Top 10 Harvard-Globe Comments

MITHRIDATES
The Internet has changed journalism forever. You heard that first here. One of the great improvements over old-fashioned print media is the comment section at the end of an online article. This is where you learn that — however reasonable you originally thought the article was — it's really just either socialist propaganda from the left-wing media machine or fascist rhetoric from the corporate/Christian right.

Don't be fooled by a seemingly bland article about an apparently apolitical topic . Somewhere there's a communist plot — and our commentators are going to find it for us. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a supposedly left-leaning (left-wing, socialist, COMMUNIST!) paper's article about an allegedly liberal (radical, anti-American, MARXIST!) institution.

So without further ado, here are the top 10 comments from Harvard to Lay off 275 in the Boston Globe:
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1. Ah, the poetic justice is intoxicating. These Universities were the most fervent supporters of President Obama in his run. The Liberal minded Professors slamming any opposition to him on campus. Now, with benefactors getting hammered left and right with taxes, threats to take their wealth, and so forth and so on, they are running for the proverbial hills. Which leaves the previously mentioned Professors scrambling to retain their jobs. I wonder what they think of their CHOSEN ONE now. He conned everyone he came in contact with, and is now dismantling the very same establishment which put him in power. The sweet smell of buyers remorse is in the air. - Posted by Jim

2. See what communists does? It runes the eckonomy by redistributting the wealth. Now those Harvard libruls can feal it.
   We need Free Markets, deregulation on Wall Street and TAX CUTS for the top 5 percent in order to make this economy better for all of us teabaggers.
   Who cares about educashun and evoloution when you don't get a job?? Knot me. - Posted by Jonny Wingnut

3. billions in the bank and laying people off??? Not for profit??? something is not right here? LIke everyone else said, why arent they paying taxes? This state is a JOKE. Why do we still live here?If they only had a BILLION in the bank it shouldn't matter. - Posted by rayhags

4. Harvard can't dip into its endowment to save some of these jobs? Got to build another gigantic building, but let go of all the personnel? I thought communism was all about redistributing wealth to everyone? - Posted by realist

5. Harvard isn't going to hell, it's already there. E-gad what a horrible bunch of people. - Posted by Jack Higgins

6. This is almost entirely fault of former Harvard President Larry Summers.
   I just hope he would not screw our nation/federal government.- Posted by Rudy Biden
   

7. Economic problem precipitated largely by Harvard Alum's and now it comes home to roost. Maybe a revision of the Ethic's Standard and Practice courses would be apropos! - Posted by DanB

8. Sure .... Destroy the economy and lose 275 jobs. Justice??
   What a bunch of elitist clowns at that place...
   They do not get it at all... Answer - Do not respect these low life bone heads. Show them massive disrespect wherever they go. They are the elite gone mad. - Posted by Terry Wise

9. I find it interesting that a large majority of comments on this subject are barely literate. - Posted by Ed

10. Is there a sensible reason why there is a commentary section for articles published in this newspaper? The quality of the reactive screes that people write is an embarrassment. It is a forum for those that need somehow to express their anger at anything that stays still long enough to tag with graffiti.

    It is hardly any better than that.

    I think that this newspaper should rethink the premise on which researched news articles are plastered with these random splatters of anger. - Posted by David
    

Ah, the delightful bashing of: one of the best of our world-leading institutions of higher education; a great contributor to the advancement of science; a source of pride for the U.S. and the state of Massachusetts; one of the state's top employers; one of the top attracters of talent from around the world to the United States; a leader in providing affordable debt-free education to top students; and a contributor to the education of the general public through its Extension School . . . thank God for the Internet!

Harvard Finds a Cure

MITHRIDATES
So Eric Holder thinks we're a nation of cowards when it comes to race and George Bush doesn't care about Black puppets, but where do the rest of us stand? To find out I took one of Project Implicit's association tests. And like the vast majority of people who take the test I was found to have a preference for white people. Could it be true? After my liberal upbringing, living in a predominantly black neighborhood for several years, and voting for a black President? Hell, I even picked a black dog.

So are we all racists deep down? Maybe so. Who knows, really? But here are a few alternative explanations. Before I give anything away, take the test here. There are tons of them, but take the one on race. It's definitely worth doing.

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First explanation: The test takes the form of a game in which we try to sort black, white, good, and bad into the right categories. It takes some getting used to and, not surprisingly, I think I got a lot better at it after a few minutes of playing. The first time I played they gave me good/black and bad/white and I didn't do very well; the next time they gave me good/white and bad/black and I did better. They concluded that I was better at assigning good to white than good to black and that I have an implicit preference for white people.

But hold on a second. Maybe I'm not racist and just got better at the game. What if they gave everyone the test in the same order. Could they be that stupid? So I did the whole thing again and they gave them to me in the reverse order. They still concluded I had a preference, but only slight this time. At least they appear to be randomizing the order. This may lead to valid conclusions about the group, but not any one individual.

But it does raise an issue about the "cure" as described in wired.

After being trained to distinguish between similar black male faces, Caucasian test subjects showed greater racial tolerance on a test designed to to measure unconscious bias.

Hmmmm. Or maybe they just got better at the game like I did . . . Sounds a bit fishy.

Second explanation: The way I took the test was to think "black-good" and "white-bad" and sort as best I could. This reminded me of a speaker we had at my lefty-minded, New England prep school who told us about self-esteem among black kids by noting how the Thesaurus was filled with negative words related to "black" and positive words related to "white". As in black mark, Black Monday, black magic; and white knight, white wedding, whitewash. Or note the antonyms for "white" on thesaurus.com: black, dark, dirty.

This is a big problem with the researchers' conclusion. They take the synonyms of "black" — bleak, atrocious, horrible, sinister, nasty, foul, threatening — and test to see how good we are at associating them with "white". All our lives we've seen and heard negative associations with the word black and positive ones with the word white. It would only be natural for someone who didn't care one way or the other about black people or white people to perform the way most people did on the test. This could certainly be problematic for the self-esteem problem described above, but it certainly causes us to doubt the assumption of preference for white people over black people.

Third explanation: Well, let's just hope it's the first or second . . .

Rules of the Protest

PHUTATORIUS
As I sit in my office and listen to the picketers outside, I try to ascertain by induction some of the rules that govern organized protests:

*You have to march in a circle, apparently. This signifies that your cause has no beginning and no end. Also, that it's going nowhere.

*The best way to convey the seriousness of your issue, the righteousness of your anger, is to reduce it to rhyme. For example, "FE FI FO FUM, HARVARD WORKERS HERE WE COME!" You may be casting yourself as the little guy against Goliath, but it's fine to adopt the persona of a different murderous giant, so long as your rhyme is catchy.

*Pause periodically to applaud for yourselves. No one's going to do it for you, and the cheering and clapping by no means undercut the central message of your protest, which is that you're mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore.

That's really all I can figure. I think I'm going to go down there with my D and my fence, see if I can't shake things up a little. Oh, and my fire hose, too.

Attention Harvard Grads - Vote!

MITHRIDATES
Here's a Boston Globe column worth reading. Why?

• Because it still does matter what type of example Harvard sets. Other institutions often do follow its lead.
  
• Because there has to be a greater willingness for faculty and students to have honest and open debate, instead of sanctioning one politically correct opinion and shunning all others.
  
• Because science doesn't happen magically overnight. It requires a constant challenging of ideas and objective analysis free from political interference.

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Our universities get routinely slammed by certain political groups. Most of it is unwarranted. Our universities are the best in the world and, as much as anything else, provide a competitive advantage for the US. The best talent still comes here to go to our universities. They develop innovative companies here. They advance science here. Maintaining the preeminence of our higher education should be a priority of any administration that cares about the long-term competitiveness of the US.

But the criticisms about free speech and political correctness are valid and need to be addressed. And this may have to be done locally. A small step in the right direction by Harvard could make it easier for others to follow. I wish I had a vote in that election . . .

Addendum: Please don't let this post suggest any support or knowledge of any of the candidates beyond what's written in the Globe column. Oftentimes those who are fighting political correctness are just assheads spouting out crap. This may be the case here, for all I know. But at least let's get the issue on the table . . .

Yeah — Thought So

PHUTATORIUS
Here's a story for you: Harvard kid transfers to LSU; lands the starting QB job, after the Next Big Thing craps out of the Tigers' program; gets concussed and leg-crushed in league play; then figures out — duh! — that his life chances are better if he avoids certain death and dismemberment in the SEC and gets his Harvard degree instead.

Bright guy.