Reclaiming Education from the Leftists | Interview: Ben Sasse

Ben Sasse, President of the University of Florida, discusses various topics including free speech on campus, the value of a college education, and the Hamilton Center at the University of Florida. The conversation covers various topics including the state of history education, the future of higher education, the decline of the Senate as a deliberative body, and the College World Series. Ben Sasse discusses the challenges of teaching history in academia and the need for historians to write for a wider audience. He also emphasizes the importance of reforming higher education to provide more flexible and practical experiences for students. Sasse expresses his concerns about the dysfunction in the House of Representatives and the decline of the Senate as a deliberative body. He believes that media reform and changes in information consumption are necessary for America's reform. Lastly, Sasse shares his enthusiasm for the College World Series and invites Jonah to attend the event.

[@TheeBus36]

Ben Sasse fan club wya ✊🏻

[@aristeon5908]

"leftist" is a term that gets thrown around too much. Every media organisation should have a page solely devoted to explaining their terminology. I consider myself a leftist on some issues, but I don't agree with those protesters. When I look at the anti Israel protests, I consider them an expression of two movements: 1) a far leftist illiberal movement in the tradition of the Cold War era alliance of the Communist world with Palestine, and opposition to Israel as a stand-in for US imperialism; 2) a liberal identitarian movement that promotes a paranoid form of identity politics and essentialist identitarian collectivism as the most important criterion for understanding the world. It would also be important to investigate whether China's regime has played a role in the protests. Beijing is aligned with Palestine, and has been since the Mao Zedong era. Have China-backed accounts and social media platforms been conduits for far left anti Israel propaganda? Too many media organisations create "reaction" and commentary content instead of doing the underlying investigations necessary to inform such debates. I think the NYT and other mainstream media won't even touch these issues for fear of alienating the far left and liberal identitarian Twitter mobs.

[@johndillon8051]

What historian is Sasse hiring? Steven Kotkin?

[@peterstafford4426]

By 'leftist' he means people who value facts

[@bbishop4798]

Different rooting interest in Omaha (Go Big Orange) but this is a great guy and would be happy if more like him were leading our Colleges and Universities. Congress is too dysfunctional for him to do much good there for now, but he is certainly making a difference where he has gone. Dispatch is worth the subscription!

[@mscafidi5870]

I've been proud to have him leading my alma mater.