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Comment by bananalychee | Hacker News Reader

Fighting antisemitism is clearly not the true motive behind this ideological "war", just as denazification was clearly not the motive for Russia's invasion of Ukraine; it's just a convenient excuse to target institutions such as Harvard that are unwilling to distance themselves from the progressive left.

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Exactly this. It's nothing but an attempt to punish them for not kissing the ring. If only we had another arm of government able to hold this clearly corrupt behavior to account....

There would have been a stronger one if Ruth Bader Ginsburg had retired at a time that supported a 5/4 ideological balance on the Supreme Court.

Instead of the hubris to hold onto the job until death and thereby subsequently undo many of the things she spent her life fighting for.

Finding a successor and handing over your power is one of the most important responsibilities of the powerful, when they have a say.

Pretty bold to blame RBG without spending a breath on Mitch McConnell, who stole an appointment from Obama because he said it was too close to the election to fill the seat; and then rushed to fill the seat vacated by RBG even though it was so close to the election. Treating the court with that kind of partisan contempt is the reason why the court is as partisan as it is.

There is different blame.

I expect McConnell to be an advocate for harm. But RBG could have made a decision that made it impossible for the GOP to flip her seat in the way that she did. I expect people that are ostensibly fighting for the same things as me to act in ways that help achieve that.

Indeed. It's pretty stupid in game theory to make a move that's beneficial only if your opponent also then makes a choice against their self interest.

Yeah, McConnell really acted like scum by doing that. But it's fair to say RBG didn't help things.

Instead of the hubris to hold onto the job until death and thereby subsequently undo many of the things she spent her life fighting for.

A bit off-topic, but this seems to be an ongoing problem for the Democratic party. They just lost an important vote on a budget bill in the House by a single vote, because Gerry Connolly wasn't willing to give up his House seat and instead clung on until he (very predictably) died of cancer a few days ago.

This is drama, a republican congressperson was asleep for the bill. This is producing storylines to sell during the mid terms.

Dont believe it for a second. The Republican Party moves in lockstep.

But if the Democratic guy had stepped down and they had a non sick person then the story would have been much better: Republican bill fails because one of their members was asleep and missed the vote.

He would be awake for the vote.

They would go to his location and shake him awake if they had to.

Yeah, that was a pretty bad decision, but the bigger issue is still a population that votes based on misinformation and 'alternative facts'. Until that is resolved, if it even can be at this point, then this tribal and sometimes cultish behavior is only going to become more prevalent, in turn doing more damage to the country.

Personally, I think we've started on a path to self-destruction that can't be reversed.

> Personally, I think we've started on a path to self-destruction that can't be reversed.

Do you mean, 'we' as in the US, or 'we,' as in humanity?

[either way, I'm not saying you're wrong :( ]

Oh, I mean the US specifically. I'm optimistic the other western powers won't go down the same self-destructive path the US has chosen, largely because they have much better public education pre-college, and much more accessible higher education.

I expect even China and India to start improving drastically in all the ways that matter as the US continues to downlside.

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