Friends, we live in dark times -- times so dark that even the fast food industry has become politicized. I mean, what could be controversial about pigging out? A lot, apparently, if your business model includes marketing to Israelis and/or Palestinians. My heart goes out to Ronald McDonald, who, given his sensitive nature, must be devastated by this uproar.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68740617
What country will be the first to pull the plug on Twitter, a.k.a. "X"? Since Elon Musk has decided to defy the global establishment, economic warfare against X was always inevitable, and it's already taken a heavy toll, but political persecution is probably equally assured. The EU has talked about curbing X, because it dares to allow right-wingers (like me, for instance) to speak and be heard. It's looking like Brazil might be the first major country to axe Twitter, though. That's because Brazil is ruled by a socialist president and an even more socialist judiciary. It will be fascinating to see whether other countries follow Brazil's lead, and whether Elon Musk and his new digital plaything can stand up to this wide-ranging campaign of intimidation. My prediction is that, sooner or later, Musk himself will crack. He's got a lot to lose...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2ygp5pdqlo
Finally, we've talked before about the demographic, financial, and cultural challenges afflicting U.S. higher ed. It looks like those challenges are about to intensify. If Biden is reelected, expect a massive federal bailout of academia in the years ahead. If Trump wins, look for school closures, belt-tightening, and maybe even some superficial concessions to ideological diversity -- higher ed's least favorite form of diversity!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Apparently a renewal of the far left compromised Biden administration's efforts to shift the yes, considerable , burden of college debt from the backs of thereby unjustly encumbered sociology majors (prime leftist worker ants they)to those as unenlightened as to work for bread, has been renewed in our national legislature. Let's add that to the the panoply of challenges the beleaguered American academy faces just now, as you have described , bless their learned intolerant hearts! I do look with hopeful anticipation for a Trumpian assault on all arrogant radical presumption on public largess such as that imposed on tax payers by islands of
ReplyDeleteantiamerican leftist "intellectual" imposition such as PBS, the National Endowment for the "Arts", Federal support for incipiently totalitarian leftist "university" campuses and assault on established legal rights selectively advanced by radical leftist attorneys and "jurists" who manifest dismissive disdain for all of the painful and time tested development of British/American law.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Should demographic and insolent factors lead to reduced attendance at far leftist ivy covered reeducation compounds we must celebrate the ways by which these salubrious developments occured. If it is by the administrative imposition of the common sense views of America, then hooray! You on the left who would protest are thoroughly gainsaid by your very own tactics. A "liberal" university education was, at one rememberable time, a way to hone an intellect ready for gainful involvement in myriad settings. No more, or little more it is. Now, because of far leftist three generation long preemption reduced to politically correct peonage, it motivates the wise to seek viable alternatives such as the military or vocational education. Good; and bad for those who would cuckoo our institutions to their totalitarian intent.
ReplyDeleteJack, I'm not terribly optimistic that a President Trump, in his second term, would have the determination or the leverage on Capitol Hill needed to impose serious financial constraints on academia, or NPR, or the NEA, etc etc. Maybe if he had both Houses in the Republican fold he could chip away a little. I guess this raises the rather important question: does Trump want to be reelected mainly so he can say "I told you so"? Or does he have a very specific agenda in mind that he would insist on imposing? Dunno. Past experience suggests that Trump will regard his second term as a glorious success more or less regardless of what he achieves in practice.
ReplyDeleteJack, your critique of higher ed implied (although you probably didn't mean to imply it) a brilliant solution to its plight: mandatory college education! I mean, why coerce tens of millions of unsuspecting (and largely unwilling) youngsters to undergo publicly funded and controlled indoctrination ONLY to the age of 18? Why not make them, like it or not, "lifelong learners"??? Hey hey!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: "Why, I am justly undone by my own devices!" What I meant by "administrative imposition" is for America to say to the American academy " if you insist on making of your 'universities' institutions meant only for political indoctrination, you'll have to do it on your own dime. We refuse you any taxpayer funded financial support !" This remedy could take administrative or legislative form.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack:Subsequent disingenuous leftist appeal to the "sanctity" of contracts could be met by challenging them to show in the documents enabling their public funding any wording sanctioning purposeful political bias.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Both suggestions require political will on the part of Congress to cut off higher ed (oftentimes their alma maters) -- and legal mechanisms to identify "bias" in a way that can't be circumvented by people of bad faith. Or, to put it another way, "that'll be the day"!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: In order to ward off despair at the appalling possibility that the antiamerican left could actually destroy this best of civilization's mass manifestations, I indulge in transcendental speculation on what might be improbable deliverance for the US.
ReplyDeleteHey, stranger things have happened! Sometimes the white hats defeat the black hats. We live in hope...
ReplyDelete