Palantir Co-Founder Starts Anti-Woke University With Clown Car of Intellectual Dark Web Dweebs

A sampling of the nation’s most insupportable contrarian columnists, right-wing pundits, and different stuffed shirts is launching their own university in a bid to problem the supposedly woke tutorial establishment—courtesy of funding from an obscure libertarian nonprofit linked to Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.

The University of Austin or UATX, which is completely to not be confused with the University of Texas at Austin, an actual college, goals to supply “forbidden courses” that may spark college students to ask “provocative questions that often lead to censorship or self-censorship in many universities.” It boasts a bevy of headache-inducing personalities on its Board of Advisors, which consists largely of the kind of individuals who have branded themselves because the final defenders of liberalism (in opposition to the tide of woke liberals).

Those personalities embrace Bari Weiss, a former New York Times opinion editor who has spent most of her skilled power yelping about left-wing Twitter mobs; conservative British historian Niall Ferguson, who left Stanford after leaked emails confirmed him encouraging campus Republicans to do “opposition research” on a left-wing scholar; former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who has by some means tried to make the “wokeness” of central bankers a culture-war issue; amateur race scientist and self-declared ethnic penis size expert Andrew Sullivan; scorched-earth culture warrior Sohrab Ahmari; and cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, an identity politics alarmist who’s fashionable with the neoliberal crowd. One of its “founding faculty fellows” is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Hoover Institution scholar who believes Islam is inherently violent and has extra not too long ago begun parroting the road that “wokeism” is just like white supremacy.

The effort will likely be headed up by inaugural president Pano Kanelos, the former president of St. John’s College (Annapolis) who can be one other culture-war obsessive who believes academic freedom is being derailed by leftists. Alongside them will likely be fellow traveler and enterprise capitalist Lonsdale, one of many tech billionaires recognized for complaining concerning the supposedly stifling political tradition of Silicon Valley.

UATX—which as of proper now, is just not accredited in something however giving individuals aneurysms—says on its web site it’s “fiscally sponsored” by Cicero Research, which is affiliated with Lonsdale’s libertarian Cicero Institute. Lonsdale is finest recognized for partnering with right-wing enterprise capitalist Peter Thiel to discovered Palantir, the massive knowledge evaluation agency notorious for courting contracts with federal immigration companies and the navy. (Disclosure: Thiel bankrolled a lawsuit that bankrupted Gizmodo’s former mum or dad firm, Gawker Media.) Lonsdale and his agency 8VC moved to Austin from San Francisco final 12 months, citing the situation as conveniently nearer to corporations he backs throughout the nation and a solution to escape California tax charges—Texas has no earnings tax.

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According to the Daily Beast, public filings show Lonsdale listed as a member of Cicero Research. Beyond potentially being UATX’s financial benefactor and a member of its board of advisers, it’s not clear how big a role Lonsdale will play in the project: a spokesperson for the school told the Beast only that “We’re very proud to have Joe Lonsdale both on our board and as one of our financial supporters.” The Beast famous that UATX says it already has seed funding and is in search of $250 million extra in funding.

UATX doesn’t but supply levels however is looking for accreditation from the Texas Higher Education Board and preliminary accreditation by way of the Higher Learning Commission to supply grasp’s levels in fall 2022 and undergraduate levels in 2024. In an FAQ, it explains the selection of location in Austin with “If it’s good enough for Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, it’s good enough for us,” including that town is experiencing a “historic boom in talent and capital.”

For a style of Lonsdale’s political leanings, confer with a latest tweet by which he responded to a tweet about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg by claiming that males who take half a 12 months of paternity go away are “losers” failing to take “the correct masculine response” of the “old days”. That comment didn’t go down significantly nicely with Initialized Capital founders Alexis Ohanian and Garry Tan, who shot back that their firm presents 4 months of paid paternity go away. Buttigieg’s partner, Chasten Buttigieg, subsequently stated that their child had severe well being points and spent three weeks within the hospital, together with a “terrifying week” on a ventilator. Lonsdale additionally totally denies accusations of rape from a feminine Stanford scholar he mentored.

As New York Mag argued, the idea behind UATX isn’t precisely new: conservatives have tried to construct their very own tutorial secure areas free from dissenting voices for many years, like Jerry Falwell’s evangelical Liberty University, Republican candidate factory Patrick Henry College, and MAGA-friendly Hillsdale College. The journal additionally famous that lots of the people related to UATX aren’t precisely recognized for his or her embrace of the spirit of open debate, like Bari Weiss, who as a scholar at Columbia University developed a reputation for focusing on Arab professors as Israel-haters, or the anti-trans scholar Kathleen Stock, who stop the University of Sussex after college students protested her transphobic views. If historical past is any instance, UATX will likely be extra of a cancel culture-obsessed hivemind than a beacon of debate.

UATX didn’t immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment on this story, but we’ll update if we hear back.