blithely ignoring the rest. 
Which is not to say that this phenomenon is purely an amateur affair. Many professors have started independent projects online, both for research and to present their results to a wider audience. Rachel Fulton Brown herself now has an online show on medieval history in which she discusses various topics relating to her research. 
Does this offer the best hope for Western scholarship? It may seem so... As the current incarnation of academe dies a well-deserved death, it is therefore up to good-faith professionals and amateurs alike to build new institutions, expressly free from malign or subversive influence, where genuine, interesting scholarship can flourish. Therein lies cause for hope.
—“Book Review: Middle Rages,” Byzantine Emporia, November 16, 2019 
*

Risus et bellum! 


For Milo’s account of my adventures in academia standing up to the SJWs, see Middle Rages: Why the Battle for Medieval Studies Matters to America, available in paperback on Amazon and direct from the publisher at Castalia House. 

For my account of Milo’s adventures and further tips on how to fight the culture wars, see Milo Chronicles: Devotions 2016-2019, available on Amazon and direct from the publisher at Castalia House. 


My online course is available with subscription through Unauthorized.tv. Episode guides are posted at Medieval History 101: The Unauthorized Version.

Fencing Bear’s lessons in virtuous sparring continue at The MILO Chronicles.

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