I’m not a fan of the politics of the Koch brothers Charles and David, but they have a long history of philanthropy, and a lot of it science oriented. That they are huge polluters far exceeds the good they do with philanthropy.
Not odd, sadly, just sad. Remember that their motivation is their own financial interest far more than the Quest for Truth. An MIT degree is an indication only of intelligence, not intellectual integrity.
How else would you describe denialism?
The thing about C & D is that they could shift their interests to renewables and had they done so during the past dozen they could, with their resources, dominate the field the way Rockerfeller did oil. They probably still could do that.
As it is, their attempts to buy the state of Wisconsin’s government (more or less successful) and influence national politics, while polluting as much as they do, knowing what they must know, makes them look like the worst capitalist future destroying assholes imaginable.
I wonder why the Koch Bros don’t just pick their own recipients? It’d be easy enough to create their own scholarship fund and choose who exactly gets the money.
That would be too blatant. They’re mainly trying to buy respectability. Setting an established university up as a front gives their Randist and denialist views a superficial appearance of validity.
Absolutely, even if they were flaming fascists I’d say take the money so long as there are no strings attached as others said.
In fact the delicious irony would not be lost if denialists’ money funded deserving kids’ education.
If people are worried this is a form of PR or whatever, the Koch brothers are known for philanthropism. However I know of no Koch opponent who has fallen for their philanthropy and then on was fine with their dirty money in politics.
All and all I am very happy that deserving people will be getting educations.
I both admire and pity the people who have to do fundraising as a full-time job. The strain of sucking up to people you really hate, and who you know really hate you too, would do me in.
Even if they have ulterior motives in making this donation, I think I’m OK with people getting positive press for doing good things.
No doubt, just because they may be furthering an ideology in general I’m sure as hell not going to say “Screw those kids’ grants, I’VE got principles to uphold.”
Life is unfortunately not so cut and dry.
I think they’re perfectly respectable, despite the shrill attacks coming from Harry Reid and others.
As for ‘buying’ respectability: The Koch brothers have been major philanthropists for decades - long before they were a blip on the radar of the left. And they’re known for being low-key donators - they don’t do it to prop up their reputations.
Furthermore, being libertarians they donate plenty of money to causes most everyone here would support, such as the NAACP grant above, $100 million to renovate the Lincoln Center, hundreds of millions to cancer research, millions of dollars to support Nova on PBS, $15 million to the Museum of Natural History, $35 million to the Smithsonian, and on and on.
The Kochs are also in favor of gay marriage, ending the drug war, and were opposed to the Iraq war.
The prime reason they are ‘monsters’ now is that they happen to disagree with Obamacare and the broad sweep of new regulations Obama has been implementing. That makes them a problem for the current administration, which of course makes them enemies of mankind - unlike George Soros, whose hundreds of millions of dollars spent on political advocacy make him a great man, apparently.
Although for some reason they were a little quieter about that they are about Tea Party issues today.
Good, get the well poisoned right up front. Saves time that way.
No. It isn’t a matter of honest disagreement about philosophy. It’s about simple truth vs. lies, and about how belief in those lies hurts us all. Can you point to any significant amount of recent criticism that isn’t based on their denialist lies?
And finish with more well poisoning, in case anyone might have forgotten. Good post structure there.
Really? How many millions of dollars have the Kochs given to marriage equality organizations, or pro-gay rights political candidates?
Opposing Obamacare just makes them kind of dicks. What makes them monsters is their climate change denialism. Say what you like about George Soros, he’s never been responsible for imperiling the survival of the human race.
Yet, their companies continue to win numerous EPA awards and on the polluting scale they are way below Dupont, Dow, Exxon, etc. And all of the releases that are made by their companies are permitted by the Federal and State agencies that regulate them. When you make gasoline and paper products it’s impossible to do so without some form of air emissions, which are controlled by various state and federal agencies.
And they pay lots and lots of money to keep those regulations as favorable to them as they can manage.
From the right I’ve heard “whining” and “shrill”-how about a “screaming” for the trifecta, guys?
Strings can take many forms. Will the UNCF be less inclined to oppose projects the Koch brothers fund? Will there be a huge public ceremony to hand off the check? Do they have any say whatsoever in which students will merit the scholarships? Are there unpublicized promises for more money down the line if students are steered toward colleges and universities that the Koch bros find more “friendly” towards the agendas they push?
From the OP’s link
it seems as if there is small bit of steering by the Kochs as to what these students might be learning with that scholarship money.
Which is par for the course when it comes to scholarship programs. Not all of them, no, but there are plenty of scholarships available to students who only study in certain programs.