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Professor Calls Teen Trump Supporters ‘Hitlerjugend.’ Now He’s Chair Of University Committee.

   DailyWire.com
U.S. President Donald Trump, center, smiles during a rally in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019.
Photo by George Etheredge/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A professor who has called teenaged Trump supporers “Hitlerjugend” (Hitler Youth) and urged people to wreck a meal they see a United States senator eating has been rewarded by getting elected chairman of his university’s Academic Freedom & Faculty Responsibility committee.

On September 17, James Thomas, associate professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi, chortled on Twitter, “Today I — Captain Twitter Fingers— was elected chair of the Chancellor’s Standing Committee on Academic Freedom & Faculty Responsibility,” as Adam Sabes of Campus Reform reports.

“Captain Twitter Fingers” has issued some strident tweets, including this from January 2019: “MAGA teens are modern day Hitlerjugend.”

 

In July 2019, he doubled down, tweeting, “When I said MAGA teens are modern day Hitlerjugend, I meant it.  What we’re watching at this rally is the aesthetics of fascism.”

Prior to that, as Sabes noted, just days after anti-Brett Kavanaugh protesters harassed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at a Washington, D.C. restaurant, triggering Cruz to leave, Thomas tweeted, “Don’t just interrupt a Senator’s meal, y’all. Put your whole damn fingers in their salads. Take their [appetizers] and distribute them to the other diners. Bring boxes and take their food home with you on the way out. They don’t deserve your civility.”

Sabes noted that the university says of the Academic Freedom and Faculty Responsibility committee, “One of the primary duties of this committee is to conduct hearings, when such are required in cases involving the dismissal or termination of tenured faculty, the non-renewal of a contract for a non-tenured faculty member when there is a substantial claim that such action violates academic freedom or equal employment rights, or the dismissal of a non- tenured faculty member prior to the expiration of a term appointment.”

The university adds, “This committee is composed of tenured professorial faculty members who are not serving as a department chair and do not hold an administrative rank higher than department chair.”

Thomas was granted tenure by a slim 7-5 vote in May, according to Y’all Politics, which reported that according to the IHL minutes, “Trustees discussed whether Thomas’ January 19, 2019 tweet showed a lack of respect for the opinions of others, such as views of colleagues with whom he did not share the same opinions (political or otherwise), and whether it showed appropriate restraint and professionalism.”

The Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning added:

On Thursday, May 16, 2019, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning voted, with dissent, to approve the promotion and tenure of a University of Mississippi professor who was recommended to the Board for tenure by the University of Mississippi. In light of recent concerns regarding certain statements by the professor on social media, the Board examined whether those statements were in keeping with the requirements for tenure … The Board is also mindful of the University’s “Statement Concerning Academic Freedom,” which states, in part: “As a person of learning and an educational officer, he/she should remember that the public may judge his/her profession and his/her institution by his/her utterances. Hence, he/she should strive at all times to be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others …” Following discussion, including consideration of the Board’s support for academic freedom and expression, ultimately it was the recommendation of the professor’s institution, the University of Mississippi, that carried the greatest weight in the majority of the Board’s decision to grant tenure to the professor.

One UM student told Campus Reform, “Unfortunately, it is not surprising that Dr. Thomas is now the chair of the Chancellor’s Standing Committee on Academic Freedom and Faculty Responsibility. It was disappointing that he was granted tenure after his despicable tweets, including comparing young Trump supporters to Hitler Youth. I hope this isn’t a precursor to the kind of candidate the University is looking for to be the next chancellor. It would be a mistake to have someone so embarrassing represent Ole Miss.”

 

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