I am nearly finished with Christopher Rufo's "America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything," and for the first time I think I understand the Enemy perfectly. The ultimate goal of their Slow March Through The Institutions is that of undermining the West and causing its downfall. American elite colleges are ground zero in that conflict.
The most important part of war planning is to identify the enemy's Achilles heel. Since so many of the "intellectuals" that drive the elite colleges got their positions through Affirmative Action, exposing their academic fraud to the world is key, in turn, to bringing THEM down.
Bill Ackman has recognized that AI is the perfect tool since it can easily, quickly, and accurately do the grunt work of analyzing all the published output of all the academics at all schools, for all time. Bloody brilliant; doing it by hand would be impossible, even if a human could stay awake while wading through all the dense technical babble - and psychobabble. AI has no problem with that.
All I can say is that it's time to strike the enemy at its heart. Liberal Academia, in pace requiescat - let 'er rip!
Okay, and then what? We haven't seen much action happening to the academics who are committing these ethics violations, and certainly have not received any true punishment, making them want to rehabilitate. Without consequence, we cannot stop the train in its tracks.
Actually, a very good question. Go straight to Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" - the subject of Hillary Ramrod Clinton's senior thesis at Wehhhhhhllllllsleyhhhhhhhhhh.
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Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.
Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people.
The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. "You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."
Rule 5: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. "If your people aren't having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic."
Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.
Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage."
Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O'Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city's reputation.
Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, "Okay, what would you do?"
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. "The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength."
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# 4. Make them live by their own rules. They say they are on the moral high ground and are oh-s0-smart. Expose their plagiarism, their inability to think of anything original, their feckless dishonesty. Use their own "Rules for Radicals" against them.
#5 Ridicule. You will never see me refer to Hussein Obama by any other name, nor Alleged President Joe Stolen by any other. Nor Butt-gig as anything but Butt-gig. Nor Birdbrain - nor, nor, nor....
#9 The threat is more terrifying. I never refer to child genital mutilation as anything else, nor do I ever miss the opportunity to tell my former colleagues that I want the hands amputated of any surgeon performing these procedures on children. Don't think they don't think about that.
And Rule 11. Pick the academic, freeze him/her/it. Go after him personally. Embarrass him/her/it. Point out his dishonesty. Drive him out of the Academy.
This is war, and the only thing at stake is everything. The Left knows that and has known it for decades. We'd better learn it too, and I mean quickly, or it's over, Boys and Girls. Over.
People on the right must become expert in using these rules against the left...publish them everywhere...they started this fight...it's time we took it to them with a vengeance...sic 'em...g,
Unfortunately, AI isn't yet the panacea people are making it out to be. AI also lies (or, as the techies call it "hallucinates"), makes up sources, states as fact that people committed crimes that they didn't, etc. Maybe AI could run for president?
Careful. An army also needs food and armaments. Which means money. IF Biden is somehow able to "reset" the college debt clock back to zero (blanket forgiveness) - universities will suddenly have more money flowing to them than an army of Rufos can overcome. This issue is key to the whole battle.
We may disagree, but to my eye islam's threat to the West is what medicine calls an "opportunistic infection." It is only possible for an ideology mired firmly in the seventh century to threaten the Modern West because the Marxists and their Slow March have weakened the host (us) to the point that we are susceptible to that infection.
If we Normals hadn't been asleep at the switch for the past 75 years and allowed the lunatics and hoopies to gain so much control over our culture and our government, islam would represent a silly curiosity, disappearing in our rear-view mirror in a cloud of dust. No, in the words of the immortal Pogo, we have met the enemy and .... well, you know the rest.
Have you noticed that Biden is both certifiably insane and a senile imbecile? Why the 25th Amendment has not been invoked to rid of us of this demented madman speaks volumes about the corruption that lies at every level of the United States Government.
Agree. Every time I hear or read what Biden should do, I want to scream. He can't even walk away from a podium with Dr. Jill hold his hand and leading him away.
Did you watch "Battlestar Galactica"? President Laura Roslin was 43rd in the succession, sarcastic comment on how low you have to go to hit sanity in government. Of course, this aired in the Bush Years. A lot of the political and cultural commentary would find it difficult to get in a script, let alone on air, today.
They know these "white supremacist" people in practical terms don't exist. They know that. It's just a cudgel to use against us Normals. Finally I see through these Goddamned elitists and globalists like a windowpane, and I'm ready to fight.
Joe was just routinely bumbling through a statement prepared for him displayed on a teleprompter, though he is intimately familiar with the workings of white supremacy.
Off script he can fondly reminisce about the good old days when he and his dear friend Senator Robert Byrd-whom he delivered a eulogy for and also a KKK member, organizer and recruiter-sipped bourbon and chuckled at the expense of racial minorities with other like minded colleagues in private.
So like every problem he points out to his voters, whether it be societal, economic or whatever, he can condemn it while not taking ownership in his complicity.
I grow tired of reading about the two-state solution. You can't have a neighbor who wants to kill you and is in active preparation to do so. I saw the Israeli President on Meet the Press, where he shared a Hamas document for summer camp where the kids are taught Jihad. The MSM idiot Kristen Welker glossed over it as she asked her next stupid question, but that is the issue that no one wants to talk about.
It will take generations for this group of people to govern themselves. The network of tunnels and the number of rockets show that any money given to them will be diverted to the war machine. The Palestinians are led and educated by murderous, evil, and backward leadership.
Israel can't lead them, but an international group can work on the local level, rebuilding and creating a modern civil society. I think a gradual process that will take decades to allow Democracy on a local level and then build the capacity to govern should happen over time. Never forget, Gaza was land for peace when Sharon removed settlements, and this is what they got to show for it. It's time to take off the childish view of the world and create a realistic plan to bring Palestinian civilization into the 21st century. Anything else will lead us back to this situation, and Israel should not have to put up with that.
More like a knockout punch to Hamas, and then Hezbollah. The vast majority of Muslims are willing to live side by side with people of other religions. Yes, their holy book talks about killing infidels, but the Old Testament exhorts the righteous to stone to death anyone who commits adultery, and modern Christians don’t take that part (and many others) literally. It’s the extremists who take to heart the ideology of jihad, and that is what needs to be fought tooth and nail. You can’t reason with, negotiate with, or peacefully coexist with any group who sees its mission as exterminating another group, so make the distinction and deal a knockout blow to the jihadists.
Islam is about 600 years “younger” than Christianity. 600 years ago (1450), Christian women were expected to wear veils and could not safely appear in public without a male escort; Christians had been slaughtering each other for 100 years and the war ended only in 1453 - this, after three Crusades to Palestine to slaughter the infidel Muslims; and not content with all that, Catholics and Protestants went at it again in the Thirty Years War where 8 million(!) people are estimated to have died, mostly from famine as the raging armies devastated most of today’s Germany. It ended with the Treaty of Westphalia, which ushered in the Enlightenment and opened the door to the age of science. Christians should be careful of their own glass houses before condemning Islam.
Having said that, Islam is yet to have its own Enlightenment as Christian Europe did from about
They were having an Enlightenment. In the tenth to twelth centuries the mullahs strangled it. Muhammed Abduh had a go at the turn of the 19th/20th century. The result? Today's "moderates" in Islam can trace themselves back to him. Unfortunately, so can Hamas. Islam has no get out clause like "Render unto Caesar" and- though it has in theory a populist, democratic, ideal of governace - no means to action populist, democratic, government. All falls foul of the Mullahs.
Be careful writing here that the vast majority of Muslims are willing to live side by side with people of other religions. (Despite the face that you are correct.)
There are more than a few who will call you an antisemite and a bunch of other insults.
Some listen only after reaching the bottom. I agree that truth in education is a must, but it requires paying attention. You do bring global Islam and that’s more than I was thinking.
Iran and the Shia tradition might actually be the best hope. You can see a lot of resemblance to the Scottish and Puritan Revolutions there. I think they are at a similar stage to Christendom's "Wars of Religion" phase. Unfortunately every other religious culture in the Abrahamic tradition has had to go through the "boatloads of dead and enslaved in near-genocidal warfare" to get there. Judaism: three near genocidal wars before the shouty-stabby was knocked out of it by Rome; Xtianity: a couple of centuries of religious wars for like-wise; China: the Taiping Rebellion took about 35 million lives to reign in a Millenarian Xtianity led by Jesus' "brother". Doing to death Communism; Fascism; and National Socialism, also Judeao-Xtian Millenarian heresies, took whole fleets of blood. Like-wise the militant, racist, strain of Shinto extinguished only when we glassed the fuckers. You'll note one of those Judaeo Xtian heresies hasn't actually been injured, nevermind killed, yet. Militant Shintoism? Look in a Nipponese schoolbook on how the Pacific War is spun. Anyone who thinks we can get from A to Z skipping the other 24 letters is stupidly naive.
That only works for people capable thereof. While I am sure there are many, many Arabs we now identify as Palestinian who are and thus do there are likewise a number who are thoroughly indoctrinated. The latter make me understand the need for separation of houses of worship and state. Can there be anyone harder to free from political indoctrination than one who believes it is what their deity wants?
Yes, WWI did not eliminate belligerence, so they had to do it during WWII. In Japan, the Allies raised most cities to the ground, killing many civilians. And that was before dropping two nukes. Until Israel eliminates the belligerence of Iran, this fight will continue.
The Palestinian people have been poisoned for at least two generations by Hamas' Blood Libel and hatred of Jews. There is no salvation for them, even though they SAY that they hate Hamas, they hate the Jews even more. We need to quit trying to rehab these people because they DON"T want to be rehabbed! Let the consequences fall where they may.
They don’t say they hate Hamas! Polling data shows W Bank support for Hamas bf Oct7 th Hamas would have won any election and since Oct 7 th skyrocketing support and virtually no one wants 2 State solution and most Gazans despite methods of Hamas governance till SUPPORT Hamas.
I was listening to The Tikvah podcast and the commentor said that those in power cannot understand Palestinian complaints. This is not good for the hopes of peace. We in the West understand that when people kill Jews and rejoice in their deaths that they are corrupted, fatally, by Hamas propaganda. They want Jews dead! What is not to understand, and why in the world would you want to "understand" their motivation?
Isn't going to happen. Change a human mind set? Let's see, after Socrates, Plato, Moses, Jesus, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Bacon, Leibniz, Kant, Locke -- over 2,500 years, Europe still ended up with butchering Nazis and Soviets and now God knows what. Whatever it is, its already got a strong foothold here in North America.
I respectuflly disagree - To the previous comment, look at Germany and Japan. Much different societies after they were broke. Its total war and surrender that yields that. I don't worry about the people here, the fringes are highlihted to get people to watch tv
Luv ya, Al. But didn't you ever hear about history repeating itself? Give Germany and Japan a chance. (I listened to WWII on the radio, in real time, so forgive me).
Do you think Germany and Japan will return to their pre WW II ways? I think we are on the same page? My point is that both countries had total defeat and great modern countries were built on the ruins as is the only possible route for Palestine.
Al, I usually agree with you but this time, I submit your analogy is misplaced. Palestine is simple to describe. Two tribes want all of this real estate and each of them has an extremist faction that wants ALL of it and would cleanse the land of all of the other to achieve it. There is no reasoning with these people; they have to be smashed and exposed for what they are. The majority of the two tribes would agree to share it, and the 2001 Taba Accords set out how. Tragically, Yasar Arafat rejected it (allegedly because it did not allow a “right of return” but more probably because he was afraid he would be assassinated by his own side, just as the Israeli PM was later assassinated by a Jewish extremist). This is not really about Islam; it’s about the land, ie, the real estate. The Palestinians can be expected to turn away from Hamas only if they have something positive to turn TOWARDS: a viable, sovereign Palestinian State, as distinct (vitally) from a collection of bantustans with a heavy presence of fanatical religious Jewish settlers protected by the Israeli Army, as at present is the situation on the West Bank.
The Palestinians face a monumental task to embrace peace, accept moderation and reject Hamas’s nihilism. But Israelis (and the Jewish diaspora) have an equally difficult task: to confront and overcome the contradiction at the heart of the State: the ultra orthodox religious/nationalists for whom the West Bank is forever “Eretz Israel”, never to be surrendered. Israel can have the land or it can have peace; it cannot have both.
I think the BIG difference between WWII and the Middle East is Japan & Germany were not continuing a war that spanned thousands of years, fought over land multiple sides believed belonged to them, and more importantly, over religion.
I'm normally an optimist, but a realist as well.
It would take a minimum 100 years of occupation to keep peace, beginning with eradicating all schools and churches of historical religious beliefs, and then replacing them with....what?
Can you possibly teach people who don't want peace to change their ways?
The Yamato People are the only race descended from the gods. That is a two millenia old ethos that a few years scrubbing doesn't erase. Look at how the Shōwa era is taught. Folk have been raising this point since the Seventies at least.
Locke's defence of the French Revolution, whatever his other strengths and writings, makes him an arsehole. Plato? Every piece of Western philosophical, religious, and ideological bollocks is in direct descent. Moses and Jesus are prophylactic fictions. Augustine and Aquinas made Catholicism worse than it was already and their "thought" hasn't survived modernity or critical thinking. Descartes and Kant? Cartesian Doubt and "I have found it necessary to deny knowledge to make room for faith" have a lot to answer for and leave a lot. Socrates is reliant on Attic Comedy, Plato, and Xenophon for what we know of him. Comedy lampoons him as an arse and given what we know of the folk he taught, I'm surprised the Demos didn't kill him earlier. Even Bacon hasn't survived the scrutiny of critical scholarship terribly well. Leibniz is the only one on your list that survives interrogation I'm afraid; the others are far more responsible FOR the bollocks of the Western Mindset than changing it for the good.
Ach, you express the problem with you whippersnappers. The past fellows made their way forward from knowing the past -- a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. Leibniz -- calculus good, Theodicy -- Kant destroyed it in a kindly fashion. Now, Hegel and Nietzsche, there's a pair for ya. By the way, did you read where Augustine went to his great beyond hating humanity?
I think that any comparisons between Germany, Japan and Gaza are not considering the role of the UN, and particularly UNWRA, in perpetuating this problem. This organization is a Ponzi Scheme that plays on anti-semitism as a funding mechanism, and the wider world needs to stop supporting this absolute failure of a project. UNWRA is raising over a billion dollars per year from American and European taxpayers, plus extorting the Palestinian diaspora around the world. All it has achieved is getting Palestinian children killed. I would argue that it is designed to breed Palestinian children to be sacrificed on the altar of graft. It needs to be disbanded if we hope to see any resemblance of peace in the Middle East.
When you look at its prehistory, you see the UN was a Stalinist weeze from the gitgo. That we fell for it is another example of near-gaga, then naive, dolts in the White House. I'm being generous; we've spent a century turning the gun on ourselves thinking it was to the good.
"Joe Biden saved a lot of Palestinian lives. He also saved a lot of Israeli lives, in embracing Israel. The Democratic Party’s left wing doesn’t understand that, if it had been in charge, this war would be twice as bad. Twice as bad for Palestinians."
Is anyone going to let Oliver Wiseman know that there is no such thing as the "left wing" of the democrat party? If Joe Biden & the rest of the democrat establishment weren't being paid off by defense contractors they'd all be kneeling at the Holland Tunnel sporting keffiyeh's and screaming "There is only one solution, intifada revolution".
Meanwhile come November 5th, in a move that Harry Houdini would be impressed with, Bari, Nellie and THP staff/contributors will continue to vote Democrat. (minus Walter Kirn of course)
Because if one fills in the bubble for a democrat, one is showing he or she is showing empathy and compassion, otherwise known as "cares a lot." Another substack article stated there was research to the effect that showed democrats are more compassionate. I choked when I read it.
There are decent people on both sides, but from my own anecdotal experience, it's more common in dems to see a mismatch between how one acts and lives life compared to how one sees oneself.
Great observation! It’s a variation if the Dunning-Kruger effect, which states that people generally misjudge their intelligence. Less intelligent people see themselves as smarter than they are; and oddly enough, smarter people don’t usually recognize their own gifts.*
Similarly here, people often over- and underestimate their own generosity and virtuousness. Same church, different pew.
* This observation is hardly new. Here we have, from Act 1, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar:
I believe one of the attitudes that have led us to this point is an obsession of "both sideism" to the point of self-destruction. I don't know too many who don't believe an individual has a right to do whatever is necessary to protect the family if there's a home invasion. Compare that to the pearl-clutching reaction I receive when suggesting that if my children were still young, I would have used violence, if necessary, to protect my children from the Mengeles of trans. In order for me to make the decision to take that step I would have first given crystal clear warnings. The same people who pearl-clutch at what I stated are the same people who fall over backwards to make excuses for the Mengeles who slice, dice and inject children. As a society we've been slowly attacking and eroding both maternal and paternal instinct, trying to make people doubt themselves and feel guilty for having boundaries around their children. I'm not a crazed wingnut and have been in a situation where I had the right and the wherewithal to stop a scumbag, but it wasn't necessary to kill him. Middle of the night in the middle of nowhere with a car breakdown, but armed. Scumbag stopped and came at me, but his heels hit the brakes when I pointed a revolver at him. I didn't shoot and he backed away. I always carry the thought that he probably went on to attack other women. Now look at the parents who are attacked and have their children separated from them because Big trans wants to mutilate them, and parents being the first line of defense are in the way.
Beadle, you probably doubt your bravery because you were frightened. John Wayne summed it up best when he said that “bravery means being scared to death and saddling up anyway.”
The fact that you were backed into a corner doesn’t argue against the diagnosis of bravery. Many would have folded. You obviously did not. No doubt you’d do it again. I wouldn’t want to be the perp.
I agree to a point, but there are some in society with nefarious intent and they don't necessarily shy away from politics or anything else. I don't believe most people of any persuasion are being nefarious when how they see themselves is a bit different from the reality. The article mentioned the research that found dems are more compassionate, therefore implying selfish motives more often to the other side. This is similar to the religiously self-righteous (on the far right) who see themselves as being more moral than the out-group. Sometimes we take too far the "Do not judge" mantra. I have plenty of friends who disagree with me on various topics, and I don't assign nefarious motives. But the ones at the top pulling the levers on some of the issues today (Big trans), I absolutely assign nefarious motives. Then there are the followers and enablers who have such an overwhelming desire to see themselves as "caring," they will ignore the damage inflicted as long as society tells them they are compassionate and caring. They are staring into a mirror at the image they have fabricated for themselves, everyone else be damned.
I don't disagree with most of this. I'm talking more about everyday people in our lives...friends, family, colleagues etc. Even people in these comments. I think most of our politicians esp at the top are probably pretty corrupt and it's fair to call that out. But I think we'd all do better at giving our "peers" the benefit of the doubt. I need to do better of it myself.
I do usually give the benefit of the doubt, even when I strongly disagree with someone. But there are "everyday people" who are corrupt and bent towards authoritarianism, if given the opportunity.
Yes, of course there are, but I don't think most people are like that - so all I'm saying is give people the benefit of the doubt til proven otherwise. Our toxic discourse these days has many on the left convinced that anyone who voted for Trump is a racist bigot, and many on the right convinced that anyone who voted for Biden is an evil Marxist totalitarian. That's what I'm arguing against.
Way to bring Hitler into it right away - are you sure you’re not a leftist? 😉
I’m talking about regular people we encounter in our daily lives who happen to have different views than us. You can say “oh that person disagrees with me, probably they’re as bad as Hitler” or an even more charming retort like “how are you still alive with such stupid thinking?” OR… hear me out, you could take a deep breath and try a different approach. You could resist the urge to assign a motive to them and instead listen and try to understand how they formed that opinion.
Here’s a quote from Andrew Doyle’s book “The New Puritans” (a blistering critique of the illiberal left) that sums up what I’m trying to say very eloquently:
“To close oneself off to the possibility of alternative opinions, and only to see the world through the lens of confirmation bias, is a form of intellectual death. It is always worth remembering the uncomfortable truth that, to borrow the words of novelist Philip Roth, ‘our understanding of people must always be at best slightly wrong’. We live, as George Orwell put it, in a state of ‘star-like isolation’. Empathy is our attempt to make connections against terrible odds, without which humanity flounders.”
Research by whom? Was this an exercise on paper? I could fill out a questionnaire with all the “right” answers but not practice my answers in real life. Sounds like a predetermined result with questions tailored to arrive there. It probably didn’t include questions about unborn fetuses or contempt for friends, neighbors and anyone else who voted for an ‘insurrectionist’.
Trump threatens their ability to tell all the people they view as dumb what to do. I understand the self-interest, but I am mystified by the intensity of the hatred.
Bruce, I can’t wait for the jury verdicts in three of Trump’s criminal trials (the NY trial is shaky) to read your own verdict, but even more your reaction to the peoples’ verdict on November 5th. I do hope that you will accept all of them and not cry fraud like you-know-who.
If you think that the 2020 election was on the up and up, there's little hope for you. Show up, present you ID and vote. Anything else is inherently subject to manipulation. As it was and will be again.
No way in hell would I pull the lever for Biden after saying that "white supremacy" is one of our biggest threats. When I brought this up to The Deciders (Those who decree what can and cannot be discussed and how) in a writing group, they claimed never to have heard him say that.
I think cold thinking (if that’s a thing) is needed here. I read too many people spouting emotional reactions. What we need is clear, invective thinking
Maybe you meant “incisive”? Invective is defined as “Denunciatory or abusive language; vituperation.” Incisive means “Penetrating, clear, and sharp, as in operation or expression.”
@Pharosian, Actually, you are right, I meant to write incisive (can't figure out how 'invective' ended up there). While I agree with Watson here that we need to call a spade a spade and abhor duplicative language or the proverbial beating around the bush, being clear should not mean being abusive..... Thanks for catching this!
You’re welcome! And thank you for being gracious about it… I worried that you or others would take offense. After thinking about it, I suspect that Autocorrect is at fault, since c and v are right next to each other on the keyboard.
“A value we hold dear at The Free Press is the ability to admit when you’re wrong.”
I haven’t seen any significant admissions of note thus far, so I won’t hold my breath for that. To some, it’s a process that takes many years to materialize if at all. It’s a matter of refusing to admit mistakes-a trend in media journalism that gets worse as we go and is a main reason for the level of trust they share with used car salespeople-that cause us to hold the professionals who make and don’t admit to them in contempt.
The larger issue is that Gay and the other presidents were emblems of an ideology so tribalized and dehumanizing that too many of its subscribers celebrated October 7 as "decolonization." That's why they had to go. Gay's plagiarism was a side bar. While most were gobsmacked by Hamas' savagery, the presidents let that freak flag fly, indulging antisemitic mobs.
After Hamas' evil incarnate assault, maybe coming our way, Business Insider goes after. . . Neri Oxman??
The academic emphasis is Gay's -
(the "scholar's scholar, " said the corporation) slim portfolio of unremarkable papers.
Few, or let's face it, no academics with that record would have risen to the presidency of Harvard, let alone, even now, pull in $900,000 a year. Windshield, kick- it eyewear does not a scholar make. She got there because of her ideology, race, and gender.
Inadvertently, the attack on Neri Oxman simply highlights the vast chasm between Oxman's brainy, innovative brilliance and Gay's plodding DEI racial activism. Not a good match- up for the self-regarding Gay.
Harvard is in the grip of a deracination- based ideology. That's deadly serious. "Woke" is too cute a descriptor for the threat DEI poses to liberal democracy and targeted populations. Deracination is what it is-- name it.
Oxman's reputation was already great. Business Insider is trying to divert, silence, or threaten the hugely successful Ackman precisely because of the threat he poses to DEI. He's their worst nightmare.
The fact that they would even make the comparison between Oxman and Gay shows that they continue to disgrace the reputation of Harvard with low expectations.
It's the "both sides" argument again! "Well fine, the president plagiarized, but so did your wife and how dare you call us out just because we actively discriminate against people like you!"
Much of Oxman's so-called plagiarism was definitions from Wikipedia for certain terms. And look at the difference in output and quality, breaking new frontiers in science and nature.
She still should've cited them. There's just no excuse for anyone to not cite the sources. I have to say it's disappointing that people defending Gay now have a fodder.
I once had an entire paragraph, words and data, the results, in part, of months of research, lifted by another writer, completely unattributed, and put forward as her own work. That's plagiarism. For some reason, I never did anything about it.
“ Few, or let's face it, no academics with that record would have risen to…” much of anything. Her cribbed publication record barely makes assistant professor. Without tenure, and at a second tier school.
“…She got there because of her ideology, race, and gender.” Exactly. Next stop for her will be on the democratic ticket running for POTUS. Plagiarism worked for the current denizen of the WH. Why not someone like him, but black and female? Both are incompetent and unaccomplished. Both come from wealthy backgrounds and are wildly overpaid for what passes for their life’s work.
Maybe we need to just reduce the salaries of all university professors and administrators . After all the Fed govt ( we) are essentially paying for most of their salaries and perks through firgiven loans, grants and huge tax benefits to endowments and donors. Note to TFP: how about stats on uni salaries to profs and presidents and DEI staffs?
I assume if the universities and their endowments pony up it would provide sufficient income for the feds to cut individual and business taxpayers some slack. You realize that income from.taxes was down in 2022 thereby necessitating, together with an increase in the interest rate, recalculation of the interest payment on the national debt? That we now borrow to make the INTEREST payment? Instead the feds are requiring registration of essentially all small businesses except sole proprietorships. Law enforcement and revenue agents to have access to the data.
I believe Trump added a clause in his Tax Reduction Act that endowments which exceeded $500k/student would be taxed, but it was stricken from the bill.
Re plagiarism, I am as disgusted by Gay’s refusal to take responsibility for her plagiarism as anyone. There are not enough eye rolls or barf emojis for the way she handled the scandal and cast herself as a victim of a racist witch hunt (the poor thing had to flee to Italy for a vacation to get away from it all 😩😩😩, and now has to live out the remainder of her career as a tenured professor at Harvard collecting a salary of $900k #oppressed #systemicracism).
BUT cmon. In contrast to the AP depiction of plagiarism as a “new conservative weapon,” the reality is anyone of any political persuasion can use plagiarism as a “weapon.” I’ve seen so much whining on the left about this “conservative weapon,” and my response has been - Christopher Rufo doesn’t have a monopoly on this “weapon”— y’all have access to it too! There are plenty of conservatives in positions of power who have published many things! If “everyone plagiarizes” then get to work and prove it.
And to anyone who thinks it’s unjust for plagiarism to be used against them I have just one simple piece of advice: don’t plagiarize!
That being said, I am not saying Ackman’s wife’s plagiarism was as egregious as Gay’s—it certainly looks like she did far less of it and the instances were also milder. And of course, also relevant is the fact that she isn’t the president of one of the most prestigious and powerful universities in the world! But a review of his wife’s scholarship for instances of plagiarism is still fair game imo.
Didn’t Biden have to withdraw from an earlier presidential race because of plagiarism? Did he get a pardon for it or something? Because no one seems to care now.
He didn’t just plagiarize language, etc. He literally copied the life story of a British politician and tried to pass it off as his own. An inveterate liar and criminal for 50 years.
As is a review of the record of every leftist journo who joins in the scrum. What goes around comes around. Although I don’t think the average left winger journo has the intellect to figure this out.
That was my entire point. Anyone of any political persuasion can investigate their “opponents” for plagiarism. So I don’t wanna hear whining from anyone on any “side” when it’s used against them. Just don’t plagiarize - it’s pretty simple!
The difference is that the Dems don't work with their hands. They are all in the information manipulation business (law/media/government/climate science/etc). Republicans include cops and plumbers and small business owners. Dems "solve" "climate change" and "inequity" with word and number salad.
There is so much to be debunked in the litany of credentialism that passes for "intellectual rigor" on the Dem side of the aisle. That's why they call it a "conservative" weapon.
Why is that a low ball over reach? Of course they are going after his wife - she's an adult with a long list of publications. She is a fair target, and to her immense credit, she is not whining - she took responsibility for it.
It was pathetic when liberals whined about the "conservative weapon" of plagiarism being used against Gay, and now conservatives are going to whine when it's used against them too? No. This is all very childish.
Fortunately there's a really simple solution. Don't plagiarize!
Gollum, if you can't see why maliciously going after innocent bystanders is wrong, I can't help you. But I agree that she handled it all with great dignity, and I also agree "don't plagiarize".
I don’t see her as an “innocent bystander” anymore than I see Gay, another adult with a list of publications, as an “innocent bystander.” Both people are adults who plagiarized and got called out on it. And now Ackman is investigating the MIT faculty which I think is also fair game.
It sounds like you are all for it when plagiarism is used to “take down” a person whose ideology you disagree with (Gay, perhaps MIT faculty), but when it is used to attack someone whose ideology you share, suddenly the accused is an “innocent bystander.” This strikes me as ethically inconsistent.
First you'd have to count the conservative scholars at academic institutions.. the last study I saw said that they were pretty rare. So just based on numbers of academics available to study, it would be harder to find plagiarism. The AP is being silly and filtering all news through a conservative/liberal lens. We need an AP replacement IMHO.
By any chance, did you see the kerfuffle over Christopher Rufo's (dumb) use of the term "scalped" in relations to Gay's defenestration by Harvard - the AP tut-tutted that he was "invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans.”
Really, now? Scalping was a white colonist thing? Ye gads, maybe white people really *have* created everything.
(Ben Rhodes famously said that reporters are now young and know absolutely nothing. He was 100% right on the second part, and he should know, as his brother was president of CBS News.)
No I didn’t see that. Apparently plagiarism can be good, and fact-checking can be bad… in my field the criterion seems to be “sounds vaguely plausible to people who don’t know much about the topic.”
Whilst I know the Plagiarism War is of great interest on both sides of the Atlantic, I think people might be interested to learn that following the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office, the scandal (basically a computer says no scandal) has become a really hot topic in the UK, making the front pages of many papers.
More than a million people have signed a petition requesting the former CEO of the PO, Paula Vannells have her damehood revoked. Sunak also said that he hopes this is looked at.
Sunak promised that they are looking at ways to quash the over 700 wrongful convictions including an emergency law.
The Met Police have stated that they are looking at criminal charges.
The Lib Dem leader has apologised for his part in the scandal.
And surprising (or unsurprisingly) none of this is getting mentioned in the NYT or indeed the NY Post. -- instead they seem to focus on Prince Andrew whose misdeeds are already known.
It confirms how our news organizations are useless. I would know nothing what is happening around the world if not for “citizen reporters” and friends around the world.
I have been so surprised. I thought for sure the NYT would do a small article once the Met Police confirmed that they were looking at fraud and perjury allegations. But nothing. Front page news stories in the UK starting last week, but increasing since Saturday. Finally the story is getting the attention it deserves. What the PO did to those innocent (and formerly highly respected in their community) people is jaw dropping. Rifkind points out in his op ed the State of Michigan had something similar happen a few years ago with benefit claimants and something (again with benefits claims) happened in Australia. The scandal does strike at the heart of the Big Tech/Digital because can you trust the figures? And what happens when the helpline lies.
Oh and in case you haven't seen Macron has sacked his prime minister.
Now if only the Brits would begin caring about free speech rights and the fifth columnist adherents of the Satanic Verses destroying the UK from within.
A big win in the courts just landed. Rachel Meade the GC social worker just won her claim of harassment by the Westminster City Council and her union Social Work England. It could be a hugely significant win for free speech rights in the UK. https://www.colekhan.co.uk/news/uvzuy6kcrtb5lwg59pxbs44tqbeuj2
There was also a good free speech win at the end of last week in regards to the dyslexic worker for Lloyds Bank who was fired over asking a hypothetical question in a training session. Lloyds Bank is having to pay out £800k Biggest ever win for the Free Speech Union. https://twitter.com/SpeechUnion/status/1744675270647284051
Great news on both those wins! I hadn’t heard of the PO scandal at all, which is crazy. I often wonder what is going through the heads of news editors when they deem what their readers will interesting or newsworthy.
And news just in -- Vennells has handed back her CBE with immediate effect. Her statement is v self-serving though.“I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.
“I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence.
“I am, however, aware of the calls from subpostmasters and others to return my CBE.
“I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.
“I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the subpostmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.
“I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded.” --Paula Vennells 9 Jan 2024 through PA news agency.
This scandal has rumbled on for such a long time and it has now burst out into the open. I have genuinely been shocked that the recent happenings have not been covered in the NYT (or elsewhere in the US media)
It can be v depressing. They are looking to see if the organizers of the various marches can be charged for the policing.
There was a row earlier in the week when the Speaker of the House Commons overstepped his authority and spoke about hosting the Palestinian ambassador and was going to fly a Palestinian flag. It is the Government of the Day which deals with foreign dignitaries and of course the UK does not recognise Palestine as a state. He has now apologized.
Why write about an amazingly horrific social scandal where corruption ruined honest peoples' live when one can speculate about Taylor Swift being gay? A belief that NYT is a significant journal...perhaps it is time to take that belief and "Shakes it off".
Hadn't we all shaken that off before Bari and Nellie resigned even? Only 666 is guilty of complete faith still in the NYT. Even Bari and Nellie somewhat get it, more so after the Yom Kippur Massacre.
"But this is war. Ackman accused BI of going below the belt by targeting his wife and calling his kids’ phones. “Even the mafia operates with more dignity and respect for family,” he wrote. Oh, Bill. Let’s not paint with a broad brush and compare the good people of the mob to our country’s most corrupt enterprise."
I feel this so much. As a professor who jumped off the Woke bus on Oct 7th I have no political home. I care about climate & biodiversity, strong foreign policy against Islamism/China/Russia/ LGB rights, protecting women from gender madness, pro immigration but anti open border, anti DEI and pro liberalism and civil rights. Where is the sanity?
I think the confusion comes from calling something democrat or liberal which isn’t anymore. People feel they are good people if they support democrats who are in fact nothing like past democrats. For instance, when Elon Musk courageously opened the Twitter Files to journalists, and the files showed the government and the FBI censorship of thousands of private citizens, the “liberal” press seemed okay with it. Pretty shocking!
You sound like a conservative. We care about the climate, and saving the planet, but are realistic in our approach. We are not going to replace fossil fuels anytime soon.
I argue we care more about foreign policy. than Democrats.
Trump never took bribes from foreign countries, and no new wars were started under his watch. Most importantly, he did not leave any soldiers behind in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
You have described conservative bedrock principles. The one that you didn't mention is access to abortion, which is the only thing that is keeping Republicans from winning elections. Some Rs are realizing that and are softening their stance - Ann Coulter is a case in point. If US Republicans become more like the Progressive Conservative party in Canada, they will trounce the Dems. But any attempt to put forward a moderate leader is thwarted by the Trump juggernaut, so there you are.
Don't blame the Repugnants on abortion on President Trump. That has always and forever been the Repugnants' stance. Leave the projection to the Dimocrats.
What you ought to care about first, second, and third is the USA; while you busybodied with everybody elses business your country has been falling apart. Literally in a lot of cases. The troubles du jour? That is Kruschev burying you from the grave.
Welcome to the great disaffected! Lots of former democrats here who finally realized democrats aren’t at all liberal, just apologists for the establishment, the chattering political class, and the very affluent. You have a home here among the politically homeless. We have an encampment of sorts. ;-)
With regard to environmental conservation (a passion of mine as well) your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to realize that there is no such thing as climate policy, only energy policy. May I humbly suggest Robert Bryce (https://robertbryce.substack.com) and Michael Magoon (https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com)?
Who knew that Business Insider would simply be a partisan stalking horse for the Left. Well at least I'll know never to cite their garbage in a brief to a court or any legal filing.
The claim that Christine Gay was fired by Harvard for plagiarism may not be true. I suspect that she was fired because benefactors of Harvard were withdrawing their financial support.
In any event, her antisemitism was a much better justification for her firing.
What we saw with Covid was not bad medicine. It was a hijacking of real medicine by a primarily governmental group who thought they knew more than everyone else and squashed any dissent right out of the totalitarian playbook. If medicine had allowed to be medicine, it would have been a vibrant interaction of differing theories that would eventually coalesce into coherent algorithm - like always.
I get your point but I think it was only possible because the bloom was already off the medical rose. Examples of which the doctor illustrates pretty well in this very brief piece. Apparently the Hippocratic Oath has been abandoned.
“U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and said an end to fighting in Gaza and steps toward Palestinian statehood were preconditions of Saudi diplomatic recognition of Israel.”
........
Presumably, it was bin Salman who was being quoted, not Blinken. (corrected lol)
Lack of attention to detail will continue to plague America in 2024.
Questions. 1. Why does Oliver Wiseman use “we” when referring to Israelis? Is he not an American? 2. Why is Hezbollah described as a group rather than a terrorist political organization. 3. Why on earth did Israelis not know the primary objectives of Hamas? Do they not have access to Hamas’s Charter in Israel? Is the Koran not accessible? 4. Why does Suzy Weiss follow up her apology with another insult to the same two people?
5. What is the difference between the deep right and the far right?
Biden totally contradicts Gen David Petraeus who clearly stated in recent Al Jazeera interview will be necessary for Israel to remain to govern Gaza until another solution can be found
Biden also continues pushing two State Solution which even diehard Yossi Klein Halevi has acknowledged not in any way an option.
Haviv Rettig Gur avoids that reality in discussing how thoughtful and intelligent Biden’s policy. He might have mentioned how unintelligent Obama/Biden policy has been enriching and strengthening Iran
Re Chalamet and Jenner, Suzy Weiss writes that they are "two people who had possibly never been alone in the same room. But the Globes fan cam caught them ..."
This does not prove they have ever been alone [together] in the same room. The Golden Globes event is public; they are not alone.
"... looking very much to the whole world like two starlets in love."
They are actors. Pretending things in public is literally their day job, at which they make millions.
If they're actually in a romantic relationship, best wishes and all that, but I'm disappointed at the standard of evidence Suzy, a professional journalist, is using here. Maybe I don't want her to date my son after all.
Who cares? Dean Mitchell and the 10 people who upvoted his comment on this site, who, for some reason, think? Suzy Weiss demonstrated courage for apologizing for an inconsequential insult.
She was born in 1995, so she's a little younger than my oldest son and a little older than my second one. (They're both graduates of UNC-Charlotte ;-).
I am nearly finished with Christopher Rufo's "America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything," and for the first time I think I understand the Enemy perfectly. The ultimate goal of their Slow March Through The Institutions is that of undermining the West and causing its downfall. American elite colleges are ground zero in that conflict.
The most important part of war planning is to identify the enemy's Achilles heel. Since so many of the "intellectuals" that drive the elite colleges got their positions through Affirmative Action, exposing their academic fraud to the world is key, in turn, to bringing THEM down.
Bill Ackman has recognized that AI is the perfect tool since it can easily, quickly, and accurately do the grunt work of analyzing all the published output of all the academics at all schools, for all time. Bloody brilliant; doing it by hand would be impossible, even if a human could stay awake while wading through all the dense technical babble - and psychobabble. AI has no problem with that.
All I can say is that it's time to strike the enemy at its heart. Liberal Academia, in pace requiescat - let 'er rip!
Okay, and then what? We haven't seen much action happening to the academics who are committing these ethics violations, and certainly have not received any true punishment, making them want to rehabilitate. Without consequence, we cannot stop the train in its tracks.
Actually, a very good question. Go straight to Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" - the subject of Hillary Ramrod Clinton's senior thesis at Wehhhhhhllllllsleyhhhhhhhhhh.
**************************
Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.
Rule 2: Never go outside the experience of your people.
The result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 3: Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.
Rule 4: Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. "You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."
Rule 5: Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It's hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Rule 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. "If your people aren't having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic."
Rule 7: A tactic that drags on for too long becomes a drag. Commitment may become ritualistic as people turn to other issues.
Rule 8: Keep the pressure on. Use different tactics and actions and use all events of the period for your purpose. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage."
Rule 9: The threat is more terrifying than the thing itself. When Alinsky leaked word that large numbers of poor people were going to tie up the washrooms of O'Hare Airport, Chicago city authorities quickly agreed to act on a longstanding commitment to a ghetto organization. They imagined the mayhem as thousands of passengers poured off airplanes to discover every washroom occupied. Then they imagined the international embarrassment and the damage to the city's reputation.
Rule 10: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Avoid being trapped by an opponent or an interviewer who says, "Okay, what would you do?"
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
According to Alinsky, the main job of the organizer is to bait an opponent into reacting. "The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength."
*************************
# 4. Make them live by their own rules. They say they are on the moral high ground and are oh-s0-smart. Expose their plagiarism, their inability to think of anything original, their feckless dishonesty. Use their own "Rules for Radicals" against them.
#5 Ridicule. You will never see me refer to Hussein Obama by any other name, nor Alleged President Joe Stolen by any other. Nor Butt-gig as anything but Butt-gig. Nor Birdbrain - nor, nor, nor....
#9 The threat is more terrifying. I never refer to child genital mutilation as anything else, nor do I ever miss the opportunity to tell my former colleagues that I want the hands amputated of any surgeon performing these procedures on children. Don't think they don't think about that.
And Rule 11. Pick the academic, freeze him/her/it. Go after him personally. Embarrass him/her/it. Point out his dishonesty. Drive him out of the Academy.
This is war, and the only thing at stake is everything. The Left knows that and has known it for decades. We'd better learn it too, and I mean quickly, or it's over, Boys and Girls. Over.
I apologize for the length, but it seemed a service to show Alinsky's rules, which are the blueprint for the Left's attacks.
Jim, I read Hillary’s Wellsley thesis on Alinsky years ago. Boring. You know he invited her to join his team but she declined for Yale.
Anyway, I wonder if Ackman will check it for plagiarism? Of course it was typed on a typewriter, messy white-outs everywhere.
People on the right must become expert in using these rules against the left...publish them everywhere...they started this fight...it's time we took it to them with a vengeance...sic 'em...g,
It's just getting started.
Unfortunately, AI isn't yet the panacea people are making it out to be. AI also lies (or, as the techies call it "hallucinates"), makes up sources, states as fact that people committed crimes that they didn't, etc. Maybe AI could run for president?
Careful. An army also needs food and armaments. Which means money. IF Biden is somehow able to "reset" the college debt clock back to zero (blanket forgiveness) - universities will suddenly have more money flowing to them than an army of Rufos can overcome. This issue is key to the whole battle.
Who is the enemy
Muslims
Muslims have invaded America
Wake folks
We may disagree, but to my eye islam's threat to the West is what medicine calls an "opportunistic infection." It is only possible for an ideology mired firmly in the seventh century to threaten the Modern West because the Marxists and their Slow March have weakened the host (us) to the point that we are susceptible to that infection.
If we Normals hadn't been asleep at the switch for the past 75 years and allowed the lunatics and hoopies to gain so much control over our culture and our government, islam would represent a silly curiosity, disappearing in our rear-view mirror in a cloud of dust. No, in the words of the immortal Pogo, we have met the enemy and .... well, you know the rest.
Sic 'em...g.
So, the downfall of the West is the goal. What does the radical left propose to replace it with?
Utopia...and if you don't like it they have a room in the gulag with your name on it just waiting for you...g.
Have you noticed that Biden is both certifiably insane and a senile imbecile? Why the 25th Amendment has not been invoked to rid of us of this demented madman speaks volumes about the corruption that lies at every level of the United States Government.
Doesn’t the cabinet have to initiate the 25th amendment?
Grantholm who can’t organize a 1 electric car parade.
Buttgag who is constantly on parental leave.
Kamala. Nuff said
Affirmative action Austin. AWOL and proud of it.
Blinken who is on a whirlwind world tour accomplishing nothing but doing it in a sad sack way.
Merrick garland who is a small man with an even smaller mind but a huge brown nose.
I can’t even think of who else is there, they are so nothing.
...and our favorite admiral "LaTrine.
Well you summed it up perfectly for everyone. Nice job.
Pretty funny!
Good work Unwoke!
😂😂😂
Because no one wants Kamala Harris to be POTUS ?
Well I'm sure we can find ONE person crazy enough to want Giggles as POTUS.
Yeah, that Emhoff guy!
Nooooooo
Agree. Every time I hear or read what Biden should do, I want to scream. He can't even walk away from a podium with Dr. Jill hold his hand and leading him away.
Not to mention those "daunting" airplane stairs.......
When all Democrats in both chambers vote lock step for everything he wants, and against any Republican bills, you know why the 25th amendment is DOA.
What if Biden is not really in charge. That’s even scarier
And neither is the defense Secretary that’s even scarier!
I don't know who I would have as president, a senile crook or Harris, a babbling imbecilic who can't string words together to make a sentence.
We are doomed!
Did you watch "Battlestar Galactica"? President Laura Roslin was 43rd in the succession, sarcastic comment on how low you have to go to hit sanity in government. Of course, this aired in the Bush Years. A lot of the political and cultural commentary would find it difficult to get in a script, let alone on air, today.
Great, so the deputy secretary of defense becomes President...
Good one.
But I believe that the Speaker of the House is second in line. After Giggles.
Shits and Giggles.
You are correct. When The commies held the house, it terrified me to think the multi, multi millionaire Nancy could be president.
That is Giggles ‘free ‘card
They know these "white supremacist" people in practical terms don't exist. They know that. It's just a cudgel to use against us Normals. Finally I see through these Goddamned elitists and globalists like a windowpane, and I'm ready to fight.
Joe was just routinely bumbling through a statement prepared for him displayed on a teleprompter, though he is intimately familiar with the workings of white supremacy.
Off script he can fondly reminisce about the good old days when he and his dear friend Senator Robert Byrd-whom he delivered a eulogy for and also a KKK member, organizer and recruiter-sipped bourbon and chuckled at the expense of racial minorities with other like minded colleagues in private.
So like every problem he points out to his voters, whether it be societal, economic or whatever, he can condemn it while not taking ownership in his complicity.
You spelt "insane" wrong. ;-)
Let’s brings the Democrats down this is the year!
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/05/25/the-army-wants-to-kick-out-an-avowed-white-supremacist-officer-but-they-wont-admit-it/
A sample of one is an anecdote.
You stole my line
Enjoy the link.
Nah. Just sharing a link that proves you're wrong. :)
Still not going to answer the 2 questions, coward?
Oh, no, no, no.......You said there were none, El Yendor.
Would like information about more?
Or would you just prefer to answer the 2 questions, coward?
I grow tired of reading about the two-state solution. You can't have a neighbor who wants to kill you and is in active preparation to do so. I saw the Israeli President on Meet the Press, where he shared a Hamas document for summer camp where the kids are taught Jihad. The MSM idiot Kristen Welker glossed over it as she asked her next stupid question, but that is the issue that no one wants to talk about.
It will take generations for this group of people to govern themselves. The network of tunnels and the number of rockets show that any money given to them will be diverted to the war machine. The Palestinians are led and educated by murderous, evil, and backward leadership.
Israel can't lead them, but an international group can work on the local level, rebuilding and creating a modern civil society. I think a gradual process that will take decades to allow Democracy on a local level and then build the capacity to govern should happen over time. Never forget, Gaza was land for peace when Sharon removed settlements, and this is what they got to show for it. It's time to take off the childish view of the world and create a realistic plan to bring Palestinian civilization into the 21st century. Anything else will lead us back to this situation, and Israel should not have to put up with that.
Think Germany and Japan getting a knock out punch in order to start the rebuilding process.
A knockout punch to Islam? Get serious. This war will not be won kinetically. It will be won by people telling the truth about Islam.
Think.
More like a knockout punch to Hamas, and then Hezbollah. The vast majority of Muslims are willing to live side by side with people of other religions. Yes, their holy book talks about killing infidels, but the Old Testament exhorts the righteous to stone to death anyone who commits adultery, and modern Christians don’t take that part (and many others) literally. It’s the extremists who take to heart the ideology of jihad, and that is what needs to be fought tooth and nail. You can’t reason with, negotiate with, or peacefully coexist with any group who sees its mission as exterminating another group, so make the distinction and deal a knockout blow to the jihadists.
Islam is about 600 years “younger” than Christianity. 600 years ago (1450), Christian women were expected to wear veils and could not safely appear in public without a male escort; Christians had been slaughtering each other for 100 years and the war ended only in 1453 - this, after three Crusades to Palestine to slaughter the infidel Muslims; and not content with all that, Catholics and Protestants went at it again in the Thirty Years War where 8 million(!) people are estimated to have died, mostly from famine as the raging armies devastated most of today’s Germany. It ended with the Treaty of Westphalia, which ushered in the Enlightenment and opened the door to the age of science. Christians should be careful of their own glass houses before condemning Islam.
Having said that, Islam is yet to have its own Enlightenment as Christian Europe did from about
They were having an Enlightenment. In the tenth to twelth centuries the mullahs strangled it. Muhammed Abduh had a go at the turn of the 19th/20th century. The result? Today's "moderates" in Islam can trace themselves back to him. Unfortunately, so can Hamas. Islam has no get out clause like "Render unto Caesar" and- though it has in theory a populist, democratic, ideal of governace - no means to action populist, democratic, government. All falls foul of the Mullahs.
Be careful writing here that the vast majority of Muslims are willing to live side by side with people of other religions. (Despite the face that you are correct.)
There are more than a few who will call you an antisemite and a bunch of other insults.
In Islam it is permissable to lie and disemble until you are in a position to win. There is zilch in the tradition to allow anyone to trust it.
Some listen only after reaching the bottom. I agree that truth in education is a must, but it requires paying attention. You do bring global Islam and that’s more than I was thinking.
Just Iran is all it will take.
Not all of Islam.
Iran and the Shia tradition might actually be the best hope. You can see a lot of resemblance to the Scottish and Puritan Revolutions there. I think they are at a similar stage to Christendom's "Wars of Religion" phase. Unfortunately every other religious culture in the Abrahamic tradition has had to go through the "boatloads of dead and enslaved in near-genocidal warfare" to get there. Judaism: three near genocidal wars before the shouty-stabby was knocked out of it by Rome; Xtianity: a couple of centuries of religious wars for like-wise; China: the Taiping Rebellion took about 35 million lives to reign in a Millenarian Xtianity led by Jesus' "brother". Doing to death Communism; Fascism; and National Socialism, also Judeao-Xtian Millenarian heresies, took whole fleets of blood. Like-wise the militant, racist, strain of Shinto extinguished only when we glassed the fuckers. You'll note one of those Judaeo Xtian heresies hasn't actually been injured, nevermind killed, yet. Militant Shintoism? Look in a Nipponese schoolbook on how the Pacific War is spun. Anyone who thinks we can get from A to Z skipping the other 24 letters is stupidly naive.
That only works for people capable thereof. While I am sure there are many, many Arabs we now identify as Palestinian who are and thus do there are likewise a number who are thoroughly indoctrinated. The latter make me understand the need for separation of houses of worship and state. Can there be anyone harder to free from political indoctrination than one who believes it is what their deity wants?
Yes, WWI did not eliminate belligerence, so they had to do it during WWII. In Japan, the Allies raised most cities to the ground, killing many civilians. And that was before dropping two nukes. Until Israel eliminates the belligerence of Iran, this fight will continue.
Razed
🤣 math was my livelihood.
The Palestinian people have been poisoned for at least two generations by Hamas' Blood Libel and hatred of Jews. There is no salvation for them, even though they SAY that they hate Hamas, they hate the Jews even more. We need to quit trying to rehab these people because they DON"T want to be rehabbed! Let the consequences fall where they may.
They don’t say they hate Hamas! Polling data shows W Bank support for Hamas bf Oct7 th Hamas would have won any election and since Oct 7 th skyrocketing support and virtually no one wants 2 State solution and most Gazans despite methods of Hamas governance till SUPPORT Hamas.
Well, maybe. But if you lived in Gaza and some pollster approached you asking your opinion of Hamas, would you feel it was safe to answer candidly?
5 generations at least for the "palestinians". The tradition has had exterminating Jews in its' DNA from the gitgo.
I was listening to The Tikvah podcast and the commentor said that those in power cannot understand Palestinian complaints. This is not good for the hopes of peace. We in the West understand that when people kill Jews and rejoice in their deaths that they are corrupted, fatally, by Hamas propaganda. They want Jews dead! What is not to understand, and why in the world would you want to "understand" their motivation?
Start with closing all schools funded by UNRWA.
Isn't going to happen. Change a human mind set? Let's see, after Socrates, Plato, Moses, Jesus, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Bacon, Leibniz, Kant, Locke -- over 2,500 years, Europe still ended up with butchering Nazis and Soviets and now God knows what. Whatever it is, its already got a strong foothold here in North America.
I respectuflly disagree - To the previous comment, look at Germany and Japan. Much different societies after they were broke. Its total war and surrender that yields that. I don't worry about the people here, the fringes are highlihted to get people to watch tv
Yes, belligerence must be crushed.
That’s the only way to eliminate it.
That’s why it’s best to let boys fight it out on the playground lot.
Luv ya, Al. But didn't you ever hear about history repeating itself? Give Germany and Japan a chance. (I listened to WWII on the radio, in real time, so forgive me).
Do you think Germany and Japan will return to their pre WW II ways? I think we are on the same page? My point is that both countries had total defeat and great modern countries were built on the ruins as is the only possible route for Palestine.
Al, I usually agree with you but this time, I submit your analogy is misplaced. Palestine is simple to describe. Two tribes want all of this real estate and each of them has an extremist faction that wants ALL of it and would cleanse the land of all of the other to achieve it. There is no reasoning with these people; they have to be smashed and exposed for what they are. The majority of the two tribes would agree to share it, and the 2001 Taba Accords set out how. Tragically, Yasar Arafat rejected it (allegedly because it did not allow a “right of return” but more probably because he was afraid he would be assassinated by his own side, just as the Israeli PM was later assassinated by a Jewish extremist). This is not really about Islam; it’s about the land, ie, the real estate. The Palestinians can be expected to turn away from Hamas only if they have something positive to turn TOWARDS: a viable, sovereign Palestinian State, as distinct (vitally) from a collection of bantustans with a heavy presence of fanatical religious Jewish settlers protected by the Israeli Army, as at present is the situation on the West Bank.
The Palestinians face a monumental task to embrace peace, accept moderation and reject Hamas’s nihilism. But Israelis (and the Jewish diaspora) have an equally difficult task: to confront and overcome the contradiction at the heart of the State: the ultra orthodox religious/nationalists for whom the West Bank is forever “Eretz Israel”, never to be surrendered. Israel can have the land or it can have peace; it cannot have both.
Oh I don't know; glass a handful of locations and I think the Ummah would STFU. /s
Since Mani, Zoroaster, Alexander, Mohammad, Great Britain, Russia, I see ol' Persia/Iran is still at it, but you may be right.
I see your point, but forever is a long time
If we get 70-100 years of peace from a group after being flattened maybe that’s the best we can hope for
I think the BIG difference between WWII and the Middle East is Japan & Germany were not continuing a war that spanned thousands of years, fought over land multiple sides believed belonged to them, and more importantly, over religion.
I'm normally an optimist, but a realist as well.
It would take a minimum 100 years of occupation to keep peace, beginning with eradicating all schools and churches of historical religious beliefs, and then replacing them with....what?
Can you possibly teach people who don't want peace to change their ways?
The Yamato People are the only race descended from the gods. That is a two millenia old ethos that a few years scrubbing doesn't erase. Look at how the Shōwa era is taught. Folk have been raising this point since the Seventies at least.
Then is ethnic cleansing the answer?
Have you taken a look at how the Shōwa era is taught in Japan? You are a might misguided about them.
Locke's defence of the French Revolution, whatever his other strengths and writings, makes him an arsehole. Plato? Every piece of Western philosophical, religious, and ideological bollocks is in direct descent. Moses and Jesus are prophylactic fictions. Augustine and Aquinas made Catholicism worse than it was already and their "thought" hasn't survived modernity or critical thinking. Descartes and Kant? Cartesian Doubt and "I have found it necessary to deny knowledge to make room for faith" have a lot to answer for and leave a lot. Socrates is reliant on Attic Comedy, Plato, and Xenophon for what we know of him. Comedy lampoons him as an arse and given what we know of the folk he taught, I'm surprised the Demos didn't kill him earlier. Even Bacon hasn't survived the scrutiny of critical scholarship terribly well. Leibniz is the only one on your list that survives interrogation I'm afraid; the others are far more responsible FOR the bollocks of the Western Mindset than changing it for the good.
Ach, you express the problem with you whippersnappers. The past fellows made their way forward from knowing the past -- a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. Leibniz -- calculus good, Theodicy -- Kant destroyed it in a kindly fashion. Now, Hegel and Nietzsche, there's a pair for ya. By the way, did you read where Augustine went to his great beyond hating humanity?
I think that any comparisons between Germany, Japan and Gaza are not considering the role of the UN, and particularly UNWRA, in perpetuating this problem. This organization is a Ponzi Scheme that plays on anti-semitism as a funding mechanism, and the wider world needs to stop supporting this absolute failure of a project. UNWRA is raising over a billion dollars per year from American and European taxpayers, plus extorting the Palestinian diaspora around the world. All it has achieved is getting Palestinian children killed. I would argue that it is designed to breed Palestinian children to be sacrificed on the altar of graft. It needs to be disbanded if we hope to see any resemblance of peace in the Middle East.
This.
As I have noted, 46% of all UN employees in the world work on behalf of the Palestinians.
The UN is a Palestinian organization, which is my reply when people say the Israelis need to listen to and let the UN take over.
When you look at its prehistory, you see the UN was a Stalinist weeze from the gitgo. That we fell for it is another example of near-gaga, then naive, dolts in the White House. I'm being generous; we've spent a century turning the gun on ourselves thinking it was to the good.
10000 likes. After October 7 we get to see the depth of their depravity.
"Joe Biden saved a lot of Palestinian lives. He also saved a lot of Israeli lives, in embracing Israel. The Democratic Party’s left wing doesn’t understand that, if it had been in charge, this war would be twice as bad. Twice as bad for Palestinians."
Is anyone going to let Oliver Wiseman know that there is no such thing as the "left wing" of the democrat party? If Joe Biden & the rest of the democrat establishment weren't being paid off by defense contractors they'd all be kneeling at the Holland Tunnel sporting keffiyeh's and screaming "There is only one solution, intifada revolution".
Meanwhile come November 5th, in a move that Harry Houdini would be impressed with, Bari, Nellie and THP staff/contributors will continue to vote Democrat. (minus Walter Kirn of course)
Try to figure that one out.......
Because if one fills in the bubble for a democrat, one is showing he or she is showing empathy and compassion, otherwise known as "cares a lot." Another substack article stated there was research to the effect that showed democrats are more compassionate. I choked when I read it.
Read Arthur Brook’s book-Who Really Cares-
Conservatives are more generous with money and time. But the left doesn’t want you to know it
Bullshit. Democrats are very generous. With *your* money.
They sure are!
ROTFLH.
There are decent people on both sides, but from my own anecdotal experience, it's more common in dems to see a mismatch between how one acts and lives life compared to how one sees oneself.
Great observation! It’s a variation if the Dunning-Kruger effect, which states that people generally misjudge their intelligence. Less intelligent people see themselves as smarter than they are; and oddly enough, smarter people don’t usually recognize their own gifts.*
Similarly here, people often over- and underestimate their own generosity and virtuousness. Same church, different pew.
* This observation is hardly new. Here we have, from Act 1, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar:
CASSIUS
Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion,
By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
BRUTUS
No, Cassius, for the eye sees not itself
But by reflection, by some other things.
How dare you quote a dead white supremacist to make your point!
I'm just a daring kinda guy.
Haven't you heard- Shakespeare's writing was all by a Black /Jewish/Italianwoman (now that's checking all the boxes!) https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjC5cif-NGDAxUeK1kFHXoIA644ChAWegQICBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fculture%2F2023%2Fjun%2F27%2Felizabeth-winkler-shakespeare-was-woman-author&usg=AOvVaw2pAlMLfsTQXTKnHpffX1Uq&opi=89978449
As always, the great Bard said it all, and better.
The world's first psychologist and psychiatrist, all rolled into one Shakespeare.
"Decent" is not a word I'd use for folk whose brains have mostly dribbled out.
I believe one of the attitudes that have led us to this point is an obsession of "both sideism" to the point of self-destruction. I don't know too many who don't believe an individual has a right to do whatever is necessary to protect the family if there's a home invasion. Compare that to the pearl-clutching reaction I receive when suggesting that if my children were still young, I would have used violence, if necessary, to protect my children from the Mengeles of trans. In order for me to make the decision to take that step I would have first given crystal clear warnings. The same people who pearl-clutch at what I stated are the same people who fall over backwards to make excuses for the Mengeles who slice, dice and inject children. As a society we've been slowly attacking and eroding both maternal and paternal instinct, trying to make people doubt themselves and feel guilty for having boundaries around their children. I'm not a crazed wingnut and have been in a situation where I had the right and the wherewithal to stop a scumbag, but it wasn't necessary to kill him. Middle of the night in the middle of nowhere with a car breakdown, but armed. Scumbag stopped and came at me, but his heels hit the brakes when I pointed a revolver at him. I didn't shoot and he backed away. I always carry the thought that he probably went on to attack other women. Now look at the parents who are attacked and have their children separated from them because Big trans wants to mutilate them, and parents being the first line of defense are in the way.
Your bravery is commendable.
Thank you for the compliment but I am definitely not brave, but I have no qualms about defending myself or my children.
Beadle, you probably doubt your bravery because you were frightened. John Wayne summed it up best when he said that “bravery means being scared to death and saddling up anyway.”
The fact that you were backed into a corner doesn’t argue against the diagnosis of bravery. Many would have folded. You obviously did not. No doubt you’d do it again. I wouldn’t want to be the perp.
That is pretty brave at this point in time.
I think we would all do a lot better if we'd stop assigning nefarious motives to people who disagree with us on politics (or on anything).
I agree to a point, but there are some in society with nefarious intent and they don't necessarily shy away from politics or anything else. I don't believe most people of any persuasion are being nefarious when how they see themselves is a bit different from the reality. The article mentioned the research that found dems are more compassionate, therefore implying selfish motives more often to the other side. This is similar to the religiously self-righteous (on the far right) who see themselves as being more moral than the out-group. Sometimes we take too far the "Do not judge" mantra. I have plenty of friends who disagree with me on various topics, and I don't assign nefarious motives. But the ones at the top pulling the levers on some of the issues today (Big trans), I absolutely assign nefarious motives. Then there are the followers and enablers who have such an overwhelming desire to see themselves as "caring," they will ignore the damage inflicted as long as society tells them they are compassionate and caring. They are staring into a mirror at the image they have fabricated for themselves, everyone else be damned.
I don't disagree with most of this. I'm talking more about everyday people in our lives...friends, family, colleagues etc. Even people in these comments. I think most of our politicians esp at the top are probably pretty corrupt and it's fair to call that out. But I think we'd all do better at giving our "peers" the benefit of the doubt. I need to do better of it myself.
I do usually give the benefit of the doubt, even when I strongly disagree with someone. But there are "everyday people" who are corrupt and bent towards authoritarianism, if given the opportunity.
Yes, of course there are, but I don't think most people are like that - so all I'm saying is give people the benefit of the doubt til proven otherwise. Our toxic discourse these days has many on the left convinced that anyone who voted for Trump is a racist bigot, and many on the right convinced that anyone who voted for Biden is an evil Marxist totalitarian. That's what I'm arguing against.
So there are no nefarious motives to the Hitlers, Stalins, and Hamases? I'm surprised you are still alive with such stupid thinking.
Way to bring Hitler into it right away - are you sure you’re not a leftist? 😉
I’m talking about regular people we encounter in our daily lives who happen to have different views than us. You can say “oh that person disagrees with me, probably they’re as bad as Hitler” or an even more charming retort like “how are you still alive with such stupid thinking?” OR… hear me out, you could take a deep breath and try a different approach. You could resist the urge to assign a motive to them and instead listen and try to understand how they formed that opinion.
Here’s a quote from Andrew Doyle’s book “The New Puritans” (a blistering critique of the illiberal left) that sums up what I’m trying to say very eloquently:
“To close oneself off to the possibility of alternative opinions, and only to see the world through the lens of confirmation bias, is a form of intellectual death. It is always worth remembering the uncomfortable truth that, to borrow the words of novelist Philip Roth, ‘our understanding of people must always be at best slightly wrong’. We live, as George Orwell put it, in a state of ‘star-like isolation’. Empathy is our attempt to make connections against terrible odds, without which humanity flounders.”
Research by whom? Was this an exercise on paper? I could fill out a questionnaire with all the “right” answers but not practice my answers in real life. Sounds like a predetermined result with questions tailored to arrive there. It probably didn’t include questions about unborn fetuses or contempt for friends, neighbors and anyone else who voted for an ‘insurrectionist’.
IOW they are all about giving a man a fish.
One correction. They are all about giving a man your fish.
Stolen for my plagiarised thesis! ;-)
Excellent observation. Thank you.
Hmm, all the smart people are not going to vote for Trump. There must be some reason, I just can't put my finger on it!
Trump threatens their ability to tell all the people they view as dumb what to do. I understand the self-interest, but I am mystified by the intensity of the hatred.
The "smart people" should vote for Kennedy, but alas, I have no doubt, they will pull the Biden lever. Again.
Proving, as we all know, that they are only "smart" to themselves and their fellow educated idiots.
my daddy used to tell me they is some folks that is smart in the schoolhouse but dumb on the bus....
Bruce, I can’t wait for the jury verdicts in three of Trump’s criminal trials (the NY trial is shaky) to read your own verdict, but even more your reaction to the peoples’ verdict on November 5th. I do hope that you will accept all of them and not cry fraud like you-know-who.
If you think that the 2020 election was on the up and up, there's little hope for you. Show up, present you ID and vote. Anything else is inherently subject to manipulation. As it was and will be again.
No way in hell would I pull the lever for Biden after saying that "white supremacy" is one of our biggest threats. When I brought this up to The Deciders (Those who decree what can and cannot be discussed and how) in a writing group, they claimed never to have heard him say that.
“Pull the Biden lever” is a term rich with euphemistic possibilities.
I can’t wait to ask my Democrat friends if they plan to “pull Biden’s lever again.”
Can’t ‘like’ this enough. Imagine people not wanting for a guy who tried to claim he won when he lost!
I think cold thinking (if that’s a thing) is needed here. I read too many people spouting emotional reactions. What we need is clear, invective thinking
Maybe you meant “incisive”? Invective is defined as “Denunciatory or abusive language; vituperation.” Incisive means “Penetrating, clear, and sharp, as in operation or expression.”
@Pharosian, Actually, you are right, I meant to write incisive (can't figure out how 'invective' ended up there). While I agree with Watson here that we need to call a spade a spade and abhor duplicative language or the proverbial beating around the bush, being clear should not mean being abusive..... Thanks for catching this!
You’re welcome! And thank you for being gracious about it… I worried that you or others would take offense. After thinking about it, I suspect that Autocorrect is at fault, since c and v are right next to each other on the keyboard.
Nope, invective thinking is what we need: a dolt is a dolt and we shouldn't be tying that fact up with a pretty bow.
Thanks for the honesty. I see a lot of invective deployed.
..Because Trump scares the shit out of many Americans, Evans. That's why. I'm not saying that's right or wrong. But that's why.
“A value we hold dear at The Free Press is the ability to admit when you’re wrong.”
I haven’t seen any significant admissions of note thus far, so I won’t hold my breath for that. To some, it’s a process that takes many years to materialize if at all. It’s a matter of refusing to admit mistakes-a trend in media journalism that gets worse as we go and is a main reason for the level of trust they share with used car salespeople-that cause us to hold the professionals who make and don’t admit to them in contempt.
The larger issue is that Gay and the other presidents were emblems of an ideology so tribalized and dehumanizing that too many of its subscribers celebrated October 7 as "decolonization." That's why they had to go. Gay's plagiarism was a side bar. While most were gobsmacked by Hamas' savagery, the presidents let that freak flag fly, indulging antisemitic mobs.
After Hamas' evil incarnate assault, maybe coming our way, Business Insider goes after. . . Neri Oxman??
The academic emphasis is Gay's -
(the "scholar's scholar, " said the corporation) slim portfolio of unremarkable papers.
Few, or let's face it, no academics with that record would have risen to the presidency of Harvard, let alone, even now, pull in $900,000 a year. Windshield, kick- it eyewear does not a scholar make. She got there because of her ideology, race, and gender.
Inadvertently, the attack on Neri Oxman simply highlights the vast chasm between Oxman's brainy, innovative brilliance and Gay's plodding DEI racial activism. Not a good match- up for the self-regarding Gay.
Harvard is in the grip of a deracination- based ideology. That's deadly serious. "Woke" is too cute a descriptor for the threat DEI poses to liberal democracy and targeted populations. Deracination is what it is-- name it.
Oxman's reputation was already great. Business Insider is trying to divert, silence, or threaten the hugely successful Ackman precisely because of the threat he poses to DEI. He's their worst nightmare.
The fact that they would even make the comparison between Oxman and Gay shows that they continue to disgrace the reputation of Harvard with low expectations.
It's the "both sides" argument again! "Well fine, the president plagiarized, but so did your wife and how dare you call us out just because we actively discriminate against people like you!"
Much of Oxman's so-called plagiarism was definitions from Wikipedia for certain terms. And look at the difference in output and quality, breaking new frontiers in science and nature.
She still should've cited them. There's just no excuse for anyone to not cite the sources. I have to say it's disappointing that people defending Gay now have a fodder.
I once had an entire paragraph, words and data, the results, in part, of months of research, lifted by another writer, completely unattributed, and put forward as her own work. That's plagiarism. For some reason, I never did anything about it.
And Wikipedia is the child of....? A communist org. Business Insider is criticising someone for using... the same bullshit they ascribe too! Whoops.
“ Few, or let's face it, no academics with that record would have risen to…” much of anything. Her cribbed publication record barely makes assistant professor. Without tenure, and at a second tier school.
“…She got there because of her ideology, race, and gender.” Exactly. Next stop for her will be on the democratic ticket running for POTUS. Plagiarism worked for the current denizen of the WH. Why not someone like him, but black and female? Both are incompetent and unaccomplished. Both come from wealthy backgrounds and are wildly overpaid for what passes for their life’s work.
Yep. That’s where I’m putting my money.
Great comment
When Merit Still Mattered https://open.substack.com/pub/theconservativeguardian/p/when-merit-still-mattered?r=ewuke&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Maybe we need to just reduce the salaries of all university professors and administrators . After all the Fed govt ( we) are essentially paying for most of their salaries and perks through firgiven loans, grants and huge tax benefits to endowments and donors. Note to TFP: how about stats on uni salaries to profs and presidents and DEI staffs?
I think doing away with the tax exempt status would be an excellent source of income for our rapacious federal government.
First we deal with the exempt status. Then we can try to figure out how to reduce the taxes the rest of us pay.
I assume if the universities and their endowments pony up it would provide sufficient income for the feds to cut individual and business taxpayers some slack. You realize that income from.taxes was down in 2022 thereby necessitating, together with an increase in the interest rate, recalculation of the interest payment on the national debt? That we now borrow to make the INTEREST payment? Instead the feds are requiring registration of essentially all small businesses except sole proprietorships. Law enforcement and revenue agents to have access to the data.
I have little doubt that our betters in DC would find plenty of pork and ideological notions that any found money would be directed towards
Which is what must be stopped. That $1.59 trillion spending cut is a step, baby as it might be, in the right direction.
I believe Trump added a clause in his Tax Reduction Act that endowments which exceeded $500k/student would be taxed, but it was stricken from the bill.
Re plagiarism, I am as disgusted by Gay’s refusal to take responsibility for her plagiarism as anyone. There are not enough eye rolls or barf emojis for the way she handled the scandal and cast herself as a victim of a racist witch hunt (the poor thing had to flee to Italy for a vacation to get away from it all 😩😩😩, and now has to live out the remainder of her career as a tenured professor at Harvard collecting a salary of $900k #oppressed #systemicracism).
BUT cmon. In contrast to the AP depiction of plagiarism as a “new conservative weapon,” the reality is anyone of any political persuasion can use plagiarism as a “weapon.” I’ve seen so much whining on the left about this “conservative weapon,” and my response has been - Christopher Rufo doesn’t have a monopoly on this “weapon”— y’all have access to it too! There are plenty of conservatives in positions of power who have published many things! If “everyone plagiarizes” then get to work and prove it.
And to anyone who thinks it’s unjust for plagiarism to be used against them I have just one simple piece of advice: don’t plagiarize!
That being said, I am not saying Ackman’s wife’s plagiarism was as egregious as Gay’s—it certainly looks like she did far less of it and the instances were also milder. And of course, also relevant is the fact that she isn’t the president of one of the most prestigious and powerful universities in the world! But a review of his wife’s scholarship for instances of plagiarism is still fair game imo.
Didn’t Biden have to withdraw from an earlier presidential race because of plagiarism? Did he get a pardon for it or something? Because no one seems to care now.
He didn’t just plagiarize language, etc. He literally copied the life story of a British politician and tried to pass it off as his own. An inveterate liar and criminal for 50 years.
If you believe everything Joe says, he must have lived 100 lifetimes.
He takes being Irish to extremes. /s
He wants to be a
Kennedy
As is a review of the record of every leftist journo who joins in the scrum. What goes around comes around. Although I don’t think the average left winger journo has the intellect to figure this out.
That was my entire point. Anyone of any political persuasion can investigate their “opponents” for plagiarism. So I don’t wanna hear whining from anyone on any “side” when it’s used against them. Just don’t plagiarize - it’s pretty simple!
The difference is that the Dems don't work with their hands. They are all in the information manipulation business (law/media/government/climate science/etc). Republicans include cops and plumbers and small business owners. Dems "solve" "climate change" and "inequity" with word and number salad.
There is so much to be debunked in the litany of credentialism that passes for "intellectual rigor" on the Dem side of the aisle. That's why they call it a "conservative" weapon.
I'd have been more impressed if Business Insider had found that Bill Ackman was a plagiarist, but going after his wife? That's low ball over-reach.
Why is that a low ball over reach? Of course they are going after his wife - she's an adult with a long list of publications. She is a fair target, and to her immense credit, she is not whining - she took responsibility for it.
It was pathetic when liberals whined about the "conservative weapon" of plagiarism being used against Gay, and now conservatives are going to whine when it's used against them too? No. This is all very childish.
Fortunately there's a really simple solution. Don't plagiarize!
Gollum, if you can't see why maliciously going after innocent bystanders is wrong, I can't help you. But I agree that she handled it all with great dignity, and I also agree "don't plagiarize".
I don’t see her as an “innocent bystander” anymore than I see Gay, another adult with a list of publications, as an “innocent bystander.” Both people are adults who plagiarized and got called out on it. And now Ackman is investigating the MIT faculty which I think is also fair game.
It sounds like you are all for it when plagiarism is used to “take down” a person whose ideology you disagree with (Gay, perhaps MIT faculty), but when it is used to attack someone whose ideology you share, suddenly the accused is an “innocent bystander.” This strikes me as ethically inconsistent.
First you'd have to count the conservative scholars at academic institutions.. the last study I saw said that they were pretty rare. So just based on numbers of academics available to study, it would be harder to find plagiarism. The AP is being silly and filtering all news through a conservative/liberal lens. We need an AP replacement IMHO.
By any chance, did you see the kerfuffle over Christopher Rufo's (dumb) use of the term "scalped" in relations to Gay's defenestration by Harvard - the AP tut-tutted that he was "invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans.”
Really, now? Scalping was a white colonist thing? Ye gads, maybe white people really *have* created everything.
(Ben Rhodes famously said that reporters are now young and know absolutely nothing. He was 100% right on the second part, and he should know, as his brother was president of CBS News.)
No I didn’t see that. Apparently plagiarism can be good, and fact-checking can be bad… in my field the criterion seems to be “sounds vaguely plausible to people who don’t know much about the topic.”
Whilst I know the Plagiarism War is of great interest on both sides of the Atlantic, I think people might be interested to learn that following the ITV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office, the scandal (basically a computer says no scandal) has become a really hot topic in the UK, making the front pages of many papers.
More than a million people have signed a petition requesting the former CEO of the PO, Paula Vannells have her damehood revoked. Sunak also said that he hopes this is looked at.
Sunak promised that they are looking at ways to quash the over 700 wrongful convictions including an emergency law.
The Met Police have stated that they are looking at criminal charges.
The Lib Dem leader has apologised for his part in the scandal.
And surprising (or unsurprisingly) none of this is getting mentioned in the NYT or indeed the NY Post. -- instead they seem to focus on Prince Andrew whose misdeeds are already known.
This op ed from Hugo Rifkind gives a good explanation: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/horizon-was-computer-says-no-on-a-vast-scale-q56qk0jsr
This from the Telegraph explains precisely who some of the culprits are (and how they have benefited) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/08/post-office-horizon-scandal-bosses/
This from the Daily Express (not behind a paywall) https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853464/horizon-post-office-scandal-Met-Police
People are asking why Fujitsu is not being held more responsible (they have apologized) and are starting to demand that they be barred from future government contracts https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12938477/Why-getting-Whitehall-contracts-MPs-demand-Fujitsu-firm-centre-Post-Office-scandal-blocked-new-deals-shown-theyve-given-200-worth-6-7bn-decade-including-new-emergency-alert-system.html
It confirms how our news organizations are useless. I would know nothing what is happening around the world if not for “citizen reporters” and friends around the world.
I have been so surprised. I thought for sure the NYT would do a small article once the Met Police confirmed that they were looking at fraud and perjury allegations. But nothing. Front page news stories in the UK starting last week, but increasing since Saturday. Finally the story is getting the attention it deserves. What the PO did to those innocent (and formerly highly respected in their community) people is jaw dropping. Rifkind points out in his op ed the State of Michigan had something similar happen a few years ago with benefit claimants and something (again with benefits claims) happened in Australia. The scandal does strike at the heart of the Big Tech/Digital because can you trust the figures? And what happens when the helpline lies.
Oh and in case you haven't seen Macron has sacked his prime minister.
Now if only the Brits would begin caring about free speech rights and the fifth columnist adherents of the Satanic Verses destroying the UK from within.
A big win in the courts just landed. Rachel Meade the GC social worker just won her claim of harassment by the Westminster City Council and her union Social Work England. It could be a hugely significant win for free speech rights in the UK. https://www.colekhan.co.uk/news/uvzuy6kcrtb5lwg59pxbs44tqbeuj2
The actual judgement: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/607d6cba0ef43a2dbb27df45/t/659d3816f1b61a3f93f35e32/1704802327468/2200179+2022+and+2211483+2022+Meade+v+Westminster+City+Council+and+Social+Work+England+judgment+give+to+parties+8+January+2024.pdf
There was also a good free speech win at the end of last week in regards to the dyslexic worker for Lloyds Bank who was fired over asking a hypothetical question in a training session. Lloyds Bank is having to pay out £800k Biggest ever win for the Free Speech Union. https://twitter.com/SpeechUnion/status/1744675270647284051
Great news on both those wins! I hadn’t heard of the PO scandal at all, which is crazy. I often wonder what is going through the heads of news editors when they deem what their readers will interesting or newsworthy.
And news just in -- Vennells has handed back her CBE with immediate effect. Her statement is v self-serving though.“I continue to support and focus on co-operating with the inquiry and expect to be giving evidence in the coming months.
“I have so far maintained my silence as I considered it inappropriate to comment publicly while the inquiry remains ongoing and before I have provided my oral evidence.
“I am, however, aware of the calls from subpostmasters and others to return my CBE.
“I have listened and I confirm that I return my CBE with immediate effect.
“I am truly sorry for the devastation caused to the subpostmasters and their families, whose lives were torn apart by being wrongly accused and wrongly prosecuted as a result of the Horizon system.
“I now intend to continue to focus on assisting the inquiry and will not make any further public comment until it has concluded.” --Paula Vennells 9 Jan 2024 through PA news agency.
This scandal has rumbled on for such a long time and it has now burst out into the open. I have genuinely been shocked that the recent happenings have not been covered in the NYT (or elsewhere in the US media)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/01/09/rishi-sunak-latest-news-stride-post-office-cameron/
Thank you.
And about the bacillus that was imported into the UK in the guise of a "religion?"
It can be v depressing. They are looking to see if the organizers of the various marches can be charged for the policing.
There was a row earlier in the week when the Speaker of the House Commons overstepped his authority and spoke about hosting the Palestinian ambassador and was going to fly a Palestinian flag. It is the Government of the Day which deals with foreign dignitaries and of course the UK does not recognise Palestine as a state. He has now apologized.
Not actually part of our thing, believe it or not. Speaker's Corner and Parliament notionally, but in fact? Give over.
It was trending on Twitter, but everything was behind a paywall.
Why write about an amazingly horrific social scandal where corruption ruined honest peoples' live when one can speculate about Taylor Swift being gay? A belief that NYT is a significant journal...perhaps it is time to take that belief and "Shakes it off".
Hadn't we all shaken that off before Bari and Nellie resigned even? Only 666 is guilty of complete faith still in the NYT. Even Bari and Nellie somewhat get it, more so after the Yom Kippur Massacre.
If only our Politicians had the same courage as Suzy to admit when they are wrong.
If only people could distinguish between serious issues and trifles.
Exactly. Apologizing for trifles shows a seriousness of mind. Not apologizing for serious mistakes is the mark of someone who sees life as a trifle.
"But this is war. Ackman accused BI of going below the belt by targeting his wife and calling his kids’ phones. “Even the mafia operates with more dignity and respect for family,” he wrote. Oh, Bill. Let’s not paint with a broad brush and compare the good people of the mob to our country’s most corrupt enterprise."
This gave me a great laugh.
I feel this so much. As a professor who jumped off the Woke bus on Oct 7th I have no political home. I care about climate & biodiversity, strong foreign policy against Islamism/China/Russia/ LGB rights, protecting women from gender madness, pro immigration but anti open border, anti DEI and pro liberalism and civil rights. Where is the sanity?
I think the confusion comes from calling something democrat or liberal which isn’t anymore. People feel they are good people if they support democrats who are in fact nothing like past democrats. For instance, when Elon Musk courageously opened the Twitter Files to journalists, and the files showed the government and the FBI censorship of thousands of private citizens, the “liberal” press seemed okay with it. Pretty shocking!
Ignoring it and being ok with it are very different. They didn't want to give it or Musk any publicity.
Same reason they ignore RFK Jr. He's a threat to Biden and will take votes from him.
You sound like a conservative. We care about the climate, and saving the planet, but are realistic in our approach. We are not going to replace fossil fuels anytime soon.
I argue we care more about foreign policy. than Democrats.
Trump never took bribes from foreign countries, and no new wars were started under his watch. Most importantly, he did not leave any soldiers behind in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
You have described conservative bedrock principles. The one that you didn't mention is access to abortion, which is the only thing that is keeping Republicans from winning elections. Some Rs are realizing that and are softening their stance - Ann Coulter is a case in point. If US Republicans become more like the Progressive Conservative party in Canada, they will trounce the Dems. But any attempt to put forward a moderate leader is thwarted by the Trump juggernaut, so there you are.
Don't blame the Repugnants on abortion on President Trump. That has always and forever been the Repugnants' stance. Leave the projection to the Dimocrats.
What you ought to care about first, second, and third is the USA; while you busybodied with everybody elses business your country has been falling apart. Literally in a lot of cases. The troubles du jour? That is Kruschev burying you from the grave.
Welcome to the great disaffected! Lots of former democrats here who finally realized democrats aren’t at all liberal, just apologists for the establishment, the chattering political class, and the very affluent. You have a home here among the politically homeless. We have an encampment of sorts. ;-)
With regard to environmental conservation (a passion of mine as well) your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to realize that there is no such thing as climate policy, only energy policy. May I humbly suggest Robert Bryce (https://robertbryce.substack.com) and Michael Magoon (https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com)?
Who knew that Business Insider would simply be a partisan stalking horse for the Left. Well at least I'll know never to cite their garbage in a brief to a court or any legal filing.
The claim that Christine Gay was fired by Harvard for plagiarism may not be true. I suspect that she was fired because benefactors of Harvard were withdrawing their financial support.
In any event, her antisemitism was a much better justification for her firing.
Yes, Gay’s antisemitism was swept under the rug in favor of plagiarism.
Bad medicine is nothing new. We saw it with Covid and we’re seeing it in other sciences: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/lies-not-discussed-within-the-truth
What we saw with Covid was not bad medicine. It was a hijacking of real medicine by a primarily governmental group who thought they knew more than everyone else and squashed any dissent right out of the totalitarian playbook. If medicine had allowed to be medicine, it would have been a vibrant interaction of differing theories that would eventually coalesce into coherent algorithm - like always.
I get your point but I think it was only possible because the bloom was already off the medical rose. Examples of which the doctor illustrates pretty well in this very brief piece. Apparently the Hippocratic Oath has been abandoned.
This is why we saw 2 million doctors and nurses marching on Washington in April 2020... Oh, wait.
“U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and said an end to fighting in Gaza and steps toward Palestinian statehood were preconditions of Saudi diplomatic recognition of Israel.”
........
Presumably, it was bin Salman who was being quoted, not Blinken. (corrected lol)
Lack of attention to detail will continue to plague America in 2024.
Questions. 1. Why does Oliver Wiseman use “we” when referring to Israelis? Is he not an American? 2. Why is Hezbollah described as a group rather than a terrorist political organization. 3. Why on earth did Israelis not know the primary objectives of Hamas? Do they not have access to Hamas’s Charter in Israel? Is the Koran not accessible? 4. Why does Suzy Weiss follow up her apology with another insult to the same two people?
5. What is the difference between the deep right and the far right?
Happy New Year from the Frozen North.
I'm English - which is why the only flag I'm flying atm has a big blue six-pointed star in the middle. At this juncture we are all Spartacus.
Biden totally contradicts Gen David Petraeus who clearly stated in recent Al Jazeera interview will be necessary for Israel to remain to govern Gaza until another solution can be found
Biden also continues pushing two State Solution which even diehard Yossi Klein Halevi has acknowledged not in any way an option.
Haviv Rettig Gur avoids that reality in discussing how thoughtful and intelligent Biden’s policy. He might have mentioned how unintelligent Obama/Biden policy has been enriching and strengthening Iran
Re Chalamet and Jenner, Suzy Weiss writes that they are "two people who had possibly never been alone in the same room. But the Globes fan cam caught them ..."
This does not prove they have ever been alone [together] in the same room. The Golden Globes event is public; they are not alone.
"... looking very much to the whole world like two starlets in love."
They are actors. Pretending things in public is literally their day job, at which they make millions.
If they're actually in a romantic relationship, best wishes and all that, but I'm disappointed at the standard of evidence Suzy, a professional journalist, is using here. Maybe I don't want her to date my son after all.
Who cares!
I "care" enough to remark.
Who cares? Dean Mitchell and the 10 people who upvoted his comment on this site, who, for some reason, think? Suzy Weiss demonstrated courage for apologizing for an inconsequential insult.
I still want to know how they kissed without making lip contact.
Would that have been a major ruining her carefully applied expensive lip products faux pas if he did dare to touch her lips? Just wondering.
I looked at the video. Their lips came very close to one another.
But thanks for taking one for the team, Cynthia!
I have a weakness for celebrity gossip.
Then they weren’t actually kissing, were they?
Give Suzy a break, through no fault of her own her nearest and dearest are ex-NYT. ;-)
That's what I would think. I didn't watch it in slo-mo, though: maybe their lips actually did touch briefly?
Suzy is young, isn't she? At least that's how I read her, (and I did raise a daughter, a Mills College graduate, don't cha know).
She was born in 1995, so she's a little younger than my oldest son and a little older than my second one. (They're both graduates of UNC-Charlotte ;-).