Harvard stands firmly behind President Claudine Gay, a remarkably undistinguished scholar and academic leader who has been lavishly overpraised and promoted beyond her ability for three decades. They do this, they have just explained, because Harvard is deeply committed to a culture of academic freedom, open discourse, and cultural pluralism:
Yet another instance of VERY IMPORTANT RULES suddenly not being quite so important when they affect a specific segment of the population. This is why I laugh at the people who say "Republicans must learn to ballot harvest!" -- the rules will be vigorously enforced on any conservative who tries to 'play by the new rules'.
Look, Harvard isn’t going to admit that their carefully cultivated DEI affirmative action President is a person of modest gifts who happens to be a plagiarist. Now Stanford just canned their Prez for much the same stuff after discovery and reportage by an undergrad on the school paper, albeit in the hard sciences, not the fuzzy social sciences. But Harvard is Harvard after all and they’re going to try and brazen it out. Because they know exactly what she is and what she did, but you peasants don’t get to tell Harvard what to do. And she is an identity politics victim checking lots of boxes.
You mentioned Commentary magazine. In the late 70’s I was at a fancy prep school in New England. Norman Podhoretz came to school and gave a lecture and the school invited me to the dinner in his honor and sat me next to him. To this day I have no idea why they chose me, an unremarkable high school junior, who did not ,most assuredly, have a Norman Podhoretz poster over his bed. I knew who he was because my dad subscribed to a lot of magazines, including Commentary, and I was a voracious reader. As near as I can figure, they needed a token student Jew to show their commitment to dinner diversity, and they drew my name out of a hat or something. Norman was ferociously intelligent and he let everybody know it. It was interesting enough to listen to him do the pro forma intellectual gymnastics required at these sorts of things, but it was one of many moments that made me realize that the faculty and administration were actually quite provincial and very afraid even then of looking too WASPy. Today this school has a black, gay physician as its headmaster. As near as I can tell there is no reason for any physician to be the headmaster of a secondary school these days, but that’s not likely the point of his appointment is it? I’m guessing the people at Harvard probably know why he’s the headmaster. The prep school, which probably has an endowment in the billions at this point, also has boys in skirts in the cheer squad. I know these things because I get the alumni magazine. The magazine, like the magazine from Stanford features multi page spreads on woke garbage. Students lobbying the legislature on climate change! Alumni with their enviro- passion projects! Everybody is saving the world from problems that don’t exist. The brilliant guy who dies with a Nobel prize in biochemistry gets a one graph in the back pages if he was white and old. This is one of the reasons the Ivy League produces such woke BS graduates. A lot of kids from schools like mine go to Harvard etc. Soon I think the woke enterprise is going to come tumbling down. Don’t let these asshats forget what you think of them. They sure tell us what they think of us every day.
Of course, Harvard's statement completely ignores the fact that, for her entire unimpressive career prior to be named President, Ms. Gay has been the primary driver in cancelling those directly above her on the totem pole.
Every major city I've lived in used to have at least two, and usually more, main newspapers. In Houston it was the Chronicle and the Post. In San Francisco it was the Chronicle and the Examiner. In Seattle it was the Times and the Post-Intelligencer. In Honolulu it was the Star Bulletin and the Advertiser. While they would often report the same facts (back when we had real journalists), they almost always had divergent views on those facts...referred to as editorial opinions. Readers often read both newspapers to better inform themselves of the various viewpoints. The idea that we should only be allowed to embrace one viewpoint on the facts (the "government's" viewpoint), is a sign of just how far this once free country has fallen.
As an aside, every time I see Al Gore open his mouth and say something, I'm reminded of just how lucky we are to have dodged that particular bullet.
Fire. All of the regime propagandists on Substack also block their comments. Putting themselves in echo chambers and intellectual straight jackets. In the old days they'd be in a room with padded walls and supervision.
"Harvard’s mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse"
Fuck you, liars.
To put it in the most generous and charitable way possible, Harvard's mission is to optimize the boot stamping upon the face of humanity, and concoct mind-viruses that subjugate and demoralize the populace.
"The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage . . . . Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"The simple act of an ordinary courageous man is not to take part, not to support lies! Let that come into the world and even reign over it, but not through me. Writers and artists can do more: they can vanquish lies! ... Lies can stand up against much in the world, but not against art." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Chris, don't kid yourself: It's not just parrots like Claudine Gay doing this. The smarter (more clever?
more devious?) folks, who won't perform the public self-flagellation Gay does, still rub elbows with her and quietly repeat her views, in exchange for access and benefits. She's there because elites can manipulate her for specific benefit. She's an avatar for the elite, professional class, who work to pull power and public spending toward themselves. They just don't do it out loud. They have her as a puppet for the talking part.
Hopefully, the FBI or the Dept. of Agriculture won't kick down my door for participating in open discourse. I put the odds at 50-50.
I was reading a Harvard student interview about the toxic environment. The individual was a republican leader at the university and states the obvious - there’s been a toxic double standard there for a very long time. But he also states that he loves Harvard, it’s a great opportunity and that he would still encourage people to attend because there’s some good people there.
Until that attitude changes Harvard will survive. Until the very people that hold the institution high realize the institution is just the name and no longer a place of truly higher learning, whatever that even means in this day and age.
People have to abandon the idea that these Ivy League institutions are anything other than clever marketing traps.
Just this once you should have closed off comments
Yet another instance of VERY IMPORTANT RULES suddenly not being quite so important when they affect a specific segment of the population. This is why I laugh at the people who say "Republicans must learn to ballot harvest!" -- the rules will be vigorously enforced on any conservative who tries to 'play by the new rules'.
I need to be the asshole (pun intended) – the term is “coprophagia,” not “coprophilia.”
Coprophilia is sexual interest in poop, while coprophagia is the eating of it.
On second thought, based on what we’ve seen over the last 7 days, maybe coprophilia IS the right word.
I will fight to the death for the right to tell you your opinion.
Look, Harvard isn’t going to admit that their carefully cultivated DEI affirmative action President is a person of modest gifts who happens to be a plagiarist. Now Stanford just canned their Prez for much the same stuff after discovery and reportage by an undergrad on the school paper, albeit in the hard sciences, not the fuzzy social sciences. But Harvard is Harvard after all and they’re going to try and brazen it out. Because they know exactly what she is and what she did, but you peasants don’t get to tell Harvard what to do. And she is an identity politics victim checking lots of boxes.
You mentioned Commentary magazine. In the late 70’s I was at a fancy prep school in New England. Norman Podhoretz came to school and gave a lecture and the school invited me to the dinner in his honor and sat me next to him. To this day I have no idea why they chose me, an unremarkable high school junior, who did not ,most assuredly, have a Norman Podhoretz poster over his bed. I knew who he was because my dad subscribed to a lot of magazines, including Commentary, and I was a voracious reader. As near as I can figure, they needed a token student Jew to show their commitment to dinner diversity, and they drew my name out of a hat or something. Norman was ferociously intelligent and he let everybody know it. It was interesting enough to listen to him do the pro forma intellectual gymnastics required at these sorts of things, but it was one of many moments that made me realize that the faculty and administration were actually quite provincial and very afraid even then of looking too WASPy. Today this school has a black, gay physician as its headmaster. As near as I can tell there is no reason for any physician to be the headmaster of a secondary school these days, but that’s not likely the point of his appointment is it? I’m guessing the people at Harvard probably know why he’s the headmaster. The prep school, which probably has an endowment in the billions at this point, also has boys in skirts in the cheer squad. I know these things because I get the alumni magazine. The magazine, like the magazine from Stanford features multi page spreads on woke garbage. Students lobbying the legislature on climate change! Alumni with their enviro- passion projects! Everybody is saving the world from problems that don’t exist. The brilliant guy who dies with a Nobel prize in biochemistry gets a one graph in the back pages if he was white and old. This is one of the reasons the Ivy League produces such woke BS graduates. A lot of kids from schools like mine go to Harvard etc. Soon I think the woke enterprise is going to come tumbling down. Don’t let these asshats forget what you think of them. They sure tell us what they think of us every day.
Of course, Harvard's statement completely ignores the fact that, for her entire unimpressive career prior to be named President, Ms. Gay has been the primary driver in cancelling those directly above her on the totem pole.
Every major city I've lived in used to have at least two, and usually more, main newspapers. In Houston it was the Chronicle and the Post. In San Francisco it was the Chronicle and the Examiner. In Seattle it was the Times and the Post-Intelligencer. In Honolulu it was the Star Bulletin and the Advertiser. While they would often report the same facts (back when we had real journalists), they almost always had divergent views on those facts...referred to as editorial opinions. Readers often read both newspapers to better inform themselves of the various viewpoints. The idea that we should only be allowed to embrace one viewpoint on the facts (the "government's" viewpoint), is a sign of just how far this once free country has fallen.
As an aside, every time I see Al Gore open his mouth and say something, I'm reminded of just how lucky we are to have dodged that particular bullet.
suspect that the harvard which admitted me in the previous century would have promptly booted me as a freshman if i indulged in "inadequate citation."
have never felt so validated for being probably the only person alive who put harvard's fat envelope aside and opted for a different university.
Fire. All of the regime propagandists on Substack also block their comments. Putting themselves in echo chambers and intellectual straight jackets. In the old days they'd be in a room with padded walls and supervision.
Chris, did you see this on Babylon Bee:
https://babylonbee.com/news/harvard-president-claudine-gay-in-hot-water-for-plagiarizing-large-sections-of-mein-kampf
"Harvard’s mission is advancing knowledge, research, and discovery that will help address deep societal issues and promote constructive discourse"
Fuck you, liars.
To put it in the most generous and charitable way possible, Harvard's mission is to optimize the boot stamping upon the face of humanity, and concoct mind-viruses that subjugate and demoralize the populace.
"The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage . . . . Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"The simple act of an ordinary courageous man is not to take part, not to support lies! Let that come into the world and even reign over it, but not through me. Writers and artists can do more: they can vanquish lies! ... Lies can stand up against much in the world, but not against art." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
https://drp314.substack.com/p/stay-safe-or-stay-free
Chris, don't kid yourself: It's not just parrots like Claudine Gay doing this. The smarter (more clever?
more devious?) folks, who won't perform the public self-flagellation Gay does, still rub elbows with her and quietly repeat her views, in exchange for access and benefits. She's there because elites can manipulate her for specific benefit. She's an avatar for the elite, professional class, who work to pull power and public spending toward themselves. They just don't do it out loud. They have her as a puppet for the talking part.
Hopefully, the FBI or the Dept. of Agriculture won't kick down my door for participating in open discourse. I put the odds at 50-50.
"At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom..."
Too funny! Never mind Harvard got a ZERO on free speech in a recent study.
Do you know why she hasn't quit yet?
Because no one has written the resignation letter for her yet...
I'll see myself out.
I was reading a Harvard student interview about the toxic environment. The individual was a republican leader at the university and states the obvious - there’s been a toxic double standard there for a very long time. But he also states that he loves Harvard, it’s a great opportunity and that he would still encourage people to attend because there’s some good people there.
Until that attitude changes Harvard will survive. Until the very people that hold the institution high realize the institution is just the name and no longer a place of truly higher learning, whatever that even means in this day and age.
People have to abandon the idea that these Ivy League institutions are anything other than clever marketing traps.