I’d be ok with anonymous donations if they were truly anonymous both publicly and to the management of the institution receiving the money.
Maybe this is something that the government could facilitate - pool these resources, then help distribute them where they are needed. Almost like how taxes work.
Maintains uncomfortable eye contact with the camera
If anyone is aware of the source, it’s not anonymous, it’s undisclosed.
The tweet speaks of “dark money”. I like that term better. It feels worse
I work for a nonprofit and “anonymous donor” definitely means “c-suite folks know who it came from”
So in this context, it’s always doublespeak?
This exactly. If you really want to stay anonymous then use a middleman and do it anonymous to the recipient as well.
Everyone involved with the institution, students, parents who pay tuition, teachers, authorities who financially support the institution (…) have a right to know in whose pocket they are.
do like onion routing, use two middlemen, i guess you’d literally use locks, sorta like that encryption analogy
Just like they do social security? The government is terrible at the distribution of money. Edit: Damn, y’all really hate SSI
Elaborate?
You know they can’t
They seem to be pretty good at making sure the military has all the finding they need
Wait til you hear how much of that money is unaccounted for. https://www.nationalpriorities.org/blog/2023/11/21/pentagon-fails-its-sixth-audit/
Important additional context that didn’t make it into this tweet, this donation was explicitly directed toward promoting “free inquiry and expression” at UChicago. Decades ago that was a legit strength of UChicago that really was pretty ideologically neutral, and that history gives them a phenomenal tool for spinning dog whistles and ultra conservative policies as part of “the life of the mind.”
Here’s the announcement email from the University’s president yesterday.
Worth noting that Eman Abdelhadi is faculty at UChicago, speaking out against her own employer alongside hundreds of other faculty. Eman is particularly adept at making sure every time they use “free inquiry and expression” as a conservative dog whistle it gets thrown back in their faces. (She’s also just kind of a badass.)
UChicago admin work very hard to promote this image of the school as a bastion for “sane conservatives” by taking stances diametrically opposed to the what the students and faculty actually stand behind. The real UChicago is anti-genocide, pro-union, and knows that promoting free speech doesn’t mean tolerating hate speech.
I only have two words “Chicago Boys”. This shit has been going on there for a long time.
Oh 100% absolutely. I mean the gentrification of Hyde Park and Woodlawn with active, deliberate harm to the black community started at the University’s inception in 1898 (1895? 92? They keep changing the “established in” date on all their merch and propaganda, it’s hard to keep up) and continues to this day with no signs of slowing.
I also should have specified that if we’re talking about student/faculty attitudes the “real” UChicago community does not or at least should include Booth and the psychopathic econ department. That’s where all the money comes from (because it’s evil) but everyone except admin hates them. Also I’m pretty sure they would argue “community” means communism and community of any kind should be abolished in favor of a social free market or some shit, whatever garbage they are peddling these days.
Simpsons did it!
“Well, frankly, test scores like Larry’s would call for a very generous contribution. For example, a score of 400 would require a donation of new football uniforms, 300, a new dormitory, and in Larry’s case, we would need an international airport.”
Um, if it’s anonymous can they influence anything?
University of Chicago is the home of the federalist society.
And the home of the Chicago school of economics. It’s a little like worrying Fox News is gonna change it’s editorial bias because of a donation. That ship has sailed
They won’t change, but they can amplify it.
Yeah was gonna say the same. U of C has some pretty balls-out political and economic priorities
Do you think the donation will somehow make the University of Chicago more conservative?
Just hold out the finger in the air for when there is a change in the intensity of propaganda
Agree in general. Ez fix: strings attached that it’s anonymous and unattached. A third party manages the exchange, and everyone is under oath. A step in the right direction at least
So if I donate to someone it’s “dark money”?
If it’s millions of dollars and done anonymously in a culture of prominent bribery with little to no “no strings attached” charity at that scale, it seems reasonable to suspect foul play and call it “dark money”.
Dafuq? If it’s anonymous, how is it exerting influence?
It’s only anonymous to the public. I imagine the donor and the university are in frequent direct contact.
Are they, or is it just your imagination?
Edit: ah, just your imagination.
Have you never donated to a “charitable” cause before? You can usually talk to them and ask to not have your name released. There’s no legal requirement for name disclosure so it’s up to the institution’s policy.
Yes, I’ve donated plenty, and typically anonymously, since I’m not trying to use others to advance a personal agenda.
Non-disclosure would be something quite different from anonymity.
Is it hard to conceive of agreeing to something behind closed doors and donating anonymously to hide the tracks?
Is it hard to suggest that in a less condescending manner?
