Bloomberg bashes liberal McCarthyism at Harvard commencement

Reuters ^ | May 29, 2014 | BY SCOTT MALONE AND DANIEL LOVERING

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg used his commencement address at Harvard University on Thursday to bash a U.S. academic culture that he described as increasingly intolerant of ideas from outside a narrow liberal spectrum.

Citing the campus protests that caused luminaries including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde to back out of planned speeches, Bloomberg criticized students and faculty for being hostile to ideas that clashed with their own ideologies.

Standing amid the centuries-old stone buildings of Harvard Yard, he compared the atmosphere in U.S. academia to that which prevailed during Senator Joseph McCarthy's 1950s campaign to ferret out Communists in public life.

[servo1969]

Right topic/ wrong speaker.

[dontreadthis]

lip service

[plain talk]

probably the right speaker for that crowd. Even better if it came from a democrat. Those liberals won’t listen to a conservative. To the extent our ideas can get out there at all I am fine with anyone delivering them

[gaijin]

He better watch out —remember what Harvard did the last time a grad speaker (liberal Larry Sumners) told the truff?

And THAT is the essence of liberalism.

WHAT administration carted innocent Americans off to wartime camps?

Oh yes, now I remember.

[KosmicKitty]

WTF??

(and yes, I mean the F)

Bloomberg is a liberal!! Grrr!!

[RetiredTexasVet]

The pot calling the kettle black, really black.

[tanknetter]

Right topic/ wrong speaker.

I don't know. Only Nixon could go to China ...

[tanknetter]

I will add that Bloomie said the following:

"In the 1950s the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas," said Bloomberg,

This is a fundamental misrepresentation of "McCarthyism." McCarthy (and HUAC, etc) weren't trying to repress left-wing ideas, they were trying to counter the spread of Communist totalitarian ideology and prevent it from it's stated goals of first gaining a political/social foothold in the US and free world and then conquering those countries by imposing a Communist dictatorship.

[3Fingas]

McCarthy may have exaggerated some facts and got others wrong, but the Venona transcripts pretty much vindicate his general supposition that the Soviets had thoroughly infiltrated the US government, at least during the 1940s.

[Bernard Marx]

This is a fundamental misrepresentation of "McCarthyism."

Thanks for posting that. I guess anyone who speaks out about a foreign country using spies and political operatives in a sustained warlike program to overthrow America is a "McCarthyite." McCarthy was involved in outing spies and traitors, not repressing left wing ideas.

[ExCTCitizen]

Interesting ...very interesting....

[headsonpikes]

Well, good on Bloomberg!

[aimhigh]

Bloomberg is preparing to be Hillary’s VP, or run for President himself.

[lee martell]

For the first time in my adult life im on Team Nanny Bloomberg, for this topic alone.