How Columbia University Broke my Heart

Last week, Columbia bowed down to the fascist regime. A lot of you think this had to do with antisemitism, but it didn’t. That was just misdirection.

In capitulation, the august institution lowered the bar, and it’s probable that other institutions of higher learning will also fold. We’re going to come back to why the fascist regime did what it did (which had nothing to do with antisemitism) and what their plan really is.

But first, I want to talk about the Port Huron Statement.

Back in college, one of my sociology professors was a guy named “Bob Ross” — NOT the painter, rather the “Robert J. S. Ross, PhD” who was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society, and one of the writers of the Port Huron Statement.

The Port Huron Statement was the start of the student activism movement in the 1960’s. While some of the document is now dated, the upshot was that participatory democracy (with a lot of non-violent civil disobedience) was critical. Their argument (and remember, this was the summer of 1962) was that the civil rights movement, along with other movements of the time were not doing enough, and therefore, to move the Democratic Party to adequately address the needs of what the statement termed “publicly disinherited groups” it was necessary to bring in universities. These schools were open to all sorts of viewpoints, and their teachings, per the Statement, should “consciously build a base for their assault upon the loci of power” to the end of moving the Democratic Party to where it needed to be.

For people like me, who studied government, sociology, international relations, geography and other disciplines at a liberal arts institution, under spectacular professors like Dr. Ross, we were imbued with the conviction that government could be a force for good, provided the elected representatives were committed to leveraging government for the good of ALL people. They taught us the why, and gave us a framework for the how.

If you had any question about why the fascist regime is trying to dismantle higher education, you can date it back to this. Back in the 60’s and 70’s much collegiate education was “ivory tower intellectualism” as opposed to the far more vocational approach in practice today. MAGA world HATES the idea of learning for learning’s sake, the idea that learning how to think and approach problems is unworthy. Above all, they DETEST that part of that sort of education involves debate and hearing from multiple points of view.

It’s a large part of the reason that they want to dismantle the Department of Education: they do not want kids to be educated in anything other than fundamentalist Christian bible information — what more do you need to be a proletariat serf, or a baby-generating machine? Leave “real” education exclusively for people who can afford it.

THIS is what Columbia destroyed with their craven capitulation.

While the regime screamed “antisemitism”, it really is a distraction from their overall plan. Yes, the fascists hate Muslims, and they’ll be able to use hammers against individual people who have spoken out at pro-Palestinian protests last year. They’ll be able to force Columbia into a definition of antisemitism that will end up being required at many other institutions.

But that’s not their goal. The stick they used was the cancellation of $400 million in grants. Those grants had nothing to do with Jews or antisemitism, and everything to do with DEI. If you read a list of the grants that were canceled, most were medical or scientific, and were previously required by law to include information about how to “enhance diversity” in their proposals. More specific information here.

The grants they canceled at Columbia, and Johns Hopkins, and others, were canceled because of DEI BUT ALSO because the fascist regime is opposed to scientific research of any sort, unless it is undertaken by groups and organizations that share their political leanings. This decreases the important research about how, for example, cardiac and vascular disease in women is different in terms of symptomatology and treatment from men. It means that diseases like sickle cell anemia won’t get researched, since in the US, only 2% of cases are in white people. Source. It also works to tank research for the sake of research. For example, when the original work on atom splitting and particle accelerators was begun, the scientists had no idea to where it might lead. Think it through.

At colleges and universities, to be on tenure track, one needs to undertake research. It’s the lifeblood of the system. A lack of funding for research greatly weakens the institutions. It means, however, that others can fund research. Do we really want Phillip Morris paying for research on the impacts of cigarette smoking? Do we really want Anheuser-Busch in charge of research about alcoholism?

Weakening institutions of higher education, especially starting with the Ivies and other superior schools is one goal. There is, and will be, decreases in the number of applications from potential students, especially international students. The pool of those “acceptable” to teach will likewise be diminished. As an aside, the movement of Pell Grants and Student Loans from the DoE to the SBA (which has no idea what to do with the programs) will end up lowering the number of students who can attend colleges and universities. OH WAIT - only those who can pay. Sorry, I digress.

The overall dismantling of higher education is the goal. It’s that simple.

There are those who will read this and wonder why I am not talking about antisemitism. It’s a fraught issue: the pro-Palestinian protests last year, the violence, the encampments, the fear of Jewish students and professors at those schools. Is antisemitism a problem? Yes. Antisemitic actions are on the rise. Some stats. The ADL says that 46% of the world’s adult population harbor antisemitic attitudes. Source. More details.

Were the violence, building invasions, and encampments antisemitic? Yes and no. Certainly some of the people involved were blatantly antisemitic. But others, Jews included, felt that the actions of the Netanyahu regime against the residents of Gaza (Palestinian and non-Palestinian alike) were completely unacceptable, even if these folks support Israel’s right to exist. Remember - Netanyahu and his lackies are NOT “Israel” and “Israelis”, in the same way that the Orange Menace and his flunkies are NOT “America” and “Americans”.

But in certain ways, it doesn’t matter. The fascist regime has a plan to deport as many Muslims as possible, along with as many black and brown people as possible. They want to destroy anything “DEI-related”, and then learning, research, face it, anything related to the intelligentsia. They are working on intimidating lawyers and law firms who should be standing firm, albeit most are not. They have browbeaten much of corporate America into submission. The list continues….and finally, the fascist regime will remember Charlotte in 2017, the fact that their base is comprised of white nationalists chanting “Jews will not replace us”, and then they will come for the Jews. Thus, the antisemitism thing is a foothold for them, but in the end, they’ll remember they are Nazis.