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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Erik Loomis’s Critics Like Violent Rhetoric Just Fine — As Long as the Targets Are Gay. « Student Activism

Erik Loomis’s Critics Like Violent Rhetoric Just Fine — As Long as the Targets Are Gay. « Student Activism:


Erik Loomis’s Critics Like Violent Rhetoric Just Fine — As Long as the Targets Are Gay.

University of Rhode Island labor historian Erik Loomis has garnered a lot of conservative attention in the last few days. After the Newtown shootings, Loomis tweeted that he wanted “Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick.” (LaPierre is the head of the NRA.)
Though this statement was obviously metaphorical, some high-profile conservatives pounced on it, and gave it a lot of attention. Loomis has since been visited by the police and called in for a meeting with his dean. You can find the whole story — along with an ever-growing list of Loomis’s academic supporters — here. The whole thing would be silly if it weren’t potentially so damaging to Loomis’s career.
How silly? Well, there’s this, for starters. Robert Stacy McCain has been one of the more vocal conservative