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A university president makes a case against cowardice

(www.newyorker.com)
458 points pseudolus | 2 comments | 03 Apr 25 12:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.399s | source
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low_tech_love ◴[04 Apr 25 12:55 UTC] 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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knowitnone ◴[05 Apr 25 00:03 UTC] No.43589038[source]▶
The money comes from the public, not the government
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insane_dreamer ◴[05 Apr 25 04:38 UTC] No.43590786[source]▶
And I for one would much rather it go to subsidize university research than subsidize the defense industry
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1. martin82 ◴[05 Apr 25 04:42 UTC] No.43590811[source]▶
You need both if you want it to remain a free and sovereign country.
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2. insane_dreamer ◴[05 Apr 25 15:30 UTC] No.43594210[source]▶
But not anywhere near what we have in terms of military power and spending.

Also, economic decline is a much greater threat to the US than military decline. China is eager to dethrone us economically; an invasion of the US would be extremely costly and highly unlikely even if the US' military were significantly smaller.