The fallout from Trump ~~'s war on Harvard~~ will long outlast his presidency
this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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"Harvard's got to behave themselves," he told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. "Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper."
Years ago, someone on Tumblr had a comment on respect, which very much applies to Trump and his fascists:
Sometimes people use 'respect' to mean “treating someone like a person”, and sometimes they use 'respect' to mean “treating someone like an authority”.
And sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say, “If you won’t respect me, I won’t respect you”; and they mean, “If you won’t treat me like an authority, I won’t treat you like a person.”
And they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay.
Yeah, I disagree with the saying “respect is earned, not given”. But that’s because I define respect as treating others like a person and with dignity.
Therefore, I believe respect should be given, and not earned.
I think that aphorism is about authority-respect rather than basic-human-decency-respect.
This thread makes me wonder how much contemporary American English is to blame for people being able to exploit ambiguities surreptitiously. Dog whistles have to start somewhere, they don't seem to be prearranged.
I suspect that Trump would be one of the most influential presidents, destroying a superpower in record time. China had the mythological evil kitsune empress Daji, we have the real world Trump.
This guy will be in history books, for all the wrong reasons.
The fallout in general. The USA will not rekindle the trust and respect it had in my lifetime I imagine.
We very well may not recover the science and technology lead we had. Or medical - we may have a horrible system of healthcare but top notch development of treatments and technologies.
Or more importantly, we’re squandering the possibility of developing manufacturing for the next few decades on the attempt to develop manufacturing of the past.
And yes, immigrants. So much of what has made the us great has come from immigrants coming here to build a better life for themselves. So much of our economy, our innovation, our research, and yes our culture. If we succeed in driving away that flow, then we’re just another aging has been, with too many old people, not able to afford to maintain everything we built in the past
I am hoping we have an Roosevelts-style president to reform America into something greater. America still has potential to do great good on the world stage, but that will require an overhaul of society. It will hurt, but I think we could become a renewed beacon of democracy and egalitarianism, if we fight for it.
Roosevelt had time, that no other president ever will, and a much simpler world.
I’d argue there are a lot of parallels with what Biden was building. The investments made during his term could have really built our future, really changed our posture on the world stage. Not only built a better tomorrow but keep us in a position where we can lead, can influence, can bring the world together. Maybe I’m too naive but my biggest objection to his presidency was so many investments that really would have set us up in the decades to come, but not quickly enough to get him reelected. Not quickly enough to stay the course long enough to deliver the results. Now it’s all undone. All that investment thrown away, turned into a waste of money because it’s not allowed to deliver on its investment
Which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. The US never deserved that trust and respect.
It's weird to hear Harvard being labeled a "stronghold of the left." I suppose it could be true given just how close-minded the right is. I also don't know much of what all Harvard does.
The thing is you can’t deny they are a center of science, research, innovation. Harvard is one institution that makes US stand out globally, and drives so much of what we think of as our exceptionalism. This truly is an attack on our future.
When my son was little, he had a very aggressive form of cancer. He came through it with treatment developed by Harvard research. In the couple decades before, Harvard directed research had driven mortality down from 90% to 10%. Now Trump wants to punish Harvard out of personal spite and one of the first things he does is cut research at Children’s hospital? How can you still call yourself human?
When you consider education itself to be “leftist” and prefer indoctrination and dogma to critical thinking and the scientific method, it makes more sense.
I, too, have a hard time reconciling a private, extremely expensive education facility catering to the 1% as "leftists".
Leftists is a false premise, more elite rich which sway with the money tree left to right.
those leftist 1% in Harvard are the "armchair caviar leftists", who sound very intellectual and make a lot of noise
When you're a Nazi, like many in Trump's administration, everything looks like a stronghold of the left.
I've said it several times. Harvard runs shit in the Boston area more than people outside the New England area realize.
Harvard runs shit, in broad daylight secrecy, from within a democratic stronghold.
Doubt he's even thinking that far ahead.
Or at all.
What does he care; with his health he’ll be dead in 5 years anyways.
5 years
Now I'm sad.
People keep saying this. Sadly I just don’t think it’s true. He seems to be doing quite well for his age. His mind maybe is going a bit, but nowhere near where Biden was at, and they managed to keep him in office. This doesn’t give me hope that Trump is going anywhere soon. :(
He's literally demented. In contrast, Biden can actually consistently form coherent sentences.
I think narcissism extends the lifespan of evil people, through the sheer power of the placebo effect. That sucks.
Pok the caw in boston hobba.