What a absolutely terrible article. There is little information and less cogent argument. This is "Community Shopper" level journalism (except for the opening line, "When I was at Harvard...")
[deleted]
Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
31–40 of 40 posts
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#32Who is voting this up?
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#33Tech entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox objected to the Oxford gift on Twitter this week, saying that the money should be used for climate crisis work. “Something is broken with these models of philanthropy,” she told me. “The greatest challenge of our time is whether we will have a planet in a decade. That’s where we have got to be focusing our attention.” First of all, does anyone actually believe that we won't have a pl…
This gift is earmarked for the humanities, so it certainly won't train scientists. And quite a chunk of it is going on a new building, which will pay off in decades to come, if at all.
I work at Oxford, but I'm really quite unsure that this is the most effective use of £150m. Suffice to day that my own charitable contributions aren't to my employer...
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Explain?
The plutocrats I have met tend to be alarmed about the decline of classical liberalism in universities; they don't sound like they think they could easily purchase agenda-setting power through simple donations.
Crocodile tears and false modesty? You don't keep your plutocratic station long if you run around telling everyone you hate cheap education because it gives the proles dreadful ideas like "fair wages" and "rights". Nor that you plan to spend a bunch of money to fix the problem of these educated uppity proles.
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
The plutocrats I have met tend to be alarmed about the decline of classical liberalism in universities; they don't sound like they think they could easily purchase agenda-setting power through simple donations.
Crocodile tears and false modesty? You don't keep your plutocratic station long if you run around telling everyone you hate cheap education because it gives the proles dreadful ideas like "fair wages" and "rights". Nor that you plan to spend a bunch of money to fix the problem of these educated uppity proles.
This is mostly as a reply to Eliezer Yudkowsky-
I've been in the rationalist community for quite a while, this is the first time I've noticed you here on HN. It is really funny to observe how much people want to argue against you when you condense your point down into a terse statement. Looking through your past comments, it is a very common pattern of behavior.
syn0byte- the man you are replying to is fairly well-connected. I would take the words he said as a credible anecdote- he hangs out with plutocrats enough to know what he said.
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Explain?
The plutocrats I have met tend to be alarmed about the decline of classical liberalism in universities; they don't sound like they think they could easily purchase agenda-setting power through simple donations.
Yeah, for some reason I feel like you're not a credible source on the opinions of plutocrats: https://amormundi.blogspot.com/2016/01/robot-cultist-eliezer...
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Explain?
The plutocrats I have met tend to be alarmed about the decline of classical liberalism in universities; they don't sound like they think they could easily purchase agenda-setting power through simple donations.
Most of these universities have a public and a private agenda. Publicly, they are very left leaning, privately, they are hard-core pro-capitalism.
Wall Street is full of these people.
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
The plutocrats I have met tend to be alarmed about the decline of classical liberalism in universities; they don't sound like they think they could easily purchase agenda-setting power through simple donations.
Most of these universities have a public and a private agenda. Publicly, they are very left leaning, privately, they are hard-core pro-capitalism. Wall Street is full of these people.
Often the academics and students themselves are quite left but the administrators are pro-capitalist. See for example the University of Chicago’s union-busting of the grad student union (which is widely supported by faculty and students).
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
The plutocrats I have met tend to be alarmed about the decline of classical liberalism in universities; they don't sound like they think they could easily purchase agenda-setting power through simple donations.
Yeah, for some reason I feel like you're not a credible source on the opinions of plutocrats: https://amormundi.blogspot.com/2016/01/robot-cultist-eliezer...
Is there a human-legible version of this post?
Re: Plutocrat donors are shaping the agenda at elite universities
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crocodile tears and false modesty? You don't keep your plutocratic station long if you run around telling everyone you hate cheap education because it gives the proles dreadful ideas like "fair wages" and "rights". Nor that you plan to spend a bunch of money to fix the problem of these educated uppity proles.
This is mostly as a reply to Eliezer Yudkowsky- I've been in the rationalist community for quite a while, this is the first time I've noticed you here on HN. It is really funny to observe how much people want to argue against you when you condense your point down into a terse statement. Looking through your past comments, it is a very common pattern of behavior. syn0byte- the man you are replying to is fairly well-co…
Very, very particular plutocrats. I'm reasonably sure they're not representative... but still, they have money, and didn't seem to think it could be used to purchase university-agenda.