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The fallout from Trump ~~'s war on Harvard~~ will long outlast his presidency
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.
"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.
Also remember that whenever Trump talks about things being good or bad for 'America', he means himself.
Also remember that whenever Trump talks about things being good or bad for 'America', he means himself.
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.
Words don't have meaning any more, or they mean whatever you want them to mean as long as you can use them to pummel the opposition, because that's all that really matters. It's the style of the time.
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.
WW2 says wut?
Good point, actually.
Canada declared war on Germany in 1939, because it was the right thing to do.
The USA declared war on Japan two years later, the day after Pearl Harbor. Soon after, Germany and Italy declared war on the USA.
So, like you do realize that prior to our physically entering the war, we ramped up production of war material and basically supplied the allies?
Like, I do respect Canada's decision, don't think for a second I'm diminishing that. But if we hadn't spent time ramping our industrial out put, the allies very probably would have lost. Pearl Harbor gave us a kick in the pants, though we were already building our military to enter. you don't go from a tiny, basically non existent military to 2.2 million strong overnight.
edit to add: it's a lot easier to get 11 million people to agree politically than 130 million people. there's simply more inertia. we can debate about what should have happened, and such. the reality is that we did enter the war indirectly.
Outside of American history, a LOT was happening in the second world war. You may not have been exposed to that education.
Remember that before the US entered the war, it demanded all of the UKs patents. It was a trove worth absolutely billions back then. Mercenaries.
The curriculum you may have seen may typically paint the US as being the single-handed victor to a righteous battle, as the trend goes, but they missed a lot in their summaries.
The curriculum you may have seen may typically paint the US as being the single-handed victor to a righteous battle, as the trend goes, but they missed a lot in their summaries.
I'm not saying that's not true. But it's equally unfair to say that Americans weren't contributing to the overall war effort until 41/42 when we entered with troops. the soviets and UK in particular would absolutely have collapsed if we weren't involved. Also.... I can't find anything indicating the the US demanded UK patents, and certainly not all the patents.
What I am seeing (and what matches what I've seen before,) is that there was a mutual transfer of technologies that were largely strategic in choice. it was definitely uneven- some of it was a simple matter that we needed to know how to build the stuff you all wanted. Can't exactly make torpex without the formula for torpex, right?
I suspect your curriculum was every bit as biased as mine. Which is the normal for history class. most places gloss over the, ah, troublesome, aspects. Germany is one of the very few places I know of that makes an active effort to not.
A German speaking person criticizing US actions during WW2 is absurd. Remind me, what contributions Germany had in that war? America sacrificed tremendously to right the wrongs of Europe in WW2. My grandfather was surrounded in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, survived and went on to liberate several German concentration camps where Jews were being slaughtered and has photos of the piles of dead emaciated bodies to show of it. The allies, yes including your Canada and the US ultimately supported free Germany until the Berlin wall fell and helped make it the powerhouse it is today. I do not defend current US policy, but to say the US has never deserved respect is fucking bizarre and totally off base.
My grandfather came from Poland and was a pow in Germany.
I hope Winston Churchill is English enough to quote.
Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.
That quote proves America did the right thing.
Look, take Ukraine and imagine had Biden not published intel that Russia was about to invade. The rest of Europe was busy buying too much oil from Putin to care. We then have contributed many Billions in support to keep democracy alive in that country, a neighbor of Poland. Sure, shit all over Trump for unwinding our efforts there, but don’t ignore how much we helped defend Eastern Europe.
Do you honestly think Germany would have been better off without US’s contribution to WW2?
Everyone in here is downvoting me because they have such a short memory and hate Trump, but again, saying the US has never helped the international community is simply way the fuck wrong.
IIRC Canada declared war on Germany to get independence from Britain, but don't quote me on that.
I mean okay but right after you had the Korean war so... uh... yeah.
Wait, are you taking North Korea’s side in that conflict? Bwahahaha.
No, he's saying it was none of our business. We weren't exporting democracy, just extreme capitalism.
It does nothing to refute the US’s contribution to WW2, a non sequitur at best.
Yes, they contributed a lot but also done a lot of nasty things such as dropping nukes and importing a lot of horrible war criminals. They also waited before entering the conflict and if it wasn't for Japan, they might have entered too late.
Bash Trump ‘the Orange’ all you want, but criticism of the timing for entering WW2 is another strange hot take. I’m certain you’d be the same guy accusing the US of war mongering since then. You can’t have it both ways.
Look, we do deserve appreciation for stabilizing the free world and democracy for the last 80 years. Finally when we struggle internally with our own political turmoil, everyone turns their backs on us and shits all over the US, immediately forgetting the stabilization. The anger and turmoil right now is evidence of how much of a positive effect the US has had since WW2. You come off as ungrateful at a time when the US could use some help in the fight against corruption.
It lost mine in the Reagan era, so it's nothing new. Trump is a point on a curve that you've been following for decades. That also means that the Republicans can do even worse than Trump, and probably will.
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".
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.
What does he care; with his health he’ll be dead in 5 years anyways.
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. :(
I think narcissism extends the lifespan of evil people, through the sheer power of the placebo effect. That sucks.
He's literally demented. In contrast, Biden can actually consistently form coherent sentences.
Pok the caw in boston hobba.
this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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