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Punishing urban intellectuals for being urban intellectuals appears to be a common theme in a lot of right wing American messaging and the Republican Party won

Punishing urban intellectuals for being urban intellectuals appears to be a common theme in a lot of right wing American messaging and the Republican Party won the popular vote. You can’t put this on a few. It’s the genuine desire of the American voter.

tzs 1y ago
A majority of the voters voted for people other than Trump. Edit: come on people, read things in context. I was responding to someone who was implying that a majority of American voters support this. To support that assertion about any President's policies at a minimum you need that President to have received a majority of the popular vote. When third parties get enough votes that a President gets a plurality but not a majority you can't really infer anything about what a majority of voters want. Even if all the third parties were on the same side of the left/right spectrum as the President's party you can't infer much because if those voters agreed with most or all of the President's policies they would have voted for the President.
- ghosty141 1y ago
  49,8% popular vote, 50,2 is a majority but at that point I would say it’s clearly half the American population that wanted him in power.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
    They're technically correct (the best kind etc) because they said "voted for people other than Trump" not "voted for Harris". Voted for Trump: 77.3M Voted for Harris: 75M Voted for other candidates: 2.6M Harris + others = 77.6M, which is greater than Trump's 77.3M
    - qcnguy 1y ago
      That's not even technically correct unless you assume every non Trump candidate was left wing.
      - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
        The statement made was "A majority of the voters voted for people other than Trump", not "A majority of voters voted for left wing candidates".
    - teiferer 1y ago
      So, clearly about half the vote went to Trump. Stop splitting hairs please, there was enormous support for this. Whether there was an epsilon above or below some arbitrary 50% threshold is insubstantial to this discussion.
      - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
        If we lose pedantry, we lose the spirit of HN. I think there's also a lot to unpack in "support for this". What is 'this' precisely? Many of Trump's policies and actions get poor results in polls. The die hard ride or die for Trump types that are fully on board with everything are definitely not half the country.
        teiferer 1y ago
        > If we lose pedantry, we lose the spirit of HN. Haha true! Though if the pedantry gets in the way of the big picture then it's counter productive, one may argue. > I think there's also a lot to unpack in "support for this". What is 'this' precisely? Many of Trump's policies and actions get poor results in polls. Fair point. It's the person that got the votes and it could be argued that people should have known what they voted for, even if many votes surely were cast more in the spirit of voting against the other side, and it's a common effect that once a side is chosen then the mind downplays the drawbacks of the "own" side in an effort to justify the choice.
smt88 1y ago
Few Americans pay enough attention to politics to expect this, and less than a third of the country voted for this regime anyway.
- teiferer 1y ago
  Not voting is willingly accepting whichever outcome is achieved by those who did vote. Therefore, a majority of the country either actively chose or willingly accepted the current regime. Don't marginalize the responsibility of the people in the democratic process. It's too easy to just blame those in power. It's the people who gave them that power.
wisty 1y ago
They think urban intellectuals have a fair bit of power. They also think they are not always correct, not always unbiased, and possibly not always honest; and the bias tends to be towards either things that benefit the urban elite, or "luxury beliefs" that have disproportionate costs on other people.
- Eisenstein 1y ago
  No one is always correct or always unbiased or always honest, and everyone's bias benefits themselves, and every person in the United States lives in a way that has disproportionate costs to other people. None of those reasons explain any of the antipathy. What does?
  - wisty 1y ago
    They think urban intellectuals have a fair bit of power. And the basis for that power is that they are supposedly right about things.
    - Eisenstein 1y ago
      Is it possible to not speak in riddles please?
      - ben_w 1y ago
        I am confused why you see that as a riddle. Group X does action A_x due to belief B_x. That B_x isn't logical or whatever doesn't matter. Members of group X generally don't know that group X is wrong, and instead think their own biases are common sense etc. People are not perfectly rational spheres in a vacuum. That you can substitute in a lot of different values for X, doesn't change any of this.
        Eisenstein 1y ago
        Nothing they commented mentions any of the processes you did. A statement in which people need to figure out the specifics in order to make an interpretation is generally thought of as a riddle.
qcnguy 1y ago
The administration's stated reason is bias and anti-semitism, are you claiming that this is the definition of urban intellectual? If so how do you defend it? If not, how do you define it?
- Eisenstein 1y ago
  Why do we assume that the administration is acting in good faith when all evidence has shown otherwise?
  - tempusalaria 1y ago
    They may not be acting in good faith but there is extremely clear evidence that UCLA has engaged in illegal racial hiring and admissions practices and has supported antisemitism on campus. UCLA chose to give them that ammunition.
    - aaomidi 1y ago
      > and has supported antisemitism on campus You mean there were protests against genocide? Oops did I do an antisemitism by calling it a genocide?
      - nosianu 1y ago
        Here in Germany, in Berlin, these "protests" included wrecking a lecture hall and seriously injuring a Jewish student. - https://www.rbb24.de/politik/beitrag/2025/04/berlin-humboldt-universitaet-hoersaal-besetzung-protest-schaden-bilder-zerstoerung.html https://www.rbb24.de/politik/beitrag/2025/04/berlin-humboldt... (April 2025) - https://astafu.de/node/589 https://astafu.de/node/589 (February 2024) (Both links are German language - that should not be a problem anymore these days I hope) I don't see why you refuse to even consider that there is more than 1 and 0 absolutes. The majority of protests does not create such headlines. We have had smaller and larger protests in many cities(here in Germany). People meet, walk, speak, and that is fine and nobody complains. But especially in 2024 that was not all that happened. I read similar students about threatened Jewish students at US universities. It is, as so often, caused by a violent and vocal minority. But if a hundred protesters are peaceful and only one hits you on the head you still have a very bad day as the victim. - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/five-jewish-college-students-report-assaulted-last-month-rcna171727 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/five-jewish-coll... (Oct 2024) - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/04/antisemitic-attacks-jewish-community-safety-security/83989144007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/04/antise... (June 2025) Maybe it is getting better, this report says that in 2025 things have improved for both Muslim and Jewish students: "The biggest takeaways from Harvard’s task force reports on campus antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias" -- https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/29/us/harvard-reports-antisemitism-anti-muslim-bias https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/29/us/harvard-reports-antise... (May 2025)
frogperson 1y ago
[flagged]
- ktallett 1y ago
  Please provide the proof to back this up. Like I wasn't willing to believe Trump without proof when he stated the previous election was stolen, I won't become a hypocrite and just believe it on Trump's win.

tzs 1y ago

A majority of the voters voted for people other than Trump. Edit: come on people, read things in context. I was responding to someone who was implying that a majority of American voters support this. To support that assertion about any President's policies at a minimum you need that President to have received a majority of the popular vote. When third parties get enough votes that a President gets a plurality but not a majority you can't really infer anything about what a majority of voters want. Even if all the third parties were on the same side of the left/right spectrum as the President's party you can't infer much because if those voters agreed with most or all of the President's policies they would have voted for the President.

ghosty141 1y ago
49,8% popular vote, 50,2 is a majority but at that point I would say it’s clearly half the American population that wanted him in power.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
  They're technically correct (the best kind etc) because they said "voted for people other than Trump" not "voted for Harris". Voted for Trump: 77.3M Voted for Harris: 75M Voted for other candidates: 2.6M Harris + others = 77.6M, which is greater than Trump's 77.3M
  - qcnguy 1y ago
    That's not even technically correct unless you assume every non Trump candidate was left wing.
    - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
      The statement made was "A majority of the voters voted for people other than Trump", not "A majority of voters voted for left wing candidates".
  - teiferer 1y ago
    So, clearly about half the vote went to Trump. Stop splitting hairs please, there was enormous support for this. Whether there was an epsilon above or below some arbitrary 50% threshold is insubstantial to this discussion.
    - sjsdaiuasgdia 1y ago
      If we lose pedantry, we lose the spirit of HN. I think there's also a lot to unpack in "support for this". What is 'this' precisely? Many of Trump's policies and actions get poor results in polls. The die hard ride or die for Trump types that are fully on board with everything are definitely not half the country.
      - teiferer 1y ago
        > If we lose pedantry, we lose the spirit of HN. Haha true! Though if the pedantry gets in the way of the big picture then it's counter productive, one may argue. > I think there's also a lot to unpack in "support for this". What is 'this' precisely? Many of Trump's policies and actions get poor results in polls. Fair point. It's the person that got the votes and it could be argued that people should have known what they voted for, even if many votes surely were cast more in the spirit of voting against the other side, and it's a common effect that once a side is chosen then the mind downplays the drawbacks of the "own" side in an effort to justify the choice.

smt88 1y ago

Few Americans pay enough attention to politics to expect this, and less than a third of the country voted for this regime anyway.

teiferer 1y ago
Not voting is willingly accepting whichever outcome is achieved by those who did vote. Therefore, a majority of the country either actively chose or willingly accepted the current regime. Don't marginalize the responsibility of the people in the democratic process. It's too easy to just blame those in power. It's the people who gave them that power.

wisty 1y ago

They think urban intellectuals have a fair bit of power. They also think they are not always correct, not always unbiased, and possibly not always honest; and the bias tends to be towards either things that benefit the urban elite, or "luxury beliefs" that have disproportionate costs on other people.

Eisenstein 1y ago
No one is always correct or always unbiased or always honest, and everyone's bias benefits themselves, and every person in the United States lives in a way that has disproportionate costs to other people. None of those reasons explain any of the antipathy. What does?
- wisty 1y ago
  They think urban intellectuals have a fair bit of power. And the basis for that power is that they are supposedly right about things.
  - Eisenstein 1y ago
    Is it possible to not speak in riddles please?
    - ben_w 1y ago
      I am confused why you see that as a riddle. Group X does action A_x due to belief B_x. That B_x isn't logical or whatever doesn't matter. Members of group X generally don't know that group X is wrong, and instead think their own biases are common sense etc. People are not perfectly rational spheres in a vacuum. That you can substitute in a lot of different values for X, doesn't change any of this.
      - Eisenstein 1y ago
        Nothing they commented mentions any of the processes you did. A statement in which people need to figure out the specifics in order to make an interpretation is generally thought of as a riddle.

qcnguy 1y ago

The administration's stated reason is bias and anti-semitism, are you claiming that this is the definition of urban intellectual? If so how do you defend it? If not, how do you define it?

Eisenstein 1y ago
Why do we assume that the administration is acting in good faith when all evidence has shown otherwise?
- tempusalaria 1y ago
  They may not be acting in good faith but there is extremely clear evidence that UCLA has engaged in illegal racial hiring and admissions practices and has supported antisemitism on campus. UCLA chose to give them that ammunition.
  - aaomidi 1y ago
    > and has supported antisemitism on campus You mean there were protests against genocide? Oops did I do an antisemitism by calling it a genocide?
    - nosianu 1y ago
      Here in Germany, in Berlin, these "protests" included wrecking a lecture hall and seriously injuring a Jewish student. - https://www.rbb24.de/politik/beitrag/2025/04/berlin-humboldt-universitaet-hoersaal-besetzung-protest-schaden-bilder-zerstoerung.html https://www.rbb24.de/politik/beitrag/2025/04/berlin-humboldt... (April 2025) - https://astafu.de/node/589 https://astafu.de/node/589 (February 2024) (Both links are German language - that should not be a problem anymore these days I hope) I don't see why you refuse to even consider that there is more than 1 and 0 absolutes. The majority of protests does not create such headlines. We have had smaller and larger protests in many cities(here in Germany). People meet, walk, speak, and that is fine and nobody complains. But especially in 2024 that was not all that happened. I read similar students about threatened Jewish students at US universities. It is, as so often, caused by a violent and vocal minority. But if a hundred protesters are peaceful and only one hits you on the head you still have a very bad day as the victim. - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/five-jewish-college-students-report-assaulted-last-month-rcna171727 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/five-jewish-coll... (Oct 2024) - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/04/antisemitic-attacks-jewish-community-safety-security/83989144007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/04/antise... (June 2025) Maybe it is getting better, this report says that in 2025 things have improved for both Muslim and Jewish students: "The biggest takeaways from Harvard’s task force reports on campus antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias" -- https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/29/us/harvard-reports-antisemitism-anti-muslim-bias https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/29/us/harvard-reports-antise... (May 2025)

frogperson 1y ago

[flagged]

ktallett 1y ago
Please provide the proof to back this up. Like I wasn't willing to believe Trump without proof when he stated the previous election was stolen, I won't become a hypocrite and just believe it on Trump's win.