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Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#61

Post by KRAKRISMOTT »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #15

the age old unspoken donation "coincidence" this is how many rich people get their kids into Harvard too, the only reason parents got caught up in the varsity blues scandal was that they were too explicit... old money donates the new library and "hopes" for the best

> this is how many rich people get their kids into Harvard too

That's the entire point and feature of these elite institutions (more specifically, their undergraduate division and business schools), to connect wealth with brilliant people. They are the traditional social institutions of innovation and entrepreneurship before incubators like YC were a thing. If you remove the wealth aspects, then the Ivies are no different than any other research state school.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#62

Post by WaffleIronMaker »

intrasight wrote: post #13

I just read that this morning. I'm interested enough in the outcome that I put a calendar reminder 6 months out to check what happened. Doing so made me wonder if there's a service that would email me updates about legal cases like this that I would like to follow.

It's possible that a Google Alert[1] might be enough for your use case, depending on how well the legal cases are covered by Google.

[1] https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/4815696?hl=en

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#65

Post by prosqlinjector »

lelandfe wrote: post #25
prosqlinjector wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either make it clear you are speculating about two events being connected, or get evidence that links them.

Is a whistleblower’s report speculation?

The individual is using the same reasoning as the headline. They weren't getting the fund they wanted and noticed there was a donation recently. They are speculating that that's the cause of their lack of organization support.

"whistleblower" is a journalism word meant to imply who the good guy is and endow them with credibility. Rewriting the story with "employee files complaint" doesn't hit the same.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#66

Post by firebat45 »

Kapura wrote: post #45
seanw444 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it never will be. This is a human problem. No amount of laws and regulations will ever solve it.

what if we had laws that prevented people from obtaining disproportionate amounts of wealth? Seems like it'd be a lot harder to buy a school if being a multi-billionaire is impossible.

This is such a naive viewpoint. Let's say that people are not allowed to have more than 10 million dollars, but corporations are. Then it wouldn't be Zuckerberg's money, it would simply be Facebook's, wielded by Zuckerberg.

I hope you can see the ridiculousness is saying that corporations should be limited in wealth as well, but even if you can't, let's assume they are limited the same. Now it becomes easier to buy them off, because they are comparably smaller.

The only logical solution is to allow both corporations and individuals to accumulate as much wealth as they are able to. Rich people aren't the problem, corrupt people are. Instead of trying to make rich corrupt people less rich, why don't we try to make them less corrupt instead?

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#67

Post by happytiger »

seanw444 wrote: post #18
hliyan wrote: post #9

From regulatory capture through revolving doors and lobbying, to media capture through purchase, and now academic capture through donation, it seems no activity is safe from large concentrations of wealth.

And it never will be. This is a human problem. No amount of laws and regulations will ever solve it.

That’s not the point. Corruption (which is what this is) is NOT binary, it’s a problem that exists on spectrum.

We don’t solve spectrum problems, we reduce and minimize them. Just because they exist to a degree and never are remediated doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek to minimize them.

Corruption can lead to tax evasion, poor tax administration, and exemptions that disproportionately favor the well-connected and wealthy population groups in society and must be rallied against if we seek civil societies.

We’ll never get rid of it. As you say. But if we don’t act against it these problems will grow like cancer and become insidious, infecting every aspect of society, so it’s deeply important not to embrace an apathetic approach or present them as inevitable.

They are intrinsic, but the level we tolerate — the “degree of corruption” — which I would argue is pretty high in this case, is most certainly counterable and definitely can be reduced.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#68

Post by thomastjeffery »

prosqlinjector wrote: post #7

[flagged]

> In sending the lawful whistleblower disclosure to the President and General Counsel of Harvard University, the U.S. Department of Education, and subsequently to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, Dr. Donovan and Whistleblower Aid are calling for an urgent and impartial investigation into inappropriate influence at the Harvard Kennedy School.

That's literally the point here.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#69

Post by Tempest1981 »

Kapura wrote: post #45
seanw444 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it never will be. This is a human problem. No amount of laws and regulations will ever solve it.

what if we had laws that prevented people from obtaining disproportionate amounts of wealth? Seems like it'd be a lot harder to buy a school if being a multi-billionaire is impossible.

There are some billionaires who are literally asking to be taxed more. Not much success convincing US govt.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#70

Post by jasonlotito »

prosqlinjector wrote: post #7

[flagged]

> "Following" is a... word

Yes, you are correct, it's a word.

> journalism... is meant to imply causality without demonstration

That's not true at all.

It's easy to make claims when you are selective about what you read, ignore context, and make up lies.

> Either make it clear you are speculating about two events being connected, or get evidence that links them.

Says the person speculating about the definition of following used in this context.

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