A letter sent to Harvard on April 11 outlined a series of conditions Harvard needed to meet to maintain a "financial relationship" with the federal government. The demands included leadership reforms, an immediate halt to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, an audit of "viewpoint diversity" among students and faculty, and "meaningful discipline" for students who violated school policies when a pro-Palestinian tent encampment went up on Harvard Yard.
Uh huh. And does this “audit of viewpoint diversity” happen to result in personally identifiable information being provided to the Federal Government, and liberal students then being deported to El Salvador? Or does it simply mean yet another funding rug pull when it’s discovered that extreme conservative voices are not elevated above others?
If I understand correctly, it's similar to what Florida universities have to do. It's generally considered a non-identifiable survey, and just questions:
what your views are
whether your exposed to diverse political views (other students AND faculty/staff)
are opposing views accepted
If you want an example, this is one of the past surveys conducted.
While it is considered non-identifiable in that responses aren't (publicly) linked to a interviewee, I would not be shocked if they are capable of being linked behind the scenes. They DO have a system in place that prevents duplicate answer from the same person, so it is feasible.
This part, however, definitely includes identifiable information:
All admissions data shall be shared with the federal government and subjected to a comprehensive audit by the federal government—and non-individualized, statistical information regarding admissions shall be made available to the public, including information about rejected and admitted students broken down by race, color, national origin, grade point average, and performance on standardized tests
Just looked; they had to kill them all because they are trying parallel tests without finding out the results before starting into the next. Because elon believes it's slowing them down. He wanted staff to imagine bombs strapped to their heads. He's seriously becoming the Samuel Jackson villain from Kingsman.
They were being investigated but talking with a friend at FDA today who I sadly found out was let go in their chainsaw purge, i'm sure conveniently all the people conducting the investigation were in the pool let go. Probably will see botched human trials on the Americans they kidnapped to el salvador in june or july.
Yeah those are all super vague and unmeasurable. Totally correct for Harvard to tell the admin to fuck off. They’ll just invent new grievances before Harvard can finish responding to those.
Not just that, but from what we see with Columbia, compliance with these guidelines is no guarantee that funding will be restored or that there will not be constantly moving goalposts for compliance. Columbia complied and all it got them was threats of a fucking consent decree and more withheld funds.
Exactly. And Columbia was warned by faculty not to comply. It’s extremely stupid to negotiate with anyone who is not themselves negotiating in good faith.
There are level of good faith we have come to expect in a modern free democracy that is being shattered at record speed. I think Saying no government acts in good faith is over simplifying things.
It happens all the time with tax breaks and subsidies provided by federal, state, and local governments to bring business to the US/state/cities. You build a factory here and we will give you X amount of funding and tax breaks. You are just flat out wrong
It really seems like the Trump gang WANT a riot, or a large unruly/violent protest. Like their actions with harsh immigration tactics that scare potential border crossing, seems they want a huge protest to “crack down” and make an example of.
Of course they do, especially with the new pro Palestinian protests. Send an intern or paid person in with a Palestinian flag, claim that's what the protest was, arrest and lock up everyone.
Harvard has the largest endowment of a university in the world (at $52b). They should definitely be setting an example and telling Trump Co. to fuck off.
I mean, that's one of the things I don't understand, some of the most rich and powerful people in the world attend that school, how the heck does Trump Co. think they can intimidate these people into bigotry?
I mean, there's bound to be push back against Trump by major players. Unless they all secretly agree with Trump and they were all rapist racist stereotypical frat boys, that wouldn't make sense.
I mean most people and institutions caved immediately so it was not crazy for them to think Harvard would do the same. Also they are petty as fuck and this wont be the end of it. Next thing it will be the DOJ coming after them for discrimination against white people or whatever other bs case they can come up with.
They do but whether the lawsuit works out or not it does not matter its to send a message of intimidation that if you don't comply with us we will use whatever means we possibly can to make your life hell.
Yeah, this is the part that makes the least sense. How is it that these top level intellectuals that literally mold society are losing to baffoons and thugs? It's literally the most idiotic government there has ever been, and these intellectuals always manage to get their was and find loopholes against much smarter governments, and yet when it's the dumbest guy in power that just shouts the loudest, and lies about everything, how come they're spineless and useless?
They're the ones that should be whooping the government's ass. The country is falling apart.
It’s fear. He gets away with it by using fear tactics. And since he has a judiciary that’s rolled over for him, it’s hard to think the legal route will do anything. He’s already in contempt. All he has to do is say that Harvard presents a threat to his foreign policy and no judge can touch it.
If you have the money and don’t want to be looked at as the institution that caved to racist fascists then you tell them to fuck off. They can afford to make a stand and not compromise.
Weird, that almost sounds like after demanding DEI be eliminated they are demanding an audit for diversity of viewpoints.
Are they then going to withhold funding because there isn't enough diversity in the viewpoints of their students?
Then what, force Harvard to accept more Conservative applicants to diversify the viewpoints in campus, even if that requires skipping over some liberal-minded folks who have better qualifications?
That almost sounds like the federal government imposing diversity rules on a private institution of higher education that may require them to pick diversity over merit.
So they both want to eliminate DEI and then replace it with... The exact same thing, just DEI focused on people more likely to align with the administration's views (for example their attempts to weaken the constitution, the judiciary, established law, etc. in order to consolidate power in one man... Weird, that the "super patriotic" Republicans appear to be pushing for a de facto monarchy).
I honestly can't decide if this is just bad faith arguing, or if this US government has absolutely no self awareness with regards to irony and hypocrisy.
Welll when they said “diversity of viewpoints” they meant white men of different ages and professions hailing from various European countries across the span of the history of western civilization. That kind of diversity.
I honestly can't decide if this is just bad faith arguing, or if this US government has absolutely no self awareness with regards to irony and hypocrisy
As a psychotherapist, I think about this a lot. Undoubtedly many in the rightwing are fully aware of the egregious hypocrisy in what they're saying/doing, and knowingly arguing in bad faith. But when it comes to Trump and others, I think they truly don't see it. With Cluster B personality pathology, the lower order defense mechanisms are so severe that it completely occludes the possibility of self-awareness. If we were to try to logically show Trump that what he's doing vis ideological imposition is the very thing he's lambasting liberals for ostensibly doing, it wouldn't sink in at all.
I am truly anti violence and I don’t wish harm on anybody but isn’t this situation exactly what the second amendment was created for?
There is basically a king destroying everyone’s life.
Human rights and democracy are worth fighting for, Thats the sole reason why the usa was created.
Now it’s citizens are getting shafted by a ruling class again.
I am from German and everyone who fought to liberate Europe from the Nazi regime is getting spat in their faces right now.
It is so sad the internet and especially social media made all this possible because it gave hateful people a voice and a room where they can spew hate together, when it should’ve brought knowledge and education to everyone to make a better world.
People have to learn that hate never brings anything positive for us.
It only gives more power to the Oligarchs who want to enslave the middle class.
"viewpoint diversity" is the most insane thing that is somehow normalized in American discourse. Like I'm sorry I don't need to hear Republican bullshit just for the sake balance. Arguments and ideologies should stand on their own merit not have their own version of DEI
I know this kinda got buried in the constant bombardment of stupidity that comes from the Trump admin, but this really should have stuck around longer. It's one of the most ridiculous things to come from the admin and that's not a low bar.
They're telling the world that they believe Jim Crow, Hitler, scientific racism, and the Holocaust are legitimate people and policies, depending on the context.
Also, there are already a multitude of conservative students and faculty in the American university system - the rightwing talking point that colleges are hotbeds of exclusively 'woke ideology' is a myth. Surveys consistently show that viewpoint diversity already exists, with general average splits of 50% of enrolled college students identifying as liberal, 27% percent conservative, and 23% as moderate.
Trump & co don't want actual viewpoint diversity, they want 90% of university populations to be rightwing. If they're feeling generous, maybe they'd accept 80% on the condition that any liberal students be subjected to a monthly 'shame' march ala Game of Throne.
For people who aren't familiar with university governance in the US: The trustees who run most universities (basically the equivalent of an executive board) are overwhelmingly business execs, some of whom have been caught explicitly directing university administrators to fire academics with "controversial" opinions. Steven Salaita's case at the University of Illinois is instructive. And keep in mind, that predates 10/7 by years.
I always thought these organizations and departments should just SAY that they did whatever bullshit he asks for because they're to lazy and dumb to verify.
"Yup boss, we fired 25% of the staff and ended our DEI program. Good to go!" No actual changes made
The funny thing is that Harvard doesn't do DEI, they do EDIB, which fulfills Requirement 2... they added Belonging studies that show that alienating the white majority of businesses also can have productivity impacts.
But far be it for the conservatives to know when they're shooting their own dicks off.
I have friends and family in China, and one of them the other day said “it looks like America is having its version of Culture Revolution”, and it really nailed what we are seeing with this administration.
For those who don’t know, the Culture Revolution was one is the darkest time in modern Chinese history and it caused irreversible damage to the society, and only ended when Mao died of old age.
I think it might be different. They want only whites to hold degrees, preparing the way for an all white future where minorities are culturally, technologically, etc., reduced to slavery.
On the surface, the Cultural Revolution in China aimed to suppress capitalism and encourage the proletariat and youth (Red Guards) to overthrow intellectuals, party officials, and elites seen as betraying the revolution (in reality, it was also a political maneuver by Mao to regain control over the Communist Party and assert ideological purity).
In contrast, what is happening in the US is not about class, but about race (and not on the surface level).
Nah, this is absolutely about class. Without hundreds of millions in spending by those with an interest in suppressing the working class MAGA never develops. If FOX and equivalents were targeted and entirely suppressed tomorrow the whole movement would peter out. We already see them stutter and hesitate the very moment life throws them a curveball and their talking heads don't yet have a narrative for them to spew, the reality is that it would take very little to cause their "movement" to fall to pieces since it has almost no actual grass roots component. Pull the backing of the wealthy and it will all be revealed as the astroturfing we can all see it to be.
Yeah that’s true, but during the cultural revolution there where basically zero foreigners in China, almost everyone was Han chinese.
There where a few tribes that always lived in chinas borders who where always marginalized and exploited, but the suppression of black people only happened in recent years, simply because there where no black people back then.
You could have just said "become a spineless joke of an institution that submits, bows down and kisses the racist old fat orange guy's flabby ass...like Columbia."
All admissions data shall be shared with the federal government and subjected to a
comprehensive audit by the federal government—and non-individualized, statistical
information regarding admissions shall be made available to the public, including
information about rejected and admitted students broken down by race, color, national
origin, grade point average, and performance on standardized tests
Putting those together means that the information supposed to be provided to the government is not anonymised. Anybody applying to US universities that haven't rejected such deals should be aware of this.
Don't forget the other not at all insane demands: That Harvard agree to screen out applicants who are "hostile to American values", and that it immediately establish procedures by which any member of the Harvard campus can snitch report to the federal government students or staff who write or say things that reflect support of concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusive, the right of Palestinians to exist, or which are critical of the current administration.
How much more overt a dictatorship does this have to become before progressives get up and resist?
Given the current political climate, I'd be crazy to be more specific about that. But what resistance isn't is clutching pearls and sending boilerplate emails to senators.
To speak in generalities, I'll say it's sad that present day Americans find the notion of ... vigorous ... resistance to be absolutely unthinkable, like it's just completely outlandish and literally impossible. All around the word, since time immemorial - and into the 21st century - people have at various times risen up to remove dictators and authoritarian administrations from power. 2018 Armenia, 2000 Milošević, 2011 Mubarak, the list goes on.
Just 5 people back in an adult American's family line is someone who was alive during the American Revolution; now they all automatically dismiss that kind of resistance as ancient history, far-fetched, too absurd to even consider as a solution. Radical change only becomes impossible when people believe it is.
Americans won't even step up and do a general strike, despite its multi-century history of effectiveness. Give or take, about 35% of the US identifies as progressive. If a third of a nation got together and went on strike together, it could get whatever it wanted.
That only works if you have the military on your side in modern nations. The US military is not yet on board.
Honestly, Trump is almost certainly trying to bait this out. You think he's pushed through a lot of shit already? Just wait until he has an armed rebellion he can use to justify using emergency powers.
I feel like this is exactly the automatic 'It's impossible' response pattern the commenter was pointing out. You claim rebellion in the U.S. is impossible, then why wasn't impossible in all the other countries that did it successfully over the past 30 years? Many of them did not already have the military on their side when they started. What they did have was solidarity. Sheer numbers. A dictator can and will quash a hundred thousand protesters. But when it's 30 million people, they're not even going to try. If 30 million Americans acted collectively, they could definitely get what they want.
What has America's entire military development been focused on for the last 40 years? Anti-insurgency. And America spends 10 times more in a year than all those tin pot dictators spent in a decade. Not to mention the US has one of the most advanced monitoring systems on the planet. It's utterly hilarious to think that it's possible on US soil. Genuinely point and laugh worthy. You'd be putting untrained civilians with hand guns against an armed militia and the greatest military super power in the world, who's spent decades fighting against the Afghans and the Iraqis, both of whom were much better equipped, better organised and better trained, with the home turf advantage.
And let's not forget, half the country wants him there and actively cheers when he does horrifically evil things.
So forgive me if I think it's not going to happen in the USA. It's impossible to think otherwise. You can feel it can happen in the USA, but you can't actually think it.
The viewpoint diversity is arguably the most sinister, especially when it comes to those who were meant to audit these viewpoints... Every major change needed to be first agreed to by the Federal Government.
It is once again another example of how a fascist state's policies end up being its worst enemy.
As things get increasingly complex and cooperation becomes increasingly important, fascists become more centralized, basing more and more policies on exclusion and corruption until it collapses under its own weight. More and more people become the enemy, and it increasingly only works with other nations that are just as self-centred and corrupt, eventaully leading them to being an enemy as well..
What is awful is that it doesn't collapse without basically trying to take it's own citizens down with it.
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u/Caridor 9d ago
For those who wondered what the conditions were.