Academic left
January 24, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Private sector unions in the U.S. have been in decline for a long time. Currently, only around 6% of all private sector employees are union members. And most of those union members are not left-wing; on the contrary, they tend to vote for Republicans and especially for Donald Trump. Their leaders, nevertheless, are mostly throwbacks: socialists if not outright Communists. And in today’s world, being left-wing means being in favor
»
January 17, 2024 — John Hinderaker
It is slowly dawning on liberals across America that DEI is, in most contexts, illegal. The whole point of DEI is to discriminate against disfavored groups, and in favor of preferred groups. Liberals have a hard time understanding that there is anything wrong with this, but the courts–most notably, recently, in the Harvard and UNC cases–are beginning to set them straight. In many states, legislators aren’t waiting for litigation to
»
January 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Peter Boghossian thinks the time is ripe to revisit the investigation of academic grievance studies that he conducted in 2017 and 2018 with his fellow iconoclasts James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose. For background read the New Discourses post “The Grievance Studies Project.” Check out Boghossian’s current set of linked tweets beginning with the one below by clicking on the time/date. Several of the tweets include a video excerpt from the
»
January 8, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Over the weekend physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote in the Wall Street Journal about how wokism and other postmodern fads have infiltrated STEM fields, as though the famous Sokal hoax was a how-to manual: [P]ostmodern cultural theory is being infused into the very institutions one might expect to be scientific gatekeepers. Hard-science journals publish the same sort of bunk with no hint of irony. . . He notes a course on
»
January 6, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Hamas’s October 7 massacre has focused attention on anti-Semitism in American universities. The Claudine Gay episode brought such attention to Harvard, specifically. The Times of Israel notes that anti-Semitism has a long history at that institution: In a 1934 editorial, Harvard Crimson student journalists spoke out in favor of hosting top Nazi and former Harvard man, Ernst F.S. Hanfstaengl. Nicknamed “Putzi,” Hanfstaengl was Hitler’s foreign press chief and graduated from
»
January 5, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Bill Ackman is a lifelong liberal whose political donations have been to Democrats. But, as a Harvard alumnus and a Jew, he was appalled by Claudine Gay’s incompetent and borderline anti-Semitic Congressional testimony, as well as her lack of any body of original scholarship. So for the first time, he stepped into the cultural and political fray. The Left responded predictably, by attacking his wife, Neri Osman, who is brilliant
»
January 3, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Claudine Gay’s well-deserved downfall was a bitter blow to left-wing journalists. The Associated Press, America’s most biased “news” organization, angrily termed the plagiarism scandal that undid Gay a “conservative weapon.” The AP later made a modest adjustment to its headline, explaining that the original headline didn’t “meet its standards.” Some would say it has been a long time since the AP had any standards. The article itself manifests the AP’s
»
January 3, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Bill Ackman is the wealthy Harvard alumnus who has taken the lead in trying to reform that institution. In the wake of Claudine Gay’s self-destruction, he wrote this lengthy Twitter post in which he diagnoses the sickness of institutions like Harvard. It is very good, and appropriately uncompromising in its denunciation of the totalitarian DEI culture that prevails on campuses and elsewhere. Money quote: DEI is inherently a racist and
»
January 2, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Well, 2024 seems to be off to a great start: Claudine Gay is resigning as president of Harvard. It had to kill the Harvard establishment to take this step, since they had framed the possibility as “giving in to the right.” Of course the problem is that Gay’s resignation will change little at Harvard, or any other elite university. It is a certainty that Harvard will find someone equally committed
»
December 24, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Harvard University has circled the wagons around President Claudine Gay, reportedly encouraged to do so by no less than Barack Obama. This despite the fact that Gay not only embarrassed the university with her inept and tone-deaf Congressional testimony, but has also been exposed as a serial plagiarist. And not only does the university seem unworried by Gay’s plagiarism, it has emerged that Harvard exonerated Gay before conducting a secret
»
December 22, 2023 — John Hinderaker
On December 3, a radical group hosted a “teach-in” titled “From Minnesota to Palestine.” The panelists linked America and Israel as “settler colonialist” nations–the only ones, apparently, in world history–and thus the source of all evil. This is the whole thing. It goes on for more than two hours, and I don’t recommend that you watch it. Among other things, the panelists celebrate the Hamas massacre of October 7 as
»
December 18, 2023 — Steven Hayward
In the ongoing controversy about what to do about campus anti-Semitism, Princeton’s Robert P. George advocates for more robust free speech on campus, while Yoram Hazony, author of (among other books) Conservatism Rediscovered and The Virtue of Nationalism, disagrees sharply with his former Princeton mentor in a Twitter exchange that deserves a wider audience. Here’s Robby’s argument: Over the past two months, the public has learned about some crazy things
»
December 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I was on Sky News Australia’s terrific Outsiders show last night. We talked about the plagiarism allegations against Claudine Gay and Harvard’s future as an institution. We also discussed the “coloreds only” Christmas party to which Boston Mayor Michelle Wu invited only those city council members who are “of color.” I think it is an interesting segment–at a little over seven minutes, very much worth your time:
»
December 10, 2023 — John Hinderaker
This highly impressive MIT graduate student details the atmosphere of anti-Semitism that characterizes that campus. You might think that after all the unwelcome attention MIT has gotten, its authorities would at least try to address the problem. But no: Extraordinary video in which a Jewish student highlights the extent of antisemitism on campus at @MIT. Elite universities and their DEI bureaucracies have failed us. pic.twitter.com/X2lX9sMw8l — Ed Leon Klinger (@edleonklinger)
»
December 8, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Reportedly, the University of Pennsylvania is firing President Liz Magill, following her House committee testimony: The University of Pennsylvania is expected to ask its president, Liz Magill, to resign Friday over growing outrage at her failure to condemn calls for the genocide of the Jewish people — a move celebrated by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who said she would be “one down.” The Ivy League school’s board of
»
December 7, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Dave Portnoy, the founder and owner of Barstool Sports, is a social media giant, with millions of followers across various platforms. He is also a Jew, and he was outraged by the inept performance before a House committee of university presidents who couldn’t say that calling for the genocide of all Jews would violate their universities’ policies. In hindsight, it was a pivotal moment that opened many eyes to the
»
December 5, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Today the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT were summoned before a House committee for questioning about anti-semitism on their campuses. I haven’t watched the whole testimony, but this clip is getting a lot of attention. Elise Stefanik asks each president whether calling for genocide of the Jews would violate that school’s code of conduct with regard to bullying or harassment. None of the witnesses had a clear answer to
»
