I’m sure I probably do not share many of the political views of hedge fund manager and investor Bill Ackman. But I’m just going to take his Twitter post from yesterday and insert it here because what he highlights is simply damnable.
The presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania were all asked the following question under oath at today’s congressional hearing on antisemitism: Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?
The answers they gave reflect the profound moral bankruptcy of Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth. Representative Elise Stefanik was so shocked with the answers that she asked each of them the same question over and over again, and they gave the same answers over and over again.
In short, they said: It ‘depends on the context’ and ‘whether the speech turns into conduct,’ that is, actually killing Jews. This could be the most extraordinary testimony ever elicited in the Congress, certainly on the topic of genocide, which to remind us all is: “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”
The presidents’ answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership. Don’t take my word for it. You must watch the following three minutes.
By the end, you will be where I am. They must all resign in disgrace.
If a CEO of one of our companies gave a similar answer, he or she would be toast within the hour. Why has antisemitism exploded on campus and around the world? Because of leaders like Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth who believe genocide depends on the context. To think that these are the leaders of Ivy League institutions that are charged with the responsibility to educate our best and brightest.
On the bright side, our congressional leaders deserve accolades for showing tremendous leadership and moral clarity in their statements, by the questions they asked, and the respectfulness with which they conducted the hearing. It was a masterclass of how our government and democracy should operate.
If you have time, please watch the entire hearing. Throughout the hearing, the three behaved like hostile witnesses, exhibiting a profound disdain for the Congress with their smiles and smirks, and their outright refusal to answer basic questions with a yes or no answer.
Two points I want to make.
First, if you, as a student at one of these universities, “misgender” a trans person, each of these university presidents would support disciplinary action against you. If you call for genocide against trans people, you can be sure they would support your expulsion. But against Jews, it depends on context. Seriously.
Second, as much as a sh*t show as the House of Representatives can be on a daily basis, the GOP did a good thing here. It’ll get overshadowed by policy fights, but remember the GOP highlighted the morally abominable positions of these Ivy League presidents.
To Bill Ackman, Marc Rowan, etc. — if you want meaningful reform of these institutions, start publicly hiring from SEC schools. They have academically gifted students in mostly public universities who are not steeped in this nonsense. You change your hiring practices, you’ll promote more change at these institutions more quickly than withholding your money. They want the bragging rights of their students working at your institutions. Deprive them of that and they will change.
No, certainly not. It's simply a form of repayment, of sorts, for those who think they should get off fully free for the debt they've incurred. For college grads to give up 3 years to service of this country, puts them 3 years behind in beginning or stopping their career goals or aspirations. Besides, the education they've received in college might be very influential to the military.
At its peak in 1940, only about 9% of Germans were card-carrying members of the Nazi party.... that's 9%. The rest of them just went along for the ride.
In 1936, if every Jew and anti-Nazi in Germany had had a Mauser rifle, 20 rounds of ammo and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi thugs would have been nothing more than a footnote in the history of the Weimar Republic.