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Terence Tao on the suspension of UCLA grants

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280 points dargscisyhp | 4 comments | 02 Aug 25 06:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.823s | source
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francasso ◴[02 Aug 25 09:09 UTC] No.44765919[source]▶
Maybe it's time to move to Europe or China
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numbers_guy ◴[02 Aug 25 09:18 UTC] No.44765967[source]▶
There is nowhere to run and hide. Europe is worse than the US on this front. China also demands party loyalty. In a sense this is just the human condition. The ruling faction demands loyalty. Only a very advanced human civilization could move past that and allow criticism of the ruling class. Maybe the US had achieved that for a brief movement in the past or maybe it was just an illusion.

EDIT: For people wondering why I think it's worse in Europe, it's because in Europe the ruling class and the universities are on the same side. And when I say Europe, I mean UK, France and Germany.

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A_D_E_P_T ◴[02 Aug 25 09:42 UTC] No.44766094[source]▶
I'm in Europe. It's not even close to being worse than the US on that front. Places like the Fraunhofer Institute and the Max Planck Institute are perpetually well-funded, and are largely unaffected by politics. Good places to do research.
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1. breppp ◴[02 Aug 25 09:49 UTC] No.44766135[source]▶
Wouldn't get to this because in Germany such a demonstration would be dispersed far earlier, not to mention the nazi symbolism displayed in UCLA
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2. A_D_E_P_T ◴[02 Aug 25 09:52 UTC] No.44766158[source]▶
In any case, penalties would apply to the perpetrators themselves, as individuals. I've never heard of a case where the institution itself would suffer from a significant funding cut, to say nothing of a very sudden funding collapse.
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3. breppp ◴[02 Aug 25 13:11 UTC] No.44767331[source]▶
That could be the case, but free speech is much more sacred in the United States than in Germany.

For example the anti-swastika or anti-cult laws, which I am not against, it's just a different approach to something like this happening

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4. A_D_E_P_T ◴[02 Aug 25 13:21 UTC] No.44767394{3}[source]▶
> but free speech is much more sacred in the United States than in Germany.

In the abstract. In actual practice, it's not clear, and you could even build quite a strong case for the opposite view. "Cancellation" over mere words has been commonplace for over ten years, and is much more common to the US than to Europe. And as for laws... What just happened to Tao and UCLA has, to the best of my knowledge, never taken place in Europe in recent decades.