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Philip Carl Salzman's avatar

The "higher education" sphere is due for some creative destruction. A minor cutting back of administrative staff is not sufficient. A large number of bulldozers is more the ticket. We have got to clear the trash before we can build anew. Our universities are unalterably corrupt. A thorough housecleaning is the minimum needed for renewal. This includes much of the academic faculty.

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Wissner Slivka's avatar

Amen Brother!

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Dave's avatar

Canada, Germany and the UK are well on their way to becoming countries that suppress free speech much like Russia, Iran and China. We in the US must acknowledge this fact and realize that we can no longer be allies with countries that don’t share our love of freedom.

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The Seminar -Ken Gill's avatar

Don’t acquiesce because one then becomes complicit, an accessory to the crime.

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Mitch's avatar

I expect a revolution in the education market, which will bring increased competition and a need to eliminate any unnecessary and expensive bureaucracy. Even well branded institutions will eventually feel the pressure to reform themselves.

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Alexander Simonelis's avatar

Good pushback happening in the US - thank God! Behind the times and still backward here.

Cheers!

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Gideon Steinbach's avatar

Let's face reality: Freedom of inquiry and expression are alive and well. We are bombarded by infinite voices that were never heard before.(1) What we need is a professional institution of learning that enables youth to define their path through the chaos; to attain purpose; to become expert and to pursue a lifetime of positive work. Scientists have defined our path and exposed the dismantling of science, education and the institutional pillars of civilization.(2) But we did not stop the dismantling. We did not follow up with due diligence to restore academic discourse on campus. Instead, we engaged in ideological tit for tat: DEI-Woke, FIRE, Heterodox, endorsing pretend-freedom of expression no matter the content (true, false, hateful), no matter the damage (per Heterodox: no matter how much it hurts). Our campus has become a battleground and a launchpad of unverified expression to the global media. I agree that it is time to pause, look in the mirror, redefine our mission (restore academic discourse and the priority of content over expression).(3, 4) I agree with the U of T refocus on the integrity of content. That is a productive starting point that endorses the innumerable lives devoted to the advancement of knowledge. Our work is to define and implement the educational system that would replace DEI and the fabrication of disinformation.

1) https://hxstem.substack.com/p/appeal-to-redefine-academic-freedom

2) https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/download/article/3/1/236/pdf

3) https://weareall.com/pedagogical-malpractice/

4) https://weareall.com/education/

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Spartacus's avatar

From here I watch the fell spectacle of RFK Jr, that spewer of lies, disassemble CDC after being rebranded with MAHA, August 25, 2024. MAHA is his cloak of invisibility covering up the three decades of anti-vax lies that killed millions of children.

Yes, I voted for that party. They made a deal with Sauron to win the election. But the truth remains. That man is a horrific monster, and his legacy is mass death on a scale few can claim. And no one else can claim it for children under the age of 5. It is preferable to do battle with this, than the near certainty of the annihilation of much of Europe and the United States.

This administration was supposed to end the Ukraine war immediately, end the NATO clamor, and turn the doomsday clock back to 15 minutes to midnight.

So far, meatballs. Avarice and meatballs.

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Wen Jin's avatar

What do you mean? Aren't they doing that right now? Also, I bet you know hyperbole: how can an administration unilaterally end a war that happens in a different country? Ending the war means bringing Russia to the discussion table, and it looks like that's what is happening now.

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Spartacus's avatar

What they are doing right now is f**king around. They are looking for "return on investment" by taking half of Ukraine's rare earth resources. And that is a "camels nose" into the tent that will bring the USA back. The next administration will be Democrat because this one is already doing what Republicans always do, and going too far presuming a "mandate" that is just a "we need to calm down." The Democrats are the party of war, and if any toehold is left to cause a war over, they will do it.

The USA has always been able to end the Ukraine war because the USA created that war to start with. The 2014 coup in Kiev that overthrew the democracy of Ukraine was ours. We backed that coup. Why? Because this was supposed to be a duplicate of Afghanistan under Carter.

Carter signed an order to give money, weapons, training and intel to Jihadists in Afghanistan, almost 6 months prior to the USSR invasion of Afghanistan. The intent was to get the USSR to invade in order to bleed Russia's military like Vietnam did to the USA. When the USSR did invade, Carter and Brzezinsky celebrated privately. 10 years later the USSR left Afghanistan just like the USA did a few years ago. That Afghan gambit was credited with causing the collapse of the USSR.

I am quite sure that the Ukraine gambit was sold to Obama using the Afghan/Carter example. It didn't work. But that's why the Kiev revolutionary government immediately started the Ukraine civil war. The East of Ukraine was always Russian ethnic. That civil war kept on for 8 years, with Putin taking big hits in Russian public opinion because he didn't intervene to save Russian people. The Kiev government pursued an ethnic cleansing strategy, shelling civilian homes to try to clear out people whose families had been there longer than the USA has been a nation.

Look at the fact that Barrack Obama immediately named the people of Ukraine that were loyal to their elected government "the rebels". That is straight out of Orwell, and a major fact to think about.

There were several treaties to end the Ukraine war negotiated prior to this. Each time the USA told Ukraine no, don't end the war. Why? Because the primary goal of the Ukraine coup has nothing to do with Ukraine itself. The primary point is to cause Russia's collapse. But that hasn't happened, because Russia is a firmly capitalist nation with properly functioning central bank and tax system. Russia has good leadership now.

So yes. All the USA has to do to end the Ukraine war is make it so, and clear out without any conditions for repayment. Just quit. Failure to do so means nuclear war. Russia's conventional forces are ground down.

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Ilya V. Buynevich's avatar

I am a Ukrainian (emigrated to USA just before USSR collapsed). I agree that most people in eastern and southern Ukraine are Russian-speaking, including my hometown of Odesa. If anyone likes Russia, they can just move there - it was easy since 1991. Ukrainian army did not fight civilians, but Russian forces and their collaborators since 2014. They never bombed Mariupol, in Donetsk region because Russians did not control it (until they bombed it in 2022, killing thousands).

Not sure how any U.S. plan (even if conceived by Obama folks) forced Russian military to take over Crimean parliament.

Hope the killing ends soon - Ukraine is first of all Its people and every death, in my mind, is on limp-wristed liberals (in US and around the world).

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Spartacus's avatar

So. I have native American ancestry. In fact some artifacts I used to wear as a child are now in a museum in Fargo, ND. So, maybe I can say, If anyone (like you) likes Ukraine, they can just move there. Nobody is keeping you here in the USA. I am mirroring what you just said back at you. If "my people" were shelling your neighborhood here in the US it would complete the picture.

Crimea and the East was "given" to Ukraine by Kruschev when nobody thought it mattered. The Russian ethnic people of Ukraine asked Russia for help after fleeing the Bandera revolutionary coup in Kiev.

I must disagree with your facts. There is no question that the Kiev Bandera revolutionaries immediately began a civil war by attacking the East. Perhaps you believe that the US mainstream media provided full, accurate coverage of Ukraine? No. Nothing remotely like that.

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Ilya V. Buynevich's avatar

I agree with you that modern liberals are responsible for recent wars.

Disagree with your analogy - if I collaborated with Ukrainian army invading USA, then it would work.

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Wen Jin's avatar

I don't disagree with you on who started the war and why. What I can't understand is the solution you suggest. What exactly do you think the US should do right now, other than stop sending money to Ukraine and starting the negotiations with Putin?

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Spartacus's avatar

Get it done. Stop f**king around with b*llsh*t like sending Bessant to Ukraine to deliver an ultimatum about "sign over half your rare earths to the US you have one hour." Just end it. I have read Russia's proposals, and they are more than reasonable.

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Wen Jin's avatar

Thank you!

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Ben Slivka's avatar

We spent three days exploring the many dimensions of academic freedom restrictions at https://benslivka.com/2025/02/02/censorship-in-science-usc-january-10-12-2025/

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