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University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

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Re: University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

#31

Post by dragonwriter »

spoonjim wrote: post #7

I don’t think these guys have enough money to make it as a university. Where’s their anchor billionaire? Are they doing this Lean Startup style?

Its not a for-profit business, its a donation driven — funded by a 501c3 and seeking its own 501c3 status — entity leveraging political tribal identity to target small donors and with large donors motivated by its political propaganda aims.

The main risk it faces is that entities with similar propaganda mission and appealing to similar tribal identity are already thick on the ground, but that hasn't seemed to be a major problem for new entities in the space recently, so I wouldn't bet against them succeeding to the extent of creating an durable operation, even if its never anything credible as a university.

Re: University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

#32

Post by seoaeu »

mattkrause wrote: post #30
chmod600 wrote: post #10

At universities, ideas which were once countercultural and revolutionary have become the mainstream orthodoxy. I'm not sure anyone has quite confronted that reality yet. It seems almost like an army that won much more easily than they expected, and now doesn't quite know what to do off the battlefield. I hope this university is able to balance these ideas into more of a discussion and less of a battle.

Has this actually happened? My experience has been that if you walk around a campus, you can find people studying all sorts of ideas. Some of that might even involve intellectual exercises where one tries to make a strong case for a “revolutionary” idea. However, at their core, universities are fundamentally conservative big businesses: they want more money and less controversy. There aren’t any actual Marxists in th…

> There aren’t any actual Marxists in the Dean’s Office.

Certainly not in the Bursar's Office!

Re: University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

#36

Post by seoaeu »

seneca wrote: post #28
seoaeu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ideas which were once countercultural and revolutionary have become the mainstream orthodoxy In the abstract, isn't this a good thing? Like this true of lots of scientific advances. Germ theory or whatever initially being seen as a fringe idea, eventually being adopted as the leading explanation

> In the abstract, isn't this a good thing? Like this true of lots of scientific advances. Germ theory or whatever initially being seen as a fringe idea, eventually being adopted as the leading explanation This is a cultural revolution, not a scientific one. Scientific ideas replacing proven-false ones is a good thing. Cultural crusades, especially those spread through intimidation and bullying, have next to nothing…

It sounds like you're saying that new scientific ideas replacing old ones can be good, but new cultural ideas replacing olds ones is always bad? That's a position, but I don't quite see why I should agree with it. There are aspects of any society that can be improved!

Re: University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

#37

Post by rsj_hn »

seoaeu wrote: post #22
chmod600 wrote: post #10

At universities, ideas which were once countercultural and revolutionary have become the mainstream orthodoxy. I'm not sure anyone has quite confronted that reality yet. It seems almost like an army that won much more easily than they expected, and now doesn't quite know what to do off the battlefield. I hope this university is able to balance these ideas into more of a discussion and less of a battle.

> ideas which were once countercultural and revolutionary have become the mainstream orthodoxy In the abstract, isn't this a good thing? Like this true of lots of scientific advances. Germ theory or whatever initially being seen as a fringe idea, eventually being adopted as the leading explanation

That's true in biology or physics where actual facts - or things very close to facts - are being discovered, but not so in culture.

Culture doesn't "advance" like science, although it does change, and inevitably so, and in unexpected directions. Having flexibility and tolerance for heterogeneity is important, IMO. For example, look at how much China has changed from the cultural revolution of the 60s to the present. Instead of masses of kids waving a little red book arguing for "perpetual revolution" and going to work in a collective, the best ambition for many today is to be a small business owner or real estate investor, and virtually no one wants to work in a collective.

Re: University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

#38

Post by evgen »

seneca wrote: post #33
kwertyoowiyop wrote: post #18

[flagged]

> Seems like right-wing speech will be the most free there. It's insane to me that "we won't mandate ideological orthodoxy" is some how a right-wing idea.

It is not a right-wing idea, what is a right-wing idea is the notion that other universities do mandate ideological orthodoxy.

Re: University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

#39

Post by seneca »

seoaeu wrote: post #36
seneca wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the abstract, isn't this a good thing? Like this true of lots of scientific advances. Germ theory or whatever initially being seen as a fringe idea, eventually being adopted as the leading explanation This is a cultural revolution, not a scientific one. Scientific ideas replacing proven-false ones is a good thing. Cultural crusades, especially those spread through intimidation and bullying, have next to nothing…

It sounds like you're saying that new scientific ideas replacing old ones can be good, but new cultural ideas replacing olds ones is always bad? That's a position, but I don't quite see why I should agree with it. There are aspects of any society that can be improved!

I said nothing of the kind. I said comparing a cultural revolution to a scientific one is nonsense.

Re: University of Austin Draws over 3k Employment Inquiries in Four Days

#40

Post by alphabettsy »

seneca wrote: post #33
kwertyoowiyop wrote: post #18

[flagged]

> Seems like right-wing speech will be the most free there. It's insane to me that "we won't mandate ideological orthodoxy" is some how a right-wing idea.

It’s not. It’s something they claim as if right-wing institutions allow any sort of ideological diversity.
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