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Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

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Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#281

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.

On the other hand, I have a Grimm's Fairy Tales including a story that tells how the hero visits a petty king's court and receives a promise conditional on accomplishing something impossible. Off he goes and does the thing, and the narrator makes an aside saying "Now the king would gladly have blown off the promise, but he was trapped because other people in the court had heard him make it."

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#282

"prestigious team of online disinformation experts" Not being the devil's advocate here, but "online disinformation" is not a credentialed field. That's like calling yourself a "truth expert". Also the prestigious part is bogus at best. If they are then they sure don't make the headlines often.

She discovered the link between support for Trump and attendance at the J6 riots.

She's basically the Francis Crick of declaring Facebook memes not entirely true.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#283
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were the disastrous consequences of the 91% income tax rate on the top bracket in the 1950's?

[flagged]

It is very good and useful to actually ignore a reasonable question and engage in any discussion they might contradict your way of thinking and instead point and yell at things that literally aren’t representative of what was posed.

What a joke. It didn’t used to be this way in the US and we weren’t North Korea then, but okay. Point at a bogeyman and accept the status quo (to the benefit of those with unimaginable wealth by the way, of which they aren’t going to give you any for defending them.) instead of I considering how to make a world where things are better for everyone.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#284

Harvard's top management seems to be caving in to donors a lot lately.[1][2] Those were over the Israel/Palestine war. Now it's over Facebook. [1] https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/business/harvard-antisemitism... [2] https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/business/law-firms-antisemiti...

You know, donating money to Harvard is weird. They've got a $50 billion endowment. They have enough money to do anything they want. What good would donations do in the first place? And yet, Harvard receives something like $500 million per year in donations. Why?

Maybe rich people want to feel good that they've donated to a prestigious university.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#285
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairly obvious, right?

No, which is why I'm asking.

The current economic system where (in the US) bribes are “speech” and corporations are people unavoidably leads to things like this project getting neutered.

“The invisible hand” Adam Smith refers to are the unintended consequences from merchants’ want to keep their capital: increasing the domestic capital stock and enhancing military power for the state, i.e. protectionism etc.

More broadly and lately it refers to any unintended societal consequences from the free market.

Consequently it never means “finding a good price” which 99% of everyone using the term seems to believe.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Teacher pay rarely raised There's an oversupply of most PhDs, so there's no need to raise their pay. And that's for professors. Grad students that teach are practically free.

Ironically, she stopped at a Masters, after this same university forced her to restart her phd thesis 3 TIMES, due to changing staff. She worked on it one semester, then they changed her major professor. Worked on the 2nd one another semester, and they again changed her major professor. Considered a 3rd time and she just threw her hands up and said, fuck it, which I don't blame, at all. She's still a full-time facult…

3 times is crazy. 3 times in one year is absolute insanity. I'd simply apply to a new university if I had a shred of interest left after that.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#287
These elite institutions have shown themselves to have absolutely no credibility on independence, freedom of expression or any of the other virtues they continaully extol after their actions of the last 2 months [1][2].

Take a look over the law faculty and you'll find famed Jeffrey Epstein defender and hospitality enjoyer Alan Dershowtiz [3] but it's OK, he kept his underwear on while getting a massage [4].

Epstein himself bought influence at Harvard and even had his own office there [5].

As for the whistleblower claims, they might be true. I wouldn't be surprised. Never forget though that you're only hearing one side. Would Mark Zuckerberg really spend $500 million to silence a study where the researcher could no doubt walk out and find someone to fund it without too much trouble?

[1]: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/09/harvard-president-c...

[2]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/11/09/harvar...

[3]: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/7/30/20746983/alan-dersh...

[4]: https://www.theroot.com/alan-dershowitz-sure-i-got-a-massage...

[5]: https://apnews.com/article/39cfba1a1ed7304d8aab32d63553eebd

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#288

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.

The fact is that the opposite is usually true

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#289

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.

im not sure completely. There is probably inherent traits related to leadership/followership , and a cognitive bias to assume integrity of leaders seems plausible. Before society, might literally meant right.

Re: Ousted propaganda scholar accuses Harvard of bowing to Meta

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are looking for an all controlling force in the country or world instead, I see a lot of demigods that rule their domain, curating complete autonomy as long as they stay within the confines they finessed

You mean to say that no one is running the world, not even behind the scenes, or even behind behind the scenes? You are leaving us without anyone to blame! Daring I must say.

Certainly not a way to get clicks. People are eager to see patterns—it’s in our wetware. For example: two podcasts about JFK: one is about a lone gunman, the other a secret conspiracy and coverup. Which will be more interesting? Get more of an audience?
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