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Care to provide some examples of non-conservative stuff that they fund?

jerf 8y ago
Well, this video and universal basic income in general, for one: https://www.thenation.com/article/a-basic-income-would-upend-americas-work-ethic-and-thats-a-good-thing/ https://www.thenation.com/article/a-basic-income-would-upend... It is true that you can find conservative thinkers who have been in favor of UBI, but it is not a generally-conservative idea right now. The general conservative idea remains to try to "get government out of the way" of the economy and let the free market provide people with jobs. I don't see conservative sites talking about UBI in positive ways; I see it as a generally liberal idea where one of the arguments the liberals are using is that some conservative leaders have written about it positively in the past. (Which is a valid enough argument.) "Nobody" "knew" that certain conservative thinkers had written positively about UBI until it was picked up as a liberal, left-wing idea and somebody found those arguments. (Note I am merely mentioning certain arguments, not making them.) The Koch foundation has also been fairly vigorously anti-Trump: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/koch-brothers-donald-trump-clash-resistance-conservative-billionaires-network-us-president-charles-a7560706.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/koch-broth... , including opposition to the immigration restrictions from certain mainly-Muslim contries, a relatively liberal perspective. Whether or not you consider some of the other mentioned positions "conservative" starts getting down into some weeds. (i.e. "Is Trump conservative, and is opposing Trump therefore anti-conservative?" is something you could write a lengthy essay on that would largely come down to "it depends on which definition of conservative you're using", and would really be more a springboard for examining the relevant definitions and how they differ.) I'm not saying they aren't often in the position of opposing liberalism (which I think may be more accurate than "being conservative"... there are more than two sides to the world), but it's not 100%, either. It's more complicated. Nor am I particularly defending them here, either. I'm not a huge fan either, just for different reasons than most people here. Again, going back to "there's more than two sides in the world".
cbm-vic-20 8y ago
The (David H.) Koch Institute For Integrative Cancer Reasearch at MIT (https://ki.mit.edu https://ki.mit.edu) was partly funded by a $100m grant from him, and does not appear to have a conservative agenda.
- jerf 8y ago
  I think it is a reasonable interpretation of solidsnack9000's request that it be something ideological as well. Pretty much everyone agrees that cancer is bad and should be cured.
burfog 8y ago
They strongly support immigration in every way.
- orthecreedence 8y ago
  All owner-class capitalists should. The machine needs ever more cheap labor to fuel the endless growth, and the bigger the labor pool, the less you can pay people.
solidsnack9000 8y ago
Thanks for great posts guys.

jerf 8y ago

Well, this video and universal basic income in general, for one: https://www.thenation.com/article/a-basic-income-would-upend-americas-work-ethic-and-thats-a-good-thing/ https://www.thenation.com/article/a-basic-income-would-upend... It is true that you can find conservative thinkers who have been in favor of UBI, but it is not a generally-conservative idea right now. The general conservative idea remains to try to "get government out of the way" of the economy and let the free market provide people with jobs. I don't see conservative sites talking about UBI in positive ways; I see it as a generally liberal idea where one of the arguments the liberals are using is that some conservative leaders have written about it positively in the past. (Which is a valid enough argument.) "Nobody" "knew" that certain conservative thinkers had written positively about UBI until it was picked up as a liberal, left-wing idea and somebody found those arguments. (Note I am merely mentioning certain arguments, not making them.) The Koch foundation has also been fairly vigorously anti-Trump: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/koch-brothers-donald-trump-clash-resistance-conservative-billionaires-network-us-president-charles-a7560706.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/koch-broth... , including opposition to the immigration restrictions from certain mainly-Muslim contries, a relatively liberal perspective. Whether or not you consider some of the other mentioned positions "conservative" starts getting down into some weeds. (i.e. "Is Trump conservative, and is opposing Trump therefore anti-conservative?" is something you could write a lengthy essay on that would largely come down to "it depends on which definition of conservative you're using", and would really be more a springboard for examining the relevant definitions and how they differ.) I'm not saying they aren't often in the position of opposing liberalism (which I think may be more accurate than "being conservative"... there are more than two sides to the world), but it's not 100%, either. It's more complicated. Nor am I particularly defending them here, either. I'm not a huge fan either, just for different reasons than most people here. Again, going back to "there's more than two sides in the world".

cbm-vic-20 8y ago

The (David H.) Koch Institute For Integrative Cancer Reasearch at MIT (https://ki.mit.edu https://ki.mit.edu) was partly funded by a $100m grant from him, and does not appear to have a conservative agenda.

jerf 8y ago
I think it is a reasonable interpretation of solidsnack9000's request that it be something ideological as well. Pretty much everyone agrees that cancer is bad and should be cured.

burfog 8y ago

They strongly support immigration in every way.

orthecreedence 8y ago
All owner-class capitalists should. The machine needs ever more cheap labor to fuel the endless growth, and the bigger the labor pool, the less you can pay people.

solidsnack9000 8y ago

Thanks for great posts guys.