Interview · moment 29 of 29
Harvard Teaches You to Trust the System
from Francis Ellis · #144
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
2 minGuest
Tim argues that elite institutions like Harvard indoctrinate students to believe in government accountability post-Watergate, comparing it to corporate propaganda, while Francis notes his Harvard friend group actually disagrees on plenty.
- 1:23:39Tim's friend works at Bay Alarm, where the company enforces conformity with the phrase 'the Bay way.'
- 1:24:07There are no propaganda classes taught; instead, students are corralled into asking only acceptable questions or risk ostracism.
- 1:24:37In other countries, people are more open to CIA criticism because the agency has done horrific things.
- 1:24:58Tim studied Middle Eastern politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict at Harvard and got in trouble for it.
- 1:25:26His Harvard friend group studied different fields — economics, philosophy, classics, math — and have wildly divergent views in their group chat.
- 1:25:41Tim argues that while the disagreements seem broad, there are likely unstated premises that go unquestioned across the group.