Ackman the Barbarian

Definition leads to clarity and clarity leads to understanding

By Rich Kozlovich

On January 7, 2024 Monica Showalter published this article, Bill Ackman goes after MIT like a bat out of hell saying:

 

Is Bill Ackman the financial world's answer to tech's Elon Musk?  Sure seems like it. After declaring war on MIT and Business Insider for exposing his wife's less-than-plagiarism-free doctoral thesis, which came as payback for his calls to end antisemitism on elite campuses, he hasn't wasted a minute of time, working to expose MIT, its professoriat or its leadership.  Yesterday, he announced this:

My wife, @NeriOxman, was just contacted by Business Insider claiming that they have identified other plagiarism in her work including 15 examples in her dissertation where she did not cite Wikipedia as a source. Business Insider told us that they are publishing their story…

Today, he dashed off a 2,500-word piece on what he thinks he's doing, focusing on the power of artificial intelligence to keep wokester academic research honest....

The article goes on saying attacking this guy is a huge error in judgement and explains why, and truthfully, after reading about this guy, and comments by readers who either know him or about him, I'm inclined to agree, however I felt some clairty was needed, and I will explain that more fully later on, saying:

Okay, he's Conan the Barbarian when he gets ticked off, I get it. But why is he ticked off?  Let's make sure this is clear as a mountain stream. He didn't give two squats about all the corruption and plagiarism going on in academia until his wife was attacked for her plagiarism, of which from all indications, she is apparently guilty.   Now, if he channels his considerable skills and wealth, all fueled by his outrage, to expose the corruption in academia, which I think is blatant and rampant, then he's to be commended.

But let's not lose sight that this is some righteous crusade for truth, justice, and the American way. It's revenge for exposing his wife's perfidy. So, I think it's appropriate to ask this. If his wife hadn't been attacked, would he be launching this crusade? And if wouldn't why not, since it seems clear to me he must have already known this corruption was pandemic in academic and scientific circles.

There are a lot of regular commenters at AT.  Almost an AT family of commenters, and overall most the commenters at AT are much brighter than those who comment elsewhere, and as expected, in families there's disagreement, and agreement. Let's take a look.

Hitchhiker: He stated this in his last piece. It is about the support for the murder of Jews that got his interest. He even explained in his first so called screed that he did the research. He used to think DEI was about promoting diversity and being nice to people. But, he dug deeper and discovered the ugly truth and that is why he is now on the warpath. Go Bill Go.

 

ron mlerin: So, he was extremely naive?

 

Hitchhiker:  In many areas, yes.

 

Elizabeth Yezzi:  Gotta be honest with you Hitch. If a guy as rich and as smart as Ackman didn't know Harvard was a bastion of anti-Semitism for the past umpteen years he really shot his smart wad. He used to think DEI was about being nice to people? Seriously? Not buying it. I think he wanted to call out the anti - Semitism at first because he is Jewish and employs Jewish people AND Gay was inexcusable in her Congressional testimony and kudos to him for that. But if all these donors are doing their homework since they graduated 35 years ago, I suggest they look into the policy before they write the checks. Ignorance of the policies is no excuse.

 

Hitchhiker: I certainly won't argue about his judgment overall. I think he honestly was surprised when he began researching. Up till now, he has been too busy making money and building things. He is not stupid but, he was willfully blind. Now, he sees and that is a very good thing. He shoulda coulda seen it far earlier but, consider how many others still can't.

 

Paraphrasing Old Gyrene's comments: "I think the jury is still out on the charges against his wife. As noted above, there is nothing in the various Wiki's you can list as a 'source', since the entries are subject to constant revision/erasure." and "I think you have it exactly wrong and using the expression "his wife's perfidy" expresses your motivation quite clearly." 

 

t. c. white:  don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

Well, I didn't quote Wikipedia, and as of right now absolutely no one appears to be challenging the validity of her "perfidy", including her husband.  

 

As for not looking a gift horse in the mouth, I'm not, I applaud his actions, but I also think it's important to qualify his actions. First, he attacked Harvard for their antisemitic leanings over the vile attack on Israel by Hamas, and that was certainly justified, and he’s to be applauded and commended for that.

But where was he and all the other prominent, wealthy, Harvard graduated American Jews, and conservatives in general, before this? They were giving money to Harvard, all playing the game, and yet this attitude and mentality didn't exist in a vacuum! It was well known.

That attack against Harvard triggered an attack against his wife for plagiarism, which he basically defended and justified with what seemed to me to be a sort of “everyone does it” response. 

What we need is clarity. If he goes Conan the Barbarian, I will applaud him. If he’s successful in exposing a massive level of corrupt plagiarism I believe is rampant throughout academia’s ranks, I will laud him.

But clarity is crucial, and must be stated, because it won’t be long before they all drop right back into the same level of complacency and cultural acceptance that fostered this vile mentality in academia going back over 150 years, because “culture is king”.

 

The question that needs answering is this:  Will he use his wealth, intelligence, and influence to create a movement among the wealthy conservatives and Jews in America to purge academia of this vile leftist infection that's contaminating education in America, from Kindergarten through to advanced graduate work, all of which is destroying American cultural stability?   Will he take a stand for truth, justice, and the American way, or merely vent his spleen because he was personally offended and then fall right back into the cultural rot that's impacting academia and the wealthy elite? 

As the reporter in Charlie Wilson's War said:  We'll see!