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Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

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531–540 of 551 posts

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regicide, and even just murder in general, is highly frowned upon these days. Back then it was de rigueur when the concept of fealty required reciprocity in the keeping of one's word.

I don't see the connection between your comment and mine?

As other people in his court, with whom reciprocal vows of fealty have been made, heard his promise, he now has to keep his promise our of fear of them proactively removing him (or otherwise punishing him, such as by breaking their own vows of fealty) for breaking his promise.

Today one can lie with much more impunity, at best tying things up in court for years until the person you lied to gives up, at worst being ordered by the court to make good on the promise and pay some legal costs (maybe).

As your synopsis shows, it's not prestige that forced integrity, it's the fact that others heard, and presumably would enforce such vows, even against a king, that forced integrity, even from a king.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#532
post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, but it raises the question of the motives behind it. It would seem they didn't necessarily have a problem with the research, but rather with the lead researcher. There's complicated issues of academic freedom to parse here, but in principle, if you aren't happy with the work someone is doing, it's not entirely unreasonable that you'd let them go and have someone else pick up the work.

Universities don't work that way. There's generally very little oversight over the PI of projects. The university generally wants more projects leading to more publications and grants, not less. Administrators understand that removing a PI generally means abandoning their lab's projects, so it usually doesn't happen.

Usually being the operative word.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people you personally know have died of hunger? Have been killed in a robbery? How many of your brothers and sisters died before reaching the age of 10? How many of your own teeth did you have (or expect to have) at the age of 30? Have you been able to afford sugar more than 10 times in your life? How many times per year do you afford to wash yourself in hot water? How many people sleep in the same room in y…

I agree, but that's in no way, shape or form, an utopia. It's better than before, sure. But an utopia? Not even close.

>a utopia by any reasonable historical standard

So... right, exactly what he said.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the connection between your comment and mine?

As other people in his court, with whom reciprocal vows of fealty have been made, heard his promise, he now has to keep his promise our of fear of them proactively removing him (or otherwise punishing him, such as by breaking their own vows of fealty) for breaking his promise. Today one can lie with much more impunity, at best tying things up in court for years until the person you lied to gives up, at worst being or…

I don't think a direct threat of enforcement is the problem. A king who was known to have gone back on his word would be an illegitimate ruler and he would be unable to function as king within his court and his kingdom. He would end up getting deposed, but that wouldn't be part of an effort to enforce the king's promise, it would just be what happens to kings who aren't fit to rule.

The direct consequence of the king breaking his vow is "only" that the king loses his prestige. But the indirect consequences are severe; "king" is a position from which it is not safe to be removed.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#535
post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private foundation is the default status for a 501(c)(3), you have to do extra work to qualify as a public non-profit. > https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/eo-operational-req... The rules are different, so which you view as more restrictive dependa on your perspective. In this case, the context is discussion of this claim: > I thought the tax-benefits of a non-profit were supposed to be tied to some governance…

thanks. What are these "greater tax benefits of public charities"? They both qualify for deduction of contributions.

I could look this up if I were inclined. I imagine, though, that a public charity is eligible to receive government grants or contracts.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#536
post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Bribery exists in every economic system" is not an argument for being okay with bribery in this system.

Good thing I didn't make that argument anywhere. My point with that statement is that bribery is in no way connected to capitalism or free markets because it exists independent of the market type. When bribery happens in a country with a command economy, do you still say "there's that invisible hand of capitalism again"?

? Of course not that question doesn't even parse. Your strategy of acting like your conversational partners are idiots doesn't win you any points; it just makes you sound difficult and wrong.

Bribery is not connected to a free market per se, but bribery in a free market is still a problem to be solved in the context of that free market.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#537
post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well if you need it spelled out: the "invisible hand" refers to indirect social impacts of free markets which are typically meant to be good things. So any example of market-ish behavior causing things that seem incontrovertibly bad, like buying a department chair under the guise of targeted donations to influence policy to (presumably) protect a certain class of actors, is an example of the "invisible hand" doing a…

Bribery is not "market-ish" behavior in the sense that it is connected to capitalism and free markets. But you also mention bitterness, which explains the reactions to my question. I think that means people want to be bitter at the idea of capitalism and free markets, whether or not it actually makes sense in this instance of bribery.

They are naturally and righteously bitter about the annoying status of secretive manipulations in our version of free-market capitalism. Their reaction to you, however, is simply because you are being an obstreperous asshole.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#538

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.

Who would pay for this? Random people like you and me wouldn't pay for something they're gonna use twice in their lifetime, and lawyers surely have something like this, possibly integrate with all the other tools they use.

How silly of me to not consider that lawyers might have something - considering that my GF is an attorney.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#539
post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who would pay for this? Random people like you and me wouldn't pay for something they're gonna use twice in their lifetime, and lawyers surely have something like this, possibly integrate with all the other tools they use.

I would pay for a comprehensive AI-driven service that delivers alerting on any topic. Google alerts SUCKS for so many reasons. I might not be aware of other services though so if anyone is – please enlighten me!

Hadn't considered the role that AI could play in such a service. But now think that it could be a great application.

Speaking to my AI: "computer, please create me a Google Doc that gets updated with new results related to the legal case of Joan Donovan vs Harvard, and notify me via email with updates."

I'd probably do something like that a few times a week. It's really a missing link to my news experience.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#540

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.

"Follow up on stories we reported six months ago" Sounds like something that anyone claiming to practice Journalism should be doing already.

They are and they do. But with the firehose of news, it's not likely that I'd catch every relevant update.
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