Important additional context that didn’t make it into this tweet, this donation was explicitly directed toward promoting “free inquiry and expression” at UChicago. Decades ago that was a legit strength of UChicago that really was pretty ideologically neutral, and that history gives them a phenomenal tool for spinning dog whistles and ultra conservative policies as part of “the life of the mind.”
Here’s the announcement email from the University’s president yesterday.
Worth noting that Eman Abdelhadi is faculty at UChicago, speaking out against her own employer alongside hundreds of other faculty. Eman is particularly adept at making sure every time they use “free inquiry and expression” as a conservative dog whistle it gets thrown back in their faces. (She’s also just kind of a badass.)
UChicago admin work very hard to promote this image of the school as a bastion for “sane conservatives” by taking stances diametrically opposed to the what the students and faculty actually stand behind. The real UChicago is anti-genocide, pro-union, and knows that promoting free speech doesn’t mean tolerating hate speech.
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d be ok with anonymous donations if they were truly anonymous both publicly and to the management of the institution receiving the money.
Maybe this is something that the government could facilitate - pool these resources, then help distribute them where they are needed. Almost like how taxes work.
Maintains uncomfortable eye contact with the camera
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If anyone is aware of the source, it’s not anonymous, it’s undisclosed.
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Agreed, literal anonymous, way cool. Undisclosed, much less so.
abbadon420@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
The tweet speaks of “dark money”. I like that term better. It feels worse
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I work for a nonprofit and “anonymous donor” definitely means “c-suite folks know who it came from”
norimee@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This exactly. If you really want to stay anonymous then use a middleman and do it anonymous to the recipient as well.
Everyone involved with the institution, students, parents who pay tuition, teachers, authorities who financially support the institution (…) have a right to know in whose pocket they are.
rain_worl@lemmy.world 3 days ago
do like onion routing, use two middlemen, i guess you’d literally use locks, sorta like that encryption analogy
hate2bme@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Just like they do social security? The government is terrible at the distribution of money.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Elaborate?
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They seem to be pretty good at making sure the military has all the finding they need
vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
The program that lifted millions of seniors out of poverty. That money.