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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   26074 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 4, 2023

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Drive-by tangent.

The University presidents were either woefully unskilled or badly coached on how to handle hostile questions like this. They gave repetitive, legalistic non-answers and declined ...

Repetitive, legalistic non-answers are also what professional civil-servants give in front of such committees too, even though it's their day job. It's probably the least-worst tactic given the situation, and it prevents you getting actually skewered.

Yes this seems correct. There is no upside and considerable downside risk in answering in any other way. Similarly one should not talk to police beyond the absolute minimum legally required.

I disagree. These hearings play to the public. Having a cogent answer and a cooperative demeanor could be helpful. There is of course increased downside risk as well, but I think someone skilled could sway public opinion in their favor even in the face of hostile questioning, or at least limit the downside risk of public outrage.

Very little on C-Span makes news that people pay attention too. Taking the risk usually pays off.

Repetitive, legalistic non-answers are also what professional civil-servants give in front of such committees too, even though it's their day job

Congress could hold someone in contempt right?

That's why you have to show up and play the game. "Go fuck yourself" is not a sufficiently legalistic non-answer.

BTW: A lot has happened since this original thread and it's impressive how badly this tactic went for these people. I state again however: this is the standard way to behave in front of such committees. Or at least it is here in Australia.

For correctly stating that the answer depends on the context or other actions but this isn't inherently forbidden by school policy? I don't suppose so. I don't think anyone is getting convicted for merely stating legalistic technically true answers.

Yes but it's toothless unless the DOJ takes up the contempt charge for them.

Yes, people often wonder how bureaucrats who are otherwise quite charismatic and charming behave like robots at public hearings or with politicians in general, but they’re coached to do so by others in the permanent bureaucracy. The worst thing in that position is for a politician to care, one way or another, a great deal about you personally. It means scrutiny, it means attention from the opposition, it makes your life and that of your coworkers more difficult. So the best thing is to appear as much the gray suit as possible, so they hopefully forget you. If you argue forcefully back then, well, you’ve become a politician.

I deeply regret the Republicans didn’t win the Senate in 2022. Rand Paul would’ve made (justly imo) Fauci’s life a living hell.

How so? He could have just retired slightly sooner, still quite rich and still doing the rounds on news/talk shows answering tough questions like "how does it feel to have saved eleventy-trillion lives with Science(tm)?" Rand Paul constantly grilling him would barely even be reported on, let alone actually affect his life.

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