Friends, as this CNN article points out, the recent stumbles at Ivy League institutions have given Republicans and Trumpers an opening, and needless to say conservatives are making the most of it. In addition, the esteem in which academia, and "the experts" more broadly, are held has been in terminal decline for a while now. Be all that as it may, I don't see any sign that the business model of elite higher education, which is as much about leveraging government grants and corporate cash as it is about attracting students and tuition dollars, is seriously under threat. In fact, the lesson of recent history is that elite institutions are as strong as ever, and as contemptuous of dissent, especially from conservatives, as ever, too. Academia remains a deeply problematic institution from the perspective of patriots and conservatives, and it would take truly herculean efforts by future Republican legislators, governors, and presidents to wrestle it back into respectability. Good luck to anyone who's trying, I say!
Here are two able summaries of where we stand vis-a-vis the evidence against the Biden "crime family". The key, as always, is tying Joe Biden to the clearly unethical, but not necessarily illegal, schemes of his close relations. We shall see if that can be managed.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/12/22/top-5-revelations-from-biden-family-probe-in-2023/
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Test
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: The Amercan Academy is no doubt loath to honor any concern the unwashed might have with their blatant an d presumptuous bigotry. But we cannot dissuade them; we must politically overpower them. We may be able to do this in this election by making of their haughty current display of leftist totalitarianism, often including quasi medieval bad will toward Jews, a major issue encompassing antiamerican left elitism in settings beyond academia (eg. tax payer funding of "art" and broadcast which sneers at America or libraries seemingly determined to" enlighten "the brutish pubic).If we elect a Congress and administration set to do so, let the defunding commence!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I wondered what justification Congress might have to investigate Harvard's burgeoning plagiarism controversy but I heard an answer. Federal funding ostensibly imposes standards for fairly administered intellectual integrity.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Again, hooray for Rep.Elise Stefanik and hoping we will hear alot more from her and about her!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy fromJack:This tawdry Biden situation is beginning to remind
ReplyDeleteme of Agnew's downfall. For awhile he was f!ying high.Had he flown straight he would have succeeded a beaten Nixon. Instead he was revealed as a garden variety crook, no more! Surely, to have been elected President is a high accomplishment but Biden may be bound for the same ash heap of history in which Agnew's reputation resides.
Dr Waddy from. Jack: Why even try to wrestle the elitist core of the American Academy back to respectability?.Cause them to stew in their own juices I say.. Let those fields in which they have enforced totalitarian control, the Humanities and the Social "Sciences" ,be reduced to the comical status endured by professional wrestling these days. I do not include in this wish that courageous teaching in those same disciplines conducted anywhere with intellectual integrity. Those who strive to reduce the physical and applied sciences solely to celebration of antiamerican leftist political correctness: let them be directly and resolutely assaulted by those experienced in political "give and take" after witnessing the coralling of their compatriots in the, ehh, less objective schools of thought!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: At one time college was only for "swells" and the country got along passing well, thank you. Lets marginalize an education in which the relevant disciplines have been reduced to antiamerican leftist proforma initiations. I see the beginnings of this in the negative reaction of some employers to engaging graduates of some "elite" but shamefully compromised "universities". Let that rea ction thrive!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Accreditation by a reputable association is of course vital for any university or college. These associations may well have been degraded by antiamerican leftist bias but do you think they might provide a means of taking shamefully compromised universities to task for unscholarly, antiintellectual biases which are in additional offense enforced with incipiently totalitarian hostility to academic freedom, freedom of expression and democracy? Too, what of the professional associations of the academic disciplines? Can they be reached?We have seen universities rated for their faithfulness to free speech (Harvard shamefully so). Would it be possible to rate universities' individual disciplines for fundamental academic integrity or lack thereof?The Western university was once an exalted manifestation of Western civilization; our cultures would of course greatly benefit from a rescue of them from their present disgraceful embrace of incipient political and ersatz "academic"totalitarianism.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Our Marines know its often necessary to break an individual before effecting positive change in them.Similarly, perhaps the American Academy must be lain low, divorced from the high status it once deserved and thereby taught some respect. The Western university was one of the glories of high Western civilization; how wonderful it would be to see it resume its role of our culture's intellectual exemplar rather than its present tawdry and dishonest
ReplyDeleteshame as conveyor of totalitarian doctrine.!
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Welcome back, (new and improved?) Jack!
ReplyDeleteAh, federal funding gives the U.S. government cause/excuse to rifle through almost anyone's or anything's affairs, and of course negative attention directed towards elite universities isn't a new development. What would be an ENTIRELY new development would be a Congress and a President determined to crack down on elitist, leftist, pseudo-intellectual paid pontificators. How to translate this into legislation, though? How to condense "common sense" or "patriotism" into legal jargon and budgetary imperatives? That could be very tricky.
Biden a crook? Maybe, but certainly not a "garden variety" one. For one thing, he had the good sense to use his son as his bagman. Even transfers of funds might be explained as...simple misunderstandings. Unless there's video or audio of Biden directly and unambiguously panhandling for cash, I doubt we'll ever see him face the music, criminally. Politically...that's another matter.
To your point, Jack, how could Congress or (reelected) President Trump target higher ed without accidentally harming many honest, respectable faculty members, and legions of innocent students, too? One might almost say that elite academic leftists are holding the rest of us in higher ed hostage... Our fates are intertwined, after all.
Could the accrediting bodies and professional associations be used to purge academia of extreme leftists? Sure, theoretically. Right now they're both very useful vehicles for the PROMOTION of neo-Marxists and neo-Marxism, however. A complete transformation of their culture, ideology, and probably personnel would be needed to effect such a change of direction. Put someone like Ron DeSantis in charge of the Department of Education, fire most of the career bureaucrats who would cherish the opportunity to undermine him, and leave him in his post for a generation or two...and then you might make some progress!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Though technically its protected by the 1st amendment their is a consensus that the expression of certain views puts one beyond the pale, And it is backed by much very consequential administration, public and private. Let's strive to lay the same opprobrium on marxism; in doing so we could protect principled faculty, even while forcing marxist cuckoos in academia to the societal anathema they deserve. Bob Dole once said that as President he wouldn"t try to pass laws against abortion, he would just talk frankly and publicly about it every day. Let the hopefully last Sec. of Education, ideally Ron DeSantis, do as much about incipiently totalitarian marxism in our centers of education and policy!
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