Recently it has come to the attention of this newsletter that something has happened, or is currently happening, at, or possibly nearby, Harvard University, a private research and educational institution located in Cambridge, Mass. Many newspapers, magazines, and social-media users have issued posts about Harvard and its employees, or possibly its students, and undoubtedly people feel certain ways about these posts, and also the event or events that are their subject.
I care because it's unnerving that billionaires can get something passed in congress to push for resignations for university presidents defending academic freedom. Universities honestly are one of the last institutions that they can only control from something of a distance. They can influence them with money but can't fully determine what is said or done within them. Everything else they can directly BUY (as we see).
But they can't yet break through the wall of academic freedom. So now they are. They are using the money to get the government to do it. Which means when/if Trump gets in--bye bye to that. We won't have any protected spaces for freedom of inquiry.
This is where we get the data, evidence , theoretical framework on public health, climate change, racial justice, etc. In fact most information on science, the environment, the economy, politics, etc. runs first through universities.
Of course I am a university professor so maybe it's self serving bias. But I don't think so.
Yes, surely, but Max’s piece was still funny. -- College staff and sometime adjunct, Brown graduate (can’t change the past). Also, nice Planet Sauvage profile pic.
ETA: I usually laugh so hard at the absurdity of NYT Harvard obsession. E.g., one of the most hilarious ones was when they did a story on qanon and the only subject was a Harvard graduate who believed in qanon.
It's not rich Jews that is the problem. It's the billions coming in from Qatar, Saudi Araba that are the issue. No. They aren't giving billions outright, but in large amounts that ad up quickly.
Turning our campuses and institutions into hate filled places should scare you. They always come for the Jews first. The will move on to Christianity next. Don't believe me? Look what's happening in Egypt
I don’t wish to fight about it, and Max Read doesn’t want us to fight about it.
But please believe me when I say I don’t think ‘rich Jews’ are the problem AT ALL.
What happened here is mainly a way to get a wedge for billionaire interests, in my view. Billionaires like Harlan Crow, who I think is probably an admirer of Nazis and so definitely not a Jew.
Academic freedom is simply not in their interest. This is because they are super duper rich and has nothing to do with whether they are Jewish.
Thanks for this comment so I can clear this up. Because YIKES how you’re reading it is not at all what I meant.
I was wrong to be so angry and lash out. And to not investigate Harlan Crow. I was offended by aspects the post, and I shouldn't have responded the way I did, and I want to apologize to you. Thank you for your kindness. I've been feeling a bit raw lately.
I understand. And I totally agree with you.I'm feeling defensive to the media I support blaming Jews for just about everything, especially college campuses funding. and they didn't mention that universities and now other institutions are receiving serious funding from Saudi' Araba and Qatar.
To put Max’s righteous decision in context, I will share that I work at a non-Harvard University where the same issues that have inspired dozens of New York Times articles are handled gracefully and our (forgive the shorthand) Jewish and Arab student organizations just collaborated on a fundraiser for an organization that provides meals to victims of war unrest and natural disaster. This complete lack of bed-shitting is not newsworthy presumably because we’ve never graduated someone who went on to be president. But really if future-presidents’ academic nannies shit their beds, is that news? Not from my flyover high quality modestly priced midwestern institution. 😜
You are hilarious! I, too, never think about Harvard in my daily life. Nor have I in nearly six decades. To me, it's a self-important school for the wealthy. So, obviously, having grown up poor, Harvard would never pass my lips. Now, as for the recent goings on there, well, I suspect Harvard to be but one of the thousands of microcosms exhibiting similar such events. I do have an opinion on the events around the nation. I prefer love over hate, acceptance over judgment, and peace and freedom for all over violent turmoil. I did not learn that from Harvard.
Something I've realized over the last decade: News is what's important to journalists. Hence why the world seems to revolve between the poles of NYC and LA. Hence why middle-class kids not having their increasingly solipsistic sexual/gender identities celebrated is the most pressing part of LGBTQ rights. Hence why everyone is flyover country is treated as zoo animals. Hence why student loans are the most pressing challenge for the entire country (and not medical debt, or mortgages, or credit card debt).
The unfortunate part is, what matter to Harvard winds up mattering to us, when those bright Young Men/Women/Persons graduate and start climbing the ladders of power (it's not nepotism, it's fellow students! Harvard is meritocratic, we swear!).
Turns out Ivy League is a giant grift; the peasants already knew that. They put the patina on our oppressors to deceive the tribe of aspirational gatekeepers. The urgent concern is the buying of the censors and those who will artfully and crudely excuse the evaporation of this essential right.
I care. Because I resent that many college campus including Harvard are highly antisemitic and little is being done about it. Colleges should be safe spaces for all students not just for some. You have the privilege of not caring.
College used to be fun, and a place to explore ideas. Not places you are excluded from because you are a Jew, or a colonizer. Or both. So yes I care. A lot.
You made the editorial decision to issue a statement about one Ivy League school, speaking as a representative for all of Read Max Industries no less, yet I find no evidence that you have also ever renounced the Ivy League as a whole.
But you see Max - you need to care because that's where all the next billionaire class who rule our lives are going. Who says you need to care? Why, the billionaire class who will send their billionaire offspring to become the next billionaire ruling class.
Tsk, tsk. A pox on you and your non-caring. Get with the program please!
Thank you for your commitment to ignoring Harvard
thoughts and prayers to all 'people of Harvard' in this difficult (?) time
🙏🙏🙏
I care because it's unnerving that billionaires can get something passed in congress to push for resignations for university presidents defending academic freedom. Universities honestly are one of the last institutions that they can only control from something of a distance. They can influence them with money but can't fully determine what is said or done within them. Everything else they can directly BUY (as we see).
But they can't yet break through the wall of academic freedom. So now they are. They are using the money to get the government to do it. Which means when/if Trump gets in--bye bye to that. We won't have any protected spaces for freedom of inquiry.
This is where we get the data, evidence , theoretical framework on public health, climate change, racial justice, etc. In fact most information on science, the environment, the economy, politics, etc. runs first through universities.
Of course I am a university professor so maybe it's self serving bias. But I don't think so.
Antisemitism is academic freedom?
There are lots of places online that welcome fights like this, but this comment section is absolutely not one of them.
Cool. I understand your view and will stand down (after a quick response below ;)
Appreciate your work and journalism.
This position of his is just plain not smart
Yes, surely, but Max’s piece was still funny. -- College staff and sometime adjunct, Brown graduate (can’t change the past). Also, nice Planet Sauvage profile pic.
It is! I thought this last week!
This week not so much.
ETA: I usually laugh so hard at the absurdity of NYT Harvard obsession. E.g., one of the most hilarious ones was when they did a story on qanon and the only subject was a Harvard graduate who believed in qanon.
It's not rich Jews that is the problem. It's the billions coming in from Qatar, Saudi Araba that are the issue. No. They aren't giving billions outright, but in large amounts that ad up quickly.
Turning our campuses and institutions into hate filled places should scare you. They always come for the Jews first. The will move on to Christianity next. Don't believe me? Look what's happening in Egypt
"They'll come for the Christians next" is psycho Islamophobic freak shit, cut it out
I don’t wish to fight about it, and Max Read doesn’t want us to fight about it.
But please believe me when I say I don’t think ‘rich Jews’ are the problem AT ALL.
What happened here is mainly a way to get a wedge for billionaire interests, in my view. Billionaires like Harlan Crow, who I think is probably an admirer of Nazis and so definitely not a Jew.
Academic freedom is simply not in their interest. This is because they are super duper rich and has nothing to do with whether they are Jewish.
Thanks for this comment so I can clear this up. Because YIKES how you’re reading it is not at all what I meant.
I was wrong to be so angry and lash out. And to not investigate Harlan Crow. I was offended by aspects the post, and I shouldn't have responded the way I did, and I want to apologize to you. Thank you for your kindness. I've been feeling a bit raw lately.
I understand. And I totally agree with you.I'm feeling defensive to the media I support blaming Jews for just about everything, especially college campuses funding. and they didn't mention that universities and now other institutions are receiving serious funding from Saudi' Araba and Qatar.
As someone who went to grad school in Boston. Well, near Boston (no, not Tufts), I fully support your decision.
To put Max’s righteous decision in context, I will share that I work at a non-Harvard University where the same issues that have inspired dozens of New York Times articles are handled gracefully and our (forgive the shorthand) Jewish and Arab student organizations just collaborated on a fundraiser for an organization that provides meals to victims of war unrest and natural disaster. This complete lack of bed-shitting is not newsworthy presumably because we’ve never graduated someone who went on to be president. But really if future-presidents’ academic nannies shit their beds, is that news? Not from my flyover high quality modestly priced midwestern institution. 😜
Hahahaha you are going to SWEEP this year's Brave Choice Awards.
Ivy League drama is just so uninteresting.
You are hilarious! I, too, never think about Harvard in my daily life. Nor have I in nearly six decades. To me, it's a self-important school for the wealthy. So, obviously, having grown up poor, Harvard would never pass my lips. Now, as for the recent goings on there, well, I suspect Harvard to be but one of the thousands of microcosms exhibiting similar such events. I do have an opinion on the events around the nation. I prefer love over hate, acceptance over judgment, and peace and freedom for all over violent turmoil. I did not learn that from Harvard.
Something I've realized over the last decade: News is what's important to journalists. Hence why the world seems to revolve between the poles of NYC and LA. Hence why middle-class kids not having their increasingly solipsistic sexual/gender identities celebrated is the most pressing part of LGBTQ rights. Hence why everyone is flyover country is treated as zoo animals. Hence why student loans are the most pressing challenge for the entire country (and not medical debt, or mortgages, or credit card debt).
The unfortunate part is, what matter to Harvard winds up mattering to us, when those bright Young Men/Women/Persons graduate and start climbing the ladders of power (it's not nepotism, it's fellow students! Harvard is meritocratic, we swear!).
Not for one single second have I ever cared who the President was of any Ivy League school. I don’t intend to start now.
I appreciate your strong commitment to not caring.
Turns out Ivy League is a giant grift; the peasants already knew that. They put the patina on our oppressors to deceive the tribe of aspirational gatekeepers. The urgent concern is the buying of the censors and those who will artfully and crudely excuse the evaporation of this essential right.
I care. Because I resent that many college campus including Harvard are highly antisemitic and little is being done about it. Colleges should be safe spaces for all students not just for some. You have the privilege of not caring.
College used to be fun, and a place to explore ideas. Not places you are excluded from because you are a Jew, or a colonizer. Or both. So yes I care. A lot.
Counterpoint: college used to be fun but Harvard never was.
You miss the whole point of my post. Seriously, read it again.
Hm. Interesting. Curious.
You made the editorial decision to issue a statement about one Ivy League school, speaking as a representative for all of Read Max Industries no less, yet I find no evidence that you have also ever renounced the Ivy League as a whole.
Do you renounce the Ivy League?
But you see Max - you need to care because that's where all the next billionaire class who rule our lives are going. Who says you need to care? Why, the billionaire class who will send their billionaire offspring to become the next billionaire ruling class.
Tsk, tsk. A pox on you and your non-caring. Get with the program please!
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is a fun sports documentary even for someone who prefers football of the actual foot variety.