# Finally, I'm not ashamed of my Harvard connection
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Tags:** trump
**Created:** [April 15, 2025, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063 "2025-04-15T09:05:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/61 "2025-05-24T14:52:22Z")
I’m a bit late to this thread, but regarding the upthread discussion around the combatting antisemitism fig leaf:
I’ve commented before that I sometimes lurk in the Breitbart comments section (there really is some excellent trolling by liberals there, by the way) and the amount of open and unabashed antisemitism among the MAGA crowd is fairly astonishing.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/62 "2025-05-24T14:58:26Z")
The fundie “support Israel so it’s still around to get nuked in the End Times” sort, or the Nazi “The Jews are inferior and all-powerful and so we must eliminate them” kind, or both?
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### Author:  [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/63 "2025-05-24T15:07:28Z")
Plenty of both, actually.
It’s one of the few things they’ll actually argue about among themselves.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/64 "2025-06-01T14:02:27Z")
I think this is an important article everyone should read:
> **[Why Trump is really going after Harvard](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/01/trump-harvard-authoritarianism-democracy)**
>
> If the US’s oldest university bends the knee, the door to authoritarianism opens and democracy fades, experts warn
> Its emergence as a bulwark of the opposition to Trump was summed up by [this year’s Class Day speaker](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/5/29/class-day-2025/) at Harvard, the former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “After seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians and other universities bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the US constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom.”
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### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/65 "2025-06-01T15:20:33Z")
Harvard’s response is important, yes. But there are a whole lot of such doors going on right now, and the universities are only part of it; and will not be able to stand on their own.
They’re right about this part:
> It is just one front [in an escalating battle]
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/66 "2025-06-02T20:41:42Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> Harvard’s response is important, yes. But there are a whole lot of such doors going on right now, and the universities are only part of it; and will not be able to stand on their own.
You (general “you”) fight the battles you can. Harvard is one front. And they seem to be doing a good job of it which can cover many more (including universities that wimped out and bent the knee…they know who they are). The video below is a great guide to how Harvard is fighting this in court (and, so far, winning…wonder what the SCOTUS will do?):
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmK2O5yJmz8)
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### Author:  [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/67 "2025-06-03T00:10:45Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> You (general “you”) fight the battles you can. Harvard is one front. And they seem to be doing a good job of it which can cover many more (including universities that wimped out and bent the knee
Oh yeah, I agree with that. I was just objecting to the article’s phrasing which I quoted, which sounded as if this one door were the single issue that could keep democracy from fading or allow it to do so.
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### Author:  [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/68 "2025-07-29T21:11:40Z")
Time to be ashamed again. It looks like Harvard is getting ready to bow down and pay Trump $500 million .
[https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/us/politics/trump-harvard-payment.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/us/politics/trump-harvard-payment.html)
In case that is paywalled
> **[Harvard could be willing to spend up to $500M to settle Trump disputes: Report](https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/harvard-could-be-willing-to-spend-up-to-500-million-to-settle-disputes-with-trump-nyt/3779041/?amp=1)**
>
> Harvard University could be willing to pay up to $500 million to end its problems with the Trump Administration, according to a new report.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/69 "2025-07-29T21:43:11Z")
I sure hope this was a leak from an administrator who wants to embarrass the university leadership into rejecting it. Any appeasement now will do serious long term damage to a university’s reputation. Already Columbia is seeing it’s reputation go down the toilet.
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### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/70 "2025-07-29T21:57:17Z")
Eek. I want my recent donation back, if they cave! 😡
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/71 "2025-07-29T22:15:34Z")
It depends on the settlement, imho. If they give up some money, don’t admit wrongdoing, and don’t give up academic freedom to publish and hire, it could be okay.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/72 "2025-07-29T23:28:32Z")
It _could_, except that this particular recipient of Danegeld doesn’t, once bought, always stay bought.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/73 "2025-07-29T23:33:44Z")
Sadly, it just reinforces once again to Trump that he can punish any university for any reason he phonies up and force a shit-ton of money out of them. Nobody believes that he cares about anti-semitism. He just wants to show them who’s boss. Kneel down to the King!
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/74 "2025-07-29T23:43:14Z")
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27PSHASlGUU)
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### Author:  [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2025, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-im-not-ashamed-of-my-harvard-connection/1017063/75 "2025-08-09T22:26:15Z")
Trump opens a new front in his war with Harvard, threatening its hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of patents.
> **[Trump administration targets Harvard’s patents | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/08/politics/trump-administration-targets-harvards-patents)**
>
> The Trump administration is opening a new front in its battle with Harvard University on the issue of patents, marking a new escalation with the elite school that could result in the loss of additional federal funding or intellectual property rights.
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