I thought we were going to stay away from politics on hacker news. especially becuase of the liberal bias in the community and the mods.
Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
61–70 of 124 posts
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#62I think the article makes good points about some craziness on college campuses, particularly regarding actions restricting freedom of speech, but to use that as a justification to hurt seemingly left tilted institutions is a weak argument.
This kind of justification doesn't help the already partisan environment and further encourages tribalism and defence of bad ideas.
The optics of the article makes it looks like "we don't like you, so we're going to hit you where it hurts", something that the constitution seeks to prevent(re: "tyranny of majority").
Freedom of speech suppression isn't exclusively a left problem as can be seen in the link below, I'd agree that it's more of a left problem than right: https://www.thefire.org/resources/disinvitation-database/
What we need is more debate not less, and taxing endownments isn't going to help that, I'm, not sure what will though either, people seemingly don't want to debate anymore.
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#63As the American right-wing moves further right and further way from participating in consensus reality, it should be no surprise they are increasingly less welcome in spaces dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. If you reject not only the politics of your opponents, but the value of fact itself, why should they listen to or accommodate you? https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/a...
> As the American right-wing moves further right and further way from participating in consensus reality
the "consensus" gave them the Presidency, House and Senate
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#64> to tax large university endowments and make other tax and spending changes that might adversely affect universities Why shouldn't major universities pay their fair share to help society? Most of these elite universities literally pocket billions of dollars at the end of the fiscal year. Major universities have essentially evolved into corporations.
It angers me that the top Universities sit on billions of dollars while at the same time restricting the number of incoming students to just a few thousand. IF THE ENDOWMENTS WERE TAXED THE UNIVERSITIES WOULD WANT TO SPEND THE MONEY, AND HOPEFULLY THEY WOULD OFFER MORE SLOTS TO APPLICANTS.
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you have riots over right-leaning moderates like Ben Shapiro, I think it's clear that there is a free-speech problem at universities in the US.
In which universe do you live in that Shapiro is a moderate?
In which universe do you live in that he isn't?
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "interesting, well-spoken, articulate" folks have no issue speaking at college campuses. Playing the "good people on many sides" card ignores who these people are that are being forced off of college campuses. Alan Greenspan could show up to give a talk and be well received; Richard Spencer is going to spark riots (for good reason). Most issues have a gradient or contextual answers so I don't buy the argument tha…
When you have riots over right-leaning moderates like Ben Shapiro, I think it's clear that there is a free-speech problem at universities in the US.
Or eminently reasonable people like Christina Hoff Sommers getting protested and boycotted. Something has jumped the shark
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Obviously I can't verify this, but for example he had a professor who actively taught that nations are a completely artificial social construct, and as such all immigration policies of any sort are illegitimate and harmful. But that's a very mainstream position in economics, with much stronger arguments behind it than ideological purity. And it's typically supported by libertarians more than progressives, since the…
But that's a very mainstream position in economics, with much stronger arguments behind it than ideological purity. What mainstream economists believe all immigration policies are illegitimate and harmful? Not being snarky. That would be considered a fairly ideological stance in most other fields. I've never heard that expressed in political science (some overlap with economics) from anyone but people on HN and Reddi…
Yeah, it's just impossible to know how biased this interpretation or the initial statements from the professor were.
Lots of things like these are discussed in the same way as physics professors say: "Imagine an infinite frictionless plane" - that it's a model for thinking about concepts and not a policy plan.
Imagine a completely borderless world where the only goal is literally economic efficiency - capital and labor are able to migrate freely anywhere and anything less is harmful in a strictly economic sense.
Practically, that's a bad idea for lots of reasons (like it might be economically efficient for someone to murder me, but I'd find it rather inconvenient) - so maybe some rules about passage of criminals and you can go on from there.
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#68As the American right-wing moves further right and further way from participating in consensus reality, it should be no surprise they are increasingly less welcome in spaces dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. If you reject not only the politics of your opponents, but the value of fact itself, why should they listen to or accommodate you? https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/a...
> further way from participating in consensus reality > increasingly less welcome in spaces dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. Consensus reality is the opposite of the pursuit of knowledge. This is readily demonstrated by the decaying social trust in higher education.
Yes, that "truth" research papers with 50% failure to reproduce. No Thanks!
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Openly supports and defends? I'm no Trump fan but this seems blatantly false. He seems to have been disavowing racists since the start.
> He seems to have been disavowing racists since the start Pandering to racists since the start: * Initial refusal to rebuke David Duke. * "Rapists" remark. * Violence on "both sides". * Not mentioning the Jews on Holocaust Remembrance day. * No traditional White House Ramadan celebration. * Attacking the hispanic judge in the Trump U case because of their race. * Calling for and attempting to implement a "Muslim Ban…
You just listed a bunch of events with zero context that require initial bias to dry racism over.
This "wink and nod" idea seems pretty tin-foil hat to me
Re: Elite colleges are making it easy for conservatives to dislike them
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you reject not only the politics of your opponents, but the value of fact itself, why should they listen to or accommodate you? Because "you" (i.e. the right wing, in your analogy) can muster more votes from the political center than "they" can and can put into place governmental and economic policy that can disrupt or damage said "spaces dedicated dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge" greatly. The ivory tower…
It can, but the notion that ignorance can triumph by force is not the fault of the universities. What is their alternative? To pander to people who believe that Islamic terrorists are a greater threat to them than the ladder in their garage, that being gay is a conscious moral choice, and that tax cuts stimulate economic growth? Conservative backlash against science and mathematics is a consequence of the increasing…
>To pander to people who believe that Islamic terrorists are a greater threat to them than the ladder in their garage
A poor straw man argument, and it's telling that you need untruthful hyperbole to make your point.