I was born in Romania under the communist iron curtain. I remember listening as a kid to a small radio that my dad had as it was playing crackling broadcasts of BBC Radio Free Europe. I was thinking of a distant land and dreaming, "Oh America, come free us from this prison, we have no power to make ourselves free!"
My parents broke free, and for several decades -- 1980s to the late 2010's -- I enjoyed true freedom being a scientist at Ivy League universities. It was so much fun!
Then, 2020 hit and everything fell apart (and, on hindsight, I realized it had started much earlier).
Now I look out of the window in my professor office at my Ivy League school after yet another distopian departmental meeting in which everyone toes the Orwellian line and dreaming "Oh Trump, come free us from this prison as we have no power to make ourselves free!"
In Romania, we faced tanks and guns if we dared to protest. Here, we are imprisoned by our mental bubble.
I am not sure if people outside universities understand how many on the "inside" agree with the sentiments that Vinay expresses. But somehow, those voices are powerless to influence University leadership.
The absolute best thing Trump et al can do is empower those students and faculty.
The corrupt, nepotistic establishment needs to be corrected—but by statutes of Congress, enacted after public debate and transparently and impersonally applied to many institutions at once by administrators responsible to their offices, not the president, a mere chief magistrate, not a despot.
I would support Congress if by legislation it cut back on tax-exempt status for all universities.
But even for a president who (narrowly) won the popular vote, to demand that the IRS strip a single institution of its tax exempt status is unconstitutional and illegal and tyrannical, however much it may be deserved.
Jeane Kirkpatrick once mentioned a rule she was taught by Harold Lasswell of Yale Law in the 50s: “When designing a constitution, imagine that your worst enemies are in power.”
If Trump can strip organizations he dislikes of their nonprofit status and bully Democratic law firms, then President Harris or AOC or Newsom in 2029 can single out institutions on the center and the right for destruction. Not the right way to go.
Corruption does not need to be “corrected” by congress. The rules just need to be enforced. Taxpayer funded infrastructure that is overtly partisan must lose its taxpayer funding, period. Good for Trump.
Do you think because of corruption--your word--the Trump Corporation should be shut down? Just think about all the money the royal family is raking in now because he holds presidential power? How much did they earn on insider trading when he said "this is the time to buy" and the next day lowered his tariffs by executive fiat and the stock market shot back up? We're all paying (other than the rest of the non-tax-paying billionaires and corporations), so he should be shut down in 2028, even though he thinks he deserves another unconstitutional term.
Peter, I have to say - by your posts here, you really seem to be having a really, really bad, horrible day. Perhaps, a rest and some meditation are in order. And maybe a vacation from BlueSky.
I haven't really written anything on Substack for a while. But if you read what I said carefully, I said I wouldn't want EITHER party to have this kind of power.
I support Trump's campaign to vanquish wokism in Universities, for the most part. At times, I think he has too heavy a hand, but these islets of Leftism must be extinguished. As Xi Van Fleet, an immigrant from Communist China has reported, Communism begins in the universities among the "intelligentsia". Perhaps the "intelligentsia" are those whose opinions can be most easily molded, when you make appeals to their "intelligence" or narcissism. Nowhere is narcissism more in evidence than at Harvard. I should know. I went there for undergrad. However, as far as balancing Left and Right, this may be the best we can do, but even better would be to renounce political affiliation altogether. Left and Right have become like cults whose existence is perpetuated by opposing those of the opposite polarity. Why not just have allegiance to TRUTH! Last I heard, those in academia were curious to discover truth, first and foremost, and no great pursuer of the truth I know of has proposed that it can best be found by aligning oneself with a political party. Indeed, endorsing political parties, whether from light or left, seems to imply a willingness to compromise one's allegiance to truth-finding. Not what we want from our intellectual leaders. Just the opposite!
Excellent article! Completely agree. If the university doesn’t want to be held to certain standards to obtain government money then don’t take it. They want their cake and eat it too. The university is not entitled to receive taxpayer money.
Our oldest son goes to Hillsdale College. We either get “high fives” from people or “never heard of it”. No antisemitism, no man-hating. There are only about 10 Jewish kids there, but we knew the college respects the Old Testament and our country’s Constitution. Life is challenging enough without having to deprogram your child after college. Most people don’t want to go against the grain, even if it means sending their kids to a place that hates their values.
The idea that you can suck up $-billions in OUR money and not even say "thanks," much less toe the line is farcical. Expecting the bought-and-paid-for Congress to get off its rump and legislate is delusional. If you think a bunch of profs inside their bubble will stop a guy like DJT, you're in LaLa Land. If you think Harvard is "nonprofit," you're probably on the payroll.
"The American people" did not vote for this. Less than a majority of voters chose Trump. Trump defeated Harris by about 1.5 percentage points. Many did not vote at all, so he got way less then a majority of "the American people." Do you think this fictional "American people" voted for crazy, chaotic, reckless tariffs? They voted for abrogating the U.S. Constitution? "The American people" voted for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport a person legally in the US without due process to a Venezuelan gulag? "The American people" voted to deny global warming and gut the EPA? "The American people" voted for someone responsible for repealing Roe v. Wade? I could go on. So could you.
"The American people" did no such thing because, additionally, there is no such thing as "the American people" as the grammatical subject of a sentence with an active verb.
Most Americans pay close zero attention to most issues and the scattered unsubstantiated and often ridiculous views they hold on issues they pay little attention to are irrelevant to an intelligent discussion.
Vinay, I think you SOMETIMES push your "head up your own ass" so far it's coming out your mouth. Forgive me for my indelicacy. I would think that whether I not I agreed with none, some, most, or all of what you wrote here.
I'm not up on background to the news but listened to Vinay's take on Harvard a few days ago and then have been surprised to hear several mainstream commentators taking Harvard's protestation against the admin at face value -- taking for granted Harvard will not cave. Feels like they expect Harvard's resistance to influence other universities to also resist -- to 'save face in the face of' Harvard's response. What about going back to how universities started - seeking truth, having courage to 'see' what empirical observations indicate even when the observations (eg. physics)) contradict beliefs or, especially popular opinion...which oddly seems to be being defended here as linked to what universities should be, rather than knowledge or science ???. Surely that can't be : )
The alumni are doing the same - assuming he won't cave. I thought about forwarding Vinay's video on, but decided I'd let them have their happy day. We will see if Vinay was right or wrong in a couple of months.
All presidents push the limits of what they can legally do. That's the nature of the executive. We must rely on opposition from the legislative branch and competing parties to keep them in check.
All of you who are flaming against Trump's overreach: you have a point, and you would be a lot more credible if you were similarly incensed by Obama's overreach.
In his horrible "dear colleague" letter, Obama summarily did away with due process -- IMHO a much more egregious legal violation than anything Trump has done. Ah, but THAT violation was suavely phrased and readily embraced by our learned communities. And we live in the paradise it created: administrative bloat, DEI, speech controls, commissars.
Now we have the much needed backlash. But Trump is the result, not the cause.
Actually, I would go furhter and put all this on Title VI and Title IX. They opened the door to the mess.
Although I am overjoyed that the backlash is here, I am worried that it will give us more of the same. There is a real danger that the antisemitism angle will be used to create more Kafka-esque administrators -- DEI for Jews --which would be entirely the wrong thing to do.
Is there any hope to get rid of these titles? Can we stop the vicious circle -- of administration-enforced special protections that require more administration (enforced speech) which requires more special protections and then more administration ... ad nauseum?
I think that the answer to this conflict is to revise the law that allows giant universities to operate as “nonprofits”. An organization with $10B in revenue operating a $53B hedge fund and holding another $50B+ in tax-exempt real estate holdings is not a “nonprofit” in any meaningful sense. If Harvard paid its “fair share” in taxes, there would be less public resentment that we see playing out now. As truly private for-profit companies, the big unis could say and do as they liked.
Ugh. First of all, I’m a huge fan of this blog when it comes to medical issues. Lots of attention to detail and nuance that is missing in most public discourse. But talking about this? This is angry grandpa stuff. Absolutely no consideration for reasonable concerns, ie, Trump administration requiring a class-by-class approval of courses. Agree that Biden administration (and Democrats in general) had overreach over education but two wrongs do not make a right. And of course Dr Prasad may intelligently disagree with me, but then he has to at least recognize the cogent concerns. Unless he wants to emulate Fox News oafish discourse … but I can get that for free and will cancel my subscription if such facile, reactionary, unnuanced, uninformed, uninforming, editorializing is what the future holds for this blog.
I was born in Romania under the communist iron curtain. I remember listening as a kid to a small radio that my dad had as it was playing crackling broadcasts of BBC Radio Free Europe. I was thinking of a distant land and dreaming, "Oh America, come free us from this prison, we have no power to make ourselves free!"
My parents broke free, and for several decades -- 1980s to the late 2010's -- I enjoyed true freedom being a scientist at Ivy League universities. It was so much fun!
Then, 2020 hit and everything fell apart (and, on hindsight, I realized it had started much earlier).
Now I look out of the window in my professor office at my Ivy League school after yet another distopian departmental meeting in which everyone toes the Orwellian line and dreaming "Oh Trump, come free us from this prison as we have no power to make ourselves free!"
In Romania, we faced tanks and guns if we dared to protest. Here, we are imprisoned by our mental bubble.
I am not sure if people outside universities understand how many on the "inside" agree with the sentiments that Vinay expresses. But somehow, those voices are powerless to influence University leadership.
The absolute best thing Trump et al can do is empower those students and faculty.
I so much hope this is what will happen!
The corrupt, nepotistic establishment needs to be corrected—but by statutes of Congress, enacted after public debate and transparently and impersonally applied to many institutions at once by administrators responsible to their offices, not the president, a mere chief magistrate, not a despot.
I would support Congress if by legislation it cut back on tax-exempt status for all universities.
But even for a president who (narrowly) won the popular vote, to demand that the IRS strip a single institution of its tax exempt status is unconstitutional and illegal and tyrannical, however much it may be deserved.
Jeane Kirkpatrick once mentioned a rule she was taught by Harold Lasswell of Yale Law in the 50s: “When designing a constitution, imagine that your worst enemies are in power.”
If Trump can strip organizations he dislikes of their nonprofit status and bully Democratic law firms, then President Harris or AOC or Newsom in 2029 can single out institutions on the center and the right for destruction. Not the right way to go.
Corruption does not need to be “corrected” by congress. The rules just need to be enforced. Taxpayer funded infrastructure that is overtly partisan must lose its taxpayer funding, period. Good for Trump.
Do you think because of corruption--your word--the Trump Corporation should be shut down? Just think about all the money the royal family is raking in now because he holds presidential power? How much did they earn on insider trading when he said "this is the time to buy" and the next day lowered his tariffs by executive fiat and the stock market shot back up? We're all paying (other than the rest of the non-tax-paying billionaires and corporations), so he should be shut down in 2028, even though he thinks he deserves another unconstitutional term.
Peter, I have to say - by your posts here, you really seem to be having a really, really bad, horrible day. Perhaps, a rest and some meditation are in order. And maybe a vacation from BlueSky.
Ha, ha. Have a nice day smartass.
Your banal, sophomoric rudeness speaks for itself.
Ouch, Miss Thistlebottom!
Guys! Billionaires don't pay taxes!
You had little to say when Biden did all the same sorts of things.
Actually, that's untrue. I did write about the Dems' craziness on their social/cultural agenda. But why let facts get in the way of a good discussion?
Not on your substack that I can find.
I haven't really written anything on Substack for a while. But if you read what I said carefully, I said I wouldn't want EITHER party to have this kind of power.
I support Trump's campaign to vanquish wokism in Universities, for the most part. At times, I think he has too heavy a hand, but these islets of Leftism must be extinguished. As Xi Van Fleet, an immigrant from Communist China has reported, Communism begins in the universities among the "intelligentsia". Perhaps the "intelligentsia" are those whose opinions can be most easily molded, when you make appeals to their "intelligence" or narcissism. Nowhere is narcissism more in evidence than at Harvard. I should know. I went there for undergrad. However, as far as balancing Left and Right, this may be the best we can do, but even better would be to renounce political affiliation altogether. Left and Right have become like cults whose existence is perpetuated by opposing those of the opposite polarity. Why not just have allegiance to TRUTH! Last I heard, those in academia were curious to discover truth, first and foremost, and no great pursuer of the truth I know of has proposed that it can best be found by aligning oneself with a political party. Indeed, endorsing political parties, whether from light or left, seems to imply a willingness to compromise one's allegiance to truth-finding. Not what we want from our intellectual leaders. Just the opposite!
Excellent article! Completely agree. If the university doesn’t want to be held to certain standards to obtain government money then don’t take it. They want their cake and eat it too. The university is not entitled to receive taxpayer money.
Vinay , you are a national treasure !!
Our oldest son goes to Hillsdale College. We either get “high fives” from people or “never heard of it”. No antisemitism, no man-hating. There are only about 10 Jewish kids there, but we knew the college respects the Old Testament and our country’s Constitution. Life is challenging enough without having to deprogram your child after college. Most people don’t want to go against the grain, even if it means sending their kids to a place that hates their values.
The idea that you can suck up $-billions in OUR money and not even say "thanks," much less toe the line is farcical. Expecting the bought-and-paid-for Congress to get off its rump and legislate is delusional. If you think a bunch of profs inside their bubble will stop a guy like DJT, you're in LaLa Land. If you think Harvard is "nonprofit," you're probably on the payroll.
"The American people voted for this".
"The American people" did not vote for this. Less than a majority of voters chose Trump. Trump defeated Harris by about 1.5 percentage points. Many did not vote at all, so he got way less then a majority of "the American people." Do you think this fictional "American people" voted for crazy, chaotic, reckless tariffs? They voted for abrogating the U.S. Constitution? "The American people" voted for using the Alien Enemies Act to deport a person legally in the US without due process to a Venezuelan gulag? "The American people" voted to deny global warming and gut the EPA? "The American people" voted for someone responsible for repealing Roe v. Wade? I could go on. So could you.
"The American people" did no such thing because, additionally, there is no such thing as "the American people" as the grammatical subject of a sentence with an active verb.
Most Americans pay close zero attention to most issues and the scattered unsubstantiated and often ridiculous views they hold on issues they pay little attention to are irrelevant to an intelligent discussion.
Vinay, I think you SOMETIMES push your "head up your own ass" so far it's coming out your mouth. Forgive me for my indelicacy. I would think that whether I not I agreed with none, some, most, or all of what you wrote here.
Cruahing it! Well done, Doc!
Liberals are embarrassing. So much woke and DEI is wimpy and silly. China is laughing. We are fat, fearful and freaky.
I'm not up on background to the news but listened to Vinay's take on Harvard a few days ago and then have been surprised to hear several mainstream commentators taking Harvard's protestation against the admin at face value -- taking for granted Harvard will not cave. Feels like they expect Harvard's resistance to influence other universities to also resist -- to 'save face in the face of' Harvard's response. What about going back to how universities started - seeking truth, having courage to 'see' what empirical observations indicate even when the observations (eg. physics)) contradict beliefs or, especially popular opinion...which oddly seems to be being defended here as linked to what universities should be, rather than knowledge or science ???. Surely that can't be : )
The alumni are doing the same - assuming he won't cave. I thought about forwarding Vinay's video on, but decided I'd let them have their happy day. We will see if Vinay was right or wrong in a couple of months.
All presidents push the limits of what they can legally do. That's the nature of the executive. We must rely on opposition from the legislative branch and competing parties to keep them in check.
All of you who are flaming against Trump's overreach: you have a point, and you would be a lot more credible if you were similarly incensed by Obama's overreach.
In his horrible "dear colleague" letter, Obama summarily did away with due process -- IMHO a much more egregious legal violation than anything Trump has done. Ah, but THAT violation was suavely phrased and readily embraced by our learned communities. And we live in the paradise it created: administrative bloat, DEI, speech controls, commissars.
Now we have the much needed backlash. But Trump is the result, not the cause.
Actually, I would go furhter and put all this on Title VI and Title IX. They opened the door to the mess.
Although I am overjoyed that the backlash is here, I am worried that it will give us more of the same. There is a real danger that the antisemitism angle will be used to create more Kafka-esque administrators -- DEI for Jews --which would be entirely the wrong thing to do.
Is there any hope to get rid of these titles? Can we stop the vicious circle -- of administration-enforced special protections that require more administration (enforced speech) which requires more special protections and then more administration ... ad nauseum?
there's no jobs out there once you get your higher education, it's all kinda silly.
I think that the answer to this conflict is to revise the law that allows giant universities to operate as “nonprofits”. An organization with $10B in revenue operating a $53B hedge fund and holding another $50B+ in tax-exempt real estate holdings is not a “nonprofit” in any meaningful sense. If Harvard paid its “fair share” in taxes, there would be less public resentment that we see playing out now. As truly private for-profit companies, the big unis could say and do as they liked.
Ugh. First of all, I’m a huge fan of this blog when it comes to medical issues. Lots of attention to detail and nuance that is missing in most public discourse. But talking about this? This is angry grandpa stuff. Absolutely no consideration for reasonable concerns, ie, Trump administration requiring a class-by-class approval of courses. Agree that Biden administration (and Democrats in general) had overreach over education but two wrongs do not make a right. And of course Dr Prasad may intelligently disagree with me, but then he has to at least recognize the cogent concerns. Unless he wants to emulate Fox News oafish discourse … but I can get that for free and will cancel my subscription if such facile, reactionary, unnuanced, uninformed, uninforming, editorializing is what the future holds for this blog.
Oh my, and today we’re told that the Trump Administration says it made a mistake with its threats. What’s that about?
What? I hadn’t heard about this. Please enlighten us.