Talks to Watch

Modern Educayshun

20.5M views · Nov 9, 2015 · 7:21 · 0 HN recommenders · 5 mentions · discussed 2016–2026

Neel Kolhatkar's satirical short film parodies modern education and political correctness. It shows how obsession with inclusive speech makes plain communication difficult.

Why Hacker News points people here: It is cited as a comedic parody of diversity and inclusion initiatives in threads on those topics.

“A short-film/parody on how an extreme obsession with inclusive speech makes it impossible to communicate clearly without consequences.”HN comment, 2022

What Hacker News said 5

Cites itcalvinbhaiDec 2017

“Feels like the video makes a similar point.”

Comedic short making a similar point about diversity efforts

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Dear Mallika, Many thanks for writing this article! Totally echoes my thoughts. fwiw, as an Indian male engineer in US, I initially was very enthusiastically thinking "lets go out of our way to support the pink elephants" and later was surprised when some of my peers (female engineers from India in US or of Indian origin) showed utter disinterest in being part of many of these women centric meetups/conferences. They were more enthusiastic to go to conferences that successfully enforced a 'No Asshole Rule' on attendees, followed by attending conferences without 'all male' speakers, than conferences of any other type. (I thought the feedback I received was an outlier, but it is good to know I'm not alone). Hope such articles bring positive changes to improve diversity organically and address the pink elephant syndrome. This article reminded me of this video "Modern Educayshun" (by an Aussie Comedian of Indian origin) this video . Feels like the video makes a similar point.

in “I don’t want to be the pink elephant in the room” · view on HN
Cites itMrBlueIncognitoApr 2022

“A short-film/parody on how an extreme obsession with inclusive speech makes it impossible to communicate clearly without consequences.”

Short film parodying obsession with inclusive speech

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this video A short-film/parody on how an extreme obsession with inclusive speech makes it impossible to communicate clearly without consequences.

in “Google’s AI-powered ‘inclusive warnings’ feature is very broken” · view on HN
Cites itTacticalCoderOct 2024

“An indian-australian's semi-recent take on modern "educayshun”

An Indian-Australian comedian's take on modern education

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I'm pretty sure proper grammar and spelling would already gain you quite some points. An indian-australian's semi-recent take on modern "educayshun": this video

in “Could you pass this 8th grade test from 1912?” · view on HN
Cites itTacticalCoderApr 2026

“this wonderful 7-minutes short satirical movie aptly named "Modern Educayshun”

Seven-minute satirical short on equity education

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> In a 2019 blog post, I expressed concern that training teachers to recognize “worship of the written word” as “white supremacy culture,” as many equity trainers urged, could alienate students of color from school. 2019... By then some people had already noticed the problem since years and years. Here's Neel Kolhatkar 's take on it in 2016, in this wonderful 7-minutes short satirical movie aptly named "Modern Educayshun" (the realisator plays the main character): this video I don't know if there's much else to do than laugh about this entire madness of a movement. What disgust me really the most is that those very same who've been trying to portrait heterosexual white men in the west as "patriarchal" and responsible for all evils (vs women, vs men of colors, etc.) are the very same who are turning a complete blind eye on the actual patriarchal societies that do the most horrible things one can imagine. For a reality check, for example: there are 230 million woman that have undergone forced female genital mutilation. And if rounded about 0% of those have been done by white men from the west. And because people have nothing to answer to that, they'll downvote. So yeah: my advice would be... Do like me: pick your fights.

in “The Self-Defeating Condescension of an Anti-Racist Education” · view on HN
Criticaleva1984May 2016

“Feels like a real-world version of this video”

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I think I probably guessed which company this is. But this doesn't smell right. Feels like a real-world version of this video: this video

in “How my company is lowering the bar to increase diversity” · view on HN