# Anonymous Donors
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 19, 2009, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607 "2009-04-19T09:41:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/1 "2009-04-19T09:41:01Z")
I’m sorry, but these people are just the scum of the earth. Imagine the nerve! Giving millions of dollars away anonymously to a handful of colleges is simply shameful. They must have an agenda. I bet that it’s [keeping the incubators of leftist inculcation and Islamic indoctrination alive and well.](http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/04/mystery-donors-give-over-45m-to-9-universities.html#comments)
:rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/2 "2009-04-19T10:03:16Z")
Are truly anonymous donations (where the recipient doesn’t know the donor) really that unusual? It doesn’t seem like something that would cause any consternation to me, but then I am not a university fundraiser.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/3 "2009-04-19T10:45:39Z")
I’m not really pitting the donors. Apologies for the misdirection with the thread title.
My rolleyes are for Pamela Geller, the blogger who referred to the American university system as
> [@](#):
>
> incubators of leftist inculcation and Islamic indoctrination.
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/4 "2009-04-19T11:23:44Z")
Anonymous donor, get awaty from me
Anonymous donor, mam let me be
Dopn’t come knockin’ around my dooer
Don’t wanna see toyur shadow noe more
Cloroured lights acan hypnotuise
Saprkle someone elses eyes
Now woman I siad get away
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/5 "2009-04-19T11:24:56Z")
Anonymous donor, get awaty from me
Anonymous donor, mama let me be
Dopn’t come knockin’ around my dooer
Don’t wanna see toyur shadow noe more
Cloroured lights acan hypnotuise
Saprkle someone elses eyes
Now woman I siad get away
Anoymous donor haer what i say
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/6 "2009-04-19T11:26:19Z")
oh fucvjk i’m druvk
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/7 "2009-04-19T11:36:15Z")
> [@Scissorjack](#):
>
> oh fucvjk i’m druvk
And you’re drunk enough to think we need to be told. It’s always amused me that the drunker someone gets, the more of a secret he believes the fact he’s lit to be. “No, I’d never have guessed the man who just staggered into the room and pissed into my galoshes was in any way impaired, let alone under the influence of alcohol. It’s fortunate he whispered that fact loudly enough to be heard across the room.”
There’s a man unknown to every hater.
To every school he funds he stays a stranger.
With every grant he makes, another chance he takes.
Odds are, he’ll be on the news tomorrow.
Secret… Donor Man!
Secret… Donor Man!
He gave us a million… and didn’t leave a name!
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/8 "2009-04-19T12:20:21Z")
Your pitting an opinion piece written with a Time Cube-like variety of fonts and colors? On a site based on Ayn Rand’s Ramblings[sup]\*[/sup]? Don’t make fun of the retarded.
[sup]\*I think **Scissorjack’s** _Anonymous Donor_ should be sung by, no, wait… guess who. The Ayn Rand Ramblers![/sup]
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### Author:  [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/9 "2009-04-19T12:24:27Z")
FWIW, when I went to college and grad school, there did seem to be a lot of extreme left wing sentiment among a lot of the faculty.
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### Author:  [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/10 "2009-04-19T12:52:11Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> Are truly anonymous donations (where the recipient doesn’t know the donor) really that unusual? It doesn’t seem like something that would cause any consternation to me, but then I am not a university fundraiser.
Yes. In my eight years in working in university fundraising I do not know of a single donation, either where I’ve worked or at places I’ve consulted, where at least one person at the institution did not know the identity of the donor.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/11 "2009-04-19T12:55:36Z")
Am I the only person here who had a flashback to Spider and Jeanne Robinson’s _Stardance_ trilogy when reading the OP and linked blog?
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### Author:  [@Weston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weston)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/12 "2009-04-19T13:11:33Z")
> [@The Other Jeffrey Lebowski](#):
>
> I’m not really pitting the donors. Apologies for the misdirection with the thread title.
> My rolleyes are for Pamela Geller, the blogger who referred to the American university system as "incubators of leftist inculcation and Islamic indoctrination. "
While I like wingnut crackpottery as much as the next guy, it really isn’t news when a half-witted sow like Pamela Wots-her-face says something half-witted.
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/13 "2009-04-19T13:18:02Z")
> [@brazil84](#):
>
> FWIW, when I went to college and grad school, there did seem to be a lot of extreme left wing sentiment among a lot of the faculty.
One wonders just how “extreme left wing” those sentiments would appear to most of us. Besides–they were only sentiments. Their “leftist inculcation” apparently left you unaffected.
Surely, you don’t agree with the item linked in the OP–that an anonymous gift is automatically suspect? Perhaps the donor simply shares you modesty, as expressed in the PC Cancer thread:
> [@](#):
>
> I am posting in this thread to criticize, not to solicit contributions or boast about my own good works.
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### Author:  [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/14 "2009-04-19T13:33:29Z")
Wow Atlas had a sex change operation, and that’s the least screwy part of that page.
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### Author:  [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/15 "2009-04-19T13:44:02Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#):
>
> One wonders just how “extreme left wing” those sentiments would appear to most of us.
I’m not sure who “us” is, but I agree that the professors I am talking about are probably not much further left than many people who post on this board.
> [@](#):
>
> Besides–they were only sentiments. Their “leftist inculcation” apparently left you unaffected.
Not exactly true, since I came away from college with a lot of contempt for many of these extreme leftists. It wasn’t until a few years later that I learned to think critically about their ideas.
> [@](#):
>
> Surely, you don’t agree with the item linked in the OP–that an anonymous gift is automatically suspect?
Of course not. Ideally, all charity should be anonymous. That said, it’s probably a good idea that the universities in question should check things with the authorities.
> [@](#):
>
> Perhaps the donor simply shares you modesty, as expressed in the PC Cancer thread:
Sure. If I were a multimillionaire and wanted to donate to a college or university, I would probably do the same thing.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/16 "2009-04-19T15:48:32Z")
> [@Weston](#):
>
> While I like wingnut crackpottery as much as the next guy, it really isn’t news when a half-witted sow like Pamela Wots-her-face says something half-witted.
I know. There is a rational side of me that would love to take Lisa Simpson’s advice to “just don’t look”, which really is the best way to keep my head from exploding, but I’m weak and I rubbernecked at this crazy, crazy blog. The labeling of higher education as liberal training centers isn’t anything new or worth mentioning; the Islamic indoctrination angle is really what riles me.
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### Author:  [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/17 "2009-04-19T18:00:50Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#):
>
> The labeling of higher education as liberal training centers isn’t anything new or worth mentioning; the Islamic indoctrination angle is really what riles me.
Yeah, I could take that page somewhat more seriously if it weren’t for that. I mean, of course the American university system leans leftwards; academics and youth are always somewhat liberal. This is nothing new. But accusing the university system of being a center of Islamic indoctrination is a new one, and I don’t think I understand where she’s coming from. That kind of _non sequitur_ throws so much confusion on the rest of her thinking because you have to throw out so many of your own rational conclusions to figure out where she’s coming from.
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### Author:  [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/18 "2009-04-19T18:15:42Z")
FWIW, one of my most liberal professors in college spent a lot of time heaping praise on Islam. He didn’t have anything positive to say about Chrisitianity or Judaism as best I can recall.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/19 "2009-04-19T18:20:15Z")
> [@appleciders](#):
>
> But accusing the university system of being a center of Islamic indoctrination is a new one, and I don’t think I understand where she’s coming from.
“If you aren’t with us, you’re against us.”
That’s what it comes down to, anyway. The more nuanced argument is that we’re at war with Islam and we need to indoctrinate everyone with what we stand for, that being Christian-Capitalist-Heterosexual values. (No, they’ll never separate them or even admit they could be separated. They’ll insist Capitalism was founded on the Protestant Work Ethic and that of course Christianity is opposed to Homosexuality in all its forms.) If you aren’t actively participating in their war, you are aiding the enemy and helping destroy civilization itself.
Admittedly they do have points: The UN has bowed to Islamic theocracies to the point of issuing (nonbinding) declarations that offending someone else’s religion is a violation of their human rights. Europe continues to have problems with poorly-integrated Muslim immigrants and European governments have failed to stand up for what should be their cornerstone principles of free expression and freedom of conscience. However, there is a middle ground, and by polarizing the discussion you only ensure everyone moves away from _you_.
But it’s pointless to tell them that. They want to be Cassandras and by god they will be. (Ignore the fact Cassandra was actually right, willya? It spoils the mood.)
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-donors/493607/20 "2009-04-19T18:36:20Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#):
>
> …The Ayn Rand Ramblers!
The Aynal Retentives!
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