If you are the sort to read comments before clicking, this is Steven Pinker's long essay on Trump's recent "assault" on Harvard. Pinker is a professor there who has been quite critical of Harvard's previous policies on free speech. In this essay, he concludes that while there are things about Harvard that need to be fixed, the administration's approach throws the baby out with the bathwater:
Harvard, as I am among the first to point out, has serious ailments. The sense that something is not well with the university is widespread, and it’s led to sympathy, even schadenfreude, with Mr. Trump’s all-out assault. But Harvard is an intricate system that developed over centuries and constantly has to grapple with competing and unexpected challenges. The appropriate treatment (as with other imperfect institutions) is to diagnose which parts need which remedies, not to cut its carotid and watch it bleed out.
It's not going to please the partisans on either side, but if you are looking for looking for a balanced take on the issue, it's a fine essay from an insider. And while you can certainly disagree with it, unlike a lot of the coverage elsewhere, this seems mostly fact-based and accurate.
sgnelson•2h ago
I personally think a balanced take is: It's a private school, and it's not the job of the Federal Government (especially personally directed by the President) to go after an educational institution for arbitrary and capricious reasons; just because he doesn't like a few of its policies and how a few of the students and professors behave.
I believe that is a balanced take. It's not about what Harvard is and is not doing. Harvard is a private school, they can do whatever they want. But when the Federal government goes after them for their internal policies, almost completely because the President personally doesn't like them, that is government overreach at it's worst.
It blows my mind that people are arguing over what Harvard's internal policies are instead of the fact that we're watching the Federal Government run roughshod all over the right to free speech.
But yeah, people will continue to say "Harvard sucks." I don't care if Harvard sucks. Harvard has the right to suck. It's not the Federal Governments job to ensure they don't suck. But it's somehow Harvard's fault for deserving this.
"Small Government" My Ass. We are watching America become fasicist in real time. But let's continue to argue about a relatively small schools internal policies.
nkurz•47m ago
Sure, that sounds like a great target to aim for, and I think Pinker would agree. Private schools like Harvard should be able to run their school however they want, as should Bob Jones, or Reed, or Hillsdale, or whomever.
They should all obey the same laws, fairly and equally enforced, and either all of them or none of them should be taking public funds. Do you think that's where we're currently at? If not, how do we get there?
nkurz•3h ago
If you are the sort to read comments before clicking, this is Steven Pinker's long essay on Trump's recent "assault" on Harvard. Pinker is a professor there who has been quite critical of Harvard's previous policies on free speech. In this essay, he concludes that while there are things about Harvard that need to be fixed, the administration's approach throws the baby out with the bathwater:
Harvard, as I am among the first to point out, has serious ailments. The sense that something is not well with the university is widespread, and it’s led to sympathy, even schadenfreude, with Mr. Trump’s all-out assault. But Harvard is an intricate system that developed over centuries and constantly has to grapple with competing and unexpected challenges. The appropriate treatment (as with other imperfect institutions) is to diagnose which parts need which remedies, not to cut its carotid and watch it bleed out.
It's not going to please the partisans on either side, but if you are looking for looking for a balanced take on the issue, it's a fine essay from an insider. And while you can certainly disagree with it, unlike a lot of the coverage elsewhere, this seems mostly fact-based and accurate.
sgnelson•2h ago
I believe that is a balanced take. It's not about what Harvard is and is not doing. Harvard is a private school, they can do whatever they want. But when the Federal government goes after them for their internal policies, almost completely because the President personally doesn't like them, that is government overreach at it's worst.
It blows my mind that people are arguing over what Harvard's internal policies are instead of the fact that we're watching the Federal Government run roughshod all over the right to free speech.
But yeah, people will continue to say "Harvard sucks." I don't care if Harvard sucks. Harvard has the right to suck. It's not the Federal Governments job to ensure they don't suck. But it's somehow Harvard's fault for deserving this. "Small Government" My Ass. We are watching America become fasicist in real time. But let's continue to argue about a relatively small schools internal policies.
nkurz•47m ago
They should all obey the same laws, fairly and equally enforced, and either all of them or none of them should be taking public funds. Do you think that's where we're currently at? If not, how do we get there?