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War on Universities, Lawyers & Expertise

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Fulbright Board Resigns After Accusing Trump Aides of Political Interference​

The board of the prestigious program told the State Department it had no right to cancel scholarships for nearly 200 American professors and researchers.

www.nytimes.com

Fulbright Board Quits, Accusing Trump Administration of Political Interference

The board of the prestigious program told the State Department it had no right to cancel scholarships for nearly 200 American professors and researchers.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

“
The dozen board members of the prestigious Fulbright program that promotes international educational exchanges resigned on Wednesday because of what they said was political interference by the Trump administration in their operations, according to a draft board memoobtained by The New York Times.

The members are concerned that political appointees at the State Department, which manages the program, are acting illegally by canceling the awarding of Fulbright scholarships to almost 200 American professors and researchers who are prepared to go to universities and other research institutions overseas starting this summer, said the people, including Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire.

The board approved those scholars over the winter after a yearlong selection process, and the State Department was supposed to send acceptance letters by April, the people said. But instead, the board learned that the office of public diplomacy at the agency had begun sending rejection letters to the scholars based mainly on their research topics, they said.

In addition, the department is reviewing the applications of about 1,200 scholars from other countries who have already been approved by the board to come to the United States, the people said. Those foreign scholars were also supposed to receive acceptance letters around April.…”
 
Clearly, to me, Trump hates these institutions because, in a broad and general sense, their leaders don’t like him. But what is the motivation for other Pubs? Punish the Harvards to do what?
I get that they want to create an educational system that raises young MAGA believers, but sanctioning elite schools is part of that strategy?
 
LeoBloom said:
Clearly, to me, Trump hates these institutions because, in a broad and general sense, their leaders don’t like him. But what is the motivation for other Pubs? Punish the Harvards to do what?
I get that they want to create an educational system that raises young MAGA believers, but sanctioning elite schools is part of that strategy?
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It's populism. They are looking for any scalp they can find. That's their motivation for everything they do and that's been true for a decade.

If they weren't bashing Harvard and destroying the government, what would they be doing? Nothing, because they have no ideas, no honesty, no credibility, no respect and are a bunch of assclowns.

This is what happens when the inmates run the asylum.
 
LeoBloom said:
Clearly, to me, Trump hates these institutions because, in a broad and general sense, their leaders don’t like him. But what is the motivation for other Pubs? Punish the Harvards to do what?
I get that they want to create an educational system that raises young MAGA believers, but sanctioning elite schools is part of that strategy?
Click to expand...
It's a revenge thing - populist attacks on "elitism" and all that (even though a good number of MAGAs attended these schools, like Vance going to Yale). I also think many MAGAs believe that most universities - and especially the top ones - are the prime breeding grounds for liberals, and so if they can destroy liberalism at these schools then they can quite literally destroy liberalism in the entire country, or at least render it a permanent tiny minority. But at bottom it's just a hatred of higher education, "book learnin'", and (in their view) snooty professors who are overpaid and look down their noses at them, people with graduate degrees, and all the other accumulated class and racial resentments that Trumpism represents. In many rural areas college towns are the most prosperous towns in the area - look at how prosperous Boone looks compared to some nearby former factory towns that have fallen on hard times - and you can begin to see the resentment and yes, envy and jealousy, along with grumbling about all of those hippy liberal college kids with money.
 
Thanks for the replies. I do get the populist slant of bashing the “elites.” I guess the spectacularly cynical nature of it is, well, not shocking or surprising, so obvious. Yet, once again, as we’ve seen countless times, it works.

Trump loves to tout how he went Wharton, an elite business school. Yet, he wants to tear down elite schools. As others mentioned, Vance went to Yale. It is so obvious and blatant.
 
LeoBloom said:
Thanks for the replies. I do get the populist slant of bashing the “elites.” I guess the spectacularly cynical nature of it is, well, not shocking or surprising, so obvious. Yet, once again, as we’ve seen countless times, it works.

Trump loves to tout how he went Wharton, an elite business school. Yet, he wants to tear down elite schools. As others mentioned, Vance went to Yale. It is so obvious and blatant.
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As I've said before, I think the key to understanding MAGA is to realize that hypocrisy is not, for them, a vice. We see it as a sign of insincerity, of contradiction, of incoherent views. They don't give a shit. They see hypocrisy as a form of privilege that they want. They think it's good that Trump speaks out of both sides of his mouth.
 
superrific said:
As I've said before, I think the key to understanding MAGA is to realize that hypocrisy is not, for them, a vice. We see it as a sign of insincerity, of contradiction, of incoherent views. They don't give a shit. They see hypocrisy as a form of privilege that they want. They think it's good that Trump speaks out of both sides of his mouth.
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Excellent point.
 
LeoBloom said:
Excellent point.
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Thank you. I mean, they aren't totally wrong, are they? I think it's possible to define a theory of privilege based on hypocrisy alone -- that is, privilege is the ability to gain special treatment for yourself that others would not get in similar situations.

Think of the classic movie or film tropes about privilege. For a century, filmmakers have realized that they could paint their villains as over privileged assholes simply by showing hypocrisy (often paired with insensitivity but not always). Because that's kind of what it is. The King doesn't have to follow the law.

Of course, there's another understanding of hypocrisy -- the one that most of us apply because we think it's best for a pluralistic democracy. Hypocrisy is a sign of intellectual failure or dishonesty. As those are things to be avoided, to us "hypocrisy" is a potent accusation. We like to avoid it where possible, because we value honesty in our public discourse. We value integrity, and complete theories that promise an increase in the general welfare, not private interests only. In the 20th century, that understanding of hypocrisy became dominant, largely because of the civil rights movement, I speculate. Note: when I say we value honesty, I'm not making a claim about how much of it there actually is. It is a value for us, though. It's less of a value for fundamentalists.
 
superrific said:
As I've said before, I think the key to understanding MAGA is to realize that hypocrisy is not, for them, a vice. We see it as a sign of insincerity, of contradiction, of incoherent views. They don't give a shit. They see hypocrisy as a form of privilege that they want. They think it's good that Trump speaks out of both sides of his mouth.
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Hypocrisy, naked and blatant, is a show of power. Rules for thee but not for me, implies that me is the one making the rules.
 
ZenMode said:
I'm not saying they should stay out of politics. I'm saying that getting involved in politics doesn't always work out well for schools, businesses, corporations, etc, so it's not surprising that they are making the decision to get out.
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Another risky proposition.

A Walmart Heiress Breaks Ranks and Joins the Anti-Trump Movement​

Billionaire Christy Walton buys ad supporting this weekend’s ‘No Kings’ demonstrations—to the surprise of Walmart​


 
donbosco said:
At UNC Wilmington

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God forbid that we as a society promote and value diversity and equity. The horror! I'd love to know the demographic makeup of this awful, obviously right-wing "Accuracy in Media" group that is trying to remove pretty much every official or administrator at UNC system universities that dares to speak up about DEI. And for those who argue that it is now illegal at UNC system schools to promote DEI, how, exactly, do you propose to eliminate diversity and equity at all of these schools? Eliminate all minority students? Shut down the Sonja Haynes Center for Black Culture and History? Put the Silent Sam statue up again? I have a hunch those are exactly the kind of "solutions" that this "Accuracy in Media" group would be in favor of.

And that's without mentioning that they are getting good and decent administrators fired who were only doing their jobs before the GOP-dominated Board of Governors voted to repeal DEI. It's painfully obvious what these people really want, and it's the opposite of both diversity and equity.
 
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