Althouse: "What can you say about an institution that is willing to break faith with its members and engage in blackmail and the subornation of false statements to wage a political vendetta?"

November 19, 2021

"What can you say about an institution that is willing to break faith with its members and engage in blackmail and the subornation of false statements to wage a political vendetta?"

"Sadly, you’d have to say that it’s pretty typical these days. As we’ve seen in the willingness of the press, with help from the FBI and other government agencies, to spread many false stories, from the Russian 'collusion' myth to the phony reports on the Covington boys in Washington to the bogus University of Virginia 'rape' case, politics trumps all in America’s elite institutions. Which, by all appearances, aren’t so elite after all. Maybe we should stop acting as if they are."

Writes Glenn Reynolds, in "Students suing Yale Law show America’s elites have a low opinion of minorities" (NY Post).

46 comments:

Owen said...: What’s the over/under on Gerken leaving to devote more time to her stamp collection? She has embarrassed the System. Can’t have that.; 11/19/21, 5:58 AM
gilbar said...: next thing you know;
our 'elite' will be trying to place a soviet shoplifter in charge of our banks!
Nah! even our elites wouldn't be So Messed Up, as to do something That Crazy!

That would be like putting a senile Minor Attracted Person and his cocktail waitress/baby sitter in the white house; 11/19/21, 5:59 AM
David Begley said...: This is a serious, serious problem. We NEED a fair and honest media if we are to continue to have a constitutional republic.

In Omaha, the power company is a government entity. Directors are elected. We had a nuke power plant along the Missouri River. The river flooded. The nuke plant closed. And it never re-opened. Almost no media coverage and no explanation.

Now the public power district is poised to spend billions on solar and wind. No media coverage. Yet. I’m working to fix this.; 11/19/21, 5:59 AM
rhhardin said...: Administrative people are sources of soap opera. It's the only world they're relevant in, once they give up just ordering pads and pencils for others as too demeaning.; 11/19/21, 6:23 AM
tim in vermont said...: "We NEED a fair and honest media "

Kramer voice: "Oh, I don't think so."

They want a propaganda state, like Nazi Germany was, and will do whatever it takes to achieve that. Besides, words like "fair" and "honest" mean different things to different people.; 11/19/21, 6:23 AM
Original Mike said...: "Writes Glenn Reynolds, in "Students suing Yale Law show America’s elites have a low opinion of minorities" "

When attributes like hard work, objectivity, and even punctuality are denigrated in misguided support of minorities, yeah, I'd say elites have a very low opinion of the people they are trying to assist.; 11/19/21, 6:27 AM
Original Mike said...: "This is a serious, serious problem. We NEED a fair and honest media if we are to continue to have a constitutional republic."

IMO, it's our number one problem.; 11/19/21, 6:29 AM
Temujin said...: "Maybe we should stop acting as if they are."

And that is the key. In most of the world, an organization, especially a business, is only as good as the product or service that it currently offers or has recently offered. In some instances, organizations and businesses that have held a high brand reputation get a long slack period where they live on by their reputation alone for a few years, until reality catches up. Remember how great and luxurious Lincoln Continentals were? Yeah. I don't either. Or Michigan Football? Talk about riding on a reputation from long ago.

Our universities have been cranking out degrees shoved into pockets of under-educated young people for decades now. They've dumbed down the curriculum, removed the classics, removed many forms of testing, inflated grading, and put race and social trend quotas on both the subjects taught and what might be thought or spoken.

When we get to properly rating the schools- and not just counting SAT scores of those entering, or those with reputations on their law and med schools, we may find that on a level field of judgement, some grads are worth more than others in the real world. And that's how we need to judge the Universities.

Sometimes the graduate from Nebraska brings more useful knowledge and abilities to the table than anyone coming out of Brown. Actually- I would bet on the Nebraska grad 7 times out of 10.; 11/19/21, 6:37 AM
gspencer said...: Calling the Democrat Party a plantation for blacks has always been accurate.; 11/19/21, 6:43 AM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: What I can say about that institution is that I am not surprised by its behavior. This is consistent with what I expect from progressive individuals or institutions. The primary technique of progressives is using identity politics to extort an unnatural result. Obviously this is corrupt and anyone who participates in or endorses that type of scheme is personally corrupt, with no exceptions.; 11/19/21, 6:51 AM
Achilles said...: David Begley said...

This is a serious, serious problem. We NEED a fair and honest media if we are to continue to have a constitutional republic.

No we don't. You are saying things that will lead to bad outcomes.

When you use words like "need" and "fair" and "honest" in this context you mean fair to you and your version of honesty and need means your tribe must be given control.

Think about the words you use and the outcomes you seek.

We need freedom. That is all.; 11/19/21, 6:55 AM
Achilles said...: ""What can you say about an institution that is willing to break faith with its members and engage in blackmail and the subornation of false statements to wage a political vendetta?""

That it is normal.

This is what Regimes have done throughout history.

The exception is the United States. No other society or culture in history even tried to institute Equal Protection under the law.

It has never happened.

There is a reason the Aristocracy is trying to destroy this country.; 11/19/21, 7:00 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: #The Collegiate peaks of Colorado must be re-named.; 11/19/21, 7:06 AM
Wa St Blogger said...: I've said many times before, if we we do cause them distress for their misbehaviors, they will be emboldened to continue or escalate. If there are little to no consequences for the actions of those with power and influence, they will at best think that the public is apathetic and thus they are free to continue in what they do or at worst that they are supported and feel they can further their agenda. Neutrality is not an option, you must make conscious decisions regarding whom you will support and make it clear what behavior is unacceptable.; 11/19/21, 7:11 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: The elites have made "diversity" a top institutional priority.

President Biden is setting an example for all of our country's institutions by making ethnic and gender diversity a top consideration in appointments to his administration. Two examples of such appointments are Kamala Harris and Saule Omarova.

University administrations have enrolled too many students on the basis of diversity, and too many of those students are failing academically. Rather than blame themselves for their own bad enrollment decisions, they blame the academic failures on racist rocks, racist building names, racist artworks and racist Halloween costumes that hurt the ethnic minorities' feelings.

The elite media constantly try to whip up hysteria about racism. For example, the Covington boys are racists. President Trump is a racist. Kyle Rittenhouse is a racist. Our country's Founding Fathers were racists. Every day, racism accusations are top stories in the mass media.

The elite's diversity fetish has made the elite look stupid.; 11/19/21, 7:30 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: It is hard to tell without full access to the behind-the-scenes information, but what are the origin and nature of the objections to Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld at Yale? Is it tied to Bret Kavanaugh? Was Jed too handsy with female students? Did he attempt traditional gallantry with them? Is Amy too much of a show-off? Is it faculty-driven or student-driven? Do the Rubenfelds get tipsy when entertaining students? Did Amy play favorites in promoting students for clerkships? Is this a mean girls vendetta? WTF?

And what about the Federalist Society at Yale? How did they get into this? Does the YLS administration really hop around like puppets on strings when the Dred Scott Society is offended, which seems to be its reason for existing?

And what about those "hurts" that various students proclaim they have suffered?
1. Who cares?
2. Grow up.
3. The world is wide. China doesn't care, nor do the Russians, nor does the EU.
4. You got into YLS. Yay, you. You don't have to do any work, but you can still get a great job. That seems pretty good to most people.

The YLS grads I worked with over the course of my career were truly talented people with outstanding legal minds, and they were quite self-deprecating about their time at law school. I don't think the current crop is going to measure up well against those folks.; 11/19/21, 7:36 AM
Sebastian said...: "politics trumps all in America’s elite institutions"

Right. But the mobilization of elite institutions for political ends requires a political response, not just how-could-they handwringing on the sideline. Students fighting back is a start. Althouse recognizing the pattern, not so neutrally, helps.; 11/19/21, 7:37 AM
Fernandinande said...: the law school administration publicly shamed another student of color

Apparently They didn't know that the student with a white-sounding name was partly not-white, and therefore sacred.

Laswsuit: "1. [Three Yale employees] worked together in an attempt to blackball two students of color from job opportunities as retaliation for refusing to lie to support the University’s investigation into a professor of color."

Oh noes! More sacrilege against sacred people!; 11/19/21, 7:46 AM
Temujin said...: It just seems odd that the law schools are going through this. You want to think law schools are filled with logical, clear thinking deans and professors, people who learned how to structure their thinking and follow the facts to the truth. But the reality is they are part of the larger U and the larger U is diseased, filled with Diversity Directors and gutless adults who are easily swayed, not by facts, but by mobs of teens and young people with multi-colored hair, body piercings, and earnest fears and demands.

In fact, these stories are now so common coming out of our universities that one wonders what the value of a degree is anymore in the marketplace? Wouldn't it follow, that if four years at the U leaves you susceptible to bad thinking, corrupted logic, and mis-eduction, wouldn't an additional two or four (or more?) years leave you a withering mess of fear and bizarre views on your importance in the Center of All Things? Isn't it possible that we get to the point to where an advanced degree makes an employer skeptical of hiring you at all?; 11/19/21, 7:46 AM
Jon Burack said...: It would be nice to think we are at some sort of tipping point. I don't know that for certain, but some things seem to suggest it. The formation of UATX and this collapse of morality at Yale, for instance. Also, the parent revolts that our DOJ appears to want to red bait to death. Etc. One thing this Yale story makes clear is the way the DEI industrial complex is eating away at and destroying the integrity of all the humanities and social sciences fields and even getting to the sciences as well (see the recent MIT cancellation story). Elite universities especially have a cancerous growth of these know-nothing race-bullying bureaucracies, and they are extending their reach inexorably to monitor and distort the very subject areas and teaching that the faculty once thought it controlled. It is time for the Great Refusal to begin.; 11/19/21, 7:51 AM
Kevin said...: The greed for money is only eclipsed by the greed for power and prestige.; 11/19/21, 7:57 AM
narciso said...: chua speaks for traditional values, in enclave formation, she and jed did not denounce kavanaugh,; 11/19/21, 8:09 AM
Bob Boyd said...: When your superpower is the ability to twist absolutely anything, no matter how reprehensible, into another reason to think well of yourself.

Mastery of this skill seems increasingly to be a byproduct of an elite education.; 11/19/21, 8:21 AM
rehajm said...: "This is a serious, serious problem. We NEED a fair and honest media if we are to continue to have a constitutional republic."
IMO, it's our number one problem.

This is an easy fix. Stop treating the propaganda teams as if they are still journalists. I think I see the stirrings of the great migration. Like all disruption it will be slow at first, then the preference cascade will happen.

Politicians inviting the transition can nudge this along if they stop pretending these groups are journalists.; 11/19/21, 8:36 AM
Howard said...: "Pretty typical" that shenanigans are uncovered.

Keep the angst up. It's Christmas time and momma needs new shoes. The annual Instapundit dive vacation to Cancun won't pay for itself.

Selling anger to celebrate the prince of peace, so called; 11/19/21, 8:41 AM
tim in vermont said...: Here is an amazing graph that shows how out of touch with America our 'elites' are.; 11/19/21, 8:41 AM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: We need a fair and honest media? Ha! Caveat emptor. What motivates the media? Selling newsprint, airtime, and clicks. What sells? Conflict, blood, scandal, and sex. There is no motivation to be "fair and honest?"

David Begley (5:59 AM) notes no Media coverage of a costly public utility fiasco. Que sorpresa! Public entities "own" the Media much as they own Education and Medicine. Public entities provide free material (self serving publicity releases) and paid advertising (political campaign ads and required public notices).

Public entities are no more accountable to the public than the public demands. Very often, not much. Outsourcing cognizance to "the Media" is little different from outsourcing other individual needs to "the Government."; 11/19/21, 8:46 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: A curious note here:

“Meanwhile the administration summoned the Federalist Society’s president for a meeting and blamed him for somehow making the Native American student send the allegedly offensive e-mails: “I think you as a cis/het white man decided to have some fun and convinced a man of color with a backyard to send out an e-mail announcing a costume party where it wouldn’t be frowned upon if people came in blackface to eat some fried chicken while dancing to trap music.” (Note: The e-mail said nothing like that.)”

I can only surmise that the note was added because the draft op-ed Glenn Reynolds submitted without it did not meet the journalistic standards of the New York Post.; 11/19/21, 9:02 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: "Keep the angst up. It's Christmas time and momma needs new shoes. The annual Instapundit dive vacation to Cancun won't pay for itself.

"Selling anger to celebrate the prince of peace, so called."

Captain Innuendo to the rescue. Any thoughts on Thanksgiving?; 11/19/21, 9:05 AM
Amadeus 48 said...: "I can only surmise that the note was added because the draft op-ed Glenn Reynolds submitted without it did not meet the journalistic standards of the New York Post."

That is a weird observation and undoubtedly wrong. Reynolds put that note in to make it clear that the characterization of the situation by the one and only YLS Director of DIE Yaseen Eldik was completely bogus.

Here is the way David Lat in his Substack "Original Jurisdiction" described the situation:

"Trent Colbert sent his fateful email on September 15. The very next day, Colbert was summoned to meet with two YLS administrators, associate dean Ellen Cosgrove, who leads Yale Law’s Office of Student Affairs (OSA), and diversity director Yaseen Eldik. Later in the day on September 16, Cosgrove and Eldik met with Zack Austin [president of the YLS Federalist Society], after sending him what Cosgrove later described as a “formal summons.”

"As previously noted, FedSoc had nothing to do with Colbert’s email. So why was Austin summoned to meet with YLS administrators? According to Austin, Eldik said something to him along the following lines when they met:

'I think you as a cis/het white man decided to have some fun, and convinced a man of color with a backyard to send out an email announcing a costume party where it wouldn’t be frowned upon if people came in blackface to eat some fried chicken while dancing to trap music.'

"As a person of color, I’m [that is, David Lat] amused but also annoyed at how white people always seem to be the only people with agency in situations like this, with everyone else as either their victim or puppet. It’s quite insulting to Trent Colbert to assume that he sent the “trap house” email only because he was put up to it by a white man."

That Yaseen Eldik is a strange dude, would not you agree, Left Bank?; 11/19/21, 9:28 AM
Joe Smith said...: They have a low opinion of Asian and Jewish minorities.

BIPoCs? They can't get enough of them...

If you want to upset the apple cart, insist that these 'elite' schools admit a majority of minority students with no racist testing.

After all, if some minorities are good, then more are better.; 11/19/21, 9:46 AM
Achilles said...: Howard said...

"Pretty typical" that shenanigans are uncovered.

Keep the angst up. It's Christmas time and momma needs new shoes. The annual Instapundit dive vacation to Cancun won't pay for itself.

Selling anger to celebrate the prince of peace, so called

This person voted for Joe Biden who has spent his entire life grifting billions.

Makes up stupid shit about political opponent being a grifter based off of lint he found up his ass.

Keep it up Howard. Keep making yourself and president poopypants supporters look stupid.; 11/19/21, 9:49 AM
rcocean said...: The real question is what are we going to do about it. Constantly pointing things out, and Going "wow, just wow", or "Liberals/Leftists are the real hypocrits/racists/fascists" has been going on for a LONG time.

Glen Reynolds, like Rod Dreher and John Turley is always POINTING THINGS OUT. And going "Wow, just wow". But solutions? None. In fact, whenver anyone tries to do anything these guys have a million reasons why this person or that position or action is wrong.; 11/19/21, 9:58 AM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Amadeus 48,

Oh, you know Howard's thoughts on Thanksgiving. He's agin it. Besides, some of his family are likely filthy verminous unvaxxed, or at least haven't yet got their booster shots yet, so he won't be going near them anyway. Maybe next year.

Left Bank of the Charles,

Um, that's . . . silly. Glenn wrote what he wrote; the "note" was to clarify that whoever decided to throw "blackface" into the mix was a nutter. The original invitation says nothing about blackface, and the idea that "fried chicken" is something you have to be Black to enjoy is so insane that I have no idea where you, or anyone else, got it. As for "trap house," that is a reference to teenagers' illicit get-togethers in their parents' basements, not to "trap music" or to crack houses. Jeez, man.; 11/19/21, 10:45 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I get to post this about once a week in various forums, from Iowahawk:

1. Identify a respected institution.
2. kill it.
3. gut it.
4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.; 11/19/21, 10:47 AM
Chris Lopes said...: "We need freedom. That is all."

When the press sees itself as the protectors of the administration, it's a lot easier for the administration to suppress freedom. That's what is happening.; 11/19/21, 10:50 AM
Chris Lopes said...: "Captain Innuendo to the rescue. Any thoughts on Thanksgiving?"

Cut the man some slack. He can't actually defend what the institutions are doing, so going after the messenger is his only option.; 11/19/21, 10:54 AM
traditionalguy said...: The one lasting achievement of DJT’s term was his rude confrontation with the Propaganda State. He won every time until the 2020 election steal was the only way to shut him up. Now many are brave enough to speak truths that expose the Constant Big Lie Propaganda.; 11/19/21, 11:06 AM
Critter said...: One of the mysteries of my lifetime is how gifted and privileged people would voluntarily choose to leave a position of respect in life in favor of minor political “wins”. I grew up with the philosophy that more is expected from those to whom more has been gifted, yet so many have shirked this societal expectation. I think narcissism has a lot to do with it, as well as a loss of religious faith. We have also failed to pass along the Western tradition of a liberal education, even to the most highly educated. So I agree that our current elites are mostly not worthy of the attribution and it is having a huge impact on society. It’s a greater existential threat than global warming, as internal breakdown has always been the most lethal to societies.; 11/19/21, 12:11 PM
Howard said...: Thanks Michelle. We're having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our fully vaccinated three generations in the Live Free or Die state. We will be without our unvaccinated North Carolina jeebus Trump cousins who infected their 93-yo Mom, Dad's favorite sister. I don't think she is enjoying the enhanced long haul COPD and draining fatigue on top of old age. After several months, she's finally able to resume texting me every day now.; 11/19/21, 12:43 PM
rehajm said...: We're having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our fully vaccinated three generations in the Live Free or Die state. We will be without our unvaccinated North Carolina jeebus Trump cousins who infected their 93-yo Mom

Howard neglects to mention COVID is raging in Massachusetts right now where there’s very few people unvaccinated (as they constantly point out).

So fully the vaxed Howard brood could be bringing COVID to friends and family this Thanksgiving…; 11/19/21, 2:26 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Joe Smith,

If you want to upset the apple cart, insist that these 'elite' schools admit a majority of minority students with no racist testing.

Sure. I've long held that admission to the Ivies really should be by lot. Pick a cutoff for SATs/ACTs, above which all are definitionally qualified, and spin the bowl and pick out the ping-pong balls. Or, if SATs and ACTs are now verboten, make it a grade cutoff; again, everyone above that level has an equal chance. That guarantees you a class that looks exactly like the applicant pool. Anyone got a problem with that?

Well, I can see one objection, which is that suddenly an Ivy League degree wouldn't have its old signaling power. Griggs wouldn't have that easy workaround any more, now would it? I mean, getting through a four-year Ivy education ought to count for something still, even if they don't even consider you to have dropped out these days if you're still on year six of that allegedly four-year degree.

But, honestly, if you want genuine diversity, you need to randomize. Really randomize, not just race-norm, which is what affirmative action has been ever since Bakke. Put all these genuinely random students into one big bowl, stir, and wait four (or six, whatever) years, and see what emerges.

If you don't do that, then you are race-norming. Which, to be clear, is putting all the students into racially coded bins, then picking one out and saying, "She's pretty good, for a Black," and allotting her a seat. Or "He's decent, but not good enough for an Asian," for another one, who gets rejected. This is hideous, and always has been.; 11/19/21, 3:29 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Left Bank of the Charles said...
A curious note here:

“Meanwhile the administration summoned the Federalist Society’s president for a meeting and blamed him for somehow making the Native American student send the allegedly offensive e-mails: “I think you as a cis/het white man decided to have some fun and convinced a man of color with a backyard to send out an e-mail announcing a costume party where it wouldn’t be frowned upon if people came in blackface to eat some fried chicken while dancing to trap music.” (Note: The e-mail said nothing like that.)”

I can only surmise that the note was added because the draft op-ed Glenn Reynolds submitted without it did not meet the journalistic standards of the New York Post.

It's once again time to play "stupid, or just dishonest" with Left Bank of the Charles.

The bigoted bully in the Yale Administration said "convinced a man of color with a backyard to send out an e-mail announcing a costume party where it wouldn’t be frowned upon if people came in blackface to eat some fried chicken while dancing to trap music.”

Reynolds is pointing out in that note that she was lying, and that the "Trap House" email said nothing like that.

It does appear that if something forced you to only comment where you knew what you were talking about, and that all your comments had to be honest and in accordance with the known facts, you would never be able to post anything.

Does it ever bother you, having to be a lying sack of sh!t in order to push your politics?; 11/19/21, 3:54 PM
Jupiter said...: "That would be like putting a senile Minor Attracted Person and his cocktail waitress/baby sitter in the white house."

That's Dr. cocktail waitress/baby sitter to you, Bub!; 11/19/21, 4:43 PM
Josephbleau said...: "In fact, these stories are now so common coming out of our universities that one wonders what the value of a degree is anymore in the marketplace? "

Actually, unless you are Isaac Newton or Copernicus the University today is the only way you are going to get sufficient depth to do anything. You need to be challenged. So don't fight it. Learn it all. As a late life PhD student, there is nothing that will challenge you to learn like a University curriculum, do I even need to say that? Wokeness is not a factor in the courses you should be interested in.

Universities have been fine tuned for thousands of years to get students to do a high level of work and learning. Where will you be without them?; 11/19/21, 7:17 PM
gpm said...: >>Keep the angst up.

Somebody forgot to say "you people" while insulting almost all of the commentariat.

--gpm; 11/19/21, 7:54 PM