Home » Claptrap from Harvard interim president Alan Garber

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Claptrap from Harvard interim president Alan Garber — 31 Comments

  1. It’s the ongoing bizzarro-world in which we live…Garber is Jewish, yes?
    Yet gives no indication that he gets that one day the progressive left will come for him too. He keeps feeding the crocodile.

  2. His second sentence gives away the whole purpose of this, as you have pointed out. By including both Antisemitism and Islamophobia in the list of tensions, Garber is trying to draw a moral equivalence that does not, and should not, exist. And (also as you have pointed out), totally ignoring the charge of plagiarism is a transparent effort to ignore what was the proverbial straw that broke Gay’s back. She might have weathered the antisemitism charge, but putting her scholarship in question was just too much. And Gay knew it, which tells me she knew the plagiarism charge was serious — and real.

    Harvard has a real problem on its hands, and Gay’s resignation is only the beginning if Bill Ackmin decides to keep his pressure on the institution. I hope he does.

  3. Mr. Garber reveals himself to be a third-rate bs artist in the tradition of Claudine Gay.

    He’s plagiarizing her rhetorical style.

  4. As the great philosopher, Pete Townsend, said, ” meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

  5. Brings to mind this memorable observation in “Apocalypse Now”:

    “Oh, man, the bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam, you needed wings to stay above it.”

    Substitute America for Vietnam, and . . . “there it is,” as grunts used to say in the Vietnam war.

    Increasingly, I feel like “going Kurtz,” i.e., “splitting from the whole fucking program.” Splitting psychologically, to be sure; but also in part physically, which is to say geographically: namely, moving from Cook County Illinois to northwest Indiana.

  6. F

    His second sentence gives away the whole purpose of this, as you have pointed out. By including both Antisemitism and Islamophobia in the list of tensions, Garber is trying to draw a moral equivalence that does not, and should not, exist.

    It is not difficult to find Muslims in the US who by act or speech shown themselves to be anti-Semitic. It is much more difficult to find Muslims in the US who have been subjected to Islamophobia coming from Jewish people.

    Fight, Fiercely, Harvard: Harvard gets worst score ever in FIRE’s College Free Speech Rankings

    In 2020, Harvard ranked 46 out of 55 schools. In 2021, it ranked 130 out of 154 schools. Last year, it ranked 170 out of 203 schools. And this year, Harvard completed its downward spiral in dramatic fashion, coming in dead last with the worst score ever: 0.00 out of a possible 100.00. This earns it the notorious distinction of being the only school ranked this year with an “Abysmal” speech climate.
    What’s more, granting Harvard a score of 0.00 is generous. Its actual score is -10.69, more than six standard deviations below the average and more than two standard deviations below the second-to-last school in the rankings, its Ivy League counterpart, the University of Pennsylvania. (Penn obtained an overall score of 11.13.)
    This raises the question: Why did Harvard do so poorly? In light of its historically low ranking, the reasons are many.

    F.I.R.E points out that deplatforming, which is an attempt at punishing those who violate the accepted WOKE/Liberal/Progressive narratives de jour, have been generally successful at Harvard.

    First of all, Harvard, which on paper commits to protecting free speech, has a dismal record of responding to deplatforming attempts — attempts to sanction students, student groups, scholars, and speakers for speech protected under First Amendment standards. Of nine attempts in total over the past five years, seven resulted in sanction.

  7. of course the lie extends itself by 73, most of the antiwar animus has expended itself, one might say the carter campaign was the carry over from mcgovern,

  8. I would be shocked to find any evidence whatever of actual anti-Muslim ugliness at Harvard. Anti-Jewish ugliness, on the other hand, is epidemic.

  9. 50 years ago colleges were trying to negotiate their way between radical students and the distinctly non-radical alumni, trustees, and wider public. This resulted in a lot of weaselly pusillanimity from administrators. Such is and has always been the way of bureaucrats. We have more freedom to be forthright and uncompromising than they do.

  10. The line, “First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin” comes to mind; First we defund every public university, then we file charges of ‘crimes against humanity’.

  11. Might just as well have a class in astrophysics?

    Black Holes – Matter, Gravity and Antimatter. Singularity and racism, an all consuming hate. Not that dead white guy Hawking!

  12. The intersection of science and social justice; sets that don’t overlap. One of these things is not like the other, …..

    Piled higher and deeper. Was she a pole vaulter or long jumper? Leaps away from reality.

  13. Brooke Johnson is likely reasonably intelligent, given her Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton. I realize STEM is now heavily infected with the ‘woke’ plague (and given her presumptive age, STEM was so infected when she entered grad school), but still…if she were mediocre, she’d have gone into Africana Studies, Woman’s Studies, Queer Theory, etc.

    That all said, she’s probably on a par with a white guy Ph.D in chemistry from a second rate state school* Even as STEM grows increasingly woke, she likely lacks any remarkable genius to establish herself in even a remotely significant way in academic chemistry. So….she found a manageable alternative, given her skill set.

    I’m sure ‘Afrochemistry’ is an amazing course. I’m sure the 95% of the class that are athletes, stoners and humanities majors getting their ‘science’ requirement, will be truly enlightened.

    *No offense intended. I’m a white guy who went to a second rate state school (although not in STEM).

  14. Back in the day (late 70’s early 80’s) there were Rocks for Jocks geology classes; how the earth was formed! Comets! Asteroids! C1 Carbonaceous chondrites! Entertaining, engaging, interesting? Yes. But difficult? No.

    A lower division class to fulfill a science requirement. But then it wasn’t furthering a political indoctrination either. The misuses of education.

  15. Related (from one of the country’s two papers of record):
    Glenn Reynolds on….
    “Bill Ackman’s war to make universities accountable has the left panicked”—
    https://nypost.com/2024/01/08/opinion/bill-ackmans-war-to-make-universities-accountable-has-the-left-panicked/

    And two Bonuses:
    1.
    From the Democratic Party’s BULGING “Character Assassination of Political Rivals” File…
    “Christopher Rufo Suspected of Being a Foreign Agent or Having Ties to the Mafia”—
    https://twitchy.com/brettt/2024/01/06/christopher-rufo-suspected-of-being-a-foreign-agent-or-having-ties-to-the-mafia-n2391453
    2.
    From the Democratic Party’s similarly BULGING “Protecting Your Own” File…
    “Prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Team Shut Down FBI Investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016”—
    https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/05/prosecutor-on-special-counsel-jack-smiths-team-shut-down-fbi-investigation-into-the-clinton-foundation-in-2016/
    H/T Instapundit (for all three links)….

    Hmmm. Seems to be a distinct pattern…

  16. Voilà
    https://babylonbee.com/news/proud-parent-installs-my-kid-didnt-go-to-harvard-bumper-sticker-on-car/

    And I was wrong! There may be hope for the Alma Mater yet.
    Although the Right/Left club count is 2 and 2.

    https://ricevotes.rice.edu/student-organizations

    Rice University College Republicans: https://www.facebook.com/RUCRTX/
    As members of the Rice community, we believe that it is very important for multiple perspectives to have their voices heard, especially on a campus so diverse. As a result, the Rice University College Republicans club has been founded to give students and others within our community a chance to become active in campus-wide, local, state, and national politics. It is our belief that this organization should serve as a stepping stone into the political world while also fostering debate on issues to create solutions for our future.

    Rice Chapter Federalist Society: https://fedsoc.org/chapters/TX/rice-student-chapter
    The Rice University Federalist Society is an undergraduate student chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. Rice FedSoc seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities. We are committed to bringing legal and policy experts of opposing views to debate on campus in front of the student body on the most important policy issues facing our nation.

    Rice University Young Democrats: http://dems.rice.edu
    Our club’s mission is simple: serve as a branch of the Democratic Party’s infrastructure on our campus. We do this in a variety of ways. Specifically, the Rice Young Democrats frequently registers voters, raises awareness about upcoming elections, connects students with quality internships at non-profits and campaigns, promotes progressive activism on campus, and coordinates with local campaigns to “get out the vote.”

    Rice Left: https://www.facebook.com/riceleft/
    An activist collective dedicated to leftist political values and action on campus. Our events and activities are aimed at building community, educating ourselves and others, and disrupting normative violence and a harmful status quo. Rice Left stands in support of oppressed and marginalized groups, organized labor, and ecology above profit, and ultimately desires the liberation of all from the bondages of capitalist exploitation, bigotry, and warfare.

  17. The Rice U course:

    Not surprising at all this course exists. Note how in the description it emphasizes black experience in interpreting chemical principles. As I mentioned many times before, way back in 2012 my small physics department was accused of having only a white men’s perspective on all things physics, and that the black perspective was needed and was probably more valid. The Rice course is just a logical outcome of such a push to “woke” STEM.

  18. Fun Fact and great Houston story, the founder of Rice University, William Marsh Rice, was killed by his valet with chloroform. He was in cahoots with Rice’s New York lawyer to substitute a fraudulent will that named them as the beneficiary of Rice’s fortune. The scheme was pretty quickly discovered, so: The Butler Did it !

    Rice’s Houston lawyer and executor who sussed out the scheme and exposed the murderers was none other than Captain James Addison Baker Jr., yes, of Baker, Botts & Baker – the grandfather of the James Addison Baker that we know of.

  19. now the grown up Gerber Baby is John Morgan, local ambulance chaser impresario, change my mind,

  20. I too have noticed (many years ago) that any mention of anti-Semitism must be coupled with the mythical “Islamophobia”.

  21. If anyone accuses you of ‘Islamophobia’ or any other phobia, immediately ask them from where they got their degree in psychology, and if they have formally examined you.

    A phobia is a psychiatric disease indicating an ‘irrational fear’. The fear of Muslims is not irrational.

    Erronius

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