So the president of Columbia University is being questioned by Congress today about pro-Palestine protests and "antisemitism on campus". This is the calibre of questions she's being asked 🙄
@fkamiah17 sometimes it feels like we’re not going back to the days of WW2 and the Cold War, but to the wars of religion and crusades with nuclear weapons added.
@fkamiah17 I'm more disturbed by the response of the university president. I think the namesake of the first university president (Samuel Johnson - it looks like they came in 6-packs) would have had a better answer...
eg, since the USA is clearly now a theocracy: "God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?"
@Henrysbridge Tbf to the woman I haven't seen the rest of her reply, so it's unfair to judge her.
The whole affair is pretty performative on the part of Congress - how to be seen to be doing something without actually doing anything - so I doubt there'll be much advancement in the actual issue of students' rights as a result.
@fkamiah17 Agreed. It'd be interesting to see the rest of the "conversation". I also know that it's really difficult to give a good reply quickly when asked a question which is so contrary to the basic principles of Reason.
My answers to the three questions posed:
No.
No.
The idea of "curses" belongs to a pre-Reason age of darkness and superstition. So, don't care.
Oh, and re. Congress (and indeed our own "illustrious" House), another Dr Johnson quote...
plus ça change?
@Sbectol "Will the contents of a 2,000 fairytale about a fictional sky wizard affect how I run a university in the 21st century?"
Unutterably dumb, even by a defacto theocratic Congress.
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