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453 points pseudolus | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.227s | source
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low_tech_love ◴[] No.43581600[source]
Some personal highlights:

"They’re excellent schools, and they have excellent scientists, and if one of Vice-President Vance’s kids is sick, he’s going to want the doctor to have gone to one of these schools; he’s not going to want them to have gone to Viktor Orbán’s university."

"People have said to me, “Well, you take all that money from the government, why don’t you listen to them?” The answer is, because the money doesn’t come with a loyalty oath."

"I don’t have to agree with the mayor to get the fire department to come put out a fire. And that’s what they’re saying to these international students: “Well, you came to this country. What makes you think you can write an op-ed in the newspaper?” Well, what makes you think that is, this is a free country. "

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Telemakhos ◴[] No.43587740[source]
> "They’re excellent schools, and they have excellent scientists, and if one of Vice-President Vance’s kids is sick, he’s going to want the doctor to have gone to one of these schools; he’s not going to want them to have gone to Viktor Orbán’s university."

I'm not sure I understand. If I want a medical doctor, I'm not looking for someone based on his political views or spirited independence from the Hungarian government, but for someone with training in a very narrow discipline, namely medicine. I really don't want someone who is more interested in "the modern and the postmodern" prescribing me meds, but I do want someone who conforms to the current pharmacological standards.

The University President in question does not even run a medical school; Wesleyan does not, to my knowledge, teach anyone the art of medicine, however highly it might rank as a liberal arts institution. Semmelweis University in Budapest, however, is older than the United States, is the largest healthcare provider in Hungary, and is ranked among the top 300 universities in the world. Therefore, if I had to chose between someone who went to Wesleyan and someone who went to Semmelweis, which I'll take as "Viktor Orbán's university," I should much rather have the Hungarian who actually knows medicine rather than the liberal arts PhD who might be able to lecture me on what postmodernism should mean to me.

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1. rayiner ◴[] No.43589634[source]
> I really don't want someone who is more interested in "the modern and the postmodern" prescribing me meds, but I do want someone who conforms to the current pharmacological standards

Concrete example of this: https://dailycaller.com/2025/03/31/exclusive-researchers-axe....

The study compared mortality rates for white and black babies under the care of white and black doctors. The study found that white babies had a 22% lower mortality rate when cared for by white doctors compared to when cared for by black doctors. But the authors deleted that finding from the final publication, and instead reported only the finding that black babies had a 58% higher mortality rate when cared for by white doctors.

This study was relied on by the American Medical Association in the SFFA litigation, and cited by the Supreme Court in the dissent. Of course it turns out the entire study was probably bunk and the effect goes away if you adjust for low birth weight and doctor seniority. But the authors presumably thought their study was valid. And they deliberately omitted a finding that, if true, could have been used to reduce the mortality rate of white babies.

You want your professionals (doctors, lawyers, bankers, etc.) to be soulless mercenaries who don’t have sentimental views about the subject matter of their work.