Submitted 2 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/49df3242-d84c-40e0-8630-1027e474f134.jpeg
Simpsons did it!
“Well, frankly, test scores like Larry’s would call for a very generous contribution. For example, a score of 400 would require a donation of new football uniforms, 300, a new dormitory, and in Larry’s case, we would need an international airport.”
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.
Ah, so basically “The Department of Just Asking Questions.” 🤢
JAQing off.
I only have two words “Chicago Boys”. This shit has been going on there for a long time.
Oh 100% absolutely. I mean the gentrification of Hyde Park and Woodlawn with active, deliberate harm to the black community started at the University’s inception in 1898 (1895? 92? They keep changing the “established in” date on all their merch and propaganda, it’s hard to keep up) and continues to this day with no signs of slowing.
I also should have specified that if we’re talking about student/faculty attitudes the “real” UChicago community does not or at least should include Booth and the psychopathic econ department. That’s where all the money comes from (because it’s evil) but everyone except admin hates them. Also I’m pretty sure they would argue “community” means communism and community of any kind should be abolished in favor of a social free market or some shit, whatever garbage they are peddling these days.
Thanks for the context. I know this is a meme community but I wish some more context was posted a long with it.
Um, if it’s anonymous can they influence anything?
Anonymous usually means that they don’t want their name to show up publicly.
There’s almost certainly knowledge of who that money is coming from at least with a couple of persons that received the funds.
More like they don’t want the wider public to know it was them that donated. Some folks that are extremely wealthy go to great lengths to keep their names out of people’s minds and stay out of the public eye as a matter of personal security.
The university knows who’s paying its bills and has agreed to keep it a secret.
A truly anonymous donation should be double-blind to the donor AND recipient. If you don’t want credit, don’t expect influence either.
I don’t know what you mean by
double-blind to the donor AND recipient
But to me that phrase kinda implies that the donor doesn’t know who they donated to. Which…no. It should be blind to the recipient. Entirely blind.
It sounds like the donor had requirements. From The Tribune:
The University of Chicago has received a $100 million gift from an anonymous donor to support free expression, marking what may be the largest-ever single donation to support such values in higher education, the university announced Thursday.
And:
Discussions surrounding the donation have been ongoing for over a year, according to a university spokesperson.
From …suntimes.com/…/university-chicago-donation-free-… :
The gift was ridiculed by advocates involved in the encampment that highlighted abuses against Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas War and torn down by the university in the spring.
“It’s truly a slap in the face,” said Yousseff Hasweh, a U of C grad who’s diploma was withheld by the university for two months, allegedly for his involvement in the protest.
And the home of the Chicago school of economics.
They won’t change, but they can amplify it.
Yeah was gonna say the same. U of C has some pretty balls-out political and economic priorities
Do you think the donation will somehow make the University of Chicago more conservative?
Just hold out the finger in the air for when there is a change in the intensity of propaganda
Not publicly supported enough though lol. *leers at 40k of student debt
Rookie numbers.
Gotta pump them up… but they’re a function of time?!
Should it? I get that political parties should report donors - but for nonprofits and other institutions I feel it’s not that necessary since they are directly investing that money in projects (that the donor may choose - but if that’s not the case then that investment isn’t happening) - for political parties and politicians it can be seen as a bribe as the things they invest in usually don’t have a direct return of investment.
And there should be rules and regulations making sure that that donation is not ending up in some kind of contract for the company of the donor but that whatever that investment is funding has a transparent process
Where do we draw the kind? Should donors to libraries be made public even if that person wants to remain anonymous but fund an expansion? Should donors to non-profits be made public?
Dafuq? If it’s anonymous, how is it exerting influence?
It’s only anonymous to the public. I imagine the donor and the university are in frequent direct contact.
Are they, or is it just your imagination?
Is it hard to conceive of agreeing to something behind closed doors and donating anonymously to hide the tracks?
Is it hard to suggest that in a less condescending manner?
“i’ll give you 100 million dollars on the condition that $X of it be spent on ______” is how it’s exerting influence
But if it’s actually anonymous, how is that communicated?
Agree in general. Ez fix: strings attached that it’s anonymous and unattached. A third party manages the exchange, and everyone is under oath. A step in the right direction at least
So if I donate to someone it’s “dark money”?
If it’s millions of dollars and done anonymously in a culture of prominent bribery with little to no “no strings attached” charity at that scale, it seems reasonable to suspect foul play and call it “dark money”.
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 2 months 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 months ago
If anyone is aware of the source, it’s not anonymous, it’s undisclosed.
MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
Agreed, literal anonymous, way cool. Undisclosed, much less so.
abbadon420@lemm.ee 2 months ago
The tweet speaks of “dark money”. I like that term better. It feels worse
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I work for a nonprofit and “anonymous donor” definitely means “c-suite folks know who it came from”
norimee@lemmy.world 2 months 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 2 months ago
do like onion routing, use two middlemen, i guess you’d literally use locks, sorta like that encryption analogy
hate2bme@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Just like they do social security? The government is terrible at the distribution of money.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Elaborate?
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They seem to be pretty good at making sure the military has all the finding they need
vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
The program that lifted millions of seniors out of poverty. That money.