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Michael Bloomberg Compares Ivy League ‘Censorship’ to Soviet Russia in Harvard Speech
New York Magazine ^ | Joe Coscarelli

Posted on 05/29/2014 2:34:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway

First he said "OMG" to get the kids on his side. Then former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg (Harvard MBA '66) did his Bloomberg thing in a commencement speech today, calling for bipartisanship and civility and all that. "There is an idea floating around college campuses — including here at Harvard — that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice," he said. "There's a word for that idea: censorship. And it is just a modern-day form of McCarthyism." An edited version of the speech was then posted, fittingly, on Bloomberg's centrist pet project Bloomberg View.

"In the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas. Today, on many campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species," he continued. "Perhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy League." (He also cited the ground zero mosque, Pussy Riot, and the "Happy" dancers in Iran.)

In front of Aretha Franklin, Joseph Stiglitz, and President George H. W. Bush, all of whom also received honorary degrees, Bloomberg cited the fact that "96 percent of all campaign contributions from Ivy League faculty and employees went to Barack Obama" as a worrying statistic — "and I say that as someone who endorsed President Obama." In a line not included in the published version, he added, "There was more disagreement among the old Soviet politburo than there is among Ivy League donors."

"Neither party has a monopoly of truth or God on its side," Bloomberg said. And neither, he made clear, has a monopoly on Mr. Bloomberg.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: bloomberg; harvard; ivyleague

1 posted on 05/29/2014 2:34:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Nothing about Bloomie is “centrist”


2 posted on 05/29/2014 2:36:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: nickcarraway

Even a blind squirrel is right twice a day.


3 posted on 05/29/2014 2:38:36 PM PDT by Freeping Since 2001 (Since 2001. Seriously.)
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To: nickcarraway

Even a blind squirrel can find a broken clock once a day.


4 posted on 05/29/2014 2:46:44 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: nickcarraway

Crap, is he running for office again?


5 posted on 05/29/2014 2:46:47 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: nickcarraway
In front of Aretha Franklin, Joseph Stiglitz, and President George H. W. Bush, all of whom also received honorary degrees ...

I read that and was completely blown away.

Harvard gave Bush an honorary degree.

Then I remembered there were two President Bushes.

And also, that Aretha Franklin wasn't the lady who died yesterday.

6 posted on 05/29/2014 2:55:06 PM PDT by x
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To: nickcarraway

interesting to hear him make comparisons to Soviet Russia. If he had his way, he would micro manage the size of our drinks. Which is Soviet sytle dictatorial thinking.


7 posted on 05/29/2014 2:55:41 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (et)
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To: nickcarraway

Mike Bloomberg is one to talk. Bloomberg’s editorial content is slant far left. As a result, I don’t know why a business person would pay good money for the Bloomberg service.


8 posted on 05/29/2014 3:01:55 PM PDT by Praxeologue
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: Post5203
Hollywood was infested with anti American communists, and even more so today.
10 posted on 05/29/2014 3:35:00 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: nickcarraway

McCarthyism? Right-wing?
Gorbachev when he unclassified the USSR KGB files told us that McCarthy was correct about all the Commies in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.
The admission of the Verona Papers in the 1990s confirmed that leaders like Ike, Truman, the Dulles brothers, and Acheson knew all along that McCarthy was right about the Soviet-paid traitors.


11 posted on 05/29/2014 3:51:50 PM PDT by namvolunteer (Obama says the US is subservient to the UN and the Constitution does not apply. That is treason.r)
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To: BenLurkin

12 posted on 05/29/2014 4:36:19 PM PDT by ObamahatesPACoal
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To: ObamahatesPACoal

Bloomberg addresses “Conservative Party” in the UK in 2007.


13 posted on 05/29/2014 4:36:39 PM PDT by ObamahatesPACoal
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks nickcarraway.
"There is an idea floating around college campuses — including here at Harvard — that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice... There's a word for that idea: censorship. And it is just a modern-day form of McCarthyism... In the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas. Today, on many campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species... Perhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy League... 96 percent of all campaign contributions from Ivy League faculty and employees went to Barack Obama" as a worrying statistic — "and I say that as someone who endorsed President Obama... There was more disagreement among the old Soviet politburo than there is among Ivy League donors. Neither party has a monopoly of truth or God on its side,"
The only suppression of the left going on in the 1950s was in response to the twenty or so years of the New Deal socialist repression of everyone else, and obviously wasn't too successful or long-lived. Other than that, I see no problem with what the jackass said there.
14 posted on 05/29/2014 4:58:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: nickcarraway
"In the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas. Today, on many campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species," he continued. "Perhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy League." (He also cited the ground zero mosque, Pussy Riot, and the "Happy" dancers in Iran.)

Strange to be agreeing with Bloomberg... but it's happening.

15 posted on 05/29/2014 5:43:32 PM PDT by GOPJ (>The Mainstream Ministry of Information does not stand for liberty. Freeper Gene Eric)
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To: Freeping Since 2001; nickcarraway; BenLurkin; SunkenCiv; Mikey_1962; MeshugeMikey; ...
"In the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas. Today, on many campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species," he continued. "Perhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy League." (He also cited the ground zero mosque, Pussy Riot, and the "Happy" dancers in Iran.)

What exactly does he mean by "in the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas"?

When I first heard this part of the speech on TV, I thought it was kind of courageous of Bloomberg to take a jab at the Ivy League right there at Harvard. Could he still be resenting the fact that he didn't get into an Ivy league school way back when he was applying for college as an undergrad? (He settled for Johns Hopkins.)

But on second thought, at this point in his career, out of elective politics, and in control of a multi-billion dollar business empire, he knows that he has little to lose by knocking them.

BTW, you would think it may have ruffled some feathers there to have Yalie GHW Bush as an invited guest. I thought that Harvards and Yalies don't particular like each other. Isn't there supposed to be a big rivalry between them?

16 posted on 05/31/2014 5:32:43 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: ObamahatesPACoal

Bloomberg can go suck an egg....I’m keeping my guns to protect myself from little tin plated gun grabbers like him.


17 posted on 05/31/2014 7:24:40 PM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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18 posted on 05/31/2014 7:28:19 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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