<a href="https://archive.ph/a9ie5" rel="nofollow">https://archive.ph/a9ie5</a>
Some personal highlights:<p>"They’re excellent schools, and they have excellent scientists, and if one of Vice-President Vance’s kids is sick, he’s going to want the doctor to have gone to one of these schools; he’s not going to want them to have gone to Viktor Orbán’s university."<p>"People have said to me, “Well, you take all that money from the government, why don’t you listen to them?” The answer is, because the money doesn’t come with a loyalty oath."<p>"I don’t have to agree with the mayor to get the fire department to come put out a fire. And that’s what they’re saying to these international students: “Well, you came to this country. What makes you think you can write an op-ed in the newspaper?” Well, what makes you think that is, this is a free country. "
Oh hey, Wesleyan on HN! I’m an alumnus (matriculated a year or two after Roth became president). Wesleyan has a rich history of activism and protest, and not always entirely peaceful (Roth’s predecessor, Doug Bennet, had his office firebombed at one point).<p>I’ve had a few opportunities to speak with Roth since the Gaza war started, and I’ve always found him particularly thoughtful about balancing freedom of expression with a need to provide a safe and open learning environment for everyone on campus. In particular, he never gave in to the unlimited demands of protestors while still defending their right to protest.<p>In part, he had the moral weight to do that because—unlike many university presidents—he did not give in to the illiberal demands of the left to chill speech post-2020, which then were turned against the left over the past year.<p>I don’t see any particularly good outcome from any of this; the risk of damaging the incredibly successful American university system is high. Certainly smart foreign students who long dreamed of studying in the US will be having second thoughts if they can be arbitrarily and indefinitely detained.<p>But I hope the universities that do make it through do with a stronger commitment to the (small l) liberal values of freedom of expression , academic freedom, and intellectual diversity.
People are being abducted off the street for writing tame op-eds and we're still complaining about the left chilling speech post-2020? What are we doing here?
The left banning the use of certain words and the right banning the use of certain words are flip sides of the same coin.<p>Of course, if you point that out, you get yelled at by both sides.
Except one side of the coin complains on twitter and maybe gets you fired from your job whereas the other side of that coin systematically removes over a hundred million dollars of research grants based on language and is literally disappearing people for their writing<p>but yeah, same thing. sorry someone put you through the absolute hell of saying they/them at work
Your attitude and inability to see anything but your own view is exactly the problem we've seen in the new left.<p>"Maybe gets you fired from your job" is someone's entire livelihood you're trivializing.<p>Any attempt to control speech and silence opposition is wrong, no matter how you slice it. "Your side" isn't any better than the other's.
Eh, I’ve railed quite a bit against the left. But looking back, we should have fired and deplatformed more aggressively. The social menaces who weren’t fired or arrested went on to become a plague.
>"Maybe gets you fired from your job" is someone's entire livelihood you're trivializing.<p>>Any attempt to control speech and silence opposition is wrong, no matter how you slice it.<p>I don't know why "Hey company, this person you employ sucks, you should fire them" doesn't qualify as speech that should be protected. It shows that you aren't asking for free speech, you are asking for speech without consequences.
Not part of the rest of the conversation, just narrowing in on the idea of speech being free if there are consequences. That sounds like some sort of 1950's-era doublespeak. If there are consequences, how would speech be free? It's a very American-centric perspective that "Free Speech" is defined as "1st Amendment". Free speech means not getting fired, jumped, killed, poisoned, expelled, etc. Fired is something that would happen in Soviet Times as well, in the USSR, and in the McCarthy era, in the U.S.<p>Apologies for the "two sidesism".
Free speech doesn’t mean not getting fired. You can get fired in any county for things that you say (e.g. insulting your coworkers, lying to your boss, defaming your employer on social media, …). The exact laws and social conventions obviously vary from country to country, but this shouldn’t be a difficult concept in general.
Well for brevity I did trivialize it but I will expand:<p>The left side got people fired. This is objectively not as bad as getting people disappeared. You can get a new fucking job. You can’t get freedom from detention and you cannot easily return to the country (if at all)<p>Additionally there is the motivational factor behind both sides:<p>The lefts argument in policing language was to reduce harm to marginalized groups. You may not agree with it, but that is the rational.<p>The rights argument is to erase those marginalized groups.<p>These are extremely different in motivation. Asking you to respect a persons gender identity in professional contexts is far different than forcing someone to not be able to express it on federal documentation.<p>One side of this was “we want to create inclusive spaces that make people comfortable and if you don’t want to participate in that there is the door”. The other side is “we did not want to participate in that so go fuck yourself and we will do whatever we can to deny your right to express your identity”<p>“Any attempt to control speech” is an absolutist statement that is absurd in its fallacy. So I can say I can murder you? I can say you’re planning a terrorist attack? I can say you want to kill the president? Of course not. Speech is limited contextually and by law
You're still trivializing. The cancel culture would often follow the people it wanted to cancel to make it hard for them to get another job again.<p>Also, I'll add that the "there is the door" comment is entirely wrong. There are countless stories of open source maintainers being harassed to make language changes to their code base, master/slave, whitelist/blacklist. The harassers never offered to do the work themselves just demanded it be done for them or they'll keep harassing.
These were people matching into someone else's "safe space" to police their private language.<p>The government disappearing people and dismantling the country is very bad, and nothing good can be said about it. What I'm talking about are the individuals on both sides not formally in power, and their equal efforts to stifle what they see as "bad speech". It's that mentality, on both sides, that led us to where we are.
Harassment is bad. Extraordinary rendition is bad. One of them is significantly worse than the other. And the side complaining about A whilst celebrating B is significantly more hypocritical.
You’re the one trivializing things by putting job loss and prison on the same footing.
> never offered to do the work themselves just demanded it be done for them or they'll keep harassing.<p>I mean if you've worked much in open source, that is pretty much how nearly <i>every</i> feature request and bug report goes unfortunately.
<i>I renamed my codebase's primary branch to main because someone complained.</i><p>versus<p><i>I was abducted by ICE agents and shipped to a supermax prison in El Salvador without due process.</i>
Top one is worse in reality. 2 reasons.<p>1. It didn't stop there. While that's the only example you listed, it's indicative of how embedded and vast the demands were. As you know, it wasn't just github master branches. That's just how vast it was, even super specific stuff like that was hit with political extortion. Against many Americans that did nothing wrong and were only expressing their 2A right.<p>2. All people shipped to El Salvador are illegals and criminals. Any example you have can be debunked. Like the "maryland father" who was actually in MS-13 and participated in human trafficking (and admitted in his previous deportation defense in 2019 he feared for his life from a "rival gang", indicating he was in a gang)
How many of the conservatives complaining about it would support government regulations preventing people from being fired for expressing controversial viewpoints? AFAIK those complaining are the same people who support ‘at will’ employment and the liberty of religious organizations to impose more or less arbitrarily discriminatory hiring standards. So yeah, in that lax regulatory environment, your employer might decide to fire you if you (e.g.) feel the need to be an asshole to your trans colleagues.
They got themselves fired. People who wrote things didn't get themselves disappeared to a holding site in Louisiana.
Very refreshing to finally see people on HN call out the ridiculousness of the "both sides" arguments when it comes to this topic.
Extremism on any side is bad, period. 'But they are worse' is sort of moot point and most people don't care about details, you simply lose normal audience and maybe gain some fringe.
Thanks for proving his point...
This strikes me as someone on the left complaining that they fucked around and now they are finding out. I don’t mean this in a malicious way but the lack of self reflection and perspective is staggering.
One ban consists of the exercise of their right to... Not associate with you.<p>The other sends you to a Salvadoran gulag. (The silence from all the 'free speech' folks on this point is deafening.)<p>It's odd that one ban operates within the constraints of freedom (the freedom to associate requires the exercise of the freedom to <i>not</i> associate), while the other does not. It's almost like there's a categorical distinction.<p>It's utterly pointless to say that the starting point is the same, when one is an utter sabotage of all of society's rights and values... While the other is people affirming those rights.
That's because the extent of the illiberal behavior of the radical left was yelling and "cancel culture" while the present behavior of the illiberal right is abductions and overseas slave camps. You can see why people might find having the two equated a little ridiculous, right?
It's not an equation in what it does to people. Yes, abduction is worse than being yelled at.<p>However, it's pointing out that the general principle has been established: "People whose opinion I don't like can be banned from society." At first, it's only removing individuals from public discourse (cancel culture), then it's removing people physically (deportation).<p>This is always the endgame of eroding core liberal values. This has been pointed out to the illiberal left time and time again, to no avail.
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Part of the problem here is that you're abstracting the actions of a handful of relatively powerless people to a principle: "People whose opinion I don't like can be banned from society." The 'I' here is, from your framing, the 'left' or something.<p>Strawman. The fired people you're talking about weren't banned from society by the people pointing them out on the internet. If someone's on an international flight yelling racial slurs and causing a commotion, and someone else publishes video of that person yelling racial slurs on an international flight, it's not the people commenting on the video who fired that person from their job. It's their employers. What would be the alternative? No one takes video of the person yelling racial slurs? Or, if the video is posted, no one comments on it? Or, maybe, the person yelling racial slurs could simply avoid losing their employment by not yelling racial slurs on a flight full of people with their phones out? Or maybe the employer could choose to ignore the negative publicity and keep the person on staff despite the risk to their revenue? Who exactly is the responsible party here?<p>I generally find it pointless to point out that 'right' perspectives suffer from a lack of practical logic--pointing out the fundamental irrationality of a position rarely changes the mind of the person holding that position. But, your position ignores power differential between people--your argument is a matter of 'principle,' but this isn't fundamentally about principles.<p>Is your argument then that a person yelling racial slurs on a full airplane shouldn't have their employment threatened by their behavior? That their employer shouldn't fire them?
First it’s people disagreeing with me, then it’s deportation to the death camps. There is zero nuance and the slippery slope is basically guaranteed so I should have freedom of consequence for everything I do!
talk about zero nuance,
people here started comparing to concentration camps, and now you are at death camps<p>just a quick reminder, the ghettos which had far better living conditions than concentration camps (not death camps), had people living on 180 calories a day and ended with more than a half a million dead<p>so please, proportions, this is an insult to history
> That's because the extent of the illiberal behavior of the radical left was yelling and "cancel culture" while the present behavior of the illiberal right is abductions and overseas slave camps. You can see why people might find having the two equated a little ridiculous, right?<p>You are correct - one is objectively worse than the other.<p>The unfortunate truth is that, also, one is a <i>consequence</i> of the other.<p>Trump is simply doing what his voters wanted[1]. And they voted for him <i>precisely</i> because `of the illiberal behavior of the radical left was yelling and "cancel culture"`.<p>Had the first thing not happened, then the consequence would have been a fictional story in an alternate timeline.<p>But here we are, and we don't get to say "Sure, we were assholes to 50% of the population, but your response is <i>worse</i>".<p>[1] Spoiler - they may not even want it anymore!
Free speech in the US is about not having consequences for what you are saying. In particular not having consequences from the government. Therefor you can only say that it is a legitimate consequence if you disregard free speech. Free speech in the US is about being able to be an asshole to 10%, 50% or 90% of the population without having to be responsible for what that part of the population does. And even more so what they do with the government. As such if you believe in free speech the government's actions stand on their own. What you actually don't get to say is that it is a consequence. Because that is what free speech in the US is supposed to prevent. Consequences from the government.<p>In many countries in Europe we have hate speech and defamation laws, we don't have at-will employment and many of our universities are public. This means there is less freedom to make others upset, questioning someone's character, firing them and ways to affect our education. This is by definition illiberal. (Worse or not is an open question). In Europe we can't say that "I might have offended 50% of the population, but sending me to prison is worse" because our laws says it isn't. In the US you can.<p>Does US law also say that the government can do all kinds of things, including pardoning criminals? Yes, but it still goes against the credibility of free speech in the US. One of the things the US still had over other countries.
Eh, you can prove anything but starting history at a particular point.<p>For instance, "GamerGate", where a bunch of anonymous people on the internet tried to get a number of women in the game industry fired, predates "cancel culture" by a year or two.<p>Or how the whole #MeToo movement was, you know, a response to powerful people abusing people in their power, and firing or otherwise limiting their careers if they resisted.<p>If <insert famous talking head from ten years ago> didn't want to be "canceled", well, he could have always just <i>not</i> sexually harassed his underlings.
> Eh, you can prove anything but starting history at a particular point.<p>I'm not trying to "prove" anything; I'm merely pointing out that while it is true that $BAR is objectively worse than $FOO, it is equally true that $FOO is a direct consequence of $BAR.<p>In my other response to another poster I pointed out that many of us on forums that effectively silenced opposing viewpoints reminded readers that it's best to refrain from going to extremes because the pendulum always swings back, and that is what we are seeing now.<p>In much the same way, I'll point out that the pendulum always swings back and we are going to see a return to the previous extremes when people get tired of this extreme.
Not really. In both cases, compulsion is the problem. Neither side has the right to compel anyone to do anything, but they operate on the premise that they do, usually characterized by indignant self-rightiousness. The irrational extremists of both sides, the ones screaming the loudest, naturally, seek to enforce their version of "how things should be" on to other people, regardless if their objections are rational or not, while also constantly changing the rules or shifting goal posts, which keeps us forever locked in a state of not knowing if we are breaking them. It's mind-numbing to a degree that apathy starts to seem like a perfectly valid option. It's also a tactic historically used by totalitarianism.<p>They are two sides of the same monster, like Jekyll & Hyde.
Surely one can find ways to fight the irrational, inconsequential leftists (which there are many) without bullying institutions by cutting their funding, or kidnapping people in broad daylight in the street?<p>Civilized western countries do it all the time.
Absolutely. A functional civilization hinges on rational, equitable and cooperative solutions. Extremists are not interested in those things, though. They want what they want and they want it now with all the petulance and emotional regulation of a spoiled toddler.
> while the present behavior of the illiberal right is abductions and overseas slave camps<p>Can you provide examples of people getting abducted and sent to "overseas slave camps" purely for their speech?
Reminder to anyone triggered by a “both sides” comment:<p>just like you, we are all aware of how the sides are different, it is valid to be more annoyed by the ways they are the same
Good luck in that case ;)
Everything is a flip side of the same coin if you abstract away from all the important details.<p>Oh the right say that some things are bad? Well the left say that some things are bad too!<p>These lazy equivalencies only breed cynicism and give intellectual cover to the Trump
administration’s executive power grab. By all means criticize the left as much as you like. But the specifics are important. The current administration’s deportation of green card holders without due process isn’t somehow a mirror image of whatever excesses of left wing ‘cancel culture’ you may be upset about.
Oh bugger off with your both sides horsewash
We're doing a dictatorship, cosplaying as having freedoms.
You can’t overlook the distinction between US citizens and non-citizens. The US has the prerogative to filter immigrants based on their views and affiliations. For example, the Supreme Court has upheld provisions of immigration laws that allow deportation of communists: <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/342/580" rel="nofollow">https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/342/580</a>. Similarly, 8 U.S.C. 1182 enables the Secretary of State to exclude aliens based on "the alien's past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations." The government can't punish Americans for just being a communist, but the government isn't required to invite non-citizen communists into the U.S. or allow them to stay.<p>It’s not a speech issue, just as it’s not a speech issue if you’re interviewing for a government job and the government denies you because you said you hate america. Non-citizens have speech rights, just as they have other rights, but that’s circumscribed by the fact that they’re only allowed to be in the US at the invitation of the government. Donating to political campaigns is free speech, but non-citizens aren’t allowed to do that either. Similarly, nobody denies that non-citizens are protected under the equal protection clause. But nobody seriously argues the immigration laws nationality quotas are unconstitutional discrimination.
The government may be within its legal rights. As an expression of values however it's hard not to see the expulsion of these students as petty politicalized retaliation. The sort of thing you would see in an electoral autocracy as opposed to a liberal democracy.
That only Americans have the right to participate in our political system is an expression of values. And it’s entirely compatible with democracy. The citizen versus non-citizen distinction is fundamental to democracy.
If you're a guest, act like a guest. Anti-Israel protests are by extension a protest against the US foreign policy, so yeah... You protest your host in a violent and disruptive manner, you probably shouldn't have been allowed in to begin with.
Not in my America.<p>I welcome any and all persons from anywhere in the world if they want to come and protest the American war machine<p>Our forefathers would be absolutely ashamed at what you just said. Protesting a totalitarian government that lacks proper representation is the most American thing you can possibly do, and that makes these immigrants more American than you will ever be, as long as you hold such views.<p>Edit: It seems you have edited your post in order to remove the extremely distasteful language you originally expressed. I assume you still hold such views or you'd not have expressed them to begin with, and as such my comment still stands.
> Our forefathers would be absolutely ashamed...<p>Well, like <i>half</i> of our forefathers. Maybe 30%.<p>America has always been this weird combined project of Hopeless Idealists and The Worst People In The World. Our forefathers sought independence for freedom and self-determination and all sorts of other noble things, but also because many of them owned a bunch of slaves and were worried that was going to be outlawed in the near future. And then sought independence again a century later out of the same fear.
Fuck that!<p>We have this thing called the First Amendment. It applies to <i>all</i> people under the jurisdiction of the United States. There’s no exception for “guests.” Criticizing the government is a time-honored American tradition. Throwing people out for it is absolutely vile.
Americans can criticize their government all they want. Foreigners shouldn’t have no input in the american political system. The first amendment is the exception to the democratic rule, not the other way around.
Foreigners aren't allowed to vote or donate. They should be allowed to voice their opinions on the government, though. In my opinion, anyone who says foreigners in the country shouldn't criticize the government is less American than said foreigners.
>the First Amendment . . . applies to all people under the jurisdiction of the United States.<p>Not according to the Supreme Court it doesn't.
Making America subservient to Israel's interests is anti-American. The fascist zionists play at being "America first" but this couldn't be further from the truth.
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> The US has the prerogative to filter immigrants based on their views and affiliations.<p>What comes before “filter[ing] immigrants” is due process. Resident aliens have the right to due process which the current US administration is not providing.<p>Alien residents with every right to be here are being removed from the US illegally and mistakenly.
I am not sure there's technically a due process right in the case of immigration visa revocation and the ensuing deportation. There is a due process right in the case of crimes, but getting your visa revoked is not a crime.<p>The best argument I have heard is that visa revocation may be like firing: the US can do it for almost any reason and you can fire someone for no reason, but can't do it for specific prohibited reasons. Speech would probably be one of those bad reasons under the US's civil rights framework.
> The best argument I have heard is that visa revocation may be like firing: the US can do it for almost any reason and you can fire someone for no reason, but can't do it for specific prohibited reasons. Speech would probably be one of those bad reasons under the US's civil rights framework.<p>No, the U.S. has the prerogative to pick and choose foreigners who are allowed to immigrate based on categories that would be impermissible for employers. That includes nationality, e.g. our green card quota system, as well as speech and affiliation. The Supreme Court has upheld deporting communists who are foreign nationals: <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/342/580/" rel="nofollow">https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/342/580/</a>.<p>This is reflected in the statute. Aliens can specifically be excluded for political beliefs and views if the Secretary of State determines that is necessary: "An alien, not described in clause (ii), shall not be excludable or subject to restrictions or conditions on entry into the United States under clause (i) because of the alien's past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations, if such beliefs, statements, or associations would be lawful within the United States, unless the Secretary of State personally determines that the alien's admission would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest." 8 USC 1182(a)(4)(C)(iii).
I think the real argument here is a constitutional one about that statute, not about the statute itself. It is unlikely, though, that the supreme court would reverse its stance here.
The current statute reflects the Supreme Court’s precedents on the issue. The Supreme Court precedent, in turn, reflects the fundamental difference between citizens and non-citizens. The government has plenary power, constitutionally, to decide who is permitted to enter the united states and on what terms.
If there's no due process for <i>everyone</i>, that distinction literally does not matter in the slightest!<p>Dozens of citizens could have been sent into slave labor for all we know, and no judge has been able to provide the constitutionally mandated oversight. It has been upheld many times and for hundreds of years that the Due Process clause applies to non-citizens for this reason.
Due process only means “This is the minimum required process for the government to act”. It doesn’t mean that every non-citizen is entitled to a jury trial that can escalate to the USSC.<p>In some cases, “due process” is “Your name made it into a spreadsheet, the President can drone strike you”
Due process doesn’t require judicial process.
> The US has the prerogative to filter immigrants based on their views and affiliations.<p>Just to point, the prerogative to "filter" immigrants does not allow the US to keep them in jail, torture, or send them to foreign countries non-supervised labor camps.
Ok, I'll bite: in your view, what were the illiberal "demands" post-2020? Reading tfa, this kind of rendering feels a little too pat for him. Namely, its one thing to argue against the kind of knee-jerk moralism of well-meaning woke liberal arts kids, its quite another to imply a kind of "capital L" program to "chill speech."<p>Like, c'mon, are we really still doing this <i>now</i>? Roth himself is sensible enough to not be, in his words, "blaming the victim" at this point, what calls you to essentially do it for him anyway? It's nothing but out of touch at this point, and adds nothing to the discourse but conspiratorial noise. If I may assume a rough age based on your forthrightness, any single kid in school in 2020 was and is a lot less culpable for this current moment than you or I. We can set an example and be mature enough to own that, instead of, I don't know, forever being tortured by the real or perceived condescension of kids.
It is a smaller step to further the justifications than to deal with the often severe implications (to the self-image) of having been wrong. The more obvious it becomes having been wrong, the more necessary the justifications are and the more absurd they become. As having someone accepting your absurd justifications becomes proof of being blameless.
<i>It's nothing but out of touch at this point, and adds nothing to the discourse</i><p>Exactly. Its a communications problem.<p>Its hard to have a decent critical conversation when one side has a biased view about $symbol. Both communicating parties need to reach the same interpretation of a message, otherwise the conversation is broken. Thats why you shouldnt say the N-word or throw out a heil heart on stage (unless you want to hide behind this ambiguity). Or why its so difficult to have critical conversations with strong believers, for you its just evolution or vaccines but for the other side it may affect the core of their identity and the ape goes defense mode.<p>The result is that the discourse does not deal with differentiated cases but _only_ with simplistic labels like "chill speech", "woke", etc. because the more biased side drags it down into the mud.<p>For instance, the "chill speech" label is actually dependent on the "racist" label that initiated it. If a case shows clear racist behavior, then dismissing the lefts reaction as censorship is unjustified or biased. The other way works too, if there is no racist behavior, the censorship blame would be justified.<p>And since you cant look into peoples heads to clearly identify racist intentions, it falls back to interpreting messages. The problem with biased people is, they are not aware even of their unawareness. If you would ask Musk whether he is a neo-nazi, his response would be something like "hell no". Fast forward the dystopian timeline and his response might be "always have been".<p>The left has IMO more unbiased awareness about systemic issues -- but is not free of bias either. The right is in its core biased indentity politics about $culture -- but is not totally host to tribalism either.<p>My advise, avoid popular symbols at all cost and if you come close to using one, augment it with case specific background, even a vague "_unjustified_ chill of speech" would suffice. If someone opens with "the woke left" and shows no signs of differentiation -- or even better, acknowledgement of core leftist topics -- i mentally turn away. The comment you replied to was about personal anekdotes and projections and the one symbol that rubs me the wrong way too, even before trumps abuse.
> Wesleyan has a rich history of activism and protest, and not always entirely peaceful (Roth’s predecessor, Doug Bennet, had his office firebombed at one point).<p>Arson is not protest. Arson is a VIOLENT type of activism, which is legally classified as terrorism.<p>Trump (or anybody) shouldn't be allowed to punish folks for speech or peaceful protest. Unfortunately, folks are calling VIOLENT acts like arson and battery "protest", and threats of bodily harm "speech" ("harassment" or "assault" under most US criminal law) -- we should be in favor of the government stepping in to protect people from arson, battery, and assault/ harassment.<p>> he did not give in to the illiberal demands of the left to chill speech post-2020,<p>Roth has been president since 2007. What was his response to Nick Christakis's struggle session (plenty of video of that) or Erika Christakis leaving Yale, after she penned an e-mail that students should be able to handle Halloween costumes they find offensive?<p>The American Left has been illiberal and going after speech for decades; it didn't start post-2020.
If the state is illegitimate then it is permissible or perhaps an obligation to topple it, according to people like the revolutionaries that founded the USA. That is, it doesn't necessarily matter what is legal or not, if the state misbehaves then you should put it to the guillotine or fire or bear arms or whatever suits you.<p>As an outsider it's always funny to see people write about the "American Left", as if there were any leftist movements of national importance in the US. As if Food Not Bombs had at some point had a majority in congress or something, it's just a ridiculous idea. If that happened there would be a bloody purge, Pinochet style but bigger.
Just so. The First Amendment assures the right to peacefully assemble and speak your mind, not to commit arson. Violent attacks aren't free speech and should always be prosecuted.
It's not that hard as a foreign student to not join political protests in favor of terrorist groups. Also this isn't that unusual of a standard. Many countries completely ban non citizens from joining political protests, even ostensibly western countries.
>It's not that hard as a foreign student to not join political protests in favor of terrorist groups.<p>I obviously don't support terrorism, but people unambiguously have the right to protest in favour of terrorist groups. It's only when they provide material support to these groups that they actually commit a crime.
Who is supporting terrorist groups? Pro-Palestinian protesting is not support for terrorism.
Nothing in that article implies supporting terrorism. They support Palestine.<p>People conflating supporting Palestine with supporting terrorism should be ashamed of themselves, as Israel is the biggest terror state in the world.
Well, when it comes to conflating, I'll take your calling Israel a terror state as a standard: The democratically elected government of Gaza-Palestine is the Hamas, which is a terrorist organisation. Thus by your conflation regarding Israel to be a terror state, the Gaza strip part of Palestine is as well. Its population chose a known terrorist organisation, everything is run by a terrorist organisation, they did terrorist things such as bombings, abductions and murders of innocent civilians. Thus (Gaza-)Palestine is therefore a terror state. Supporting it is therefore supporting terrorism.<p>Thus either you apply your conflating standard equally, Palestine and Israel are both terror states, and any support of them is supporting terrorism. Or you rather differentiate, and separate Palestine as an abstract concept of a hypothetical future homestead of the Palestinians from the Hamas, the Fatah and other (mostly terrorist) organisations that govern it, and the population that, in parts, is governed by them and elects and supports or opposes them and their actions. But if you do that, you will also have to differentiate between Israel as a state, its military, government, parties, population and their respective support and actions.<p>In that second case you can support Palestine as an abstract idea without supporting terrorism, you can support the population and their rights, hopes and struggle. As you can do with Israel and their people. However, on pro-Palestine protests, I've never really seen this kind of differentiation applied, I've seen far too many Hamas flags, heard far too many calls to wipe Israel from the map, far too many praises for terrorists (called "martyrs"). Thus, in practically all cases, I'd without hesitation call supporters of Palestine supporters of terrorism.
> Hamas, which is a terrorist organisation.<p>According to the New York Times, Netanhayu was propping up Hamas in the weeks and months before the current conflict ( <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-qatar-money-prop-up-hamas.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/world/middleeast/israel-q...</a> ). This has been happening since the beginning of Hamas.<p>The government over there has been supporting Hamas since the beginning, because they don't want to deal with Fatah going to the UN. Everything recently is the result of that. So don't come around talking about Hamas. Especially since Netanyahu and his US counterparts are trying to sideline Fatah, and are persecuting secular Palestinians like Samidoun and the PFLP more than Hamas. The US, Canada, Germany etc. crack down on the seculat, left-leaning Samidoun so that only Hamas is left standing in Gaza.
I think it's wise to separate the future of both Israel and Palestine from their present. In 100 years there will be surviving Israelis and surviving Palestinians and they'll have a view of the present generation.
A few issues:<p>- "The democratically elected government of Gaza-Palestine is the Hamas" Hamas is not a democratic government, period. Elections you're talking about were almost 20 years ago. It's like calling Trumpistan 20 years from now a democracy, if Trump today declares he'll live forever, and that there will be no more elections, and enough MAGA Americans help him persevering.<p>- Israel's struggle is the Zionist dream of creating a Jewish state by any means. Means have been pretty violent and treacherous, from international terrorism, assassinations of diplomats, to mass killings and violent displacement of 100s of thousands of indigenous people, unilateral declaration of statehood over someone else's land, etc. Indigenous people have been revolting against this since way before Hamas even existed. It's quite something to bothside this, or even invert this, and call indigenous people terrorists, while violent immigrant invaders and land thieves are somehow legitimate state.<p>- Martyr != terrorist, it's anyone killed in some manner in relation to the above political context. If a child is shot in the head by Israel's soldiers, it will be called a martyr. Executed ICRC workers were called martyrs, etc.
"The antisemite does not accuse the Jew of stealing because he thinks he stole something. He does it because he enjoys watching the Jew turn out his pockets to prove his innocence."<p>Although I laud your unassailable argument highlighting yet another instance of double standards against Jews, ultimately there is little upside in engaging with the "no, no, technically there is a difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism" crowd. I am sad that Hacker News is rife with this kind of bigotry, but I don't see the tide of this battle turning anytime soon.<p>In case, dear reader, you are one of the intellectually curious ones who holds the opposing viewpoint, ask yourself why you demand that only the Jews lack the right to self determination?
This guy perhaps?<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c934y9kv07eo.amp" rel="nofollow">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c934y9kv07eo.amp</a>
Maybe Palestine should stop supporting Hamas. It looks like they couldn’t get enough of it.
> Many countries completely ban non citizens from joining political protests, even ostensibly western countries.<p>Which ones?
In the UK we don't discriminate based on citizenship, or even if the protests are political or not !<p>Protest marches - no wait, the term is less specific: "public processions" - can have restrictions imposed for basically any reason. Restrictions can be imposed if (this is just a selection):<p>- They basically generate noise<p>- May cause prolonged disruption of access to any essential goods or any essential service<p>- May cause the prevention of, or a hindrance that is more than minor to, the carrying out of day-to-day activities<p>- May cause the prevention of, or a delay that is more than minor to, the delivery of a time-sensitive product to consumers of that product<p>Not forgetting there are probably 10-20 general Public Order Offences that can be used against a person, such as wilful obstruction of a highway or public nuisance.<p>Then we also have Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (SDPOs). SDPOs are civil orders that enable courts to place conditions or restrictions on an individual aged over 18 (such as restrictions on where they can go and when) with the aim of preventing them from engaging in protest-related activity that could cause disruption. Breaching an SDPO is a criminal offence.<p>And the cherry on the cake: by law you must tell the police in writing 6 days before a public march if you're the organiser (which is to say, get the police's permission)
Laws around protests here in the UK are certainly problematic, but I haven't heard of ant cases where this would have been specifically used against students from abroad.
The subjects of His Majesty have never been free
Technically we're subjects but the King has zero executive powers. His soft powers are perhaps another topic. Point being we're in effect, citizens and subject to the (very variable) laws of the country like any other country. Currently freedom of expression in the UK is highly problematic but that's a temporary issue with the current administration. No subjects or citizens in any country are ever free as in free beer. So I suppose you're correct.
There are very very few people who can be classed as "British subjects", the vast majority are British citizens since at least 1983.<p>From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_subject" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_subject</a> :<p>"Currently, it refers to people possessing a class of British nationality largely granted under limited circumstances to those connected with Ireland or British India born before 1949. Individuals with this nationality are British nationals and Commonwealth citizens, but not British citizens."
Germany bans pro-Palestine protests (officially they're still legal, but they've been arresting people since it began and they've just started deporting people for participating in completely legal protests) but I think that's a slightly different criterion than the one you asked for.
Correct. Here's a DW video on it: <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-deport-pro-palestinian-protesters/video-72132041" rel="nofollow">https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-deport-pro-palestinian-prot...</a><p>There is a fight over this being done with or without due process.
Incorrect:<p>"They are accused of indirectly supporting Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization in Germany."<p>2nd sentence from your link.<p>Supporting terrorist organizations is not legal in Germany. Supporting terrorist organizations is not the same a being Pro-Palestinian. Unless you think that all Palestinians are terrorists, which I do not.
Yes, and Germany considers protests against anything Israel does in Gaza to be support for Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization in Germany.<p>That's why I told you: officially, protesting is legal, but they still arrest and deport people for protesting.<p>This newspaper may not think they're the same thing, but the police do.
While the protests are per se not illegal, the people arrested aren't accused of just protesting, they are accused of supporting a terrorist organisation. The right to free speech isn't as all-encompassing in Germany as it is in the USA, so shouting the wrong slogans can very well get you in trouble.<p>Also, the right to protest in public only applies to German citizens:
<a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_8.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_8.html</a><p>Foreigners are usually still free to do it, but they don't have a constitutionally protected right to public protests.
Non-citizens in Germany have no free speech rights period. You get banned and deported even for making lectures about unfavorable topics, as it seems.<p>That's quite different from protesting, since you're not making anyone listen to you. Lecture/conference is an offer, that Germans and others may take out of their own interest to learn about what you have to say.<p>That also infringes on the German citizens, because you're attempting to limit them from what they may choose to learn.
> While the protests are per se not illegal, the people arrested aren't accused of just protesting, they are accused of supporting a terrorist organisation. The right to free speech isn't as all-encompassing in Germany as it is in the USA, so shouting the wrong slogans can very well get you in trouble.<p>Yes, that's correct. Anyone who protests and grabs the attention of the police is accused of supporting a terrorist organisation. That's why I added the information that although they protest completely legally, they still get arrested and deported. The pretense for the arrest and deportation is that protesting to stop the carpet bombing of Gaza supports Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organisation.
No. What is not allowed is calls for genocide ("From the river to the sea") and support for terrorist organizations.<p>And yes, if you are a guest in a country, supporting genocide and terrorism can get you deported.<p>But the police has been extremely lax in enforcement. These protests still basically always have these characteristics and there is no action by the police.<p>It is pathetic.
> Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Supporting Palestinians that Israel has been killing for over a year (+50k killed, most were women and children), while starving the rest and ethnically cleansing them, is not supporting terrorism.
1. Hamas bears the moral responsibility for all of the suffering in the war they started on October 7th, and the Palestinian people bear the moral responsibility of electing and supporting them (and participating in the invasion, and not returning the hostages).<p>2. Even Hamas now admits most deaths have been military aged males: <a href="https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-848592" rel="nofollow">https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-848592</a><p>3. How can you argue that Gaza has been starved and ethnically cleansed when the population of the Gaza strip has increased since the start of the war?
Too many have been killed, for sure, but you should probably use sources other than the Hamas Health Ministry:<p><a href="https://www.euronews.com/2025/04/03/hamas-run-health-ministry-quietly-removes-thousands-from-gaza-death-toll-researchers-find" rel="nofollow">https://www.euronews.com/2025/04/03/hamas-run-health-ministr...</a>
Not supporting Palestine is supporting terrorism.
Except that in USA "You're brown, I don't like you" is terrorism.
I strongly agree, unfortunately they feel strongly differently after spending a lot of money to get on the courses.
Frankly the law of the land is the latter, but this is one of the problems with cladding cultures and attitudes which needs addressing rather than glossing over...
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ah, some both sides claims while people are disappeared
They'll make it through if they bend the knee. Otherwise the regime will destroy them, and the conclusion will be that it's all because of these darned radical leftists.
> They'll make it through if they bend the knee. Otherwise the regime will destroy them, and the conclusion will be that it's all because of these darned radical leftists.<p>Well, it <i>is</i>, isn't it? They required complete loyalty to the ideology before accepting any faculty: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/us/ucla-dei-statement.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/us/ucla-dei-statement.htm...</a><p>They shouldn't have gone that far.
Columbia has an endowment that stands (pre- Liberation Day) at 15 billion dollars.<p>They kowtowed to some of the militant Zionist interests involved in that endowment in order to attain a fractionally higher return, and betrayed their students.<p>They kowtowed to the fascist administration on the grounds that it was threatening 400 million dollars in grants, and betrayed their students to the point of facilitating a project to unilaterally deport many of them based on Constitutionally protected quasi-private speech.<p>At this point I don't think they want or deserve to be called a university. Let's go with "Tax-exempt investment fund".
Do you think calling for the genocide of Jews violates Columbia's codes of conduct on harassment and bullying?<p>I think people were upset about the hypocrisy. For years, every minor transgression against a marginalized group was met with swift disciplinary response and thorough investigation. And now they can't even offer a straight answer on a simple question and suddenly turned into free speech absolutists.<p>It's fine to be either one, but don't piss on me and tell me its raining.
>Do you think calling for the genocide of Jews<p>I'm guessing the motte associated with this particular bailey won't be nearly as clear in its violation of such codes.
There is an ongoing genocide in Gaza and genocidal language is commonplace in Zionist discourse. If there are cases of hate speech on the pro Palestinian side, they pale in comparison to speech from the other side.<p>Regardless we shouldn’t be rounding up and imprisoning folks if they disagree with your politics. This is what is getting lost in this specific case.
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Your argument is so out of touch I can only assume it’s being made in bad faith.<p>Many of the pro-Palestinian protesters are also Jewish. Equating all Jewish people with Israel and Zionism is insidious and misleading.
What on Earth? How is their argument out of touch or made in bad faith? It's a reasonable and popular line of reasoning that you disagree with strongly. Assuming the best possible interpretation is one of our community guidelines, please follow it.
The punishment needs to be commisserate with the crime, and dealt with through due process; to do otherwise is distinctly un-american (see 1st amendment on freedom of assembly, 4th amendment on freedoms from unreasonable state actions: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons[...] against unreasonable searches and seizures", and especially the 5th amendment: "[no person shall] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law").<p>What we are seeing at Colombia University (as well as the country at large) is the continual abridgement of these rights. Note that for the fifth amendendment specifically, the constitution refers to any person, not just citizens. Those here legally are entitled to due process protections under the law.<p>The following argument relies on the following: (1) Universities historically have been the the catalysts of change through student protest. (2) Peaceful protest is a right of the people that shall not be abridged. (3) Public Universities (being government institutuions themselves; see campus police and jurisdiction) have a duty of care to protect their students.<p>With the above holding true, the argument against this being a "betrayal" falls facially flat, as it is a severe consequence that the university capitulated to, and had a duty to prevent. The arument boiled down to "they were being disruptive, so we should get rid of them," because the betrayal amounted to the jailing and deportations (or attempted deportations, in some cases) for the "crime" of being nonviolently disruptive in a public place.<p>Without articulating a legally rationed basis for a criminally sanctionable offense, an equivalent is threatening to jail and deport construction workers when they block a business entryway. In general, you do not have a right to be merely inconvienced by others in a public space.
The second paragraph answers your second question, actually.
Except they're not mainstream Jewish. Jewish Voice for Peace has been linked to known terrorists and receives support from anti-Jewish interests. At best, they're "useful idiots" but more realistically they were long corrupted by anti-semitic interests.<p><a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/jewish-voice-peace-jvp" rel="nofollow">https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/jewish-voice-peac...</a>
> What you're looking for is a town square where everyone can protest to their hearts content. You're not looking for a place of quiet contemplation and study.<p>The university quad, a multipurpose public space designated for students, is basically the only type of public, physical town square left in this entire country.
I’m Jewish. If you want to support me, you’ll let people protest and definitely not throw people out of the country just because they wrote something supporting Gaza.
As another Jew, the way non-Jews are using us as a cudgel to crack down on free speech certainly doesn't feel like "support". As one of history's leading targets when it comes time to scapegoat a minority, I get more antisemitic vibes from the "we have to sacrifice our American ideals to protect the Jews" folks than the "stop killing Palestinians" ones.
Right on. And the conflation of anti-Israel and anti-Jew feels really dangerous, considering the current state of affairs in Israel.<p>I'm an American, thankyouverymuch. I've been to Israel once. I don't care a whole lot about the place either way. Acting like I must be aggrieved when someone attacks that country is doing far more damage to me than the attack.
I remember first hearing of the "not in our name" protests (very early on) and thinking "I'm so glad I'm not the only person who realizes that what is being presented as patronization is blame."
A significant number of Columbia students are Jewish and were largely protesting the genocide. Almost the entirety of this movement had zero issue with Jews, only with the actions of Israel and Zionism. A significant number of outside agitators were older Jewish Zionists or (often) Zionist evangelicals who lived within driving distance and wanted to start a fight. 50 year old drunk men wearing Israeli flags and pushing into the crowd in groups.<p>I watched this narrative get created and promoted without any evidence; Video after video showed peaceful and surprisingly media-savvy students (I mean, it is Columbia). Every politician and most media organizations taking direct input from Israeli government officials or AIPAC. On MSNBC and CNN we heard voice after voice after voice pronouncing expert opinions on the shame of this protest/terrorism in an Israeli accent. Administration officials trying to expel anybody caught on camera who was identifiable. While the bombs dropped on Gaza.<p>I can't say with any confidence that there was absolutely zero conflict, but the absolute confidence that every figure of authority immediately brought to bear on the subject of all Jews being purged by Hamas terrorists from Columbia and needing the National Guard to be called out to protect them? It was beyond the pale.<p>All of the video I watched of actual Zionist students (or student-aged people) had them victim-posing for social media after throwing themselves into the protest and being largely ignored.
The complaint was passed through the US President.<p>Against a liberal university.<p>And ICE is picking students up.<p>—<p>I mean… this isn’t the kind of liberal university I think of; places which have fought regularly for their ideas and for advancement.
What bothers me the most about all these protests and going-ons at universities and colleges is that they are generally by 18-22 year olds who are pre-adults still in their formative years who still have a lot of learning and growing up to do.
I suppose that means you don't know about the rich history of college protests that were instrumental in progressing human rights over the last 100 years?
What bothers me is the ageist assumption that "full-adults", say, boomers, are somehow more educated, less indoctrinated, or less prejudiced than young adults
Harvard's rolling over was particularly annoying, they have a 52 billion dollar endowment! If any university could afford to make a stand and lose funding over it it's Harvard. What's the point of this massive pile of money if you never dip into it in exceptional circumstances?
I don't see much talk of donors? My impression is that, as in many situations, the super-wealthy are forming a dominant class - as if it's their right - rather than respect democracy and freedom, and attacking university freedom. Didn't some person engineer the Harvard leader's exit?<p>Roth says the Wesleyan board is supportive; maybe they are just lucky.
A lot of Americans support these attacks on universities. Why do people harbour this much animosity towards these institutions? Is there anything they could have done differently in the past decade or two to have broader sympathy now, or is people's ambivalence towards elite universities 100% irrational?
There are some reasons that I think you probably know, which don't receive enough time and attention<p>1) Despite an appearance of being "left leaning" (according to polls of faculty political sentiment) they continue to gatekeep education behind prohibitively expensive tuition that is out of reach of lower economic strata without crippling debt, and have simultaneously struggled to produce graduates whose economic differential easily makes up for that expense and lost work time.<p>2) They enjoy a tax free status while receiving significant tax money despite many failing to grow their student bodies in tandem with the growth of the US population, leading to people questioning whether they deserve those benefits as institutions that serve the public.<p>3) There is a sentiment that basic literacy and numeracy of graduates has dropped over the last decades outside of a narrow area of studies, because of a shift to a model where students are customers buying a credential instead of getting an education.<p>(These are all interrelated, of course.)
I have multiple family members that are frustrated with higher learning because their children came out of the system more liberal-minded than when they entered. In this politically divided climate they feel like the university system “stole” their children from them.<p>In reality I don’t think people’s political opinions change very much and they are just mad that their children individuated.
> In reality I don’t think people’s political opinions change very much and they are just mad that their children individuated.<p>I think this probably the case as well. If I look back at how my own views shifted, the shift very likely would’ve happened regardless of if I’d attended university, assuming everything else was the same. It wasn’t the university that resulted in the shift as much as it was my getting out of my local bubble out into the world and experiencing it for myself.<p>Basically any kind of life experience that brings a young person to actually <i>think</i> and more deeply consider the world around them is likely to result in some level of individuation and shift away from inherited views. It’s perfectly natural and healthy.
But the most likely life experiences to do that are ones that put a person in touch with new ideas and new situations. Universities are much better positioned to generate such experiences than, say, most jobs. To some degree, those that have attempted to be at least nominally more diverse (economically/racially/...) are also the sorts of places where students are more likely to meet other people who are not like them in <i>some</i> important ways, and this has always been the sort of experience that preferentially tilts most people towards liberal/progressive ideas.
People's political opinions definitely change, especially with age and wealth.
The biggest change happens if your mental horizon widens.
They do change to some degree, but I believe that age and wealth are not nearly as strong of factors as popular culture might have one think.
I guess it depends. 40 years later, I vote completely opposite to what I did when I was 18-20 years old.
That sort of breaks out as to personal values versus Overton window. It has been an extreme shift towards authoritarianism in the US -- to the point where case after case of folks with moral courage call it out despite where they stood even 10 years ago.
Just curious: in which direction on the political spectrum have your preferences moved?
Younger people with student loans, credit card balances, and good health might eventually become older people with retirement savings, investments, and poor health.
> In reality I don’t think people’s political opinions change very much and they are just mad that their children individuated.<p>That seems to be missing the elephant in the room - they sent kids in their most formative intellectual years to immerse themselves in a culture where there is a very high child:adult ratio. Then the kids come back with this wild culture that would make a lot of sense to a bunch of teenagers and young adults. It isn't just that the kids individuating, it is dumping them into one of the most elitist, authoritarian and artificial subcultures society maintains - populated mostly by near-juveniles I repeat - giving them independence to form themselves and discovering that dislocates them from their parents subculture.<p>It should be obvious that will happen but parents tend to be pretty dumb. No real training course for parenting I suppose.
Also to some degree there is anti-elitist backlash after being told you <i>need</i> to have a bachelor's, which is very expensive at these universities, but also it's basically impossible to get an entry-level white collar job without one these days; and for a while the economy bifurcated with different outcomes for white-collar knowledge vs. blue-collar workers.
And this anti elitist backlash will lead to… greater wealth inequality as the middle class is forced to cash out their equity and investments in a down market to be gobbled up by the top 1% like Elon Musk.
60% of the US workforce these days is white collar, and it's one of the great illusions of our time. Most of these jobs only exist to keep busy the 60% of the US workforce that has a degree. In the 1940's about 30% of the US workforce was white collar and only 5% had degrees. What caused this change? It's probably because blue collar workers made so much money and had so much leverage that businesses shipped all their jobs overseas. Blue collar people actually make real things and perform useful toil for society, whereas now they're working fake jobs for less money which they're told has higher social status. It's genius the way the system works. The way it takes from people (student loans, less pay) while persuading them they got a better deal. But how can you have a society where the majority of workers are administrators? Well you needn't look any further than America to find your answer. One day the music is going to stop and other nations, like China, whose workers held no such delusions of grandeur, will have the advantage. Their illusion is that the government is a dictatorship of proles, which makes people think it's high status to be a prole. Plus when your government is officially one big labor union, you can effectively ban unions from interfering with production.
"White collar" labor, in a service / knowledge economy doesn't mean "not making real things". Most (?) people on this board do something software or science or product related. Software is real, even if it's intangible. Research is real, even if it's inscrutable. Heck, Design is real, even if it's ineffable.<p>(Yes, yes, there's vapor-ware, and useless products, and certainly "fake jobs". Those existed in the '40s, too, and in any other time period or economy you care to look at.)<p>In my view, the problem is that white collar workers stopped thinking of themselves as Workers. Any of us who rely on a company for a paycheck (and, perniciously, in the US for health insurance) <i>aren't Capital</i>, even if we make high salaries. Maybe we're <i>aspiring</i> to join that class - we'll hit the startup lottery, or FIRE, or our IRA portfolio will go up forever - but we ain't yet. (That's fine, by the way: I'm using Marxist terms, but I'm not a Marxist. Pursuing financial independence, and the real - even if remote - possibility of attaining it is what's made the US such a dynamic economy.)<p>However, allowing our aspirations for wealth, or the relative comfort of white-collar jobs, to lead us to identify with the political goals of Capital - or worse, to adopt an elitist attitude towards people who work in what you call the "real economy" - is what's got the US into the mess we're currently in. That's the "genius" you identify in the present system, and the origin of the cruelty within it.<p>In reality, we're all Working Class (well, 99% of us are - although that proportion is way out of whack on this board, of all places!), and we need to (politically) act like it.
great illusions of our time, like there's not data to back it up?
Lower economic strata doesn't take on debt, they get aid and free rides, cherry work study jobs to put some money in the pocket too. It is the middle class or upper middle class that insists in eschewing their state school benefit for a more or less comparable school in another state (or without favorable scholarship and aid package) that take the brunt of the loans.
> many failing to grow their student bodies in tandem with the growth of the US population<p>this is mostly true of elite schools (who nowadays are mostly selling a brand more than an education), not so much of state schools
Ironically, many elite universities are actually either free or nearly free, for lower-income students. The super-rich probably don't care. While we middle-class families don't qualify for need-based aid, and are on the hook to pay outrageous sums, largely to subsidize the aid for others.
While not about resentment towards universities specifically, I thought this article in The Baffler [1] did a good job of framing a dynamic that, I think, contributes to this phenomenon.<p>My interpretation: As the country has entered the post-industrial era, holding a college degree has increasingly become a table-stakes credential for entering the white collar labor force. The higher education system has struggled or failed to grow to meet increased demand for these credentials, which both drives up the cost and increases selectivity of higher-ed institutions. A lot of people get burned by this and become locked out of and, crucially, geographically separated from labor markets that now constitute the majority of US GDP. This split causes non degree holders to view degree holders as their class enemies, and the universities as the class gateway that divides them.<p>[1] <a href="https://thebaffler.com/latest/one-elite-two-elites-red-elite-blue-elite-baker" rel="nofollow">https://thebaffler.com/latest/one-elite-two-elites-red-elite...</a>
The political and ideological divide speaks for itself, but on behalf of the common folk universities have been failing their core mission - to provide the people with a quality education. The inversion and disconnect between the cost of tuition and economic outcomes is stunning. Too many kids who don't know better are pressured into pursuing higher education and taking on massive debt, only to graduate without any job prospects or reasonable hopes of paying off their loans. The salt in the wounds is that universities are flush with cash, yet its spent on anything and everything except for the welfare of the students.
> The salt in the wounds is that universities are flush with cash, yet its spent on anything and everything except for the welfare of the students.<p>Maybe the elites. State schools and small colleges are not flush with cash and many have been shuttered or severely downsized recently. Though they could still spend their limited funds better.
Spending massive amounts of money on sports is something state schools are very much into.<p>They will shutter academic departments but continue to pay a football coach more than the University president.<p>Not all schools do this but it is part of the conversation, sports spending has grown out of control along with everything else.
Recent events alone do not fully represent the affairs of the past 2+ decades. Community, state, ivy, all levels were gorging themselves on federal funding and endowments. I have no comment on the current admin, but blatantly inefficient use of funds is an understatement.
It feels to me like part of the disconnect is that education and job training isn't necessarily the same thing. For many majors improving economic outcomes is not the core mission.
Have they been failing at their core missions, though? You say there has been an inversion/disconnect between cost of tuition and economic outcomes, but looking at the data doesn't back that. At least, I have yet to see anything that supports an inversion. Diminished returns maybe. Certainly a good case to not take out loans to get into school if you don't have a reasonable chance of graduation.<p>But that is true of everything we do loans for, nowadays. The amount of consumer debt that people contort themselves into justifying is insane. If you want to use that as evidence that grade schools are failing in education, I can largely agree with you.
> but on behalf of the common folk universities have been failing their core mission - to provide the people with a quality education.<p>I see this a lot and it’s a concerningly reductive argument. Say what you want about a lot of colleges but when you talk about that mission you are talking about public colleges. Most have far lower endowments and most are very reasonably priced or free for instate students.<p>Georgia and California are great examples of this. The support for these institutions that used to come from states has gone down enormously while the cost of goods has gone up.<p>As a result it is not unreasonable to me for them to charge out of state and international students much much more. Georgia shouldn’t be subsidizing the college degrees of Alabamans, nor California of Arizonans.<p>All that to say the economics here are far more variable than people give much thought to and it’s easy to point at headline grabbing numbers that don’t reflect reality.<p>Schools rent the ones pressuring kids…their parents and society is.
Their core mission is to provide society with a endless surplus of food and energy from air
The right's problem with universities is the same as the left's problem with churches:<p>1. They are institutions of "indoctrination" by the other side. Faculty are something like 98% registered democrats and many subjects ("X studies") have an explicitly left-leaning bent.<p>2. They have tax advantages and other significant government subsidies.<p>3. They exercise significant amounts of ideological control over the narrative for their groups of people.<p>4. They are exclusionary of people outside the club.<p>Add to that the fact that universities are getting increasingly expensive and real life outcomes for college-educated people are getting worse. The perceived costs used to come with significant benefits, but the costs are getting higher and the benefits are reducing, so there is less tolerance for giving them favored status.
It was the progressive push of theoretically neutral institutions taking stands on moral politics. People who were fine with universities being staffed with liberals, but neutral in practice, realized their tax dollars were subsidizing institutions that were actively taking a side in national politics.<p>For example, universities burned a lot of political capital, and opened themselves up to a great deal of legal liability, with aggressively pursing affirmative action policies. When you depend on public grants, it’s probably a bad idea to publicly discriminate against the racial group that comprises the majority of taxpayers.<p>As to what universities should have done, the answer is “just dribble.” Universities should be places that are just as eager to research effective approaches to mass deportations as all the DEI stuff they do.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings</a> was arguably a worse time for universities.<p>Protesting attracts reprisals. Universities taught people, both explicitly and by example, to stand up for what they believed in, but have undersold students on how dangerous that is. Universities could have done a better job explaining that certain injustices are load-bearing, and that calling them out will make half the country hate you.
People in the 1960s were murdered for protesting. You might imagine that this motivated an end to protest, and everyone calmed down. But in fact, it didn't. The very best way to motivate increased protest is to act like a bunch of monsters.
> certain injustices are load-bearing<p>This is an excellent way of explaining why some injustices are ignored and others decried. Thank you
Provide a way to get a lower-cost credential without using the tuition to subsidize research/athletics/arts/social programs.<p>But that might be counter to their whole nature. Doesn't mean anyone's being irrational though. They're now de-facto gatekeepers on entering the professional class. I don't think it's unreasonable for the gate-kept to have opinions about the -keepers.
I've got the ticket to get in the gate and I'm pretty resentful of having to get it. Looking back there were a lot better ways to spend 4 years and 100k.
Honestly, it feels like the kind of thing that companies which actually want merit-based graduates should want to subsidize more aggressively.<p>If you're a billion-dollar company that only hires college grads, it feels like there's gotta be value to you in making sure there's more meritocracy in the process of getting degrees.<p>It would also change who the customer is so that the university doesn't "owe" the student a degree which makes the evaluation that universities do a little less rigorous.
Why do they want meritocracy? The companies I've seen up close want "certified Smart Kid", in which case nearly any degree will do; "pre-trained worker", in which case they require a degree in a particular field; or "someone well-connected", in which case they want someone from a limited set of schools.<p>(Companies do subsidize that limited set of schools, and pretty heavily, but it probably has more to do with social connections than economic merit.)<p>The system might break down to the point that what you're suggesting makes sense. On the other hand, "Indebted Worker" (from any of the three types above) allows companies a lot of power over their employees, so it might not.
oh, yeah, the "indebted worker" concept there sounds scary and bad and not what I'm looking for.<p>I think a lot of companies like to appeal to the idea of a meritocracy. I'm just saying this could make it a convincing appeal.
I can't speak to universities specifically, but I've always felt there has been a strain of anti-intellectualism underlying a great deal of mainstream America for as long as I can remember.<p>It's the little things like tv shows or movies with characters who seem to glorify ignorance, people who state self deprecating things like <i>"I'm bad at math"</i> and wear it like a bizarre badge of honor, etc.
One thing I haven’t seen anyone mention in the replies. There are millions of conservative parents who sent their children to college and then “lost” those children when they turned into a “liberal.”<p>The ideas that it’s ok if your child becomes a liberal, or that there might be good reasons why people who undertake higher education often become less conservative, are too horrible to contemplate. So they settle for “universities are bad.”
Most people don't care about university protests. They're largely a means to get laid while achieving nothing and at worst destroying their own university. As long as they don't spill out into the surrounding town any outrage is essentially theater.
>or is people's ambivalence towards elite universities 100% irrational?<p><pre><code> am·biv·a·lence /amˈbiv(ə)ləns/ noun
the state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.
</code></pre>
Ambivalence seems like a rational take on post-secondary education in the US. I'd say an unwavering opinion (positive or negative) would be irrational. It's such a complex beast that serves so many roles and touches so many lives.<p>>A lot of Americans support these attacks on universities. Why do people harbour this much animosity towards these institutions?<p>There are a lot of very real things that are rotten in academia if you exclude the social politics center to this article.<p>So when people see they're loosing federal funding... yeah, some will think along the lines of "eh, whatever, fuck 'em, maybe they'll figure out how to clean their own house." Especially if the university is also known for both sitting on a large endowment and for prioritizing self-serving administrators over doing academics.
Wait, there are attacks on universities? Or are we just using that word for any expression of free speech?
It's about reclaiming lost social status. In their minds it's part of the liberal gollum that makes them feel alienated from society and disrespected.
There's a highly emotional Right-Left culture war going on in America. Many of our "flagship" universities conspicuously sided with the Left - at least on most of the "litmus test" issues. And where universities didn't do that, the Right found it advantageous to talk up the association & outrage anyway.<p>Any decent History Prof. could have explained to the U's that openly taking one side in long-term cultural wars was not a viable long-term strategy.<p>(Or, maybe that's why so many universities cut their History Dept's so brutally? Though "just shoot inconvenient messengers" is also not a viable long-term strategy.)
> Many of our "flagship" universities conspicuously sided with the Left<p>I wonder if that’s related to universities often being places where ‘reasoning’ is taught.<p>And then by extension, that tells you a lot about the arguments on either side…
I probably have a skewed sample, but in my observations those with the best reasoning skills tended to have a mix of views that would be labelled "left" and "right". The better the reasoning skills the less likely they were to just agree with things like "trans women are women" or "capitalism is the best economic system" and the more likely they were to dissect the statement and terms.
The culture war was over about sixty days into the Trump administration. Lots of people just haven't realized it yet.
Hum, kinda. Trump has tainted a lot of concepts by associating with them, and those should fall outside of our culture as soon as he loses power.<p>But there's an entire other set of equivalently bad-faith exclusionary and authoritarian ones that presented as in opposition of them. Those weren't actually very powerful before, but may get empowered depending on how things go.
Billionaires shifted the overton window by pouring money into extreme right-wing media outlets and social media platforms. Every other existing institution now appears "left-wing" by comparison. That's not universities' fault.
Not true, at least on social issues, which is what the universities are getting burned for. Policy positions that were mainstream in 2000 are now painted as far-right.
That's how society progresses though. Before 1865, slavery was mainstream and abolitionists were weird radical crazies. Before 1965, "Jim Crow" laws that said non-whites had to use different bathrooms and drinking fountains were mainstream, and people who opposed them were seen as unreasonable.
And back in the 1960s a planned economy was normal and reasonable, and many progressives openly called for normalisation of sex with teenagers. Sometimes shifts in attitudes are progress. Sometimes they're just a random walk. Sometimes the left is right, sometimes the right is.
> Policy positions that were mainstream in 2000 are now painted as far-right.<p>Such as?
Honestly man since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the left in the US threw their whole weight into pushing the Overton window on identity politics/intersectionality to the point that "real" old time leftists and communists (like my father) were treated like some sort of conservatives, lol. They went way past the sustainable point.
I feel like the people who say things like "communists were treated like some sort of conservatives because of identity politics" are telling on themselves.<p>If you look at the people on the actual political left in the US (Bernie, AOC, etc) are they talking about identity politics? Last time I checked they were talking about the problems that impact non-billionaire Americans: Healthcare, Social Security, Raising Minimum Wage, and other efforts to improve quality of life for Americans.<p>The only times I ever hear about identity politics is when I listen to conservatives describe what people on the left are talking about.
> <i>If you look at the people on the actual political left in the US (Bernie, AOC, etc) are they talking about identity politics?</i><p>Great example! So... what happened to Bernie in the Democratic party?
I'm saying that the problem isn't identity politics, but that the American right is terrified of actual policies from the American Left. And they're so terrified they have to make a bid deal of the more divisive social policies (characteristic of the term "identity politics") rather than their economic policies that are incredibly popular.<p>The majority of the Democratic party is the group being actually shifted by the Overton window away from the actual political left. They are mostly centrists, and not leftists. Frequently they are conservatives. I wish Harris suggested half of the policies that got ascribed to her, but she was honestly to the right of Clinton.
>Healthcare, Social Security, Raising Minimum Wage, and other efforts to improve quality of life for Americans.<p>But then why are they supported, for the most part, not by the most oppressed masses, but by the oppressive elites?
They talk about identity politics all the time. It is us vs them on everything. Worker vs employer is the quintessential example. Two groups that in the real world must work together, and do. But in the mind of the political left they are not just people that occasionally have adverse interests but mostly shared interests (my success is yours). No, they are sworn enemies.
I don't think you know what "identity politics" are, which is kinda funny to me. I would love to have discussions where identity politics meant "Worker vs Employer".<p>Worker vs Employer aren't actually 2 groups of people, unless you really consider corporations as people.
From what I've been able to gather, a mix of jealousy for not being involved with institutions along with some form of Dunning Kruger effect thinking that the institutions have no merit or value (i.e. the individual thinks they could do better / have no need / are somehow subject to the outcomes of the institution).
They could try hiring some conservative professors.<p><a href="https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/31/2/homogenous_the_political_affiliations_of_elite_liberal_arts_college_faculty" rel="nofollow">https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/31/2/homogenous_the_p...</a>
You can't really just hire some, though. You need to hire enough so that they don't get run out of the school for thought crime<p><a href="https://www.thedoe.com/article/conservative-college-professor-makes-me-toxic" rel="nofollow">https://www.thedoe.com/article/conservative-college-professo...</a>
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/id1651876897?i=1000603422829" rel="nofollow">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-coddling-of-the-am...</a><p>A lot of these examples have been pretty thoroughly debunked as either non-existent, or about something other than the professors expressing "conservative views".<p>This one is, I assume intentionally, anonymized and so we can't actually verify that it happened or what the circumstances around it were. But I'll call out one of the most common "views" I've heard on college campuses from professors that got in trouble for something was that "professors should be allowed to sleep with their students." So if professors are taking heat for thinking that they should be able to take advantage of barely legal kids... I don't really care.<p>If there are legitimate examples of professors <i>just</i> expressing that they have conservative beliefs, then that is suspicious because school administrators and alumni tend to lean pretty conservative themselves, and often make the final decisions on such issues after a frustrating amount of investigation.
I think there's class warfare practically baked in with how paying for college works today. Imagine trying to determine how much a fancy car costs, and being told "it depends on how much money you have". That's on the upper-middle-class side.<p>The other side is just part of the worldview of the rampant anti-intellectualism which Trump rode to power.
Why did the Germans burn books? Look there for your answers. And I mean that sincerely. There’s really nothing new under the sun.
They could have not been so partisan (<a href="https://readlion.com/93-of-college-profs-political-donations-went-to-democrats-last-election-cycle/" rel="nofollow">https://readlion.com/93-of-college-profs-political-donations...</a> ), supported rational discourse ( <a href="https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/2025-college-free-speech-rankings#:~:text=The%20University%20of%20Virginia%20is,second%20year%20in%20a%20row." rel="nofollow">https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/2025-college-free-spe...</a> ) , not used race to discriminate on certain out groups ( <a href="https://asianamericanforeducation.org/en/issue/discrimination-on-admissions/" rel="nofollow">https://asianamericanforeducation.org/en/issue/discriminatio...</a> ). Just for starters
>> Is there anything they could have done differently in the past decade or two to have broader sympathy now<p>> not used race to discriminate on certain out groups ( <a href="https://asianamericanforeducation.org/en/issue/discriminatio" rel="nofollow">https://asianamericanforeducation.org/en/issue/discriminatio</a>... )<p>Since we have documentation of discrimination in university admissions for over a century, I don't think this particular issue produces "broader sympathy now".<p>In fact, I will be speechless if I ever learn the new administration policies do not lead to even higher levels of, but I suppose different, discrimination. Check back in 6 months.
Hard not to see this as a class war that has been fed by some of the personalities that were big in the "conservative" sphere for a long time. Modern podcast influencers are big, but this isn't exactly a new thing. Rush and his ilk were big on lashing out against "ivory tower" theories. And they didn't invent the idea. Just went after easy targets.<p>None of which is to say that mistakes weren't made in the institutions. They were. Mistakes were also made by the critics. Populism, sadly, has a habit of celebrating their worst and elevating them to heights they flat out can't handle.
Fox News. I don't think it's 100% irrational but perhaps 99% irrational. These ideas usually contain a nugget of truth.
I think it's actually extremely simple.. because the herd mentality is extremely simple. Intellectuals think it's complex because intellectuals love complexity..
This is what happened..<p>The right witnessed riots over the past decade. These riots were in response to police brutality and perceived racism. The ideas behind anti-racism spawned a perceived new ideology - "wokism". This frightened the right. Intellectuals on the right mapped the origins of this new ideology to philosophies from elite institutions. Therefore, these institutions must be punished to be kept in check.<p>It's really that simple..<p>What I find interesting about this guy is that in a way he actually is "caving" to the demands of the administration. This uni president advocates for more heterodox thinking - which is in alignment with what the Trump admin wants as well... maybe that's why Wesleyan won't be punished..
Nothing about this is new - the right has harbored a particular hatred for "academics" and "intellectuals" since at least the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. Today's fear of "wokism" is just the prior generation's fear of "cultural marxism" with a new coat of paint.<p>But this kind of political talk is against the guidelines. Good hackers don't care about any of this. So Javascript is getting crazy, huh?
> attacks on universities<p>This really feels like bad phrasing, when people read that they roll their eyes. Basically every major republican politician went to college, nobody is attacking universities, they're trying to help the students.
apologies, I meant to suggest that Trump & MAGA are very hostile towards universities and Trump is threatening to pull so much federal funding some colleges may have to close, and a lot of Americans seem OK with that. I'm not making a value statement on that, Trump was elected to run the government, hence him reallocating funds (in this case) is part of our democratic process. People chose to put him in charge because they wanted him in charge.<p>To tip my hand: I personally think universities don't have more people rallying to their defence because they have abdicated their responsibilities to provide space for open inquiry, and have instead allowed themselves to be institutionally & ideologically captured by a group of people with activist leanings and fringe beliefs not held by 90+% of Americans.<p><i>My</i> answer to my question above is "in the past two decades, the universities could have done more to protect speech across the board and not pick favourites to protect and others to abandon, as they have clearly done. In the last two years they could have refused to tolerate lawlessness on their campuses (not just 'speech' but actual law-breaking, including assaults, going unprosecuted) instead of turning a blind eye when the criminality was from a favoured cause du jour." I think if Universities had not abandoned their leadership duties, they wouldn't have Trump bringing the hammer down on them with so much public support.
Yes they went to universities. No, they are not trying to help the students. They don't even pretend to be trying to do so. They are nit trying to make it cheaper and they are not trying to make it more accessible.<p>They agenda was either openly the opposite or they ignored the students. Except when they think they are too progressive and attack then verbally.
I mean, at a minimum, they think they're helping students. Nobody would vote for a politician who just makes things worse, that doesn't make sense.<p>In this case, they're trying to make universities more fair and to reduce government waste in universities by removing DEI programs. There's lots of logic to that.
>Nobody would vote for a politician who just makes things worse<p>Why not? One thing is the campaign, another one is exercising his power. To quote a famous Argentinian President: "If I said what I would do, they wouldn't have voted for me".
I can't find the source of that quote (possibly a misquote?), but if I had to guess, he's saying he sold people on the problem, knowing they wouldn't like the solution. Everyone likes the idea of fixing the budget deficit, and some people like the idea of cutting wasteful government spending, but the act of fixing the budget means people lose jobs, and lives are destroyed. Even though it has to happen, people don't like watching it happen.<p>I don't think your "quote" says what you think it says.
> Nobody would vote for a politician who just makes things worse, that doesn't make sense.<p>Yet, that's what they did. Repeatedly. After he already demonstrated how much worse he would make things.<p>Oh yeah, he denied that he would execute the planes for how he would make things much, much, MUCH worse, that had been
very openly stated by
his close associates.<p>That's enough for it to "make sense" to you, I suppose.
> They are nit trying to make it cheaper and they are not trying to make it more accessible<p>Should they be doing these things?<p>Maybe I've read too much Caplan, but credential inflation seems to be wasting the new generation's best years.
For the original argument above about Republicans and college I would focus more on things like who has been trying to make student debt as something special, something near impossible to get out of.<p>I don't accept an argument of personal responsibility in this case, because student loans target one of the most vulnerable groups: Inexperienced and with a great need. To me, this is malicious.<p>I'm all for personal responsibility, in this point I'm more on the conservative side, but reality also includes that humans are not perfect machines, and targeting their weaknesses is easy and impossible to avoid as an individual. This principle does not work when it's an individual against sophisticated well-funded organization (here, there is not one but many who influenced policy), even worse when it's someone too young or too old for their brains to be at their best (not yet experienced enough in the one case, the brain no longer working at its best in the other).
Then you're reading the right amount of Caplan. So you probably also want more babies and immigrants.
In what way does an intellectual race to the bottom help students? If students want to learn on the cheap they can use the internet.<p>Students want to feel like their time spent studying is worth it, not a weird blend of trivia, online classes you finish in a week or useless skills that you spend months practicing and lose 6 months after the class.<p>Millions of people could be working productive manufacturing jobs, instead they are doing effectively nothing all because of a disproven belief from 100 years ago that if you study enough you will increase your innate intelligence.
You're framing this in an odd way if you want neutral responses. Is withdrawing federal funding an attack? The government has always used the power of the purse as a lever to influence many institutions, including universities, and it often uses this mechanism to exert influence for ideological purposes. The most famous example is withholding funding for roads until states mandated a drinking age of 21. It's how the federal-state power asymmetry works. The disturbing thing is that Congress isn't really the one exerting it in this case, not that it's being used at all.
As for the roads example, which would go to my second point if I understand you correctly, I think the analogy is limited: roads aren't gate-kept by admissions committees for certain intangible criteria for who can ride on them, with an artificial limit on how many cars overall, while they receive federal funding. If that was happening, <i>then</i> you'd have a similar situation to what universities are doing.
It's not meant as an analogy for this case, so don't worry about it too much. My only point in bringing it up is an example of evidence for prior governments being more than willing to use funding as a lever to influence the policy of institutions they are not directly responsible for. I don't believe it was to be 1:1 to make that point, as indeed it is not.
America has done an absolutely terrible job of teaching people about rights.<p>If governments granted rights then they would be privileges not rights. In western tradition governments exist to <i>protect</i> rights, such as the freedom of expression, not to grant them. If you believe these are human rights, rather than your privilege as an American, then you must protect their rights to seek justice too.<p>People are already being robbed of due process, which means they are robbed of the process that determines their right to "protections" and citizenship status. Almost all authoritarian regimes presume the right to rob people of the protections of their state. You perceive citizenship to be some indelible legal status, but citizenship can be revoked either tacitly or explicitly which is a prelude to the violation of someone else's rights and their human dignity.<p>The law can't protect or enforce itself. If the ruling regime chooses not to be bound by law then what should happen or what is supposed to happen is supplanted by what can happen. Even a cursory look of what <i>can</i> happen in authoritarian regimes should turn anyone's stomach.
I think what's going on is a helpful reminder that there's no such thing as "rights" in the way you describe. Everything we have, everything we're permitted to do, is at the pleasure and permission of our governments. Constitutions and laws are only worth anything if the people in charge honor them. Might may not make right, but might does let you impose whatever you want on people who don't have your might.<p>You can try to design systems where one group of people don't have all the might, and so those who balance them are somewhat adversarial in their goals and desires. We always thought the US had such a system, but when you put law enforcement and the military under a single group, and give the other two groups no teeth, you really don't have that sort of system.
> Everything we have, everything we're permitted to do, is at the pleasure and permission of our governments.<p>Wrong! The people are ultimately responsible for reigning-in their governments and are the ultimate source of any rules or rights that the governments end up enforcing.<p>If you think that the ultimate authority is with the government, then you have justified every authoritarian regime out there.
There are two basic world views.<p>One is based on order and rule. You have a leviathan, an absolute ruler, who imposes order on society.<p>The other is one based on freedom and law/justice. A society based on affirmative mutual consent and a system <i>orthogonal to power</i> to handle disputes.<p>Unfortunately, power determining the outcome of disputes is the default, and a system of law or justice cannot enforce itself without the participation of those bound by it. The core founding principle of western society is solidarity via collective bargaining, what other option is there than other than to submit to someone more powerful than any individual?<p>Do you want to submit to a man, or submit to an idea? If you submit to an idea you must defend it. If you submit to a man, you deny your own agency and your own rights.
> The core founding principle of western society is solidarity via collective bargaining<p>What is the basis of that assertion? If you go back as far as the Greeks, this only holds true if you focus on one specific city-state, and ignore that said city-state disenfranchised foreigners and legally permitted the ownership of slaves. Similar problems occur if we attribute western civilization to the Romans.
I am far from a historian, but my understanding is that the protestant reformation birthed the enlightenment by shifting people's idea of god as something to be interpreted by an authority structure (the church) to something that is interpreted internally. Is your relationship with god mediated by a church or a direct relationship with god? The reformation is more closely related to "westenrism" than the Greeks or Romans who laid some of the philosophical groundwork.<p>Out of the enlightenment we get John Locke who provided much of America's founding philosophy:<p><i>Locke argued that a government's legitimacy comes from the citizens' delegation to the government of their absolute right of violence (reserving the inalienable right of self-defense or "self-preservation"), along with elements of other rights (e.g. property will be liable to taxation) as necessary to achieve the goal of security through granting the state a monopoly of violence, whereby the government, as an impartial judge, may use the collective force of the populace to administer and enforce the law, rather than each man acting as his own judge, jury, and executioner—the condition in the state of nature.</i><p>My claim is that this is isomorphic to solidarity via collective bargaining when you account for the idea that the government being an impartial judge is not black and white but grey.<p>I think it's fair not to say that it is not the core founding principle. I think it's probably more correct to say that it's the theory of power that must be true to support human rights or ideas of freedom.
> The reformation is more closely related to "westenrism" than the Greeks or Romans who laid some of the philosophical groundwork.<p>I can see where you're getting this, but I would disagree. Western civilization is inseparable from the Greeks and Romans. What you are describing sounds more like a particular development that occurred in Northern Europe which resulted in a radical re-engineering of social structures, ultimately culminating in parliamentary democracy. I don't know enough of the history well enough to determine whether this happened because of the reformation, a scientific revolution, economic changes, or whatever other reason we could come up with, but I do understand the trend that you're talking about. Today we would broadly associate it with Anglo-American liberal democracy. The issue I took with your comment was that I don't think there's a compelling case to be made that "the West" is predicated on these values, since historically speaking they are comparatively new.<p>There is some scholarship that tries to make this argument (e.g. I can remember reading an article many years ago which tried to argue that western civilization originates in the Near East after the adoption of massed-infantry by the Hittites), but the more of it that I read, the more convinced I became that it was simply an attempt to view history through the lens of contemporary attitudes (e.g. of Anglo-American liberal democracy being the culmination of all historical development).<p>> I think it's fair not to say that it is not the core founding principle. I think it's probably more correct to say that it's the theory of power that must be true to support human rights or ideas of freedom.<p>I don't have a strong opinion on this one way or the other, but you may be interested to know that there is a considerable tradition which rejects this conclusion in the reactionaries. Some element of the tradition rejects the premise of human rights entirely, but others are rooted in a far more critical reading of power and how it (ostensibly) must operate. Most people who have read into these issues will be familiar with the reactionaries who reject human rights as a principle, but very few are even aware of the sort who reject the prescriptions of the sort of governance you are describing while (at least nominally) sharing its aims re: justice and freedom.
It is not collective bargaining. You refer to the social contract.<p>The idea of the social contract has issues. For one, the fundamental of contract is consent, which is missing.<p>Realism tells us that we do not delegate anything to the state.
You’re making useful points but you’re also just choosing convenient definitions that make your point of view “correct”.<p>The parent comment has a definition of “rights” that admits their existence… and I think what you’ve demonstrated is that you have a different definition of “rights”. In other words, you’ve demonstrated that you haven’t really grasped the underlying meaning that the parent comment is getting at, and you’re instead responding to the words that they used to express it.<p>If you start with a definition for “rights” you can make arguments about whether they exist. But if you start with a different definition and get to a different conclusion, it doesn’t mean you’ve discovered some logical flaw in the argument, it just means that the two of you have failed to communicate with each other.
I appreciate your analysis, but another way to consider this discussion is that asserting the existence of "rights" is an unsupported conversational maneuver that frames the debate. The grandparent is defining a concept into existence, which is a questionable move IMO, despite being tradition.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
These are the kind of men that founded our country, better men than exist today. This is the type of thinking that led to America, and these are the cultural echo's many young culturally American boys hear from their fathers and grandfathers.<p><i>These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.</i> Thomas Paine - The Crisis<p><i>Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God</i> - Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson (<a href="https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/personal-seal/" rel="nofollow">https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jeffers...</a>)<p><i>If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!</i> John Henry -- Give me liberty or give me death.<p>You say you have no power and so let the world inflict itself on you, these were men that inflicted themselves upon the world. These men chose reason over comfort. These men chose not to be slaves through their action.
> In western tradition governments exist to protect rights, such as the freedom of expression, not to grant them.<p>You may be overgeneralizing here, only the US has enshrined freedom of expression in their constitution. Pretty much in any other western government such protections do not exist and freedom of expression has been under attack for a long time
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights is enshrined in legislation in the UK and Ireland, and offers protections for signatories of the convention.<p>(Edit: Oh, and the Bill of Rights gives parliamentarians quite an extreme version)
What a strange view. America has done a poor job of teaching you about rights. They are legal only - natural law (the proper name for the doctrine of so-called "human rights") is religion. God-given rights you may have but rights in law they are not.<p>The rule of law is crucial to a free, just, and good society but you conflate the rule of law with the law saying what you would have it say. If the law is changed or the powers given under law are used in a way you do not like then that is not unlawful.<p>Dictators vary in how much they rely on law. Some have used law to do their evil: take Hitler. Some do their evil outside the law. This tells us that in truth the rule of law is but one part of what we need to have a good society.
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Cowardice is in the eye of the beholder and the article is self-serving.<p>The article makes the point that it's cowardly to cave to administration pressure to limit the activities of anti-Israel/Pro-Palestine protesters.<p>Someone on the other side of the issue could make the argument "it is cowardly to kowtow to a small but vocal minority who justifies interfering with other students' ability to learn, as 'free speech'".<p>It is dishonest to describe non-speech activity such as intimidation and forceful prevention of access, as "speech", even if you like the motivation or outcome. "Speech" is talking with words. Physically using your body to prevent someone else from acting in a desired way, is something other than "speech".
So far the fight/not fight decisions can be predicted in advanced based on whether an institution has a medical center with NIH grants.
He states in the interview that Wesleyan has NIH grants. They are preparing to let scientists go if it comes to it.
Wesleyan does not have a medical center and according to the NIH’s public reporting, they have under $2 million in NIH grants, compared to $600 million for Columbia. (<i>Edited from $400 million, which is the value cut.</i>)<p>Wesleyan has a $250 million operating budget, so the (from what REPORTER indicates) $1.6 million in NIH funding represents 0.6% of their budget. In contrast, the $600 million in NIH funding to Columbia represents about 10% of its $6 billion operating budget.<p>So both in terms of absolute numbers and relative numbers, the NIH contributions to Wesleyan are <i>de minimis</i>.
And if they hire the right alumni lobbyists - major reason why you don't hear about Dartmouth in the news [0] despite a similarly active student activism scene.<p>Most other private universities could have easily managed the relationship, but a mix of inertia and vindictiveness from certain alumni (eg. Ackman) messed it up.<p>Mind you, Dartmouth is also kind of unique in that their alumni relations team actually TRY to maintain a relationship. The other high prestige colleges (excluding USC) ignore you until they need to hit fundraising KPIs.<p>A Tuck or Dartmouth College grad will always fight for an alum if they make it to the shortlist - most other Ivy grads don't (Wharton kinda, but that's only for Wharton). This really helps build loyalty.<p>[0] - <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/19/trump-is-bombarding-the-ivy-league-this-college-just-hired-a-staunch-ally-as-its-top-lawyer-00239635" rel="nofollow">https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/19/trump-is-bombarding...</a>
The way I saw the Columbia protests was that Donny's trial was downtown, and because it was not televised, producers told their crews to stop filming the doors to the courthouse. So, looking for any story at all, they took the subway uptown to the hippies camping out on the quad. Hey, at least it's better than literally staring at a door, right? Next thing you know, the student protest thing blew up. Why? Because there was literally nothing else going on for the TV news crews to film those days. Soon as graduation happened and the trial wrapped up, we never heard another thing.<p>Dartmouth, sure, it may have a high energy protest scene and be smart and whatever. But no-one knows about it - not because they are crafty - but because it's in freakin Hanover.
Dartmouth is smaller and has, historically, had a stronger and more intense ongoing alumni connection in various ways than is probably the norm with the Ivies in general.
> Dartmouth is smaller<p>Yale and Dartmouth are similar in student body size, yet Yale has been hit by investigations [0] while Dartmouth has been spared.<p>[0] - <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0" rel="nofollow">https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rig...</a>
Dartmouth is also famously the "conservative" Ivy.
More "conservative" than Columbia but still fairly liberal - the overwhelming majority of students backed Harris [0] and support abortion rights [1]<p>The Israel-Palestine protests (which sparked this whole university culture war issue) were fairly active at Dartmouth as well, but messaging around it was better handled by their admin.<p>The only conservative-ish and kinda prestigious college (not university) I can think of is Claremont McKenna, but they are drowned out within the larger Claremont community.<p>[0] - <a href="https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2024/11/2024-election-at-dartmouth-majority-of-students-express-support-for-harris" rel="nofollow">https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2024/11/2024-election-a...</a><p>[1] - <a href="https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2023/11/2023-election-survey-students-show-dissatisfaction-biden-lacks-support" rel="nofollow">https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2023/11/2023-election-s...</a>
Dartmouth's time may still come. Brown is apparently about to be targeted next. Trump is clearly not done yet.
And NSF grants?
They could fight back with, "We will not accept students from politicians that support anti-education policies". Further they could kick out any students currently enrolled, "if they wrote a college essay promoting their anti-education values, we wouldn't have let them in - so they were clearly lying and we're just remedying that mistake"
> <i>"We will not accept students from politicians that support anti-education policies"</i><p>Given how many stories there are about children seriously at odds with their parents about political issues, I don't think that is a good idea. At all.<p>Do you want to be judged by how your parents think or behave, or think that is acceptable?
Brown just got targeted next, after releasing a statement that it would "not compromise on academic freedom". We're about to find out how true that is or not. But if universities don't start fighting back, they will all find themselves in the same boat as Columbia -- and ultimately regret it.<p>The US's universities are one of its greatest assets, if not the greatest. The repercussions of this are highly damaging.
Not sure if Michael Roth is related to Philip Roth, but it somehow reminds me of American Pastoral and that era of protests against the Vietnam War and its aftermath. I'm not entirely sure how those demonstrations compare to the ones we’re seeing today, but the parallels are striking
Wild that he is some kind of exception. Rolling over, folding is not the university culture I remember.
There wasn't, historically, the level of enormous potential negative consequences legally and practically if the universities talked back.<p>Universities, like many institutions, have also become more like large incumbent businesses than previously - e.g. perpetuating their own existence over having strong core values.
This is really well articulated. It's like how a company uses fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to justify a pivot away from some kind of principled stance.
Biden was considering withholding federal funds from schools over their vaccine policies[1], and tried to withhold federal funds from schools based on how they treat transgender students[2], but that was blocked by a judge. Obama did a similar thing regarding transgender students[3].<p>Things like this are why Hillsdale College rejects all federal funds. So they can do what they want without threat of the government revoking funding[4].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-vaccines-delta/2021/08/05/4359ac76-f567-11eb-a49b-d96f2dac0942_story.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-vaccines-delta...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/12/texas-title-ix-lgbtq-students/" rel="nofollow">https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/12/texas-title-ix-lgbtq...</a><p>[3] <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/13/477896804/obama-administration-to-offer-schools-guidance-on-transgender-bathrooms" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/13/477896804...</a><p>[4] <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/the-controversial-reason-some-religious-colleges-forgo-federal-funding/490253/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/the-co...</a>
Sure, but my argument was not "the federal government has never done this", but that "colleges have usually felt secure that this would not be done to them if they defended student protests", or at least, if we're being cynical, "that they would have an opportunity to walk it back if their calculations were incorrect".
I don’t feel like the reasons behind this are the same.<p>Biden/Obama: We want you to accept and protect <i>everyone</i><p>Trump: I want you to deliberately reject certain races and nationalities, and close all the departments studying stuff I don’t like.
Might have been a mistake to let some of them turn into real estate hedge funds.
Not sure when you graduated, but I've seen a complete inversion.<p>Much like 90s rockers, they now rage exclusively on behalf of the machine.
Many universities are more like family offices that operate schools. Columbia is historically one of the biggest slumlords in NYC through their various entities.
> not the university culture I remember.<p>that's because universities are now businesses first, research institutions second, and academic institutions third
This point gets to the heart of the matter. The more I look into it, everything else seems downstream from this.
And yet the US has some of the best universities in the world academically.
it absolutely does not. you pay for paper and the network. the education, except at few rare exemptions, is subpar. talk to any asian and european and ask what they think of attending uni in the US :)
The best solution here is for universities to become less involved with government money. They should have to compete for students and research on an even playing field, and we shouldn't be creating politically aligned fields through government spending.
Surprised at how it hasn't been pointed out here but - the "general public" wants the sausage, but not how it's made. They wouldn't if they knew what it entailed. Cutbacks to student aid, shuttering of departments, eliminating of PhD positions, etc.
No.
Research Universities are about Research. There are non governmental sources of funding for research, but they pale in comparison with government funding. If you want to make the case that the private industry should take on research, the problem is that there is no immediate profit in it. It can take decades, and few companies can invest decades of funding hoping for some eventual breakthrough. Moreover, in that model, research is slowed because companies are notoriously bad at sharing research with competitors.
So you either create national research centers, or you use research universities.
The issue with these ideas is they lack an understanding of anything really about how we fund research in this country. We collect taxes and disperse these taxes in the form of research grants that we have boards of experts in the field call for proposals about realistically achievable topics that would benefit the American citizen in health, wealth, or some other form of prosperity. We only have a few national labs and most of this research is conducted in the university system, which simultaneously trains the next crop of researchers.<p>Now you are proposing this work doing/training aspect be cut off. What is your replacement? You have to come up with one that gets trainees hands on experience, as well as provides economies of scale benefits for expensive experimental apparatus or sample or data/compute resources, fosters collaboration and idea generation, and shares this work with other grant funded researchers in the field so that they might further their own efforts.<p>Or, you could just not blow the whole system apart with a broadside strike, and enjoy the striking benefits in fields like medicine we have enjoyed over the decades.
The Trump administrations attacks are able to go so far now, because institutions already rolled over under a Democratic administration.<p>Take for instance University of Pennsylvania. In 2023, student anonymously projected "Let Gaza Live" onto a building. The next day then-college president Liz Magill publicly called in the FBI to investigate this as an "antisemitic hate crime". She was later forced to resign for "not doing enough" to combat alleged antisemitism.
The last year and a half in particular has exposed just what a sham the academic freedom fo colleges really is.<p>We've always heard that the college tenure system encourages freedom of expression and academic freedom without the pressure of potential job loss. Instead what we have iscollege professors and administrations who move is absolute lockstep and have acted like jack-booted Gestapos to crush and punish First Amendment expression where some people merely said "maybe we shouldn't bomb children".<p>Norm Finkelstein, who is a national treasure, does not have tenure. He is a world-authority on these issues. Why doesn't he have tenure? Because he embarrassed Alan Dershowtiz by exposing him as a rampant plagiarist and general fraud.<p>Int he 1960s we had the National Guard open fire on anti-Vietnam protestors at Kent State, killing several, to repress anti-government speech. I swear we're not far from college administrators open firing on protestors directly.<p>The collaboration between colleges (particularly Columbia) and the administration pales in comparison to the anti-Vietnam era. Colleges are standing by letting agitators attack protestors (ie UCLA) and then later using that violence as an excuse to crush the protest. They're cooperating with law enforcement to crush protests.<p>But they're going beyond that. These protestors who have been illegally deported have largely been named and targeted by college administrations as well as organizations like the Canary Mission.<p>Think about that: colleges are knowingly cooperating with people who are black-bagging people protesting against genocide, fully knowing they will end up in places like prisons in El Salvadore.
Some of that so-called activism seems to be closer to suppressing any thoughts someone dislikes. Removing that from university life is not cool, that „activism“ itself went off the rails too.
Freedom of speech necessarily implies that a group of people might team up and loudly announce that the people they don't agree with are incorrect and immoral and should be ignored or even ostracized. That's the price of freedom of speech, and it's a fair price.<p>Being annoyed, inconvenienced, or even negatively impacted by the speech acts of others is by design. To throw that out is to make a calculation that without freedom of speech, your perspective will be the natural default without activism to upset it. A dangerous assumption.
Problem is that in the past two decades university admins gave in to various deplatforming causes and enforced codes. If they had stood firm before, the arguments against them wouldn't be nearly as strong. Unfortunately, they didn't. So when they now use the "free speech" argument themselves it rings hollow.
No it doesn't ring hallow. It is just that the issue is old.
Those policies were designed to promote free speech from vulnerable groups. Political vulnerability has a huge influence on free speech (and freedom), and that's what they have been addressing.<p>(Picking two random groups:) If you are Pakistani and are in a room of all Indian people, and the others say how horrible Pakistanis are and how research shows that Pakistanis are less intelligent or prone to violence, that is a very intimidating atmosphere and it would be hard to endure, much less speak up.<p>If that one Pakistani says the same about Indians, it's obnoxious and annoying, but it's no threat to anyone. The many Indians are not vulnerable. That's the difference.<p>Furthermore, the dominant groups in a culture tend to create systems and knowledge that support them to the exclusion of others - sometimes explicitly and intentionally. That's systemic discrimination - the system naturally generates it if you follow the usual path. It takes some effort to create space for other points of view.<p>Whether the typical DEI policies are optimal is another question. I haven't heard anyone come up with a great solution. Some pretend it's not a problem and there is no prejudice, which is absurd and not a solution; it's just sticking one's head in the sand - because they can, because they are not vulnerable.
> (Picking two random groups:) If you are Pakistani and are in a room of all Indian people, and the others say how horrible Pakistanis are and how research shows that Pakistanis are less intelligent or prone to violence, that is a very intimidating atmosphere and it would be hard to endure, much less speak up.<p>Much like a right-winger or a Christian at one of these universities.<p>The policies didn't help the groups they were supposedly about helping, they helped the groups that were already dominant (race and religion matter a lot less in a group that's all upper class), whether by design or because they evolved to.
> The policies didn't help the groups they were supposedly about helping<p>Do you have any evidence?<p>> Much like a right-winger or a Christian at one of these universities.<p>So is the first quote not based on evidence, but based on your ideology? There's no reason any vulnerable minority shouldn't be protected, though 'right-wingers' and Christians (usually meaning conservative Christians) are hardly vulnerable in the US, even if they are a minority on many campuses. They rule the country and always have, have access to every job and privilege.
Nobody knows you're a Christian or right winger at a university until you open your mouth to let all the women and LGBT people know that you think they don't deserve rights, and it's not discrimination when people don't like you for being an asshole. The vast majority of Christians go to college, don't get mad that LGBT and non-Christians exist, and didn't get discriminated against.<p>The absolute narcissism on display here is crazy.
Not all conservative Christians and right wingers think "women and LGBT people ... don't deserve rights". I find that if I approach people that way, it brings out the worst in them - they feel cornered and they fight. There's not much room for discussion when someone dismisses 'crazy antifa terrorists'. Are you going to reason with them?<p>It destroys social trust, which is what the real radicals aim at. If you want to fight the far right, work to build it.<p>I think the DEI rule should be simply to ban intolerance, with some education about how norms can be intolerant of minorities, and the experience of being a vulnerable minority in a room of majority.
> they don't agree with are incorrect and immoral and should be ignored or even ostracized<p>You have that right. But doing this is not always wise. Labeling people as immoral and ostracizing them, especially on 50/50 issues, is one of the reason why the American political system is so radicalized at the moment.
That's a question of tactics, though. Moral outrage can be extremely effective, and it can also be counterproductive. And striking the right balance has been a challenge in American politics as long as American politics have existed.<p>In his Second Inaugural, Lincoln threads the needle in a way that is frankly unachievable for even most skilled politicians. "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other" seems like an acknowledgement of moral nuance, but he follows it up with, "It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces but let us judge not that we be not judged."<p>Speaking to a nation in which a part of it is in open revolt over the right to keep other humans as slaves is certainly an extreme case. But it isn't categorically different from any other political struggle. People are going to accuse one another of being immoral. It's the human condition. A legal system that protects this behavior is the bedrock of democracy. It doesn't matter how annoying you find the people doing the judging.
I’ll defend other people rights to offend me. But nowadays some people think others, even just between themselves, can’t say what would offend them.
A lot of people are fair-weather friends of freedom of speech. It's all well and good if everybody is allowed to express themselves as long as everybody, if they don't like me, at least respects me.<p>I guess some people were never in favor of freedom of speech, they just wanted a world where they faced minimal interpersonal conflict, and the current order for a while was serving that purpose.
> Freedom of speech necessarily implies that a group of people might team up and loudly announce that the people they don't agree with are incorrect and immoral and should be ignored or even ostracized. That's the price of freedom of speech, and it's a fair price.<p>Sure, agreed. But groups and institutions taking even a dime of tax money <i>should not</i> get to place a thumb on the scales of those arguments. US universities, in particular, chose a side and then silenced all opposing viewpoints.<p>It was inevitable that the silenced would eventually mobilise, and they did. And now the group has to abandon their arguments about allowing "punching up" and instead pontificate on "free speech".<p>Myself (and many others) argued over the last decade and more that the pendulum always swings back, so lets be a little less extreme in the left/right argument. I, on this site, got labeled a non-thinking right-winger apologist for pointing out that the mainstream views on transgender for minors does not match the views that the powers-that-be were pushing.<p>You can't push for normalising the silencing of views for well over a decade without you yourself eventually falling victim to the same normalisation.
What did US universities do to "silence all opposing viewpoints" on any issues? Did they kick students out of school because of their viewports? Claw back their financial aid? Get them deported? Physically harm them? I sure don't remember things like that happening in widespread manner to conservative students, let alone happening in a way that was organized top-down by the universities' leadership.
I want to assume you are asking in good faith and really aren't aware of academic administration's attempts to silence specific and common viewpoints.<p>Your comment surprises me, because at this point, there really isn't any contention over the fact that universities have been doing exactly this.<p>So while I <i>am</i> assuming that you don't actually know, I'll give you a short list of links (I'm not doing research that takes me more than 5m).<p>> What did US universities do to "silence all opposing viewpoints" on any issues?<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/musbahshaheen/2024/06/05/stop-requiring-dei-statements-from-faculty-applicants/" rel="nofollow">https://www.forbes.com/sites/musbahshaheen/2024/06/05/stop-r...</a><p><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/diversity-statements-are-imposition-academic-freedom" rel="nofollow">https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/diversity-statemen...</a><p><a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/anti-free-speech-trends-campus-threaten-freedom-can-be-reversed" rel="nofollow">https://www.thefire.org/news/anti-free-speech-trends-campus-...</a><p><a href="https://www.thefire.org/facultyreport" rel="nofollow">https://www.thefire.org/facultyreport</a><p><a href="https://www.hrdive.com/news/stop-requiring-diversity-statements-when-hiring-academic-freedom-group-say/630387/" rel="nofollow">https://www.hrdive.com/news/stop-requiring-diversity-stateme...</a><p>(UK, but still the same idea)
<a href="https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/kathleen-stock-id-love-to-know-what-those-protesting-against-me-think-now-663zn9lpm" rel="nofollow">https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/kathleen-stock...</a><p><a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/speaker-disinvited-uncomfortable-learning-series-making-students-uncomfortable" rel="nofollow">https://www.thefire.org/news/speaker-disinvited-uncomfortabl...</a><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-disinvited-speakers-at-colleges-2016-7" rel="nofollow">https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-disinvited-speakers-...</a><p>And, finally, some charts: <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/blogs/eternally-radical-idea/new-report-push-against-campus-speakers-getting-more-intense" rel="nofollow">https://www.thefire.org/news/blogs/eternally-radical-idea/ne...</a><p><pre><code> Analysis of the data FIRE has collected reveals a clear political trend in the likelihood that a speaker will be targeted with a disinvitation effort. Speakers are far more likely to face disinvitation efforts from opponents to their political left than from those to their right. Since 2000, those behind the disinvitation efforts targeted speakers with views more conservative than their own nearly three times more frequently (97 attempts) than they targeted speakers with views more liberal than their own (36 attempts).
</code></pre>
The takeaway is that the right-leaning students and administration are far far more tolerant of speech from the left, than the left-leaning students and administration are of speech from the right.<p>It pains me to say it, but it aligns with my experience.<p>> Did they kick students out of school because of their viewports? Claw back their financial aid? Get them deported? Physically harm them?<p>None of that is required to silence opposing views.<p>> I sure don't remember things like that happening in widespread manner to conservative students, let alone happening in a way that was organized top-down by the universities' leadership.<p>"Allowing only one viewpoint" doesn't require that the university administration has a top-down directive to expel students, only that they allow one viewpoint and silence the other.<p>Once again, that this happened <i>is not in dispute</i>, so I am left wondering where you were going with this response.
I think it's vice versa. Some students prevent other students from exercising their free speech rights. E.g. try to prevent speakers they don't like from speaking on campus. Or harass some people for their ethnicity in context of Hamas/Israel war. Then universities look the other way.
I know someone who works for a university in event planning. They were putting together an event for a civil rights icon. Because of the new policies, they were forced to go through all of the brochures and pamphlets and censor any use of words such as "racism" and "black" (when referring to the man's skin color).<p>They literally couldn't say "black man fighting against racism" about a civil rights icon without losing millions in funding. I have no idea how someone can argue that this kind of censorship targeting universities is acceptable
It is not acceptable. But at the same time the US „antiracist“ campaign itself looks just like (reverse) racism in many case. Two unacceptables don’t cancel each other out. But you reap what you saw.<p>Just my 2 euro cents.
> But at the same time the US „antiracist“ campaign itself looks just like (reverse) racism in many case.<p>And what do you propose <i>instead</i>? I'm not seeing the EU doing any better than the US with their lowest socioeconomic class groups.<p>Talking points are nifty. But, at some point, you have to propose an <i>actual solution that does something</i>.<p>Bigotry exists. What are you going to <i>do</i> about it? It seems that the most popular answers right now vary from "Not a goddamn thing" to "Fuck those bastards."<p>(In reality, I'm pessimistic that there is much that can be actively done. The bigots who threw slurs at my immigrant ancestors didn't so much get better as much as just change epithets and targets. Sadly, so it goes.)
> And what do you propose instead? I'm not seeing the EU doing any better than the US with their lowest socioeconomic class groups.<p>Key word „socioeconomic“ groups. It should not be racist policies based on skin color. Help poor people, help people growing up in shitty neighbourhods. True diversity is people with different life experiences. Sometimes it correlates with skin color, sometimes it doesn't. Just like poor economic situation and shitty upbringing.<p>> Bigotry exists. What are you going to do about it? It seems that the most popular answers right now vary from "Not a goddamn thing" to "Fuck those bastards."<p>Of course. Including among those so-called „anti racists“.<p>Slightly offtoic, but it's funny that modern „antifa“ is one of the most authoritarian-minded people I've met. While a good chunk of far-right people are full-on anarchistic-minded people. With about equal amount of bigotry on either side. People loooove abusing labels to further their agenda.<p>> (In reality, I'm pessimistic that there is much that can be actively done. The bigots who threw slurs at my immigrant ancestors didn't so much get better as much as just change epithets and targets. Sadly, so it goes.)<p>And then there're bigot immigrants who talk shit about locals. My country was a major source of migration two decades ago and it's horrible what our people would say about locals. Now tables switched and we got more incoming migration. And now we're on the other side of the same transaction guests not respecting our culture. Bigots are everywhere. But current policies tend to focus on one side of bigots which just breeds more resent on the other side.
> It should not be racist policies based on skin color. Help poor people, help people growing up in shitty neighbourhods.<p>That is, in fact, what a lot of those DEI programs <i>did</i>. The problem is that "lower socioeconomic status" is a high correlate proxy for "minority" in the US. There are simply a lot more minorities in the US in the lower socioeconomic brackets.<p>The problem, at the end of the day, is that the a lot of the market became zero sum. When there were lots of jobs and lots of college slots, nobody cared so much about affirmative action-type programs.
According to the Supreme Court ruling[1], college admissions where explicitly taking race into account, either as a proxy for or in addition to socioeconomic status.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf</a>
>They literally couldn't say "black man fighting against racism" about a civil rights icon without losing millions in funding. I have no idea how someone can argue that this kind of censorship targeting universities is acceptable<p>Sounds like they are being forced to take the Morgan Freeman Approach to Ending Racism: stop talking about race. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2RwJlQdzpE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2RwJlQdzpE</a>
> They literally couldn't say "black man fighting against racism" about a civil rights icon without losing millions in funding.<p>They could. They just preferred to play the victim.
Can you be a bit more specific what kind of "thought suppression" you mean?
We all know that isn't the kind of activism being targeted.
I don't mind saying this is some serious Nazi stuff going on. The federal government is trying to obstruct free speech, jailing people for free speech... we are in a bad place.
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This is rich. The Universities that caved to student activists engaged in antisemitism and other egregious activities should now fight for their rights to be cowards? Or the Universities that engaged in racist DEI programs are now going to stand on principal?<p>Give me a break.
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Then they would need to tax nonprofit religious organizations too.<p>Why don't they just make the special interests pay their own multi-trillion dollar war bills instead of sabotaging US universities with surprise taxes?<p>If you increase expenses and cut revenue, what should you expect for your companies?
I suspect it's about putting infrastructure in place to ensure loyalty in times of turbulence.
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Endowments are typically restricted funds (imposed by the fund provider) and can't be used (unless the restrictions are removed) to be used for general operating budget.<p>Harvard generally uses the interest on the fund principal to pay for things and it was a massive internal controversy when folks proposed drawing down the (absolutely enormous) principal as payment for capital expenditures (among other controversies).
Those giant university endowments are partially used to allow those who couldn't afford it but otherwise have shown they have what the university is looking for in students to attend for significantly/entirely reduced costs. Meanwhile, the most visible billionaires are using their money to try to buy elections so they can dismantle the government for personal gain while oftentimes employing people with such low wages that they depend on the government to be able to afford such luxuries as eating three meals a day. It's pretty easy to see why the large parts of the public find one acceptable and the other less acceptable.
Everyone can afford it if given a loan. If the job you get after can't afford to pay back the loan, it's time to look for another career, and for the schools to be on the hook for the miss, not the taxpayer.<p>And yes you are right acceptability, because polls show that the government bailing out students making poor career choices and schools paying for bloated staff is definitely not acceptable to the majority of Americans.
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The data do not support what you suggest being a widespread problem. There's a popular story about it being a big problem, but when people start trotting out examples most of them fall apart on closer examination, which is weird if lots of solid examples exist (why pick so many that are, at best <i>a stretch</i> if not simply wrong, if this is a widespread trend and not just a couple actual events that were maybe not great?). Folks have tracked things like speaker cancellations, and there are vanishingly few of those, conservatives, even fairly fringe ones, speak on campuses all the time.
I like how you claim data doesn't support this being a problem but at the same time can't be bothered to cite any data. I'll do it for you: <a href="https://5666503.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5666503/CFSR_2022_Report.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://5666503.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5666503...</a><p>"Alarming proportions of students self-censor, report worry or
discomfort about expressing their ideas in a variety of contexts,
find controversial ideas hard to discuss, show intolerance for
controversial speakers, find their administrations unclear or
worse regarding support for free speech, and even report that
disruption of events or violence are, to some degree, acceptable
tactics for shutting down the speech of others."<p>"Less than one-in-four students (22%) reported that they felt “very comfortable” expressing their views on a controversial political topic in a discussion with other students in a common campusspace. Even fewer (20%) reported feeling “very comfortable” expressing disagreement with one of their professors about a controversial topic in a written assignment; 17% said the same about
expressing their views on a controversial political topic during an in-class discussion; 14%, about expressing an unpopular opinion to their peers on a social media account tied to their name; and 13%, about publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial political topic. "<p>And as for examples, the sitting NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, who in hindsight was far more correct on everything COVID-related than the CDC was: had this to say about his experience at Stanford: <a href="https://stanfordreview.org/stanfords-censorship-an-interview-with-dr-jay-bhattacharya/" rel="nofollow">https://stanfordreview.org/stanfords-censorship-an-interview...</a><p>" I presented the results in a seminar in the medical school, and I was viciously attacked. ... It was really nasty: allegations of research misconduct, undeclared conflicts of interest… In reality, the whole study was funded by small-dollar donations."<p>"It was very stressful. I had to hire lawyers. I've been at Stanford for 38 years and I felt it was really, really out of character. At one point, the Chair of Medicine ordered me to stop going on media and to stop giving interviews about COVID policy. They were trying to totally silence me."
> Jay Bhattacharya, who in hindsight was far more correct on everything COVID-related than the CDC was<p>Bhattacharya who signed the Great Barrington Delaration, advocating for herd immunity and "focused protection" for the elderly? Just imagine how much larger the death toll would have been.<p>This page has a good list of concerns about Bhattacharya, including how the study mentioned in your link was flawed <i>and</i> one of the co-authors went on to admit the results were wrong: <a href="https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/jay-bhattacharya-has-a-history-of-misinformation-hes-about-to-head-the-nih/" rel="nofollow">https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/jay-bhattacharya-has-a-h...</a>
An honest seeker of truth wouldn't just say Jay's estimate was off, but compare it to other estimates of the time. Bhattacharya's IFP estimate was .2%. The WHO's IFP estimate was 3.0%. Which of the two had the more accurate estimate? The WHO, with billions in funding, or Jay operating by himself on a shoestring budget, all while the CDC in its bureaucratic incompetence couldn't be bothered to do any real studies? In fact, a positive outcome of Jay's study was to help understand just how bad the initial estimates were!<p>And as far as the great Barrington declaration is concerned, it is widely accepted now that the lockdown strategy failed, and that focused protection would have saved far more lives and caused far less economic harm and educational harm, which by the way, correlate with loss of life and loss of years of life. Even far left news outlets admit this now: <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/covid-lockdowns-big-fail-joe-nocera-bethany-mclean-book-excerpt.html" rel="nofollow">https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/covid-lockdowns-big-...</a>
You mean like afraid of being deported when they are here legally?
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How has this happened? What are your concrete examples of this having happened?<p>I suspect all of the example(s) you might have are going to be overblown news storie(s)
But if there are decades of this, I'd love to see the evidence.
I don’t know that Universities cower before leftist ideology. They are leftist, and are the generators of leftist ideology. It’s more like the wallow in it than cower before it.
Universities have endorsed leftist ideas. Not cowered .
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Also, they require academic applicants to submit mandatory diversity statements: <a href="https://www.wesleyan.edu/inclusion/whatwedo/recruitment-resources/Search-Guidelines-21_22.pdf#:~:text=sample%2C%20statement%20of%20current%20research,Date%20by%20which%20to%20apply" rel="nofollow">https://www.wesleyan.edu/inclusion/whatwedo/recruitment-reso...</a>
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Literally none of that mind canon happened.
Are you referring to the most studied medicine in human history or the one that saved more lives than any other medicine in human history?
Maybe he is, but forcing teens to take the vaccination was still rather illiberal.<p>We knew perfectly well back then that bad cases of Covid were rare in teenagers.
We also knew perfectly well that allowing it to spread among teenagers would make it impossible to control. When I got vaccinated it was to protect elderly friends and family, not myself.
Doesn't matter if the cases were bad for them or not. They were still believed to be able to spread it.<p>"illiberal" or not, the COVID 19 vaccination mandates were good decisions that saved countless lives.
I'm referring to the medicine deployed against a pandemic whose death count is still entirely unknown.<p>How many people died <i>because</i> of COVID?<p>You don't know. No one knows.<p>Meanwhile, everyone who knows better pretends that the most fundamental data about the subject, on top of which all other data and decsions were built ... is garbage.
Do you think the rough death toll of pandemics are fundamentally unknowable to some approximation? Do you think the massive increase in mortality during the pandemic was a coincidence?
Interestingly, excess mortality levels continue to remain extremely high - around 10%. [1]<p>[1] - <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-p-scores-average-baseline?time=2024-02-11..latest" rel="nofollow">https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-p-scores...</a>
Was there another pandemic whose statistics were based on mandatory asymptomatic testing (via PCR tests with deliberately high Ct values)?<p>Was there another pandemic where 94-95% of all deaths involved at least one comorbidity, and 77% involved three or more underlying conditions?
This dying "of Covid" vs "with Covid" debate has long been debunked: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/world/fact-check-94-of-individuals-with-additional-causes-of-death-still-had-covid-1-idUSKBN25U2I4/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reuters.com/article/world/fact-check-94-of-indiv...</a><p>TLDR: Those comorbidities are often complications <i>caused by</i> Covid in the first place – like pneumonia or respiratory failure. Sometimes they also include risk factors that could never be treated as a direct cause of death on their own, like obesity (which also happens to be extremely widespread in the US so it gets reported on <i>many</i> death certificates for many illnesses, not just Covid).
Pneumonia and respiratory failure are not comorbidities. Those would be the actual cause of death with COVID given the credit for bring them on.<p>---
Common comorbidities associated with COVID-19 deaths have been well-documented across various studies and data sources, primarily reflecting conditions that increase vulnerability to severe outcomes. Based on extensive data, especially from the U.S. and other heavily impacted regions, the most frequent comorbidities include:<p>- *Hypertension (High Blood Pressure):* This tops the list in many analyses. In the U.S., CDC data from March to October 2020 showed 56% of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 had hypertension [1], and it’s consistently cited in mortality stats. A New York City study of 5,700 hospitalized patients in early 2020 reported it in 56.6% of cases [2], while globally, a meta-analysis pegged its prevalence at 32% among all COVID-19 patients and 35% in fatal cases [3].<p>- *Diabetes:* Another major player, often linked to worse outcomes due to impaired immune response and blood sugar control issues. The same NYC study found it in 33.8% of patients [2], and CDC data noted 41% of hospitalized adults had metabolic diseases, including diabetes [4]. Globally, it ranged from 8.2% in China (early 2020 data) to 17.4% across broader reviews, with higher rates (up to 33%) in severe or fatal cases [5].<p>- *Cardiovascular Disease:* This includes conditions like coronary heart disease and heart failure. It appeared in 11.7% of cases in a 2020 meta-analysis [3] and was notably prevalent in fatal outcomes—26% of 814 COVID-19 deaths in Romania, for instance [6]. In the U.S., myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure were tied to higher mortality odds in a 2020 study of 31,461 patients [7].<p>- *Obesity:* A significant risk factor, especially in Western populations. The NYC cohort reported it in 41.7% of patients [2], and a 2021 CDC report flagged it as one of the strongest chronic risk factors for COVID-19 death among hospitalized adults, alongside diabetes with complications [8].<p>- *Chronic Pulmonary Disease:* Conditions like COPD or asthma showed up in 17.5% of U.S. patients in the 2020 Charlson comorbidity study [7] and were linked to higher mortality risk (e.g., HR 2.68 in China’s early data) [9]. Respiratory failure, often a direct result of COVID-19, complicates this category but underscores lung vulnerability.<p>- *Renal Disease:* Chronic kidney disease was a standout in multiple reviews, with a hazard ratio of 3.48 for death in a UK study [10]. It’s less prevalent overall (0.8% in some global data) but deadly when present, especially in older patients [3].<p>- *Cancer:* Malignancies, particularly metastatic ones, increased mortality odds (HR 3.50 in China, 2020) [9]. Prevalence was lower (1.5% globally), but the impact was outsized in fatal cases [11].<p>Other notable mentions include dementia, liver disease (mild to severe), and immunosuppression, though these were less common. Age amplifies these risks—over 65s with comorbidities faced death rates 4 to 10 times higher than those under 40, per UK data from 2021 [12]. Multimorbidity (multiple conditions) was also a game-changer; over half of fatal cases in some studies had two or more comorbidities, with one U.S. analysis noting an average of 2.6 to 4 additional conditions per death [13].<p>These patterns held steady from 2020 through 2023, with the CDC reporting that 94-95% of U.S. COVID-19 deaths involved comorbidities [14]. The virus didn’t just exploit these conditions—it often triggered acute complications (e.g., pneumonia, ARDS) that were listed alongside chronic issues, muddying the “cause of death” debate. Still, the data’s clear: these comorbidities didn’t just coexist; they stacked the deck against survival.<p>### References
[1] <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6943e3.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6943e3.htm</a>
[2] <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765184" rel="nofollow">https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765184</a>
[3] <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7365650/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7365650/</a>
[4] <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e4.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e4.htm</a>
[5] <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30238-2/fulltext" rel="nofollow">https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8...</a>
[6] <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84705-8" rel="nofollow">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84705-8</a>
[7] <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7439986/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7439986/</a>
[8] <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2021/21_0123.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2021/21_0123.htm</a>
[9] <a href="https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/55/5/2000547" rel="nofollow">https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/55/5/2000547</a>
[10] <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n1648" rel="nofollow">https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n1648</a>
[11] <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(20)30388-0/fulltext" rel="nofollow">https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2...</a>
[12] <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsongreatbritain/26march2021" rel="nofollow">https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthan...</a>
[13] <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/health_disparities.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/health_disparitie...</a>
[14] <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm</a>
about 7 million people died of COVID according to the WHO: <a href="https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths" rel="nofollow">https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths</a>
AFAIK, that number more accurately reflects the number of people who died within two weeks of testing positive using PCR tests at high Ct values (35-45), inflating case counts.<p>94-95% involved at least one comorbidity.<p>Over 75% had at least four comorbidities.
This is what statistics is for? We rarely ever “know” (in the sense of your restrictive epistemology) the precise value of ANY demographic measure.<p>We don’t know how many people live in the United States at any particular moment, but the Census is still useful.
It's useful when done in good faith. During COVID there were numerous decisions that even <i>if</i> not intended to inflate mortality figures, then they did so inadvertently. In particular the CDC gave extremely broad guidance on what to classify as a death "of" COVID, and the government was giving hospitals additional funding per COVID death. So for the most ridiculous example of what this led to, in Florida some guy died in a motorbike crash and ended up getting counted as a COVID death because he also had COVID at the time. [1] He was eventually removed from their death count, but only because that case went viral.<p>Even in more arguable cases, preexisting conditions and extreme senescence are ubiquitous in deaths "of" COVID, and at this point there's probably no real chance of ever untangling the mess we created and figuring out what happened. For instance Colin Powell died at 84 with terminal cancer, Parkinson's, and a whole host of other health issues. His eventual death was flagged as 'caused by complications of COVID.' I mean maybe it really was, but I think the asterisk you'd put there is quite important when looking at these stats.<p>[1] - <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/florida-motorcyclist-covid-death/" rel="nofollow">https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/florida-motorcyclist-covid...</a>
I’m neither an epidemiologist nor a statistician (just a mathematician pretending to be a coder and/or butterfly), but I do not believe there are no mathematical tools to mitigate the statistical impact of comorbidities and accidental misreporting.<p>To contextualize this: my position is “weak signals are possible even with noisy data”; I read your response as “but the data is <i>really</i> noisy,” which, sure, agreed; the user I was responding to seems closer to the solipsistic position “there is effectively no data at all.”
Ah yes, because we don't have the exact numbers your appeal to idiocy must be normalized.<p>Do you know how many people are saved by antibiotics RIGHT NOW? You don't know?! NO ONE KNOWS!<p>Give me a break, we don't need to dissect every corpse to see how effective the vaccine is.
What are you referring to?
> I don't remember dissent being tolerated, let alone encouraged.<p>How many people were jailed or disappeared for their dissent?<p>Being able to dissent doesn't mean that people accept your opinion, it means that you are allowed to make your point using your own means.<p>People still get to disagree with you, point out where you are dishonest or mistaken, etc. etc. etc.<p>The idea that dissent wasn't tolerated is absolute BS. It was tolerated far more than it should have been, far more accommodations were made than necessary, such as in the military, which injects people with all sorts of vaccines but somehow decided that this well-tested one didn't have to be because some people were scared.
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And pray tell how did they harass jewish students?
How is this connected to the submission? Or is a random tangent because the article mentions "student activism" and "Trump" in the opening? The only part mentioning anyone Jewish is:<p>> You have prominent Jewish figures around the country who get comfortable with Trump, it seems to me, because they can say he’s fighting antisemitism: “He’s good for the Jews.” It’s pathetic. It’s a travesty of Jewish values, in my view.<p>But I'm not sure how that is connected to what you wrote.
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Most simply this all boils down to two entirely incompatible models of
a university. One institution produces thinkers who can innovate and
lead. The other is a training camp that produces docile workers for
the oligarchs. Regardless of allowing students free speech on campus
universities have been heading toward the latter for three decades.
It's a little late to be preaching courage thirty years after
selling-out the core tenets of pedagogy. There is so much more to this
than just "Trump". The fascists in power now are the <i>result</i> of 30
years of moral cowardice.
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> Mahmoud Khalil lied on hus visa application about being a member of UNRWA.<p>He was briefly an unpaid intern.<p><a href="https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/2015/11/uscis-explains-if-unpaid-interns-need-form-i-9" rel="nofollow">https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/2015/11/uscis-explains-if-u...</a><p>> USCIS is frequently asked whether an unpaid intern needs to complete Form I-9. In general, an unpaid intern does not need to complete Form I-9 unless he or she will receive remuneration, which is something of value such as no-cost or reduced-cost meals, lodging or other benefits in exchange for his or her labor or services.<p>I can see how someone'd leave that off a green card application for that reason, which is more plausible than hiding an association with a UN agency while applying for a green card during the Biden years. (If anything, work for the UN and a close ally's embassy should <i>increase</i> trust here.)<p>Given <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-485.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-4...</a> says things like "Have you EVER been a member of, involved in, or in any way associated with any organization, association, fund, foundation, party, club, society, or similar group in the United States or in any other location in the world?" there's a good chance <i>every single green card applicant</i> has forgotten to list something. Do I include my kindergarten? The music club I was in as a toddler? Joining a political party's subreddit? Donating $10 to a charity ten years ago?<p>Hell, I'm "associated with" Hacker News, but it wouldn't go on my I-485. Should that get me deported to an El Salvadorean slave camp?
I'm not arguing in favor of el salvadoran prisons, but he's not in an el salvadoran prison. He's being charged with being in violation of his Visa. And yes, I do expect you to report the time that you "Interned" at the UNRWA. This organization has always operated tightly with Hamas and the PA, and if I'm establishing your background, I need to know about it so that I can investigate it, period. I don't need to know about your affiliations with hackernews, because hackernews is not closely affiliated with designated terror organizations. Now that the UNRWA is properly designated as a terrorist organization itself, do you think it would be appropriate to lie about your affiliations with them on a visa application?<p>Mahmoud Khalil is in an American jail awaiting trial. A New Jersey court will rule on his status.
> I'm not arguing in favor of el salvadoran prisons, but he's not in an el salvadoran prison.<p>He might wind up there; a judge has halted the deportation process for now. The administration is demonstrably sending folks (some with no criminal record: <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-el-salvador-prison-deported-b2717582.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-polit...</a>) there, including via "clerical error" they can't undo (<a href="https://apnews.com/video/white-house-says-maryland-resident-mistakenly-deported-to-an-el-salvador-prison-was-an-ms-13-member-26c9b5c641144ca8aa1ecdd3c235ebd2" rel="nofollow">https://apnews.com/video/white-house-says-maryland-resident-...</a>). Oopsie daisy!<p>> He's being charged with being in violation of his Visa.<p>He has not been charged <i>at all</i>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Mahmoud_Khalil" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Mahmoud_Khalil</a><p>"Khalil has not been charged with a crime and is not alleged to have engaged in any activity legally prohibited to U.S. residents... Removal procedures were initiated under section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which permits deportation of lawful residents if the Secretary of State believes their presence risks "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences"."<p>> I don't need to know about your affiliations with hackernews, because hackernews is not closely affiliated with designated terror organizations.<p>The form doesn't say that. It says anything, ever.<p>> Now that the UNRWA is properly designated as a terrorist organization itself, do you think it would be appropriate to lie about your affiliations with them on a visa application?<p>When did the US designate UNRWA as a terrorist organization?<p>I don't think they <i>ever</i> have, but they certainly hadn't back in 2023 when he applied.<p>(The US was UNRWA's <i>single largest donor</i> that year, in fact. <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/top_20_donors_overall_ranking_2023.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/top_20_donors_over...</a>)<p>> Mahmoud Khalil is in an American jail awaiting trial.<p>Having not been charged with any crimes, he is in <i>immigration detention</i> awaiting <i>a court hearing</i>.
> And in the last two months, it’s become painfully apparent that wanting to have nice conversations is not going to stop people who are bent on authoritarianism. Right now, I’m not sure what will stop them, except successful court challenges, and even that seems precarious.<p>Winning elections could work.<p>> Watching the video of this poor woman at Tufts who was abducted by federal agents —I wrote my blog today about that. I think the government is spreading terror, and that’s what they mean to do.<p>Brother, a blog post is, quoting you, a “nice conversation.” A New Yorker interview is a nice conversation.<p>Getting rid of legacy admissions… guess who wins elections? The sons and daughters of politicians! Whereas grandstanding on X or Y achieves nothing.
As far as I'm concerned universities lost the moral high ground when they prioritized ideology over truth-seeking, elevated identity over excellence, ostracized political outsiders, and lost all viewpoint diversity.
Universities don’t have to roll over, they also don’t have to accept federal funds<p>Easy
So, after long years of accepting cancel culture, kicking off people from universities since they happened to write a twitter comment that was not aligned with the current "right" way of thinking, universities suddenly are protectors of free speech. Well...<p>Who is going to buy this?
If you don’t want to be subject to the whims of whoever is in office, don’t take the poison pill of government money.