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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

#191

Post by sjsdaiuasgdia »

qcnguy wrote: post #173
austhrow743 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The administration's stated reasons are bullshit.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#192

Post by fundad »

Hilift wrote: post #34
m101 wrote: post #13

UCLA has an endowment of 3.8bn$. Whilst I'm sympathetic to their desire to be further government financed for the work they do, I feel like government financing should be made available to those that actually need the money. The attitude that you have access to government funds even if you have the ability to pay yourself needs to change.

California higher education in general does not need of federal funds. These are typically mutually beneficially projects that doesn't necessarily need to be partnered with the US government. The bigger problem is the recipients of these cuts seem to think it is about an "issue", and are incapable of accepting they are having sand kicked in their face.

There is actually a stated issue that is the reason: anti-semitism. Isn’t it reasonable to want to understand more and gain the kind of influence to affect change of this magnitude?

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#193

Post by [deleted] »

lordofgibbons wrote: post #72

It's such a tragedy that we're deliberately destroying the very engine of our global science and tech research leadership. All for the sake of making the pro-Israeli lobby happy under the guise of protecting against "antisemitism". The feds are forcing the universities to either protect the freedom of speech by banning peaceful protests against the genocide, or to have the universities research funding cut. Given tha…

[deleted]

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#194

Post by ktallett »

niemandhier wrote: post #128

Every phd student of Terence Tao is probably welcome at the Max Planck Institute For Mathematics: https://www.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/application Usually you need 2 letters of recommendation, I’d strongly assume that in the case of Tao one is enough. Generally please consider the new „ Max Planck Transatlantic Program“: https://www.mpg.de/25034916/max-planck-transatlantic-program

Whilst I would imagine that to be the case, you should at the start of a phd have more than one professor across the many you have come into contact with that is willing to vouch for both your mathematical ability and your personality and ability to fit in a team.

I don't think anyone should get in just on the relation to Tao, likewise it is also important that they move to a program that they have an interest in.

I do hope those students find an appropriate course for themselves as this must be extremely challenging for them both regarding their career and also mentally and socially.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#195

Post by margalabargala »

aborsy wrote: post #61
noelwelsh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments typically fund research because 1) it's seen as beneficial for the country, and hence falls under the remit of governments in democratic countries and 2) the uncertainty, time frame, or lack of direct commercialization of research typically means the private sector will not invest in it. Your suggestion is saying that research should be privatised, and shows very little thought about how research works an…

Research 50 years ago, sure. Research now is very different. It’s short term, chasing money, trends, citations, prestige, hierarchy, academic power, and applications. Public should fund only the useful part of it.

Nothing has changed. What you describe today existed 50 years ago, and what you describe as being research 50 years ago, exists today.

The actions of the administration serve to force all academics not behaving as you describe research to start doing so, though. The criticism you have, is manufactured.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#196

Post by wisty »

Eisenstein wrote: post #190
wisty wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They think urban intellectuals have a fair bit of power. They also think they are not always correct, not always unbiased, and possibly not always honest; and the bias tends to be towards either things that benefit the urban elite, or "luxury beliefs" that have disproportionate costs on other people.

No one is always correct or always unbiased or always honest, and everyone's bias benefits themselves, and every person in the United States lives in a way that has disproportionate costs to other people. None of those reasons explain any of the antipathy. What does?

They think urban intellectuals have a fair bit of power.

And the basis for that power is that they are supposedly right about things.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#197

Post by enaaem »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #168
enaaem wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny thing is that UCLA is getting defunded because some people there were criticising a FOREIGN government.

Go work in German academia and criticize the FOREIGN government of Israel. I'm sure the German government will react with much more leniency than the US.

Note that you are affected by OTHER people's opinion on a foreign nation.

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#198

Post by margalabargala »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #141
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to prove a negative. Can you show us an example of anything like what's happening at UCLA (collective punishment of an entire institution) or an example of an individual professor being harshly penalized or sanctioned for expressing personal political opinions?

Don't spin this around, what I asked you is not a negative. People here argued that the US is fascist because in academia you can't get away with breaking governments rules getting you defunded and pointing at Germany for being superior in this regard. So then I asked for proof that in other countries you can get away in academia with breaking the government's rules and not get defunded. It really is that simple.

> So I asked for proof that in other countries you can get away with breaking the government's rules.

Other countries like the way the US used to be 15 years ago? Is your argument really "other people don't have rights, therefore we shouldn't either"?

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#199

Post by throw0101d »

watwut wrote: post #81
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.

It is not actions of the few. This is action of many. There is whole party apparatus behind this, public support among conservative voters, support of tech leaders etc.

> It is not actions of the few. This is action of many.

The US House of Representatives has 219 GOPers that voted to pass certain legislation. The US Senate has 50 GOPers that voted to pass certain legislation and voted to confirm many appointments.

A large swath of the US public voted to put those 219+50 people into Congress and voted to put a convicted felon [1] and rapist [2] in the White House.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-te...

[2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/30/appeals-court-upho...

Re: Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

#200

Post by pbiggar »

jkhdigital wrote: post #178
wat10000 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you looked at the history before that? It seems you're missing 77 years of frequent massacres by Israel, a brutal occupation/apartheid of the West Bank, and a 17-year blockade of Gaza.
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