But also… the other half come from prestigious colleges, and the way you solve the first half is not by not hiring the second half.
I mean realistically you don’t know how good an engineer is until they get on projects and you see their work. But that’s true for Harvard too,
Meredith: You know, I once dated a couple of guys from Cornell. They were really nice, gave me a ride home.
Andy: I seriously doubt anyone from Cornell dated you.
Creed: It's pronounced "colonel." It's the highest rank in the military.
Andy: It's pronounced Cornell! It's the highest rank in the Ivy league.
Replace "jew physics" with "woke physics" and you see the idiocy of this.
Foot, meet gun.
Or from … history.
The Germans chose to extremely underinvest in their nuclear program to maintain financial and political support for their rocket program.
The rocket program was so fundamentally different from the Manhattan Project it’s hard to see the Germans doing anything like it.
If this is the quality of product produced what’s the point?
Our Harvard/Stanford etc management seemed less capable than products of state schools. It kind of shocked me as I thought once I got into startups and scaleups with Ivy League talent I’d be way over my head. Very much a let down.
I've TFed and CAed for SSC fellows eons ago and the fact is UMich (especially the International Institute [0]), VT (CETS [1] and CGIT [2]), ASU (GSI [3] and CAPS [4]), and UNC (ASC [5], ISA [6], CES [7], and TISS [8]) remain great programs and tend to be fairly liberal.
Surprised TAMU wasn't included.
Edit: can't reply
> and lo and behold
Yep, but everyone who's an SSC will self-select for Mich, UNC, ASU, and VT. SSC fellows are smart and are gunning for top exit opps in the public and private sector. Hillsdale, Regent, and Liberty don't offer that and would limit career options as they are deeply ideological programs.
[0] - https://ii.umich.edu/ii/about-us/centers-programs.html
[1] - https://liberalarts.vt.edu/research-centers/ceuts.html
[2] - https://www.cgit.vt.edu/index.html
[3] - https://nationalsecurity.asu.edu/
[4] - https://www.capsresearch.org/
[5] - https://africa.unc.edu/
[6] - http://isa.unc.edu/
[7] - https://europe.unc.edu/
[8] - https://tiss-nc.org/
And no, we are not whatever random ragebait curated LW “WOKE” that’s protrayed online.
> These institutions meet the following criteria: intellectual freedom, minimal relationships with adversaries, minimal public expressions in opposition of the Department, and Graduate-level National Security, International Affairs, and/or Public Policy Programs.
So it is definitely political and not based on merit.
Personally, I remember taking Fairbanks Center associated classes and noticing how we have the children of Chinese VVIPs sitting next to active duty members.
It sparked interesting conversations, but seeing someone who was a test pilot at Hanford sitting next to a scion of a Red Family was interesting to say the least.
The program also absolutely did used to publicly give advice to the CCP at the time, and on the listservs I'm still on I do still see publicly pronounced UFWD members responding and posting events in the Boston area.
Ofc, if I noticed this then it was absolutely known to three-letter agencies and State, and some of the institutions included are part of a larger culture war, but there is a kernel of truth - too many children of various countries dignitaries attended the program.
Edit: can't reply
> I think isolationism amongst the war party is less helpful than some degree of interaction
UMich isn't an isolationist program though - it's a program which imo is the closest to how foreign policy was managed under the Obama admin.
I think isolationism amongst the war party is less helpful than some degree of interaction.
Yep. I was never more proud of my alma mater than when they announced they would no longer give preferential treatment to legacy students (students of alumni). Legacy students alone make up 1/3 of Harvard’s accepted students. (I’d say that’s an embarrassment, but for Harvard that’s a feature not a bug.)
The same way people in power will always cling to the advantages power gives them, afraid of starting from the same place as everyone else for fear they won’t make it on their merits alone.
Harvard on the other hand - people go to Harvard to become elite. That only works because they get to hobnob with princes and the like. Thats the point.
The Ivy’s do a good job of admitting non-elite students. I’m glad that pathway to eliteness is there.
I’m proud of my small liberal arts Alma mater. I have no desire to network with billionaires and princes (as opposed to say, brilliant engineers and researchers).
But I’m glad the legacies at Harvard are sharing a classroom with kids from Appalachia. And that only happens if you get in the legacies.
Trump filed massive frivolous lawsuits against law firms, colleges, financial first and other business entities. Most fell in line with a few exceptions.
> Courts are subordinated to the executive.
The courts broadly have not fallen, but there are judges that are purely partisan (Eileen Canon, the dude who sighed the Georgia search warrant). Given enough time the courts will fall.
> Regional governments lose autonomy.
Trump has begun putting pressure on blue states by withholding money. Ice was dispatched to Minneapolis to show everyone what will happen to those that defy him. Local government is still mostly safe, but give it time.
> Legislatures either become rubber stamps or are dissolved.
We'll see what happens in the midterms.
> Emergency powers are often invoked and then made permanent.
IEEPA comes to mind. But his invasions emergencies too.
> Second, they eliminate political opposition. Rival parties are banned.
The midterms may be the last chance before opposition is either banned or entirely impossible.
> Opposition leaders are jailed, exiled, or killed.
Charges against political opponents like Leticia James, Adam Schiff, James Comey. Broadly thrown out for now, but if the courts fall this will happen. ICE has been charging protestors with bullshit charges constantly.
> Trade unions are dissolved or absorbed into state-controlled structures.
Businesses accomplished this years ago on their own.
> Elections, if they continue, become symbolic rather than competitive.
Midterms. We'll see
> Third, they cultivate loyalty to a single leader. The regime builds a personality cult around a figure presented as the embodiment of the nation. Loyalty shifts from constitution and law to the leader personally. Oaths of allegiance are often rewritten to bind military, civil servants, and professionals directly to that individual.
This is just MAGA. I don't believe oaths have been changed yet.
> Fourth, they fuse nationalism with identity politics. The state defines a “true people” and casts minorities, dissidents, or outsiders as internal enemies. This often leads to discriminatory laws and, in extreme cases, ethnic cleansing or genocide, as occurred under Adolf Hitler.
Rise of white Christian nationalism, branding of protestors/opposition as domestic terrorists.
> Fifth, they control information. Independent media is suppressed or co-opted. Propaganda becomes a primary governing tool.
Bari Weiss reshaping CBS, Bezos reshaping wapo, Sinclair media refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel, Brendan Carr threatening licenses for speech. Every single thing trump does on twitter and truth social.
> Education systems are reshaped to reinforce ideology. Culture, art, and science are pressured to align with the state narrative.
DOGE cancelling grants for non approved research. Integration of Turning Point USA into schools.
> Sixth, they militarize society. Paramilitary groups are normalized or integrated into state power.
ICE.
> Public life adopts martial symbols and rhetoric.
Not much, but soon.
> Foreign policy often becomes expansionist, framed as reclaiming national greatness.
Greenland, Venezuela, Iran.
> Seventh, they restructure the economy around state direction and political loyalty. Private property may remain formally intact, but major industries operate in alignment with state priorities. Business leaders who cooperate are rewarded; those who resist are sidelined or punished.
Anthropic/openai drama this week, golden shares in US Steel, Nvidia export controls, tariffs.
> The through-line is loyalty over legality. Institutions stop being neutral frameworks and become instruments of the ruling ideology. The regime reframes dissent as treason and criticism as sabotage.
If you don't see this you're not paying attention.
One thing not mentioned is blatant massive corruption, nepotism, cronyism. We see that every single day.
Thanks for the list.