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Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

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Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#171

Post by Terr_ »

plemer wrote: post #50
raincole wrote: post #35

I have all my respect to Tao. But I think it's very justified for the federal to do something (not necessarily this thing) against institutions that show racist behaviors. e.g. Little Rock Nine.

Where do you see anything remotely comparable to the Little Rock 9 at UCLA? Edit: Incidentally, Trump absolutely gutted the Department of Education, including the Office of Civil Rights, appointing loyalists who explicitly don’t believe it should exist. Are these the actions of a president concerned with civil rights? Also, indulge us in a wild guess as to what Trump would’ve done to the Little Rock 9. Consider that…

Also, Republicans just torched the DOJ's division for for prosecuting Civil Rights violations, staffing down by 70%.

Their goal isn't to build legal cases against actual offenses, their goal is extortion.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#172

Post by coderatlarge »

spencerflem wrote: post #87
raincole wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-29/ucla-set... > The lawsuit, filed more than a year ago, alleged that by not immediately ordering the encampment to be taken down, UCLA provided support to pro-Palestinian activists who “enforced” what it termed a “Jew Exclusion Zone,” prohibiting Jewish students and staff from passing through the camp’s makeshift barricades. Personally I think this is a textbook raci…

The term was invented by the suers, not the protestors. It’s possible to criticize Israel’s actions without being antisemitic, holocaust scholars call what’s happening there a genocide

it is extremely hard to form a reasonable opinion of what is happening in gaza with the current level of vitriol online. i feel i’d have to do a substantial personal research project to see if i can believe the cumulative casualty numbers that are being bandied about. not to mention the numbers about deaths from starvation.

i wish institutions would do the work to publish their sources in a way that is clear complete and verifiable.

i would love to understand what others on hn do day-to-day other than takes cues from media they “trust”.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#173

Post by qcnguy »

austhrow743 wrote: post #98
mehulashah wrote: post #46

This is a tragedy. Our pre-eminence as a scientific and industrial powerhouse that really began post WWII is now disintegrating because of the actions of a few. The funding being pulled from Terence Tao and his institute without due process is not the start, it's merely one casualty among many that began at the start of this administration. This is like cutting one's nose to spite one's face.

Punishing urban intellectuals for being urban intellectuals appears to be a common theme in a lot of right wing American messaging and the Republican Party won the popular vote. You can’t put this on a few. It’s the genuine desire of the American voter.

The administration's stated reason is bias and anti-semitism, are you claiming that this is the definition of urban intellectual? If so how do you defend it? If not, how do you define it?

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#174

Post by qcnguy »

sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #166
ghosty141 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

49,8% popular vote, 50,2 is a majority but at that point I would say it’s clearly half the American population that wanted him in power.

They're technically correct (the best kind etc) because they said "voted for people other than Trump" not "voted for Harris". Voted for Trump: 77.3M Voted for Harris: 75M Voted for other candidates: 2.6M Harris + others = 77.6M, which is greater than Trump's 77.3M

That's not even technically correct unless you assume every non Trump candidate was left wing.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#175

Post by [deleted] »

delusional wrote: post #64
numbers_guy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nowhere to run and hide. Europe is worse than the US on this front. China also demands party loyalty. In a sense this is just the human condition. The ruling faction demands loyalty. Only a very advanced human civilization could move past that and allow criticism of the ruling class. Maybe the US had achieved that for a brief movement in the past or maybe it was just an illusion. EDIT: For people wondering w…

What are you on about? I live in Europe. We don't terminate all contact to random universities because they said something the führer didn't like. If you truly believe that the whole world is "just as bad" as this, then you are unimaginably far to the right.

[deleted]

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#176

Post by kzrdude »

eterm wrote: post #62
exe34 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just fired the commissioner of Labour Statistics. The great thing about autocrats is that they neuter their own country pretty quickly. When you make it risky for people to give you bad news, you end up with missiles that don't work and capital ships that sink.

That may be a comforting thought, but the reality is that it takes decades for these things to have an effect, and there's no guarantee that transitioning to a low trust and high corruption society will result in the removal of the autocrat. See North Korea or Russia. People have been claiming they're on the verge of collapse for decades but the reality is that they just keep going.

There's already been a decade of trumpism (Trump in the republican party, and in american politics). In that time, people (politicians) who are not interested in trumpism have by and large adapted (pretend that they do) or left. This partly explains why this presidency is different from his last one.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#177

Post by qcnguy »

oulipo wrote: post #159
bboygravity wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scientists please come to the EU, we can't pay you much, you won't be able to find a place to live and we don't do air conditioning, but plz come. /s

This easily beats being persecuted because of your research. Humanity and researchers use to live on more modest means, and you don't need 100k's to do math research. So sure, come to France we would love to welcome all of you!

The government not funding something isn't persecution. If it were the vast majority of people on this forum would be persecuted, which clearly wouldn't be a right use of the term.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#178

Post by jkhdigital »

wat10000 wrote: post #85
pbiggar wrote: post #26

Remember that these claims of antisemitism are all false. What they actually mean is "they had a student encampment calling out Israel's genocide in Gaza and occupation of Palestine, that the US supports with weapons, troops, UN vetos, and bad faith negotiation"

And remember that this actually stokes antisemitism. Israel is demonstrably out there committing atrocities. If officials are conflating anti-Israel with anti-Jew then it prompts people opposed to those atrocities to oppose Jews.

The current war was initiated via a sneak attack by Hamas militants from Gaza who committed rather unspeakable atrocities against Israeli civilians. Not justifying their actions but as an uninvolved third party I’m going to at least acknowledge the history of the situation before judging their actions.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#179

Post by qcnguy »

Havoc wrote: post #75

>on the grounds that UCLA was “failing to promote a research environment free of antisemitism and bias” This really has very Germany 1930s vibes even if the direction of the anti is flipped.

Flipping the direction isn't some minor detail. That "flip" was the reason for the Allies to fight the second world war! The universities implement Nazi-like policies in which they try to keep Jews out illegally, others fought against them. If you aren't sure which side are in the wrong here, you need to ask yourself if it's yours.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#180

Post by derbOac »

mikevm wrote: post #39

The only people to blame for this are the Universities who are blatantly violating civil rights law -- even after a Supreme Court ruling! Terence and other academics who have had nothing to do with promotion of this blatant discrimination should be angry at their University leadership and administrators for this outcome, not the Trump administration who is doing THE RIGHT THING. The faculty should take this opportuni…

UCLA recently reached a settlement, which among other things included “opposing calls to boycott Israel". I'm not sure how boycotting a government engaged in what many legal organizations have identified as genocide counts as civil rights discrimination. If anything it seems to violate civil rights of Palestinian Americans and citizens in general.

Also, Tao points out maybe the most important criticism of the Trump administration, which is how is cutting off all federal research funding improving the ability of faculty to do their work, given that the reason for an antidiscrimination claim in that setting is that discrimination prevents faculty from doing their work?

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