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You are here: Home / Open Threads / More on the GOP Assault on Higher Ed

More on the GOP Assault on Higher Ed

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Earlier this week, when I heard that a House GOP rep from Ohio was resigning effective this month, I thought good riddance and hoped his decision to thin the GOP’s already narrow majority was due to the stress of serving in the chaotic shit-show that is the least productive Congress in nearly a century. But it turns out Rep. Bill Johnson is resigning to jump on the GOP’s edu-grift bandwagon. The Daily Beast:

A controversial Republican congressman known for his 2020 election denial and anti-abortion stances is retiring this month to take a plum gig as the president of Youngstown State University in Ohio…

His appointment to the job—which carries a $410,000 salary, free housing and a complementary car—was decried by many YSU faculty, students, alumni, and donors, who objected to both his political views and his lack of experience in the education field.

He also received pushback during a November press conference announcing the career change, after doubling down on his plans to overhaul the institution to get rid of its alleged liberal biases.

“We want students to be educated, not indoctrinated,” he said at the time.

Johnson is lying, of course. As we know from other right-wing takeovers of K-12 public school districts and colleges, such as the DeSantis/Rufo-orchestrated ruination of New College of Florida, far-right enemies of public education are wildly enthusiastic about indoctrination as long as they get to do the indoctrinating.

Ultimately, their goal is to destroy public education and redirect the funds to private Christian schools and wingnut-owned charter and home school curricula grifts. But meanwhile, the unqualified political hacks they put in place to “transform” the institutions make out like goddamn bandits.

In the thread under John’s Tempe update post last night, I read some comments about right wingers collecting the Harvard and Penn presidents’ scalps. Someone noted that wingnuts really ramped up their campaign to destroy higher education when women began outnumbering men on campus.

That sounds about right. Educated women are less likely to settle for abusive, controlling men as mates, which is bad news for right-wing males. Also, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives enrage wingnuts for obvious reasons. It’s not enough that their bought-and-paid-for SCOTUS blew up affirmative action in higher ed — they want to delegitimize the very notion that systemic biases exist.

But I’ve got to think a main motivation for the attack on higher ed is the fact that college-educated voters are increasingly gravitating toward Democrats. If I recall correctly, in many recent elections, education levels have been more predictive of voter behavior than any other factor, including income.

Couldn’t Republicans try to figure out why they are losing college educated voters and adopt policies to lure them back? Haha, no! That would mean confronting the extremist morons who are no longer just the foot soldiers in the conservative movement but now comprise its officer corps and generalissimos too. It’s easier to just destroy public education instead.

Will voters put up with it? So far, they have in Florida, which failing presidential candidate Ron DeSantis says is “where woke goes to die.” But the lack of national enthusiasm for his candidacy, plus the electoral backlash against anti-woke agitators outside of far-right strongholds, provides hope that the rest of the country is where this dumb woke panic finally goes to die.

Open thread.

PS: I hope y’all’s new year is off to a better start than mine. I’m dealing with some life-disrupting (but not life threatening!) health issues that have and may continue to affect my output here. Fuck you already, 2024!

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  2. 2.

    Betty

    It is disconcerting to see what is happening to so many universities. I see that Christopher Rufo is celebrating his success.

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery from the health issues.

  3. 3.

    kindness

    Keep the faith Betty C.  Know we’re pulling for you.

    I would think at this point there would be metrics available for Florida universities under DeSantis’ rule.  Seems to me pointing at those repeatedly will help the less informed out there make a judgement call.

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    A complementary car? Really

    ETA: If you want students to be educated, maybe start with the English language.

  6. 6.

    Kay

    I love this post Betty.

    Youngstown is a funny place. They don’t like outsiders coming in – I think they get rid of him quickly.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    So sorry about the health issues, BC. I hope they’re under control very soon!

    ETA: Or what Baud said. We need you, and so do Pete and Badger and a whole lot of people.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    All the best to you, Betty.  Heal up soonest!!

    @Kay:  That could happen.  Hope it does.

    The GOP war on universities and education in general is actually a very good issue for Democrats in 2024.

  12. 12.

    Kay

    They’re getting rid of elected state education boards too. Ohio’s will be stacked with MAGAS – a crony appointment by the executive branch.

    I saw Arkansas is following suit. It must be coming from Wingnut Central.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    National Democrats haven’t run on public education like they might have because they were heavily invested in privatization themselves.

    But state level Dems have used it to their advantage for at least a decade – WI,PA, MI.

  17. 17.

    cain

    He also received pushback during a November press conference announcing the career change, after doubling down on his plans to overhaul the institution to get rid of its alleged liberal biases.

    I’m trying to figure out how the people in the search committee decided this is the candidate they want. I also wonder if the post graduates/alumni are going to be happy with basically a reformation of youngstown. The universities still need money from alumni  – and doing things that makes the value of their education go down is probably not going to go well.

    Not sure why the alumni in Florida didn’t do anything.. but alas.

    It’s interesting – because the governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels took over Purdue, but that place has turned actually more liberal than otherwise.

  18. 18.

    Old Man Shadow

    Hope you feel better soon.

    My own is off to a crummy start too. FIL has been fighting cancer for years now and cancer is going to win probably sometime this month or early next month.

  19. 19.

    cain

    My wife believes that education has become quite a bit more racist than in the past. With two jobs where she left under a cloud has taken their toll. But reading about stuff in Harvard and others  with people like Rufo being able to pull successes.

    But even more – the trendline of using zionism to threaten educators is quite disturbing.

  20. 20.

    FastEdD

    Feel better soon BC-your writing is absolutely why I love this place. My year end donations centered around where I went to undergraduate school. Small liberal arts (and I don’t mean “liberal”) colleges are hurting. Some are closing and need our support. Where I went to graduate school, Pepperdine, not so much. I do not feel warm and fuzzy about them. They hired Ken Starr to run their law school. That Ken Starr, after his scandal at Baylor. Fuck ‘em.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    US manufacturing construction spending at record high. Joe Biden is almost single-handedly reversing off shoring.

    I think we need another round of thinkpieces about how Democrats hate the working class and Trump is a populist. People who live in Brooklyn should write them, from their home offices.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Fingers and toes crossed that whatever health issues are now besetting you, are quickly resolved.

  24. 24.

    teezyskeezy

    @cain: “looks like” implies a lack of certainty. I’d say we can be absolutely certain this is what they want and what they are accomplishing.

  25. 25.

    Gary K

    Here are excerpts from a story at Inside Higher Ed. (If you want to read the full article, you’ll need to set up a free account.)

    The surprise hire of Representative Bill Johnson as president of Youngstown State University is raising concerns among faculty, students and alumni, both for the way the hiring process was handled and about Johnson’s record, which includes questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

    …

    Mark Vopat, a philosophy professor and president of the YSU faculty union, told Inside Higher Ed that the board bypassed common practices, such as announcing three finalists and welcoming them for campus visits. Instead, the trustees hired Johnson in a move that came as a surprise.

    “Faculty were caught off guard,” Vopat said, noting the campus only learned of the vote to hire a president two hours before the board met in emergency session on Nov. 16 to authorize contract negotiations with Johnson to become the next president of YSU. Five days later, the trustees met again to formalize Johnson’s offer.

    …
    “This is completely different than every other search,” said Volpat, who noted that in his 20 years at YSU, finalists had always met with faculty, students and others to discuss their vision for the university. Absent that process, Volpat said, Johnson’s plan for Youngstown State is unclear.

    “We literally have zero knowledge of his vision for the university,” Volpat said.

    …

    “Any questions regarding Congressman Johnson’s policy positions, if asked, were answered behind closed doors. The Congressman has opposed gay marriage, supported then-President Trump’s ban of travel from majority-Muslim countries, and, without evidence, questioned the validity of the 2020 presidential election. These issues cast doubt on his ability to lead YSU’s diverse student body. The Board’s choice to unilaterally move forward with no community input is fundamentally undemocratic in a moment that calls for more, not less, stakeholder participation,” a group of alumni wrote.

    …

    Vopat suggests that Florida-style politics, which puts higher education increasingly in the crosshairs, is creeping into Ohio.

    …

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @FastEdD:

    My first degree was a technical trade degree from a community college. I get a huge kick out of donating to them every year. I get a nice letter back and invitations to events I never go to. they were a lifesaver for me.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    That sounds about right. Educated women are less likely to settle for abusive, controlling men as mates, which is bad news for right-wing males.

    It’s not just that. College-educated women are less likely to settle for a non-college educated mate than they had in the past. There has been heaps of social science about education level being an axis of assortative mating in recent decades, when it hadn’t been so in the past. It used to be really common for a college-educated man to be married to a woman who hadn’t gone to college, and that is much less common now. So there’s a lot of men who are far less likely to ever marry than their fathers and grandfathers were. And that is breeding a lot of the backlash against women being educated.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Booming here in the forgotten rust belt. It’s kind of hysterical they haven’t noticed :)

    They probably can’t find any disgruntled rust belters to interview – they’re all working OT

  34. 34.

    lowtechcyclist

    I’m dealing with some life-disrupting (but not life threatening!) health issues that have and may continue to affect my output here. Fuck you already, 2024!

    Good luck in dealing with your health issues, BC! And remember, look after yourself first.

  35. 35.

    eversor

    As long as we have Christianity we will have Christian schools or no schools as all.  As people here refuse to get rid of Christianity than Christian schools it shall be and we shall use public funds for them.

    Sign me up for public funding of Christian schools, vouchers for private Christian schools, and prayer and Christian indoctrination in schools and let me vote for the one who has the best and most cut neck plan to make them happen.  And let me keep supporting this until we are willing to take on Christianity.

    We deserve it, we won’t fight it, so we should get it good and hard.

  37. 37.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    I love this post Betty.

    Youngstown is a funny place. They don’t like outsiders coming in – I think they get rid of him quickly.

    I hope so too, but some of the reactions of local leaders were disconcerting:

    Some local leaders 21 News reached out feel like Johnson would be a good fit.

    “The Congressman has been a Valley guy,” Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown said. “We’ve been in partnership with him for some time so it will be a welcome addition to this community. For me, he won’t be a stranger, we’ve always had a good relationship, so this will be a plus for the city.”

    “You don’t become a member of Congress without raising lots of money to win campaign after campaign and you know that is the most critical point of being in that position, that ability to raise money but it’s also bringing the community together and I have not met to many members of Congress, to many leaders at all that can bring people together to the degree that Congressman Johnson has brought people together,” Guy Coviello, President of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber said.

    The Youngstown Mayor is a Dem and black by the way. I have no idea why he was sucking up to this POS.

    Of course, the Regional Chamber clown only cared about his supposed ability to raise money.

    I don’t know what these people see in him to think he’s some kind of unifying leader that everyone likes

  38. 38.

    Old School

    A controversial Republican congressman known for his 2020 election denial and anti-abortion stances

    That doesn’t narrow it down all that much.

    I hope you feel better soon, Betty!

  39. 39.

    FastEdD

    @Kay: How cool is that! Helping a place that helped you is the way to go. It is nice to think that I’m in a position to help, because when I went to college I subsisted mostly on cheap beer and government cheese.

  43. 43.

    Kent

    Go Huskies!  My alma mater.

    For the first time in the modern era, there are no Confederate-state MAGA schools in the national championship.

    2014/15 was Ohio State vs. Oregon but I’m counting Ohio as a MAGA state these days.  Especially now given this Youngstown State fiasco.  This time we have two blue universities from blue states.

  44. 44.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Manyakitty:

    Not until recently. He represented Columbiana County and southern Ohio along the Ohio River. Tim Ryan used to represent a swath of Mahoning County and Y-Town before gerrymandering. He’s from Marrieta, Ohio, over 150 miles away from Youngstown

  45. 45.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: LAWL.

    Seriously, tho…. so much of why right-wingers are trying to dismantle education is based around misogyny. There’s a significant gap in lifetime earnings between college-educated and non-college-educated people, and the percentage of men who are in college and earning degrees has been falling relative to women. So women are making more money and achieving higher social status, and therefore are more selective about their partners.

    Rebecca Traister nails it:

    It’s clear that at least some of what is motivating conservatives is the threat of women in positions of power. When Roe was overturned, Ohio’s J. D. Vance, then running for the Senate, tweeted that “if your worldview tells you that it’s bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle at the New York Times or Goldman Sachs, you’ve been had.” The sentiments, like Brooks’s plea to Times readers to focus more on weddings than careers, give away part of the game: the fantasy that a return to a traditional family structure would take high-achieving women out of the job market.

  51. 51.

    jimmiraybob

    “Educated women are less likely to settle for abusive, controlling men as mates, which is bad news for right-wing males.”

    As Frederick Douglass said, “Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave … Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty.”

  54. 54.

    cain

    @Gary K: Let Alumni not give any money – once you start having that kind of pressure.

    Who are these trustees? We should know more about them.

  55. 55.

    Kent

    @Suzanne: I think misogyny for sure is a part of it.  But also politics generally.

    Universities are basically the engines of blue America.  Educated people are more likely to be blue.  Jobs for educated people are more likely to be urban/suburban which are also more likely to be blue.  Universities now educate more women then men and they are more likely to be blue, etc. etc.

    Now one can go to any southern University (lord knows I’ve visited a bunch of them) and find large numbers of MAGA-spawn and larval MAGAs.  But they are still probably the minority or at best, barely the majority, even at places like SEC universities.

  57. 57.

    Barbara

    They are terrified of the next generation.  There is no other way to say it.  The tolerance for gay and transgender people, the indifference to religion, putting off marriage or avoiding it altogether.  And the truth of the matter is, in a very real way, they made this world by elevating economic policies that put an absolute premium on self-reliance and zero priority on social support.  If it weren’t so dire for so many others I would find it funny that they apparently have been had every bit as much as anyone else has when it comes to the impact of Reaganomics.

  62. 62.

    Tony G

    For most of U.S. history, a college education was a privilege that was reserved for the sons (not daughters) of affluent white people.  My father, who was “white”, grew up poor and graduated from high school during the third year of the Great Depression.  Needless to say, college was out of the question for him, a fact that frustrated him for the rest of his life.  This assault on education, like all of the “culture war” campaigns, is part of an effort to turn back the clock to a time when everyone other than affluent white men knew their place.

  65. 65.

    Hungry Joe

    Executive/CEO/university presidents’ compensation just floors me. Youngstown, for example, couldn’t find anyone qualified for that position for, say $250K? In a relatively inexpensive city? Or, if you just HAVE to pay Johnson $410K, can’t he buy his own damn car and pay for his own damn digs? It’s a scaled-down version of big corporations: The CEO’s “compensation package” is $20 million because, hey, no way could we find anyone both competent and willing to do the job for a lousy million dollars a year.

    When I’m running things — and it’s only a matter of time — nobody makes more than $500K. For anything.

  66. 66.

    jimmiraybob

    @Suzanne: “Lots of mediocre men got married in previous generations because women had to marry in order to live.”

    Absolutely.  It’s women’s economic autonomy and self determination that are constantly under assault behind the guise of “reforming” health rights and education.  Education and liberty of conscience and action are enpowering.

  67. 67.

    Barbara

    @Suzanne: Never mind that the fall off in marriage is just as dramatic in most European countries, but without the same level of ill effects because social support is more of a given.  Also, constraining divorce just makes it more likely that people won’t get married to begin with.  Which is exactly what happened in Ireland when the Catholic Church was able to put its thumb on the scale of legislative policy against divorce, but could not prevent people from reacting by simply not getting married to begin with.  I really hate these people.

  71. 71.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Hungry Joe:

    Youngstown, for example, couldn’t find anyone qualified for that position for, say $250K? In a relatively inexpensive city? Or, if you just HAVE to pay Johnson $410K, can’t he buy his own damn car and pay for his own damn digs?

    The fix was in with Johnson, I think. Most of the trustees were appointed by DeWine/a Republican governor and they wanted a conservative culture warrior as the new president. They knew it wouldn’t be popular so they did the search behind closed doors

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Public schools have this “please love us!” attitude that breaks my heart a little. I think it comes from a good place! But conservatives see it as weakness.

    He won’t love you back, Youngstown State, and kissing up to them won’t save you.

    Only liberals do this,btw. Conservatives never beg liberals to like or accept them.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Public schools (K -12) are more popular with the public than just about any politician.

    Politicians should be begging THEM, not vice versa.

    But they’re nice earnest people so they don’t leverage that :)

  76. 76.

    JAFD

    @Barbara: Mayhaps they could abolish, hmm let’s see – chunky soup, frozen vegetables, wash-and-wear fabrics, laundromats, vacuum cleaners …

    In ye Good Olde Days, living a middle-class life required ‘support people’, either servants or a wife (note how the ‘bachelors’ of pre-1960 fiction and TV had maids or valets) to keep the ‘breadwinner’ fed and clothed.

    Technological and economic progress made living alone – for either sex – practical for the ‘middle-class’.

  77. 77.

    Kent

    @Hungry Joe: You don’t think a “celebrity” university president is actually going to LIVE in Youngstown do you?  I mean, yes, perhaps during the week.   But he will have a second house which will either be an estate out in the country someplace, or in the wealthy Cleveland or Pittsburgh suburbs or even further away.

  78. 78.

    Suzanne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    How are you defining “mediocre men”? 

    Men with average to maybe a little bit below-average earning power, capability, status, etc.

    Like it or not, coupling up is a market and it always has been. People need to bring something to the table. Men with college degrees get married at rates equivalent to previous generations. (And couples in which both partners have a degree and considerably less likely to divorce.)

    Jordan Peterson supporting “enforced monogamy” is another sign that right-wing men are trying to control women.

  79. 79.

    wjca

    @kindness: I would think at this point there would be metrics available for Florida universities under DeSantis’ rule.  Seems to me pointing at those repeatedly will help the less informed out there make a judgement call.

    Expect those to get the same treatment as standardized test for children’s education.  And for the same reason.  Home school and “Christian” academies fight those tests tooth and nail.

  80. 80.

    JAFD

    Dear Ms Cracker,
    Get well soon !
    and have a healthy ‘rest of 2024’
    and a year that is happy, peaceful, and prosperous, too !

  82. 82.

    Bupalos

    Republican leaders want to sandbag education because (regardless of it’s financial outcomes) it’s a path out of confused bitter suffering. Today’s republicans thrive on a miserable electorate. It’s really that simple.

    Though to keep my brand here, when we confuse those who ride herd on this ignorant misery with those subject to it, we do some of the formers’ work for them.

  84. 84.

    Bupalos

    @Kent: Youngstown proper is a bit bombed out though coming back a bit. But it still has a couple very nice suburban areas.

  85. 85.

    Betty Cracker

    @cain:

    Not sure why the alumni in Florida didn’t do anything.. but alas.

    Not sure why you assume that? There’s been lots of donor pushback, but it will take a while for the loss of funding to be felt, especially since DeSantis has a wingnut supermajority statehouse that rubberstamps hundreds of millions of state funding to cover any shortfalls.

    @Gary K: That sounds like exactly the playbook DeSantis used, first to sleaze Ben Sasse into the top job at UF, then to appoint the absurdly unqualified and corrupt Richard Corcoran as president of New College.

    @eversor: Fuck off, MAGA turd.

  86. 86.

    Soprano2

    @Betty: It maddens me that none of the news coverage of this even mentions Rufo at all. He lays the plan all out there, and even then they can’t be bothered to cover it!

  87. 87.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Is his a safe R seat? Maybe they wanted him to retire so someone younger could have it, and this is their way of doing that.

  89. 89.

    Walker

    The real problem is that they have hired someone as president who talks about transforming the university. He was not hired as provost. He was hired as president. The job of the president is to raise money. Not determine the academic direction.

  90. 90.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I’m sure they’re coming shortly. We all know the “Democrats hate the working class” stuff isn’t about actual jobs, anyway.

  91. 91.

    Tony G

    @rikyrah: Yes, we certainly don’t want Those People getting college degrees.  Poor white men shouldn’t be getting too much book learning either.

  92. 92.

    RaflW

    I’m not always a fan of Jamison Foser, but this is a strong piece about how the Times knows exactly what it is doing, and is more than willing to boost assholes like Rufo (not the adjective Foser uses).

    Christopher Rufo and Elise Stefanik understand that the New York Times wants to behave this way. They want to inflate academic jaywalking by Harvard’s president into a massive scandal worthy of weeks of wall-to-wall coverage.

    …

    There’s an endless supply of right-wing grifters and con artists like Rufo. He isn’t really the problem; he’s fungible. The problem is that whenever a new huckster on then Right emerges, the New York Times falls all over itself to amplify his lies. They did precisely the same thing with James O’Keefe almost 15 years ago.

    At some point, when the same news company seems to keep falling for transparent bullshit, we’re the suckers if we don’t conclude that they’re just doing what they want to do. And we’re helping them get away with it…

  94. 94.

    Soprano2

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Assholes. Men who beat their partners. Men who cheat without remorse. That kind of person. Women used to not have much recourse against this kind of man when there weren’t many jobs she could do to make a decent living.

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @Barbara: I read a book where the author said that if you looked at the number of outright desertions and households where the husband and wife were living separately along with actual divorces, it added up to approximately the modern divorce rate. There’s this myth that people used to stay together better, but it’s just not true.

  97. 97.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2: Yeah, lots of people — especially women — stayed in bad and even abusive marriages because they’d be broke otherwise. Now women initiate something like 2/3 of all divorces.

    I don’t think relationships were better in the past and people weren’t more inherently committed. 

  98. 98.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Thin Black Duke: It’s also where many of us first experience living alongside Black, Brown, (openly) LGBTQ people, Muslims Foreign Students, Feminists etc., and not only start to have them as friends/lovers but learn to listen to them, understand their perspectives and generally treat them with dignity and respect.  This has always been one of the biggest fears of White Parents that helped fuel massive resistance to Integration, Bussing, and funding of Universities/Colleges.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    As someone who worked/owned a business most of his life in manufacturing in the US a big part that I saw of the problem is that people like that they get to buy stuff but really want it to all be cheaper. But the cost of manufacturing stuff is only cheaper in other countries because of wages. The machinery and tools used cost roughly the same every where, it’s the wages and profit levels that are different. And the skills required often set the wage levels, they did in our business. We often had apprentices because learning was on the job, schools could only teach the basics, the heavy lifting and fine tuning took actual practice and time. Ever had a young doctor? They have been through intense training for nearly a decade and yet they require on the job immersion and ongoing training to become doctors these days and even then they have to specialize and update their knowledge constantly.

  100. 100.

    Suzanne

    A sick thought I just had….. what if Kyrsten Sinema becomes the next president of Harvard?!
    Fuck, I need a shower.

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @RaflW: Thanks for the pointer.

    The examples are endless.

    FTFNYT from 1989:

    The full-page advertisements placed in four New York newspapers today by Donald J. Turnip calling for reinstatement of the death penalty grew out of the real-estate developer’s ”deep-seated feeling that what’s happening in society today has to be stopped,” Mr. Turnip said in a telephone interview Saturday.

    The $85,000 worth of ads, in The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post and New York Newsday, refer to the attack by a gang of youths on a woman jogger and others in Central Park on April 19. The 600-word appeal, signed Donald J. Turnip, is titled ”Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” The advertisement appears today on page A13 of The Times.

    In the advertisement, Mr. Turnip says that Mayor Edward I. Koch ”has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts.”

    ”I want to hate these muggers and murderers,” Mr. Turnip wrote. ”They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.”

    Hey, people are talking about it. It’s important to hear both sides, yada yada.

    A.R. Moxon noted recently:

    These are rhetorical questions. Just asking them reveals the truth, which is that the effect of keeping hateful ideas in perpetual circulation doesn’t defeat them, but rather simply keeps them in circulation. Just asking reveals the truth, which is that mainstream platforming of the “ideas” of Nazis and other supremacists doesn’t defeat them, but rather makes them mainstream. Just asking reveals the truth, which is that mainstream platforming assists the bully’s agenda of always expanding the margins of permission, expanding the definition of what violence will be deemed debatable, and therefore acceptable, toward those against whom they intend violence and elimination.

    These are things so obvious to say that missing these things seems to require a certain willful ignorance, or even a deliberate desire to miss it.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    Emily68

    Betty—

    Hoping your health problems are soon solved.

    Hoping the students, faculty and staff of YSU make it through their new president’s tenure without too much disruption.

  103. 103.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: Saw it myself when I volunteered at the local battered women’s shelter. One woman told me she once went back because she was humiliated by having to stand in line to get her child a free toy for Christmas and having to use food stamps. She said getting hit was bad, but the way people looked at her when she did that was worse.

  104. 104.

    Barbara

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Well, I would define them as men who just don’t want to contribute to the running of a household or childcare and who essentially become like another child their partner has to take care of, except that the “child” demands the privileges of an adult as well as sexual gratification.

    I mean, Republicans really didn’t care about this at all so long as it was perceived only as an issue among out groups like African Americans.  They only really care now because it’s affecting people they always counted as part of their tribe.

  105. 105.

    mary s

    I kinda think that this Republican takeover attempt is partly due to the higher and higher salaries that higher ed higher ups have been making over the past few decades — meanwhile, faculty salaries have flatlined. It’s too good of a grift to pass up!

  106. 106.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Another Scott: ​Are we doing anything for the NY 3rd House special election? It’s to replace “Santos” – if that’s his real name. Tom Suozzi is the Democrat. The election is on February 13.

     You can sign up to write GOTV postcards for him: [email protected]​
    ETA: Corrected the email address.​ It’s still through PostcardsToVoters; Tony is the founder.

  107. 107.

    RaflW

    @Another Scott: To that Moxon quote, I did see a thread circulating on Bsky this morning on the potential efficacy of most of us just deciding not to hate-quote or trying to fisk or otherwise slap down bullshit from the right.

    Yes, we need strategies to confront bald lies. But we need not ‘just ask questions’ because propagandists want us to.

  108. 108.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Walker:

    The real problem is that they have hired someone as president who talks about transforming the university. He was not hired as provost. He was hired as president. The job of the president is to raise money. Not determine the academic direction.

    Just playing devil’s advocate here, but an argument can be made that fundraising among rich Republicans will go better if you tell them that their money will go towards “anti-woke” initiatives and hires. Sillier things have been done by uni presidents to bring in the donor dollars.

  109. 109.

    JML

    @UncleEbeneezer: applies to alumni from earlier generations who think their alma maters should remain exactly as they were in 1970. (Why yes, I did just get a bit of hate mail from an alum today saying they will never give until we end divisive and failing DEI programs and philosophy. Of course they haven’t given in years…)

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @RaflW: I didn’t see the bsky thread, but it sounds a lot like the “ignore him and he’ll stop” advice moms provide when a bratty kid is torturing a sibling. It doesn’t work in that context, and ceding the public conversation to malevolent morons won’t work either, IMO.

  113. 113.

    Bill Arnold

    @wjca:

    Why am I guessing it won’t be electric? Not even a Tesla.

    I’m thinking, because of the spelling, of a red F-250 with blue and white accents, triple-size truck nuts, large TRUMP 2024/MAGA decals, and plastered with MAGA and MAGA-related bumper stickers. Maybe an American flag, tattered from the wind. Gun-rack and coal-roller-pipes optional.

  115. 115.

    sab

    @Kay: Akron U got rid of Scott Scarborough pretty quicklcky, but he did very serious damage to the place in the meantime.

    Employers in Akron hire a lot of YSU graduates because they tend to be very good employees, and they are cheap because they will accept pay at Youngstown levels instead of Akron levels until they learn the difference.

  117. 117.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker:

    OTOH, … very long thread.

    David Roberts
    @drvolts
    23h

    All right, I really should be doing literally anything else with my time, but I have certain compulsions, so here’s a short thread on the Harvard thing.

    Or actually, not about Harvard per se, because I, like most Americans, don’t really give a shit what goes on at Harvard.

    Jan 2, 2024 · 9:26 PM UTC

    I just want to describe a certain pattern/dynamic that has replicated itself over & over & over again, as long as I have followed US media and politics. I have given up hope that describing such patterns will do anything to diminish their frequency, but like I said: compulsions.

    […]

    Anyway, this went on longer than I intended and I should shut up now. My one, futile plea to everyone is simply: before you jump in with an opinion on the discourse of the day, ask yourself *why* it is the discourse of the day and whose interests the discourse is serving.

    And maybe, just on occasion, have the courage to *talk about something else*, something *you* deem important, not just whatever the puke funnel has served up for you.

    Worth a few clicks. I think he goes off the rails a little in a few places, but he closes strong.

    (via BlueVirginia.US)

    I’m in the No One Weird Trick camp, but we do need to be better about advocacy and find ways of not having nearly every public discussion driven by whatever the RWNJs, and their enablers, want to talk about.

    How? Dunno.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    We all saw this coming: TheHill.com:

    Harvard alum Bill Ackman wrote in a lengthy post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that members of the Harvard Corporation, the board for the university, should leave if they supported former President Claudine Gay.

    (Wasn’t it unanimous that they didn’t want her to leave??)

    Meanwhile, …

    Jo
    @JoJoFromJerz
    17h

    Republicans in Texas want to ban contraception while also banning abortion, travel to states which allow for abortion AND access to life saving abortion, but please do go on about how this isn’t an all-out war on women won’t you.

    Jan 3, 2024 · 3:31 AM UTC

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @Another Scott: Interesting argument, but I’m not sure I buy the notion that nearly every public discussion is on a topic favored by the right. But even if that were true, as you ask, how can we change that? From some quarters, the answer seems to be don’t engage, but I don’t think that works.

  120. 120.

    Tony G

    @billcinsd: This business of “raising money” for these high-profile institutions has always puzzled me.  The potential donors have credit cards and checking accounts, and they know how to contact the institution, so what else is involved?  If I were a cynical man I would suspect that something or someone is being sold to the donors in return for their “generous donations”.

  121. 121.

    brantl

    We need a new term, dumbination. My definition is this: with malice aforethought, continually promoting in information dissemination, while attempting to strongly flood communication bandwidth with false information, bad faith arguments, clearly false and / or easily ascertainable as false, “information”, and otherwise vomiting verbal diarrhea to prevent people from: knowing the truth, being able to discriminate fact from fiction, or identify the bullshit grifting that has basically (for instance) become the modus operandi for the Rethuglican Party (GQP).

    Do their own research, my ass!

  122. 122.

    brantl

    @Another Scott:  One way to do that in the Harvard bullshit is to call bullshit on Elise Stefanik, her interpretation that calling for armed resistance by Palestinians is calling for the genocide of all Jews, or even all of Israel, was full of shit. Anyone with half a brain could see that, except for that microcephalic idiot, Stefanik.

  123. 123.

    JML

    @Tony G:  As a professional in this industry, let me tell you there’s a lot more to it. The schools that have been in the passive “if people want to donate, we’re here” mode have been struggling the most because they have no options when enrollment dips or state aid dries up. having a president who knows how to fundraise and really build relationships with people who support the mission of the school and will put in the time to do it are incredibly valuable.

    Sure, the donors can get things out of the relationship, but smart schools avoid making things transactional as much as possible. Real philanthropy isn’t about “what do I get if I give you this?”

    That said, just because someone fundraised as a politician doesn’t mean they can do it for a university (or that they’ll try). Most politicians hate that aspect of the job, and many of them actively run from it.

  124. 124.

    Another Scott

    @Tony G: People with big estates don’t give to universities with their credit cards. 

    Universities want rich alums to endow chairs and pay for new buildings and stock labs with state of the art equipment.  That means inviting them to exclusive parties, schmoozing, laughing at their jokes, and talking about the great things they want to do but they really need their support…

    After giving, they get their name on the building or whatever.

    E.g. The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences – he gave them $400M.

    Of course, the zillions he accumulated could have supported a lot more institutions of higher learning if we had a sensible tax code and didn’t let the rich get ever richer, but here we are…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  125. 125.

    catclub

    @billcinsd:

    despite BoRs hope that her connections and fund raising ability would translate to the school.

    That is the almost always the  job description of University president – fundraiser in chief. If they are not doing that they should be promptly fired.​

  126. 126.

    Martin

    The underlying threat of higher ed is that it undercuts the social hierarchy – it allows the lower castes to rise up into higher positions of authority – as Claudine Gay illustrated. It doesn’t accomplish this by indoctrination but by desegregation. When you throw a bunch of 18 year olds into a dorm, some of whom are gay and some are muslim and some are from small conservative towns, just as a matter of survival they will become more tolerant of one another. They will have opportunities to interact in ways that society currently doesn’t permit (but some parts of social media do, which is why young people get there before they get to college now). Given that the entirety of the GOP is committed to maintaining the social hierarchy and have abandoned all other policy interests, of course they’re going to go after higher ed.

    Interestingly, Trump is threatening to tax the large endowments found at many privates, which is an opportunity for Democrats to advance that idea in Congress. He wants to use it to build Trump Universities, but Democrats could earmark that money to reducing student debt. That’d be popular with the cohort of voters they’re currently having some trouble with.

  127. 127.

    billcinsd

    @Tony G: My school isn’t particularly high profile, although we do rank high on return on investment and among small schools

  129. 129.

    Paul in KY

    @Tony G: My dad was too poor to attend college. A fact that bugged him all his life. When a younger brother graduated college, he gave him his class ring, as a token that my dad should have been a graduate too.

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