Down the Memory Hole

The progressive machine loves to sweep its screw-ups under the rug. Let's lift it and see what's underneath.

1. The philosopher v. the barbarians

Will someone please tell me why Ann Cudd still has a job?

The diminutive doctor of philosophy and president of Portland State University messed up bigly in the recent…well, local media can’t quite bring itself to call it what it really was: an assault on the heart of the local commuter-school by anarchic barbarians. Whom she allowed through the gate and even tried to buy off with concessions that were embarrassing in their servility.

After the militia of mopes, anarchists, antisemites, psychotics, racialists, kleptomaniacs, mouth-breathers, and FBI plants toyed with her for three days of happy spray-painting, the Portland police came in and did the job she should have done on day one—tromping around on the top floor of the library, like tenants in a Central City Concern apartment trying to scatter the roaches. Which scattered…although, like those hardy insects, came back when the lights went out.

The barbarians were just hot ‘n’ bothered by events far, far away, where dissent—much less spray-painting the wrong graffiti—is a death sentence. But those kufiyas! So kicky, paired with an N95!

Could the PSU prez, laden with three degrees, have actually failed to see this coming? Well, she’s a fairly recent newcomer, but it’s hard to believe that she missed the ongoing cycle of carefully orchestrated “spontaneous demonstrations” that were closing down roads and stranding travelers trying to make flights at PDX.

If she had read the dinosaur press or asked around town, she would have known that these demos have a boring predictability: get tacit approval from weak-kneed pols; escalate; mobiliize the go-along-for-the-kicks crowd; keep upping the stakes; try to burn something down.

And so the barbarians strolled through the unguarded gates of the PSU library, promptly renaming it for some Palestinian whozis, and bedded down, as Oregon Public Broadcasting said, with “Dancing, donations and a growing sense of worry…”

If, as Prof Cudd says…

“As a philosophy professor and daughter of librarians, that space is really a sacred space…”

…it’s worth asking: why didn’t she defend it? It’s not as if some wily band of ninjas crept into the place: social media was full of crosstalk on targeting PSU. With barbarians taking over buildings in several universities, why would she think the finger of fate wouldn’t point toward occupation on her campus—particularly because the library was especially vulnerable because of Cudd’s open-arm policy of allowing anyone with two feet to enter, no PSU ID required.

The minute that the barbarians strolled through the gate on April 29, they began spray-painting windows and tearing out the fire alarm system. People strolled in and out carrying the barbarians’ logistics, as the Oregonian noted…

The protesters appear to be planning to stay for the foreseeable future. An orange sign had a heading that read “Needs,” followed by a list that included respirators, balaclavas, sharpies, ponchos, electronic chargers, eye wash, squirt bottles, a fire extinguisher, and hand soap.

….which meant that there was no lack of eye-witness intelligence available to the president, had she inquired. The library was taking a beating, the barbarians clearly had no wish to abandon their bookish fortress, and they were, as usual, getting pretty good press and accolades on Instagram.

And so Prof. Cudd “negotiated.” She had already acquiesced to an abortive April 25 camp-in on the South Parks blocks (that devolved into standard smash-n-grab looting) by agreeing to cut the school’s virtually non-existent ties to nasty Boeing Corporation. Which goes to show how little any of the raiders actually knew about their target—and the first indication that any negotiations would be with a morphing cast of dummies.

This did not deter Prof. Cudd…or her top-secret band of faculty negotiators. No one in the dinosaur press has asked for any details of those negotiations…but it’s clear, as no one has noted in any of the media tick-tocks, that Cudd was more than willing to give away the store.

What does someone do when they’ve painted themselves into a corner?

Call the cops! Who then played their role in the kabuki drama…and here we are.

Here’s one of many questions no one asked Dr. Cudd: why didn’t she demand to trade negotiations for exiting the library? With barbarians sticking like barnacles to university buildings at far more prestigious universities, did she think that the PSU invaders were more reasonable, nicer even, than the barbarians elsewhere?

Here’s another: what actually was discussed in these negotiations? Who said what and when did they say it?

Why did she give the barbarians three days to dig in?

Did she make some sort of deal with the cops to go easy on the vandals and play to the cameras?

The majority of people actually apprehended by the slow-moving cops weren’t students. Who were they—shouldn’t Prof. Cudd be calling for revealing their names and Curriculum Vitae?

Will anyone actually be kicked out of the easy-entry school?

Prof. Cudd could take some comfort in the behavior of many of her colleagues at the helm of big, hyper-expensive, woke universities; her sellout was peanuts compared to the cave-in by the president of my alma mater, Northwestern University; or the flip-flopping at USC; or Columbia University causing multiple lawsuits and federal judges saying they won’t look at resumes from Columbia grads.

Could have been worse which, any philosopher will tell you, is not an adequate defense.

Around the same time as the PSU dither, Ben Sasse, the head of the University of Florida, wrote in the Wall St. Journal (two strikes against him already!) a piece that ought to be on Prof. Cudd’s reading list.

A few excerpts (since the WSJ doesn’t like cross-posting)…

At the University of Florida, we tell parents and future employers: We’re not perfect, but the adults are still in charge.

First, universities must distinguish between speech and action. Speech is central to education…. The heckler gets no veto.

Second, universities must say what they mean and then do what they say. Empty threats make everything worse. Any parent who has endured a 2-year-old’s tantrum gets this. You can’t say, “Don’t make me come up there” if you aren’t willing to walk up the stairs and enforce the rules….In the same way, universities make things worse with halfhearted appeals to abide by existing policies and then immediately negotiating with 20-year-old toddlers.

Actions have consequences. At the University of Florida, we have repeatedly, patiently explained two things to protesters: We will always defend your rights to free speech and free assembly—but if you cross the line on clearly prohibited activities, you will be thrown off campus and suspended. In Gainesville, that means a three-year prohibition from campus. That’s serious. We said it. We meant it. We enforced it.

Young men and women with little grasp of geography or history—even recent events like the Palestinians’ rejection of President Clinton’s offer of a two-state solution—wade into geopolitics with bumper-sticker slogans they don’t understand. For a lonely subset of the anxious generation, these protest camps can become a place to find a rare taste of community. This is their stage to role-play revolution.

We want to believe in the power of education as a way to elevate human dignity. It’s time for universities to do their jobs again.

Ben Sasse served as a United States senator from Nebraska from 2015 to 2023; he was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial. People are moving to Florida; they’re leaving Oregon. Just a coincidence.

2. Who us?

The dinosaur media plodded around the edges of the takeover and even ran pictures of the graffiti and trash for the benefit of the folks who pay the bills.

Except for Willy Week. I read their web pages every damn day—an old habit from a lifetime in the journalism trade—and the only article they ran during the three days of drama must have been memory holed quickly. It was by one of their ace head-hunters, Sophie Peel, and—ironically—the headline hit the nail on the head…

…and that was that.

This seemed out of character for the weekly—particularly since many of the “protesters” are probably among their declining readership.

I sent an email to the paper’s news editor, Aaron Mesh, not really expecting a reply. As British royalty says, “Never explain, never complain.”

But he bounced back…

Thanks for the inquiry. I really appreciate the work you do holding Portland media accountable.

Every time a breaking news story occurs, I’m faced with the decision of where to deploy our limited resources. We have just four reporters on the news desk, so moving any of them to cover a developing story on the ground means taking them off their assigned task of pursuing enterprise stories. The calculus is different every time, but in this case, facing an election that is pivotal to the future of the city and a growing crisis in the governor’s office, I made the decision to prioritize enterprise stories on established beats. I don’t know if I was right. We’ll see. 

That being said, we have some coverage of the library seizure in tomorrow’s edition, and we may revisit the story if we see opportunities to add value for our readers with reporting that’s not being provided by other outlets. I’d love to hear from you what aspects of the story you think merit further investigation. 

Aaron

…the guy should be in the diplomatic corps. Maybe he could figure out this Gaza stuff.

Just for the hell of it, I went back and took a look at the hot stories the top reporters were getting into the paper during the takeover.

Sophie Peel, who never pursued her questions about the PSU prexie, offered this stop-the-presses dispatch…

Nigel Jaquiss, their reigning head-hunter (being hard-pressed on the stretch by Peel), offered…

…while Anthony Effinger (batting clean-up) reported…

…which is just one of many stories in local media’s utter fascination with this so-so Southern California burger chain. (I’ve had their fare back in SoCal and, hate to say it, Burgerville wins by a mile.)

Meantime, I await the arrival of Mesh’s promise of something about the barbarians in tomorrow’s paper…let me know if you’ve seen it.

The media and the rest of us have moved on, as they say, into the “forgive and forget” phase of these distortions of the town’s reality field. Want to bet there’ll be a second act when Hamas fights to the bitter end?

Or something else comes along to catch the barbarians’ fancy…as it always does.