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Original poster

Trump and Harvard

54 replies

TizerorFizz · 15/04/2025 22:26

Has anyone seen that Trump is trying to bully Harvard over them not accepting his demands which would remove academic independence? He is removing $2bn funding and tax exemp status. They do have a $50bn endowment but Trump is trying to get them to agree to his demands. How worried is everyone by this? Sounds outrageous to me.

OP posts:
GetMeOutOfMeta · 20/04/2025 11:08

user499978802 · 20/04/2025 10:48

That argument - that universities have left themselves open to political interference - would carry more weight if the President and many of those in the administration weren't openly consorting, and aligning themselves, with people who are openly anti-semitic, proponents of the great replacement theory, and promoters of anti-semitic conspiracy theories.

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He is doing what Putin does - support and finance both sides then sit back and watch the fighting distract from everything else he is doing.

user499978802 · 20/04/2025 12:28

Ceramiq · 20/04/2025 10:58

No-one is claiming Trump is rational. Both the American right and American left lost sight of reality a long time ago, hence vulnerability to all forms of irrational behaviour.

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I just don't buy that. If it wasn't student protests, it would be something else. Anything that separates universities from being the elite white male dominated institutions they once were is going to provide 'grounds' for this administration to go after them.

dreamingbohemian · 20/04/2025 12:58

user499978802 · 20/04/2025 12:28

I just don't buy that. If it wasn't student protests, it would be something else. Anything that separates universities from being the elite white male dominated institutions they once were is going to provide 'grounds' for this administration to go after them.

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Totally agree. Don't blame the universities on this. Right wing hostility to universities goes back a long way.

You can see this in the demand that the government be allowed to impose 'viewpoint diversity' in every department, ie make universities hire right wing academics. That has nothing to do with anti Semitism. Right wingers have been complaining that academia is too left wing for decades

Original poster
TizerorFizz · 20/04/2025 17:22

@Ceramiq That most students want to learn and get their degrees. They are nit that interested in political wrangling or how some lecturers and students position themselves regarding supporting this faction or religious position. They are not at university for that purpose. It’s a side show.

is there an American “left”?

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