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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

#271

Post by u32480932048 »

> Donovan co-wrote a widely-read study that discovered that a significant number of participants in the January 6 attack on the Capitol were driven by their support for President Trump. [1]

It's outrageous that Harvard won't fund such an insightful, groundbreaking researcher.

Hopefully, another university will step up and help us discover if there is any possible link between Zuck and Meta.

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Donovan

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#272

Post by trompetenaccoun »

forward1 wrote: post #20

500MM to avoid Harvard scrutiny - not a bad deal on 40MMM quarterly profit. It probably doubles as a tax deduction as well. Free market capitalism at its finest.

Of course this is tax exempt, corporations can deduce up to 25% of their tax bill in the US afaik. Long live charitable giving!

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#273

Post by CodeWriter23 »

legutierr wrote: post #270

Somehow the human brain by default conflates the concepts of "being prestigious" and "having integrity". It's difficult to fight this cognitive bias that, I think, we all carry—but we must.

That's nurture, not nature.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#274

Post by smolder »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #242
godelski wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a joke from a comedian I forget if it is L̶o̶u̶i̶s̶ ̶C̶K̶ George Carlin o̶r̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶. But basically is along the lines that you don't have explicitly collude when you all come from the same backgrounds. The interests are aligned already. It's pointing out that representatives need to actually be from representative populations of people. But he did it in a funny way, this comment really isn't. Edit: thanks lo…

If you want to read about how the media is also roped into these incentive structures, read Manufacturing Consent by Herman and Chomsky.

There's no P in Chomsky, FYI.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#275

Post by astrobe_ »

klyrs wrote: post #158
lainga wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wouldn't 40MMM be 40 trillion (40M-million)...?

I believe that the M stands for "mille," or thousand.

If it's thousand, it should be a K with the metric system... But I guess 40KKK would raise some eyebrows. Yet another reason to keep imperial units.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#276

Post by doublerabbit »

turminal wrote: post #237
WaffleIronMaker wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Unless Google Alert gets shut down by then.

Or bought to silence any alarms with the terms "Facebook"

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#277

Post by johnnyanmac »

godelski wrote: post #197
pastacacioepepe wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need a formal conspiracy when you have an elite with converging interests.

There's a joke from a comedian I forget if it is L̶o̶u̶i̶s̶ ̶C̶K̶ George Carlin o̶r̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶. But basically is along the lines that you don't have explicitly collude when you all come from the same backgrounds. The interests are aligned already. It's pointing out that representatives need to actually be from representative populations of people. But he did it in a funny way, this comment really isn't. Edit: thanks lo…

If only the middle and lower class could do that. But they argue amongst each other over the relative scraps. Even arguing what a "middle class" is these days.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#278

Post by say_it_as_it_is »

akaij wrote: post #227
say_it_as_it_is wrote: post #57

Why was Harvard dedicating resources to investigate Facebook in the first place? What kind of academic research was it conducting? "Our hypothesis is that Facebook censored right-wing disinformation campaigns" doesn't have academic value.

Interesting to see lines drawn around academic value.

For an academic institution?

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#279

Post by lapinot »

lovecg wrote: post #177
lapinot wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The good old "we have always been that way". If perhaps hard to imagine for you, there are tons of social structures where wealth cannot be used to purchase power (ie where currency buys you some stuff but not labor from other humans). See the recent book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_of_Everything . Very much a perspective changing book.

I’m going to guess that not many of those social structures achieved things like low infant mortality, not dying from randomly stubbing your toe, the internet, space travel, and the like. If I was presented with a choice, I’d pick a modern Western state any time, flawed as they may be.

Your argument is a straw-man. You're conflating taking inspiration from something and adopting it verbatim (your first two examples are particularly hilarious in this regard). Also i've yet to find a compelling argument defending that western capitalism is a necessity for high-tech (you second two examples). In particular schools, academia and software are fields where not commercial-centric relationships are thriving and deemed superior by a fair share of practitioners.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#280

Post by sonicanatidae »

strangattractor wrote: post #250
sonicanatidae wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner works at a major U in the US. Top 200ish. They are solely focused on revenue. Teacher pay rarely raised, but that new upgrade for the stadium at a cool $120m, seems like a great idea. FFS, her dept went past the paper budget for one semester, about 5 years ago. The resolution? Do without paper until the next semester. That's what students insane tuition prices bought them. Apathy over education.

I would occasionally visit some of my high school friends attending William and Mary in Va (in the 80s). One year the school decided the football stadium needed upgrading so the team could play football in a more competitive division. The students protested - saying they were happy going to watch their not so great team and they did not want to see the school divert interest from academics. The stadium was not built.…

That's just it. The University that my partner teaches at is already in the top of 2 fields and a major player in a 3rd.

They already had reasons for people to attend without adding another 50k seats to a stadium that already had more than that.

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