Robert Kraft says elite schools are to blame for 'hate' on campus

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

Source: Business Insider

The billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, who was a major donor to Columbia University, took out full-page ads on Thursday blasting elite universities.

"The leadership and faculty of so many of our leading educational institutions have failed their students," the 82-year-old sports exec wrote.

"They have not only given up their positions of authority but also their moral compasses in upholding the core missions of these colleges and universities — to protect their students and the principles of critical thinking and free speech — to teach how to think, not what to think," Kraft said in the ad.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/robert-kraft-columbia-donor-elite-schools-failed-hate-protests-ads-2024-5

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So an elite right-wing billionaire, NFL owner (NE Patriots) and Trump pal says the quiet part out loud: 'elite' higher education causes students to think something other than what I want them to think. AS IF he weren't elite. Thus, the right wing war on higher education continues. If Kraft is representative of oligarchic-class thinking, and I think he is, what the oligarchs want is stupid people who do what they're told and know their place; a new feudalism.

The comment about university administration and faculty having "given up their positions of authority but also their moral compasses" it also a tell. Those people should be authoritarian and force the students to do the oligarchs' bidding.

Or did you think all the hysteria about college protests was about the Israel-Hanas War?

In case you've forgotten, Kraft is a major donor to AIPAC;

Bypass paywall at: https://archive.is/20240502190354/https://www.businessinsider.com/robert-kraft-columbia-donor-elite-schools-failed-hate-protests-ads-2024-5#selection-1977.0-1993.305

Note: The Business Insider is a major mouthpiece for the U.S. oligarchy.

[Uncle Joe]

1. Personally, I don't believe oligarchs such as Kraft even know what a moral compass is.

If he did, he damn sure wouldn't be supporting the most divisive individual in our nation's history.

Thanks for the thread DJ.

[JT45242]

2. F this asshat -- they has hiim on tape paying sex workers and dropped the charges

But if you donate enough to politicians -- then you have the kind of immunity that TFG claims he has.

How many human trafficked sex workers did he abuse and get covered up by law enforcement and district attorneyss?

[Botany]

3. I tell you something smells of Russia and rich right wing influence peddling here.

Watch out because their play this fall will be to blame Biden for the Israel v Hamas protests
on campuses and this will cost President Biden support this fall.

[Voltaire2]

4. I seriously do not give a shit what any billionaire has to say about anything.

Also Kraft is a Trumpist. Know who you are getting in bed with.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Trashed.

[patphil]

6. Kraft is upset because the universities "moral compass" doesn't point in the direction he wants it to point.

And after all that money he gave them! You'd think they'd be grateful.
So he's upset because the students exercised the principle of free speech that he wants them to embrace.
I guess his idea of free speech doesn't include holding positions that he hasn't approved of.

Do you think that maybe he has a bit of the "what to think" mentality lurking in his criticism of these universities?
It's evident he uses money as a guiding force for how Columbia should teach their students "how to think" what he thinks.

[MOMFUDSKI]

7. Why is it that rich people think their $$$

makes them smart?

[jvill]

8. Everybody Hates, Bobby.

And not in a “jealousy” kind of way, but in a “oh just STFU and sit down” kinda way.

[Traurigkeit]

9. Kids watching their parents interactions for many years before College/University learn of the hate that is in action

in home life and outside the home.

Kids are just sponges.

[HandmaidsTaleUntold]

10. Total BS

It’s all universities protesting. Not just “elite”.

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

11. I think Kraft is saying that

elite universities' (Ivy League, Stanford, Duke, Univ. of Michigan and a few others) doctoral graduates have a greater tendency to be hired as professors by both elite and non-elite universities than the products of other schools. He would know this from being a major donor to Columbia. BTW, Columbia Teacher's College graduates are a considered a "plum" in K-12 school systems hiring, as well. Thus, the EVIL LEFT IDEOLOGICAL influence of those elite school graduates whose worldview MUST BE DICTATED (in old Bob's mind) by the evil elite leftist professors and administrators Kraft derides. So the LEFT IDEOLOGY goes broader than just "elite" schools. It MUST have been the cause of all the campus unrest. It's almost bizarre that the was a donor to Columbia in the first place, but they have an effective recruiting staff.

Of course, our political system contains, indeed allows, no left. The best you can do is the center-left DSA, but that's another discussion; except to say that when the oligarchs are afraid of the center and center-right (like most Democrats), the liberal democracy that has supported and coddled them for nearly 250 years may be redundant in their hive-mind. That should worry anyone who isn't an oligarch.

The logic of oligarchic thinking may be seen as twisted from an outsiders' point-of-view, but it's internally consistent. It always works to further their interests: to protect and expand the wealth and the privilege of the wealthy and privileged.

[SunSeeker]

14. Actually it is just the elite colleges.

As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out a couple nights ago when talking about the clearing of the Columbia encampment, "there are 6,000 colleges in the US," and only "approximately 48 of them have seen some demonstrations, most of them relatively small demonstrations. So the real story of American college life this spring has been that more than 99% of students have been going to classes uninterrupted in more than 99% of colleges. That's a perspective you don't get when the camera aims at what is happening in any particular university, as of course we all understand. And this particular campus gets a lot of media attention since it's located in the media capitol of the world. And the NYPD has that pressure tonight knowing that the world is watching what they're doing." He went on to compliment NYPD for their professionalism in calmly clearing the campus without incident, unlike what happened there in 1968.

[HandmaidsTaleUntold]

18. Huh?

Last edited Fri May 3, 2024, 12:59 PM - Edit history (1)

It’s not just elite. Here in Oregon we have colleges with major tent camping blowing up protesting. There are no elite colleges in Oregon.

[SunSeeker]

19. You may not think that U. of Orgeon, Lewis & Clark College or Portland State are elite, but they are.

You don't have to be ivy leage to be considered elite, just that it is a well respected college. There are over 66 colleges in Oregon. Only 4 have encampments according to the SJP. https://nationalsjp.org/

But it looks like SJP is overstating the number of encampments. For example, it still list UCLA, USC and Columbia, even though those encampments have been cleared.

[HandmaidsTaleUntold]

25. I Do Not

Ivy leagues. Stanford. Cal Tech. Berkeley. University Of Michigan. In my opinion those are the only elite schools. Maybe a handful of small colleges like William and Mary too.

[SunSeeker]

31. The junior colleges and trade schools the working class attend don't have encampments.

That's the point. They encampments are at elite schools where kids aren't holding down a job while taking night classes.

[paleotn]

12. Shut up, Kraft. Don't you have a "massage" appointment somewhere?

[Skittles]

13. a billionaire using the word ELITE

oh, the humanity

[SunSeeker]

15. It sucks that the encampments have gotten so out of hand that assholes like Kraft sound like the voice of reason. nt

[tirebiter]

16. Definitely

The two countries that give Palestinians the most in the way of rights who have become citizens of those countries are the United States and Israel.

[rpannier]

17. Actually the most rights would likely be Chile

Though you'd have to define your definition of rights
Palestinians in Chile are allowed to vote, own land, build their own churches, hold positions in government (including in their intelligence services -- something I don't think Israel allows).
Palestinians are also found as mayors, presidential candidates, senators, etc. They cover the political spectrum from the right-to-left: Daniel Jadue Mayor of Reculeta is a communist, Javier Chahuan, is a senator on the right.
Chile has a longer history of supporting Palestinians than the U.S. has. President Boric has been a supporter of Palestine and the rights of Palestinians in the Middle East and Chile. Politicians on the right and center also are supportive of Palestinians. Unlike the U.S., you don't have important politicians on the right claiming that Palestinian is not a real ethnic group (see Sen Graham).

Chile also has the largest number of people of Palestinian descent outside the Middle East (It's a little over half-a-million)

[Old Crank]

20. What's wrong is he didn't

Get charged in a prositution sting with captive workers.

[RandiFan1290]

22. They still charged the human trafficking victim he was caught with. nt

[Old Crank]

23. Two levels of justice.

[RandiFan1290]

21. Kraft the Mar a Lago member

that was caught with human trafficking victims because Jeffrey Epstein's place was shut down.

[Aristus]

24. Yeah, because they don't teach hate out in Jefferson Davis Memorial Junior High School

up in Squalor Holler, do they?

[no_hypocrisy]

26. I graduated from an elite college, and

with my liberal arts background, I embraced humanity.

Robert Kraft is a cultural Phillistine.

[marble falls]

27. Really? I blame the NFL. A lot more people arrested and injured in fights in NFL stadiums than in college ...

... campuses and football stadiums.

[Freethinker65]

28. Who does Kraft blame for violent protest at the US Capitol on January 6th?

Did Kraft ever take out an ad condemning those that planned and funded the "stop the steal" rally and those that encouraged the violent failed insurrection?

[Maxheader]

29. Yeah, guy gets caught with a hooker..

and he's spouting off about moral compass?....

[dem4decades]

30. Rub and Tug Kraft said that?

[maxrandb]

32. Go get a "Happy Ending" massage Bob

What, you've made a lot of fucking money, so you're an "expert" on everything now.

So sick of being required to hear dumbfucks "opinions" because wealth somehow makes them fucking geniuses.

What's next? Jerry Jones lecturing on astrophysics?

[mercuryblues]

33. The man who was busted

at a "Happy Ending" massage parlor, want to teach about morals.



Not to mention he most likely bribed his way out of an arrest.