Michelle Goldberg. The title on the website is: Trump’s Plan to Crush the Academic Left, which is more accurate. I am biased, as a card-carrying member of the academic left. But while our system of universities has its flaws, it is the best in the world. It drives innovation. It creates jobs. - ThreadSky

hilzoy.bsky.social • 37 days ago

Michelle Goldberg. The title on the website is: Trump’s Plan to Crush the Academic Left, which is more accurate.

I am biased, as a card-carrying member of the academic left. But while our system of universities has its flaws, it is the best in the world. It drives innovation. It creates jobs.

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firstnaturefilms.bsky.social•37 days ago

Speaking out of ignorance here, didn't something like this happen to Iran in the 70s?

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

I don't know. If (a very distant) memory serves, it did happen in the Netherlands at some point.

benchappell.bsky.social•37 days ago

Rufo said in a public talk that it would be better if John Dewey had never lived. Like in all areas the right is attacking, we are going to have to re fight the battles of 100 years ago

awcohen.bsky.social•37 days ago

To me, the bigger threat to Humanities and Social Sciences (where the academic left is based) remains the decline in professional class literacy and the society’s obsession with STEM.

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

I don't think it's bigger than an attempt by the federal government to control the entire system.

awcohen.bsky.social•37 days ago

History has half as many majors today as it did in 2010. English has seen similar decline. It’s hard to imagine any federal policy that could damage us more than that.

awcohen.bsky.social•37 days ago

But I am being argumentative. Apologies.

manxquartz.bsky.social•36 days ago

Not the best in the world but crushing academics is never a good idea.

hilzoy.bsky.social•36 days ago

Which country's university system do you think is better?

manxquartz.bsky.social•35 days ago

Even the UK is better, though incredibly expensive because it doesn’t rely on being good at sports

manxquartz.bsky.social•35 days ago

Also Canada Australia and France

manxquartz.bsky.social•35 days ago

Germany

earlysprocket.bsky.social•37 days ago

There is no "academic left", there's just academics.

Education appears "left" to MAGA supporters, apparently.

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

When Xi Jinping's daughter went to college, did she go to one of the top Chinese universities? No. She went to Harvard, as do many of her compatriots and a lot of other foreign students. This is an immense strength for our country.

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

One reason it's a great system is that it is not under the control of one person or government. (You might say: ha ha, the oligarchs!, but (a) they have too much influence but not control, and (b) they come in many different flavors. Consider small evangelical seminaries, community colleges, etc.)

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

If some group is writing the script that, say, Bard, the Gordon Theological Seminary, and for-profit universities focused on partnerships with industry follow, it is a very strange and complicated script.

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

Anyways: regulating it is fine (in fact, we should do a much better job of denying federal money to colleges that are basically fraudulent.) But trying to assert *full control* over it is a terrible mistake. It would destroy a system that is one of America's great strengths.

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

It is in the nature of academics that we do not like to be controlled *as regards our academic work.* And it is in the nature of that work that it is much harder to do well to someone else's specifications. Just ask the Soviets. Oh, right, you can't.

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

Do I think that there are some disciplines that have an orthodoxy, and that this is bad? Yes. (But for a while, econ was one of them, and for all I know still is. They are not all 'woke'.) Do I think that they should all abolish legacy admissions? Again, yes. Can I list other problems? Yes.

welshrarebit.bsky.social•37 days ago

The fraudulent colleges are no doubt the ones that will benefit most from the proposed changes.

porchcryptid.bsky.social•37 days ago

Since Xi Jinping lived and studied in Iowa in the 80's, I have wondered how Iowans affected his perception of Americans.

hilzoy.bsky.social•37 days ago

Apparently he went back to visit the people he stayed with when visiting as Vice Premier, and talks about it often.

janpieter.bsky.social•37 days ago

"..best in the world" 😆! #exceptionalism

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