My condolences for your college tour trip. Seems as if things have only gotten worse. 25 years ago, I was in your shoes with my brilliant daughter - valedictorian of a “rigorous” private high school, 1600 SAT, 36 ACT, concert pianist, and writer of an essay about the math hidden in music. When we visited UN… er, a prestigious state university in North Carolina, we were told she was not competitive for any scholarships and may not even get admitted unless she “started a soup kitchen in Africa. White, blonde, blue-eyed, smart suburban girls are a dime a dozen here.” (The admissions lady’s exact quote.) At least 25 years ago they weren’t afraid to tell you what they really thought. Later, my daughter was asked to come to Van… er, a prestigious private university in Nashville for a series of interviews that might lead to a full ride there. In the final interview a panel of “scholars” spent 45 minutes deriding her for being a Christian. “How can someone so intelligent believe in a sky fairy?” She broke down in tears when telling me about it. Someone on the panel called her “off the record” to apologize for the line of questioning… but they didn’t have the courage or courtesy to speak up when it was happening. She ended up with an offer for a 50% scholarship. But why go there when their “elite” have already made it clear what they think of you? Their loss. She thrived elsewhere and is now a full professor at the University of Texas. The “divide” between cultures was evident then, now it seems to be an uncrossable chasm. I wish you and your child the best in navigating the roiled waters.
One of my son’s best friends attended his first year of college at V***lt. He was more along the sciences with his interests, but that didn’t shield him from the snootiness of the other entitled arts brats that attended there. Being a midwestern boy that is so outgoing he could befriend just about anyone in a few minutes, he got so tired of the status game that after a few months he didn’t even bother trying to socialize anymore. He just studied and excelled. He came back to his backup school here in the Midwest and remained happy to be home wearing Maze and Blue. No shabby school, and enjoyed students that didn’t necessarily feel entitled. In fact, he ended up sharing a house with my son…who only told him once, “I told you so.”😉
Every school has a distinct culture, and kids should go to the one that feels right for them.
I ended up in a “good but not great” one in Boston because I got a good feeling from the campus tour. Most of the students I encountered from the elite schools in the area came off as some combination of snotty, status-obsessed, or oblivious to their own privilege. I’m grateful I went to a school where the culture was grounded and sane, even if it wasn’t the top tier.
Just to highlight the change in campus attitude, when I was getting out of the Army in 1975 (age 21), I applied to 6 schools (Duquesne, Penn State (State College), Ohio State, Univ of Detroit, Michigan State, & 1 can’t remember.) I heard back from Duquesne (Catholic school in Pittsburgh) almost immediately with an acceptance based not on my grades, SAT or National Merit Scholarship, but on the fact I was an honorably discharged veteran. In 1975, this was unique. I accepted and the main benefit is sitting at the other end of the couch 50 yrs later. It was only in writing to the other 5 schools withdrawing my applications, that I eventually found out they’d accepted me, but not bothered to write.
Because it’s unjust, and fundamentally so. And it’s done not to help anyone who’s disadvantaged (e.g., an 18 year old Thomas Sowell), but only to allow the guilty-minded to preen by torturing the newly disfavored. I have zero doubt the Christian hater had slipped off her Red Guard hat just before entering the interview room.
I don’t. At 21, I was moving fast and covering ground. Getting into a reputable school was the next step in life. The 2nd was getting a useable education, & the 3rd was finding a life partner. I accomplished all 3. The other schools could not have provided a better life.
John, it sounds like fate did you a favor. I am surprised that the other schools accepted you but didn’t bother to respond back. Do you think it may have been due to your being a Vietnam vet? I was too young to really grasp it at the time, but we treated our vets from that era like shit! My best wishes to you.
It could be, but to allocate a seat to an applicant you don’t inform screws 2 people – the other being the next person on the list. I chalked it up to indifference or incompetence. Yup, the liberals of that era sure 💩 on combat vets. I find it especially despicable for them and their liberal children and grandchildren to be militating for war. Since it was Russia aggressing in both Viet Nam and Ukraine, I can only attribute the difference in attitude being due to racism.
I’m really surprised that OSU accepted but didn’t respond. I like to think that their political stance would be relatively neutral during those times. My mom and dad both were graduates from there, including my grandpa. My wife’s family also sports OSU grads. My wife and I are black sheep, didn’t graduate from there and moved up near “that school up north”. My wife actually retired from “the enemy” before retiring. It makes for interesting holiday get togethers…especially thanksgiving.
Anyhow, it sounds like it worked out for you. No reason to hold grudges about what happened years ago. 😀
Another thought overnight on OSU & the other large schools not responding: their Admissions depts were (are?) completely organized around mass acceptances & communications; a single later-in-the-season application (or specifically, the related communications) may have been lost in the hubbub of MANUALLY (pre-PC) pushing hundreds/thousands of files & communications through the pipeline. Each of the schools would have faced the same work “plug.”
Yeah, and I never understood why they did. A veteran is a veteran. They went and put their lives on the line to serve their country and IMO, no matter how crappy the reason for the war, that's honorable.
I’ve bloviated on SS numerous times about the origins of modern progressivism in the U.S. from Marx, the USSR’s Comintern, and various European political philosophers who migrated here immediately post-WWII (either personally or through their ideas), and infected U.S. academia. These disciples of the hatred of Western civilization and especially the Enlightenment were well entrenched in our colleges by the late 50s. While the McCarthy era was terrible, the hatred of ALL anti-Communists was virulent on American campuses.
So the scene was set for rebellious Baby Boomer teenagers to arrive on campus and be indoctrinated that their parents were completely full of 💩, and that sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll (plus good wishes) was enough to make the world perfect. So “unilateral nuclear disarmament” became a thing, the perfect exemplar of irrational naïveté.
So if you believe that the human condition can be perfected simply by wishing it so, then it follows that those who make war are perpetrating evil.
This logical fallacy underlies every progressive hostile reaction to ideological opposition from 1919 to today.
And thus boys who became men under fire in a criminally mismanaged war were greeted with “Ho Ho Heh Heh, How many babies did you kill today?” upon their return.
There has always been an experiential chasm between those who serve and those who don’t. I don’t think the attitude of the nation’s self-defined intellectuals and those who serve has fundamentally changed. The only thing that happened is the reaction to the vets was SO ugly and underserved that college liberalism’s reputation was damaged for 2 decades. (That didn’t stop it from pumping out the “camel’s nose” toxin “political correctness” by the end of the ‘80’s.)
One need only look at the difference in reaction between the snobs and the soldiers to Hegseth’s nomination. Or for that matter, the difference between the snobs and “brick” FBI agents to Patel’s nomination. Interestingly, Patel is the only FBI Director (other than Clarence Kelley, who succeeded Hoover) who is (a) not an Ivy League grad and (b) has not had a scandal originate during his term as Director (admittedly only 44 days so far…).
I would say it's because regardless of how high the percentage of Americans who know that neo liberals are unhinged idiots, those people still manage to always hold sway everywhere you look if you live anywhere near a city. The modern world is MADE for them. Western culture has nothing to do with studious inquiry, reflection, scientific advancement, humility, family etc and everything to do with logical fallacy, expensive restaurants, ersatz worldliness, narcissism, self interest, grandiosity, fear, loathing, and venality. The idiots and intelligent ideologues all think they're awesome while disdaining anyone who dares confront them. Neera Tanden is a perfect avatar for the intellectually stunted left.
When liberals get a foothold in “professional engineering” (the folks whose signature on blueprints is legally required before construction can occur) is the day I start riding one of our horses for transportation rather than enjoyment. No more aircraft or bridges. Physics has no “feelings.” Corrosion of tension cables and concrete spalling do not abate for struggle sessions about white guilt.
The liberal seeks to accelerate the day when a future poet reprises “Ozymandias” about the civilization the liberal destroyed.
Skip the inflated cost of being brainwashed and invest that money in the following:
A good textbook on Accounting and Finance. Understand that “profit” is a bullshit number. THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS CASH FLOW.
Become a master of your own destiny. Acquire as many useful skills as humanly possible.
Take that little chunk of cash and turn it into a business. Don't go out and hire a bunch of brainwashed idiots who couldn't operate a copier if their life depended on it! Do every job in your little start-up. Understand every single job/task required to make your company tick.
Generate revenue and understand the costs/expenses required to fuel that revenue.
Get the picture?
You are never “prepared or ready” to start a business. Buckle up, find your courage/grit and go for it!
While your idiot friends spend 4-6 years navel gazing and learning absolutely zip/zero/zilch, you will have 4-6 years of well earned experience and some dough!
It’s the only rational decision given the irrational state of affairs of (so called) higher education.
Our local plumber (whom we have known and employed for over 30 years) is a decent bloke. He started with just his wife and himself charging a decent rate per call.
Local plumber now employs at least 3 other plumbers, still keeps his rates reasonable, still answers all calls, and runs an efficient, reliable, and effective business. We wouldn't think of calling anyone else!
Everyone in our small community uses this local plumber because he runs a good business.
It’s genetics… as she likes to remind me. She even wrote a book about it. Children grow up despite their parents (most of the time…) Thanks for the kind comment.
Great comment,I am happy for her doing so well. The person did her a favor with that “sky fairy” remark, showing her that the world is full of wooden heads who mostly wake up the last week of there lives to the reality that they were just not that smart just not self reflective.
It will be difficult. College tours, if you see them for what they are, are depressing walks through intellectual deserts. Mommy and daddy owe their perfect kids the perfect education so they can have that sweet sticker on their car. Do yourself a favor and stick to state schools. They're often very good with none of the tinsel.
It was in the early 70s, but that's what I did, and graduated with no debt. I went to a junior college for two years, living at home. I had grants and scholarships from high school so that was free. I transferred to a state college with grants and a scholarship. I had to move, but was able to qualify for low-income housing (my parents had separated), so my apartment only cost $65/month and I did babysitting for people in the complex, and traded sitting and housekeeping for one woman to type my papers since I was an awful typist. I graduated with no debt.
It was a learning experience for me to live in an environment with drug dealers, single mothers, and multi-cultural families when I'd mostly lived in lower middle-class neighborhoods with black and Mexican families. It was in Sacramento during the time of Patty Hearst/SLA/Black Panthers, and the Golden State Killer, so there was a lot of police presence and political tension. Learning to live alone and not in constant fear was actually more important than schoolwork. A lot of maturity happened in those two years.
I knew that I had beliefs that I wouldn't compromise to be part of a group. I'd always been like that, on the fringes because my values of what was right, of justice, and fairness were strong. Still are. I was open to new ideas, listening to others, and considering new approaches and questions. But my core beliefs haven't changed. College was the first and best place to practice skills I'd use for the rest of my life.
I like that you’re letting the teen explore this stuff. I imagine, listening to you all the time (they claim to not listen, but they absorb), she’s gonna be an interesting fit for a liberal arts college. Hopefully challenge them. My teen - well, I went from nonstop talking about where she might go to college to saying, well, it would not kill me if you did not go. Even our local universities are churning out cultural Marxists at an alarming rate. And I hate the idea of feeding her to almost literal wolves.
Yes. The conditions I put on my high-school senior daughter regarding college were simple: you can go anywhere you want, but I'm only paying for it if I approve of the school and the course of study. If you want to spend four years at a leftist indoctrination center, you can pay for it yourself. I also encouraged her to look at trade schools, certificate programs, self-employment.
My wife doesn't quite approve, but I tell ours that if they use the money to travel or whatever, I think it would be fine. I trust their autodidactic tendencies.
I found that we didn't endure any ridiculous notions since by the time of talking about college, each of our boys knew they would have skin in the game and that the money spigot would shut down above whatever out state school charges each year.
So, run by corrupt oligarchs who are siphoning tax dollars into their own pockets and waging a (figurative) war against a small, fiercely independent group that makes their homes on its frontiers, where all the oil and gas is located?
Posted this at Racket News earlier this morning: The Canadian city where I live boasts of having about 100-thousand residents who have Ukrainian heritage. The local Ukrainian cultural organization issued a release yesterday that they're fundraising by selling Zelensky-inspired green hoodies and shirts with that country's coat of arms on them. As I said at Racket, words fail me.
I've seen that too. Rapidly pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia. And, despite being of Ukrainian heritage, have ZERO insight into what caused the war, Ukraine's relationship with Russia, and the raft of bad people driving that failed state.
Crazy to be that deep in it and have zero idea what's going on.
Although that describes most of Canada, to be fair.
IMO Cory Booker doesn’t deserve your disdain for his filibuster; that was just ordinary political posturing.
IMO Cory Booker deserves your disdain precisely because he is NOT actually a midwit.
He used to be a thoughtful, reasonable center-left politician.
[Unlike Bernie Sanders and AOC, who are indeed midwits. Or Elizabeth Warren, who is at least somewhat intelligent but is a committed ideological radical leftist.]
But one day several years ago, almost surely in a desire to optimize his chance of winning the Dem nomination and so to become President, Booker put his finger in the air and decided that his best chance of political advancement was to move hard left.
All the “committed socialists” you’ve mentioned really don’t believe the nonsense they’re spewing either, but they DO believe in the greenbacks that come their way via their flock when they spew it. My wife has a friend whose family has a summer house passed down through generations on the New York side of Lake Champlain. They took a boat ride one day and my wife’s friend pointed out Bernie’s Vermont lake house. Let’s just say that pretending to be a socialist pays well.
You are entitled to your own opinion, and you may be correct.
Bernie is not literally a Marxist. But however politically sharp he may be, he’s not that bright. His economics don’t add up, but I do think he believes the idiocy he spouts. Same for AOC.
She at least has the excuse that she may never have heard the fable about the goose that laid the golden eggs. Bernie doesn’t.
As for his wealth, I have little doubt that if he’d wanted to he could have much more than he does, and that as pols go he’s benefitted personally financially less than they typical one. Which is obviously more than none at all.
I agree with you. It’s their sincere belief that makes them dangerous. There’s a CS Lewis quote out there somewhere that says it better than I ever could. <pause>
Here it is:
“It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Yes. I’m entitled to my opinion as correct as it is.
Pointing out that one hog not getting as much feed at the trough as the others is a poor distinction. Especially one that preaches against the evils of being a millionaire…or billionaire (now that Bernie’s a multimillionaire). He’s still a hypocrite and a hog at the trough just like the rest of them!
Booker made $100 million of Mark Zuckerberg's money vanish while he was mayor.of Newark. In 2010, Zuck gave that much to Newark for "education". To this day, no one knows where that money went. Not Zuckerberg, not Ras Baraka, Booker's successor as Newark's mayor, and not the parents and teachers for which the funds were supposedly earmarked.
What we did learn is that the going rate for the purchase of a US Senate seat is $100 million. At least that's the cost in New Jersey, a mob-controlled state. Your mileage may vary.
Booker was mayor of Newark when four black teens were attacked (one brutal rape, three murdered) by MS13 illegal aliens. He didn’t much care. Not a good person.
I've thought since I hit adulthood that it is extremely rare that someone runs for President or Senator who isn't massively egoed and impressed by his own awesomeness.
Though with Biden, I always wondered how much of it was his public "lunch box Joe"/"My dad was a used car salesman"/etc. pose. That he was so...fluid with the truth when (it seemed) he felt it would get him more acclaim makes it seem calculated.
There are no real conversations. No shared reality. I imagine everyone walking around like a battered woman with a black eye, hoping no one asks where she got it. She out of viable excuses. We all look past each other, pretending not to see. None of us live in same world anymore. Chris, tell us how this ends?
Only this afternoon: a conventional glossy-coif 60ish matron announced to me with some zeal her plan to attend The Big Protest on Saturday at the State Capitol.
Except that the virtue signaling can't raise families, manufacture things, grow food, or construct buildings, build dams and pipelines, lay roads and train tracks, these people could run the world in all their awesomeness.
It's quite perfect that Booker wasn't actually filibustering anything, as Rand Paul did with a USA PATRIOT Act extension (IIRC). Booker just got up and started talking, and now the media is abuzz with how wonderful it all was.
But what was it for?
Allow me to repeat.......now the media is abuzz with how wonderful it all was.
The hypocrisies in Congress are so transparent. One day, debating whether to cancel an energy efficiency regulation is a waste of time; another day, talking for 24 hours about nothing in particular is bravely standing up for democracy.
"now the media is abuzz with how wonderful it all was"
Which, of course, was the point of the exercise.
And proof positive, (if proof is required), that our so-called media is bereft of brains, and lamentably lacking in any understanding as to what might constitute "news".
“The fact that so much of the discussion is about grant money is maybe a bit of a tell. So the subtext is all the content: Don’t take this away from me.
It’s a pleasant life, and it comes with good restaurants.”
And they’re utterly unfit outside their bubble and they should have had the sense to leave the rest of us alone.
If they had been content to stay on campus, the grant money would still be flowing and our politics would be better off. But that’s not the way of things. Giving campus life over to the radicals was always going to spill over, and the fix for that is just getting started.
Please don’t go, Professor Stanley. Who else will bravely warn us that democracy is hanging by a thread every time someone disagrees with you? …Is he gone? Thank God. I can finally unclench.
This item from yesterday was too good to be true. "A staffer for Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was arrested by Capitol Police just before the senator began his marathon speech on the Senate floor.
Kevin Batts, 59, was arrested by Capitol Police for carrying a pistol without a license. Batts is a special assistant to Booker, according to LegiStorm, and has worked for the senator in that role since November 2013, with a gap between February 2019 and February 2020."
Some advise for professor Stanley: if you can't do it with a sarcastic smirk like Jeff Goldblum, please don't EVER do it at all. It just makes you look like a absolute, total self-absorbed dick.
Hey don't knock the Pot, the incoming class of 2028 isn't even going to know how to read. Which will be fine. Reading will be outlawed by then, replaced by self-expressions of Molotov cocktails, performative breakdowns and verbal hypocrisy to dazzle.
Spent four years at Hopkins. The most profound, useful, memorable phrase came from a housekeeper as we were having a mud fight in the quad: “It’s a crazy world, and you have to be crazy to live in it”. Priceless. Worth the 80k
With so much to worry about in the world, I'm now worried about YOUR daughter. She's just three years ahead of my eldest grandchild. Even if Trump succeeds in rooting out the cultural Marxism, the universities are a lost cause. I know this as a professor.
Chris, re Cory Booker: I wish we taxpayers could see the actual cost in dollars of his theatrical stunt while he prohibited the Senate from doing anything helpful to us.
Re your daughter: none of my business, but we let our daughter go to a small out of state liberal arts college year 1 (2003-4) and she realized that being near home and studying here wasn’t so bad. We felt lucky that it only took a year to have her home and on track to become a productive adult. Here’s hoping for a happy ending for your girl too!!
The regime writes their propaganda into books and has their shills put their names on them. It's a way of amplifying the shills and making them seem smart, so that the public will revere them and emulate their positions on various topics. It's like giving a rising movie-star an unearned academy award- people suddenly care what they have to say. He likely doesn't understand the point of his assigned book in a way that he could explain other than to make continual vague references to it.
Having finished a PhD at a major research university, during which I attended many academic conferences where Stanley’s type are depressingly common, I can attest from experience that they definitely don’t hear themselves. They’ve too deeply drunk the kool-aid of their own narcissism.
My condolences for your college tour trip. Seems as if things have only gotten worse. 25 years ago, I was in your shoes with my brilliant daughter - valedictorian of a “rigorous” private high school, 1600 SAT, 36 ACT, concert pianist, and writer of an essay about the math hidden in music. When we visited UN… er, a prestigious state university in North Carolina, we were told she was not competitive for any scholarships and may not even get admitted unless she “started a soup kitchen in Africa. White, blonde, blue-eyed, smart suburban girls are a dime a dozen here.” (The admissions lady’s exact quote.) At least 25 years ago they weren’t afraid to tell you what they really thought. Later, my daughter was asked to come to Van… er, a prestigious private university in Nashville for a series of interviews that might lead to a full ride there. In the final interview a panel of “scholars” spent 45 minutes deriding her for being a Christian. “How can someone so intelligent believe in a sky fairy?” She broke down in tears when telling me about it. Someone on the panel called her “off the record” to apologize for the line of questioning… but they didn’t have the courage or courtesy to speak up when it was happening. She ended up with an offer for a 50% scholarship. But why go there when their “elite” have already made it clear what they think of you? Their loss. She thrived elsewhere and is now a full professor at the University of Texas. The “divide” between cultures was evident then, now it seems to be an uncrossable chasm. I wish you and your child the best in navigating the roiled waters.
Good to have those ugly experiences. And congratulations to the professor for figuring it out!
One of my son’s best friends attended his first year of college at V***lt. He was more along the sciences with his interests, but that didn’t shield him from the snootiness of the other entitled arts brats that attended there. Being a midwestern boy that is so outgoing he could befriend just about anyone in a few minutes, he got so tired of the status game that after a few months he didn’t even bother trying to socialize anymore. He just studied and excelled. He came back to his backup school here in the Midwest and remained happy to be home wearing Maze and Blue. No shabby school, and enjoyed students that didn’t necessarily feel entitled. In fact, he ended up sharing a house with my son…who only told him once, “I told you so.”😉
Every school has a distinct culture, and kids should go to the one that feels right for them.
I ended up in a “good but not great” one in Boston because I got a good feeling from the campus tour. Most of the students I encountered from the elite schools in the area came off as some combination of snotty, status-obsessed, or oblivious to their own privilege. I’m grateful I went to a school where the culture was grounded and sane, even if it wasn’t the top tier.
I know someone who went to Vanderbilt. Came from a great family, etc etc.
Somehow she emerged from Vanderbilt morbidly obese.
Just to highlight the change in campus attitude, when I was getting out of the Army in 1975 (age 21), I applied to 6 schools (Duquesne, Penn State (State College), Ohio State, Univ of Detroit, Michigan State, & 1 can’t remember.) I heard back from Duquesne (Catholic school in Pittsburgh) almost immediately with an acceptance based not on my grades, SAT or National Merit Scholarship, but on the fact I was an honorably discharged veteran. In 1975, this was unique. I accepted and the main benefit is sitting at the other end of the couch 50 yrs later. It was only in writing to the other 5 schools withdrawing my applications, that I eventually found out they’d accepted me, but not bothered to write.
Why does this piss me off so much?!
Unreal. Good on you, man, for raising such a good daughter.
Bravo.
“Why does this piss me off so much?!”
Because it’s unjust, and fundamentally so. And it’s done not to help anyone who’s disadvantaged (e.g., an 18 year old Thomas Sowell), but only to allow the guilty-minded to preen by torturing the newly disfavored. I have zero doubt the Christian hater had slipped off her Red Guard hat just before entering the interview room.
I don’t. At 21, I was moving fast and covering ground. Getting into a reputable school was the next step in life. The 2nd was getting a useable education, & the 3rd was finding a life partner. I accomplished all 3. The other schools could not have provided a better life.
John, it sounds like fate did you a favor. I am surprised that the other schools accepted you but didn’t bother to respond back. Do you think it may have been due to your being a Vietnam vet? I was too young to really grasp it at the time, but we treated our vets from that era like shit! My best wishes to you.
It could be, but to allocate a seat to an applicant you don’t inform screws 2 people – the other being the next person on the list. I chalked it up to indifference or incompetence. Yup, the liberals of that era sure 💩 on combat vets. I find it especially despicable for them and their liberal children and grandchildren to be militating for war. Since it was Russia aggressing in both Viet Nam and Ukraine, I can only attribute the difference in attitude being due to racism.
I’m really surprised that OSU accepted but didn’t respond. I like to think that their political stance would be relatively neutral during those times. My mom and dad both were graduates from there, including my grandpa. My wife’s family also sports OSU grads. My wife and I are black sheep, didn’t graduate from there and moved up near “that school up north”. My wife actually retired from “the enemy” before retiring. It makes for interesting holiday get togethers…especially thanksgiving.
Anyhow, it sounds like it worked out for you. No reason to hold grudges about what happened years ago. 😀
Another thought overnight on OSU & the other large schools not responding: their Admissions depts were (are?) completely organized around mass acceptances & communications; a single later-in-the-season application (or specifically, the related communications) may have been lost in the hubbub of MANUALLY (pre-PC) pushing hundreds/thousands of files & communications through the pipeline. Each of the schools would have faced the same work “plug.”
"...we treated our vets from that era like shit!"
Yeah, and I never understood why they did. A veteran is a veteran. They went and put their lives on the line to serve their country and IMO, no matter how crappy the reason for the war, that's honorable.
“…I never understood why they did.”
I’ve bloviated on SS numerous times about the origins of modern progressivism in the U.S. from Marx, the USSR’s Comintern, and various European political philosophers who migrated here immediately post-WWII (either personally or through their ideas), and infected U.S. academia. These disciples of the hatred of Western civilization and especially the Enlightenment were well entrenched in our colleges by the late 50s. While the McCarthy era was terrible, the hatred of ALL anti-Communists was virulent on American campuses.
So the scene was set for rebellious Baby Boomer teenagers to arrive on campus and be indoctrinated that their parents were completely full of 💩, and that sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll (plus good wishes) was enough to make the world perfect. So “unilateral nuclear disarmament” became a thing, the perfect exemplar of irrational naïveté.
So if you believe that the human condition can be perfected simply by wishing it so, then it follows that those who make war are perpetrating evil.
This logical fallacy underlies every progressive hostile reaction to ideological opposition from 1919 to today.
And thus boys who became men under fire in a criminally mismanaged war were greeted with “Ho Ho Heh Heh, How many babies did you kill today?” upon their return.
There has always been an experiential chasm between those who serve and those who don’t. I don’t think the attitude of the nation’s self-defined intellectuals and those who serve has fundamentally changed. The only thing that happened is the reaction to the vets was SO ugly and underserved that college liberalism’s reputation was damaged for 2 decades. (That didn’t stop it from pumping out the “camel’s nose” toxin “political correctness” by the end of the ‘80’s.)
One need only look at the difference in reaction between the snobs and the soldiers to Hegseth’s nomination. Or for that matter, the difference between the snobs and “brick” FBI agents to Patel’s nomination. Interestingly, Patel is the only FBI Director (other than Clarence Kelley, who succeeded Hoover) who is (a) not an Ivy League grad and (b) has not had a scandal originate during his term as Director (admittedly only 44 days so far…).
I would say it's because regardless of how high the percentage of Americans who know that neo liberals are unhinged idiots, those people still manage to always hold sway everywhere you look if you live anywhere near a city. The modern world is MADE for them. Western culture has nothing to do with studious inquiry, reflection, scientific advancement, humility, family etc and everything to do with logical fallacy, expensive restaurants, ersatz worldliness, narcissism, self interest, grandiosity, fear, loathing, and venality. The idiots and intelligent ideologues all think they're awesome while disdaining anyone who dares confront them. Neera Tanden is a perfect avatar for the intellectually stunted left.
When liberals get a foothold in “professional engineering” (the folks whose signature on blueprints is legally required before construction can occur) is the day I start riding one of our horses for transportation rather than enjoyment. No more aircraft or bridges. Physics has no “feelings.” Corrosion of tension cables and concrete spalling do not abate for struggle sessions about white guilt.
The liberal seeks to accelerate the day when a future poet reprises “Ozymandias” about the civilization the liberal destroyed.
I think the whole University crap is a scam to grift. Such bullshit.
This is coming from me who holds two undergraduate degrees and a masters. Hahahaha!
I lasted all of four years in the corporate world. I knew at the ripe old age of 28 that I couldn't last one more day.
I started my business within 3 years and never looked back!
And I totally agree with you on college these days.
In fact, the more you pay, the less value imo
Exactly same on every detail, including starting my biz at 28, except I only have an undergraduate and graduate degree.
What a coincidence!
There are no coincidences, my friend.
Skip the inflated cost of being brainwashed and invest that money in the following:
A good textbook on Accounting and Finance. Understand that “profit” is a bullshit number. THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS CASH FLOW.
Become a master of your own destiny. Acquire as many useful skills as humanly possible.
Take that little chunk of cash and turn it into a business. Don't go out and hire a bunch of brainwashed idiots who couldn't operate a copier if their life depended on it! Do every job in your little start-up. Understand every single job/task required to make your company tick.
Generate revenue and understand the costs/expenses required to fuel that revenue.
Get the picture?
You are never “prepared or ready” to start a business. Buckle up, find your courage/grit and go for it!
While your idiot friends spend 4-6 years navel gazing and learning absolutely zip/zero/zilch, you will have 4-6 years of well earned experience and some dough!
Just my humble opinion.
I like your opinion. Pretty much how I feel.
It’s the only rational decision given the irrational state of affairs of (so called) higher education.
Our local plumber (whom we have known and employed for over 30 years) is a decent bloke. He started with just his wife and himself charging a decent rate per call.
Local plumber now employs at least 3 other plumbers, still keeps his rates reasonable, still answers all calls, and runs an efficient, reliable, and effective business. We wouldn't think of calling anyone else!
Everyone in our small community uses this local plumber because he runs a good business.
Let me tell you that he lives well!
It’s genetics… as she likes to remind me. She even wrote a book about it. Children grow up despite their parents (most of the time…) Thanks for the kind comment.
Great comment,I am happy for her doing so well. The person did her a favor with that “sky fairy” remark, showing her that the world is full of wooden heads who mostly wake up the last week of there lives to the reality that they were just not that smart just not self reflective.
Amen.
I've got twin sophomores in high school, so this helps me prepare for their next phase. I hope I am able to keep my mouth shut.
1) I loved the “sighing father” comment.
2) Be sure to dig into schools’ degree programs, and specifically the required courses and suggested electives.
3) Check out the FIRE website re: free speech on campus ratings. https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/2024-college-free-speech-rankings
These last 2 will let you see past the “rigorous education” BS that Chris, his daughter (and all families) encounter.
It will be difficult. College tours, if you see them for what they are, are depressing walks through intellectual deserts. Mommy and daddy owe their perfect kids the perfect education so they can have that sweet sticker on their car. Do yourself a favor and stick to state schools. They're often very good with none of the tinsel.
It was in the early 70s, but that's what I did, and graduated with no debt. I went to a junior college for two years, living at home. I had grants and scholarships from high school so that was free. I transferred to a state college with grants and a scholarship. I had to move, but was able to qualify for low-income housing (my parents had separated), so my apartment only cost $65/month and I did babysitting for people in the complex, and traded sitting and housekeeping for one woman to type my papers since I was an awful typist. I graduated with no debt.
It was a learning experience for me to live in an environment with drug dealers, single mothers, and multi-cultural families when I'd mostly lived in lower middle-class neighborhoods with black and Mexican families. It was in Sacramento during the time of Patty Hearst/SLA/Black Panthers, and the Golden State Killer, so there was a lot of police presence and political tension. Learning to live alone and not in constant fear was actually more important than schoolwork. A lot of maturity happened in those two years.
I knew that I had beliefs that I wouldn't compromise to be part of a group. I'd always been like that, on the fringes because my values of what was right, of justice, and fairness were strong. Still are. I was open to new ideas, listening to others, and considering new approaches and questions. But my core beliefs haven't changed. College was the first and best place to practice skills I'd use for the rest of my life.
🙌
let your pocketbook do the talking about what you support or don't
🙌
I like that you’re letting the teen explore this stuff. I imagine, listening to you all the time (they claim to not listen, but they absorb), she’s gonna be an interesting fit for a liberal arts college. Hopefully challenge them. My teen - well, I went from nonstop talking about where she might go to college to saying, well, it would not kill me if you did not go. Even our local universities are churning out cultural Marxists at an alarming rate. And I hate the idea of feeding her to almost literal wolves.
Yes. The conditions I put on my high-school senior daughter regarding college were simple: you can go anywhere you want, but I'm only paying for it if I approve of the school and the course of study. If you want to spend four years at a leftist indoctrination center, you can pay for it yourself. I also encouraged her to look at trade schools, certificate programs, self-employment.
very sensible and fair
It’s like watching a horror movie and screaming at the screen “No, don’t open the door!”
YES.
My wife doesn't quite approve, but I tell ours that if they use the money to travel or whatever, I think it would be fine. I trust their autodidactic tendencies.
I found that we didn't endure any ridiculous notions since by the time of talking about college, each of our boys knew they would have skin in the game and that the money spigot would shut down above whatever out state school charges each year.
"Canada-the Ukraine of North America."
So, run by corrupt oligarchs who are siphoning tax dollars into their own pockets and waging a (figurative) war against a small, fiercely independent group that makes their homes on its frontiers, where all the oil and gas is located?
You forgot propped up by America's military, but a solid A-.
LOL
😂🤣
Posted this at Racket News earlier this morning: The Canadian city where I live boasts of having about 100-thousand residents who have Ukrainian heritage. The local Ukrainian cultural organization issued a release yesterday that they're fundraising by selling Zelensky-inspired green hoodies and shirts with that country's coat of arms on them. As I said at Racket, words fail me.
I've seen that too. Rapidly pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia. And, despite being of Ukrainian heritage, have ZERO insight into what caused the war, Ukraine's relationship with Russia, and the raft of bad people driving that failed state.
Crazy to be that deep in it and have zero idea what's going on.
Although that describes most of Canada, to be fair.
I'm good, I already have lots of hoodies. What I don't have is a pair of Zelensky-inspired coat-of-arms-branded faux-leather assless chaps.
Vegan leather 👌
No kidding.
Gonna guess you live in Alberta?
An apt description.
Touché
IMO Cory Booker doesn’t deserve your disdain for his filibuster; that was just ordinary political posturing.
IMO Cory Booker deserves your disdain precisely because he is NOT actually a midwit.
He used to be a thoughtful, reasonable center-left politician.
[Unlike Bernie Sanders and AOC, who are indeed midwits. Or Elizabeth Warren, who is at least somewhat intelligent but is a committed ideological radical leftist.]
But one day several years ago, almost surely in a desire to optimize his chance of winning the Dem nomination and so to become President, Booker put his finger in the air and decided that his best chance of political advancement was to move hard left.
And so he has.
THAT is why he deserves our disdain.
All the “committed socialists” you’ve mentioned really don’t believe the nonsense they’re spewing either, but they DO believe in the greenbacks that come their way via their flock when they spew it. My wife has a friend whose family has a summer house passed down through generations on the New York side of Lake Champlain. They took a boat ride one day and my wife’s friend pointed out Bernie’s Vermont lake house. Let’s just say that pretending to be a socialist pays well.
You are entitled to your own opinion, and you may be correct.
Bernie is not literally a Marxist. But however politically sharp he may be, he’s not that bright. His economics don’t add up, but I do think he believes the idiocy he spouts. Same for AOC.
She at least has the excuse that she may never have heard the fable about the goose that laid the golden eggs. Bernie doesn’t.
As for his wealth, I have little doubt that if he’d wanted to he could have much more than he does, and that as pols go he’s benefitted personally financially less than they typical one. Which is obviously more than none at all.
I agree with you. It’s their sincere belief that makes them dangerous. There’s a CS Lewis quote out there somewhere that says it better than I ever could. <pause>
Here it is:
“It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
And they do.
Yes. I’m entitled to my opinion as correct as it is.
Pointing out that one hog not getting as much feed at the trough as the others is a poor distinction. Especially one that preaches against the evils of being a millionaire…or billionaire (now that Bernie’s a multimillionaire). He’s still a hypocrite and a hog at the trough just like the rest of them!
I ain’t defending Bernie writ large.
I’m just saying he’s more a sincere moron than he is an insincere grifter.
But of course he can be both a moron and a grifter.
Sorry about coming across as a little harsh. I can’t help but think Bernie’s an idiot, intentional or not. I guess I let it show.
😄
Oh, he’s definitely an idiot. You and I agree, and his cumulative words and actions leave no doubt.
The only open question is whether he’s also a grifter and a hypocrite, and if so how relatively bad of a grifter and hypocrite.
He was a corrupt mayor of Newark. He wasn't as bad as Sharpe James, though,
Steered all city legal work to his ex-firm; backroom deal, one example.
And he was always known as closeted, living a lie.
Sen,Latuenberg croaked and Christie installed Booker (so Dems would like the fat windbag).
"He was a corrupt mayor of Newark."
Isn't that redundant?
😂🤣
Booker made $100 million of Mark Zuckerberg's money vanish while he was mayor.of Newark. In 2010, Zuck gave that much to Newark for "education". To this day, no one knows where that money went. Not Zuckerberg, not Ras Baraka, Booker's successor as Newark's mayor, and not the parents and teachers for which the funds were supposedly earmarked.
What we did learn is that the going rate for the purchase of a US Senate seat is $100 million. At least that's the cost in New Jersey, a mob-controlled state. Your mileage may vary.
Remember when he saved somebody from a burning building, back when he was a mayor. He was once an admirable man, a real person.
Booker was mayor of Newark when four black teens were attacked (one brutal rape, three murdered) by MS13 illegal aliens. He didn’t much care. Not a good person.
I've thought since I hit adulthood that it is extremely rare that someone runs for President or Senator who isn't massively egoed and impressed by his own awesomeness.
I don’t have a problem with ego in a President.
Inarguably the two worst presidents of the last 50 years - Carter and Biden - arguably had the smallest egos of any of them.
Though with Biden, I always wondered how much of it was his public "lunch box Joe"/"My dad was a used car salesman"/etc. pose. That he was so...fluid with the truth when (it seemed) he felt it would get him more acclaim makes it seem calculated.
You missed Obummer and his massive ego.
No, I didn’t.
He does indeed have a massive ego, we agree.
But while I don’t think he was a particularly good president, he was *miles* better than Carter and Biden.
NOT!
He made race relations worse and led us into BLM and ANTIFA.
There are no real conversations. No shared reality. I imagine everyone walking around like a battered woman with a black eye, hoping no one asks where she got it. She out of viable excuses. We all look past each other, pretending not to see. None of us live in same world anymore. Chris, tell us how this ends?
Only this afternoon: a conventional glossy-coif 60ish matron announced to me with some zeal her plan to attend The Big Protest on Saturday at the State Capitol.
"What are you protesting, Teslas?"
"The government."
"What about the government? Do you carry signs?"
(nods)
"What do they say?"
"The rule of Law! Save our democracy."
No conversations are possible.
Sounds like she’s protesting against the prior administration.
She hasn't a clue.
Or both.
Show me even one person in this country who might think that but would go carry a sign at a protest.
Well, okay, maybe there are some guys who would do it to try to pick up women…
At least she's committed? Uh, maybe not. Having her committed might be better.
"None of us live in same world anymore"
Yeah, we're in the same world, but all watching different channels.
Sane world, no. Same, yes, it’s just how we cope is different.
Except that the virtue signaling can't raise families, manufacture things, grow food, or construct buildings, build dams and pipelines, lay roads and train tracks, these people could run the world in all their awesomeness.
Exactly.
That's the point: having the leisure to do useless things is thought to confer greater status.
None of these (Not one!) are needed in Our Green Future (tm).
Au contraire.
Virtue signaling helps leftist politicians get elected, and earn money to pay their families.
It helps leftists get on corporate boards, go up the ladder in leftist-run organization, etc.
This indeed helps them raise their families.
It's quite perfect that Booker wasn't actually filibustering anything, as Rand Paul did with a USA PATRIOT Act extension (IIRC). Booker just got up and started talking, and now the media is abuzz with how wonderful it all was.
But what was it for?
Allow me to repeat.......now the media is abuzz with how wonderful it all was.
Did he proclaim, “I AM SPARTACUS!”, at any point? Since I stole that line from a good friend I’ll pretend that I’m asking the question for her.
Genius 😎
The hypocrisies in Congress are so transparent. One day, debating whether to cancel an energy efficiency regulation is a waste of time; another day, talking for 24 hours about nothing in particular is bravely standing up for democracy.
If all the media suddenly stopped being, would we be better off or bereft. God, make them all go away and give us some peace.
Oh! Wouldn't that be great if they did all go away?
I guess Jim Crow was not present this time
"now the media is abuzz with how wonderful it all was"
Which, of course, was the point of the exercise.
And proof positive, (if proof is required), that our so-called media is bereft of brains, and lamentably lacking in any understanding as to what might constitute "news".
“The fact that so much of the discussion is about grant money is maybe a bit of a tell. So the subtext is all the content: Don’t take this away from me.
It’s a pleasant life, and it comes with good restaurants.”
And they’re utterly unfit outside their bubble and they should have had the sense to leave the rest of us alone.
If they had been content to stay on campus, the grant money would still be flowing and our politics would be better off. But that’s not the way of things. Giving campus life over to the radicals was always going to spill over, and the fix for that is just getting started.
🔥 it down. Obsolescence gave way to Obscenity. Time to end it.
Please don’t go, Professor Stanley. Who else will bravely warn us that democracy is hanging by a thread every time someone disagrees with you? …Is he gone? Thank God. I can finally unclench.
This item from yesterday was too good to be true. "A staffer for Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was arrested by Capitol Police just before the senator began his marathon speech on the Senate floor.
Kevin Batts, 59, was arrested by Capitol Police for carrying a pistol without a license. Batts is a special assistant to Booker, according to LegiStorm, and has worked for the senator in that role since November 2013, with a gap between February 2019 and February 2020."
The full article's at https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/3366384/cory-booker-staffer-arrested-gun-senator-speech/
That's keeping it REAL! Real stupid.
OMG the thoughtful hand to the intellectual chin.
Some advise for professor Stanley: if you can't do it with a sarcastic smirk like Jeff Goldblum, please don't EVER do it at all. It just makes you look like a absolute, total self-absorbed dick.
OTOH, I think all Chris is missing is the horn-rimmed glasses. Then there's no way I'd have been able to tell them apart.
He made me laugh so hard 😂!
He doesn’t only just “look” like one…..
Chris, you definitely look like a poseur in that pose!
My life's work is done
Hand on chin, correct finger spacing. We all need to practice in front of the mirror. I FEEL we all need to get this right!
My belief is no matter what he did, it would make him "look like a(sic) absolute, total self-absorbed dick."
Hey don't knock the Pot, the incoming class of 2028 isn't even going to know how to read. Which will be fine. Reading will be outlawed by then, replaced by self-expressions of Molotov cocktails, performative breakdowns and verbal hypocrisy to dazzle.
Another gift of COVID.
It's so amazing how humanity just advances onwards and upwards.
/s
Spent four years at Hopkins. The most profound, useful, memorable phrase came from a housekeeper as we were having a mud fight in the quad: “It’s a crazy world, and you have to be crazy to live in it”. Priceless. Worth the 80k
With so much to worry about in the world, I'm now worried about YOUR daughter. She's just three years ahead of my eldest grandchild. Even if Trump succeeds in rooting out the cultural Marxism, the universities are a lost cause. I know this as a professor.
I know this as a permanent adjunct 👍🏻 I wish the philosophes well.
Chris, re Cory Booker: I wish we taxpayers could see the actual cost in dollars of his theatrical stunt while he prohibited the Senate from doing anything helpful to us.
Re your daughter: none of my business, but we let our daughter go to a small out of state liberal arts college year 1 (2003-4) and she realized that being near home and studying here wasn’t so bad. We felt lucky that it only took a year to have her home and on track to become a productive adult. Here’s hoping for a happy ending for your girl too!!
Whenever anyone mentions the overeducated fool that is Jason Stanley, I have to post this video that tells all you need to know about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAi8mCgG3Q0&t=38s&pp=ygUVamFzb24gc3RhbmxleSBteSBib29r. As a Canadian, how depressing that we'll have to put up with even more of his deluded sophistry.
That was much more painful than I anticipated.
The regime writes their propaganda into books and has their shills put their names on them. It's a way of amplifying the shills and making them seem smart, so that the public will revere them and emulate their positions on various topics. It's like giving a rising movie-star an unearned academy award- people suddenly care what they have to say. He likely doesn't understand the point of his assigned book in a way that he could explain other than to make continual vague references to it.
I lasted just over 30 seconds.
The boy is pimping his books hard! BOOK HIM DANNO!
Hilarious- these people definitely do not hear themselves.... my book my book@ lol you are a goof dude!!
Having finished a PhD at a major research university, during which I attended many academic conferences where Stanley’s type are depressingly common, I can attest from experience that they definitely don’t hear themselves. They’ve too deeply drunk the kool-aid of their own narcissism.
Oof.
I can imagine that was the actual talk he gave.