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Practical planning tips:Use Google spreadsheets or other shared software. To stay organized, use this religiously. This also saves you stress knowing all your thoughts and open to-do's are in one place.Use various online and offline resources. There are great reviews, forums and books (e.g. Bridal Bargains - http://www.amazon.com/Bridal-Bargains-Throwing-Fantastic-Realistic/dp/1889392391/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299730400&sr=1-1 - does a good job helping you navigate new brands and not be ripped off; I haven't read it in over 5 years, but I learned a lot of wedding planning tips from it)Consider hiring a wedding planner or day-of coordinator. The rest of this answer assumes you are doing most of the planning yourself.For all vendors, be sure to keep contact info, cell phone numbers handy and get everything in writing and follow-up regularly, especially the month before to re-confirm the details.More important things to remember throughout the planning process:It is your wedding. The two of you should make the final calls.It is just one day (or at most a week celebration). You spend a lot of time planning for the big day, but what's more important is preparing for your marriage. Think of the issues which come up as preparation for far more serious life challenges in the future.Being engaged is a special, brief time. Don't forget to enjoy this period of your relationship. One day you won't be able to imagine what it's like not to be married.I. First things first: At its core, a wedding is an event (or series of events) with the end goal of celebrating you, your fiance and your decision to tie the knot. Basic event planning steps are where you should start:Size: Discuss with your fiance how large of a wedding you'd like. Consider other weddings you've attended. Less than 100 is fairly intimate and you're likely to get to talk to everyone at least once. More than 200 is large enough where you won't actually talk to everyone. Discuss any constraints you'd like to put (e.g. if your fiance hasn't already heard of the family friend today, the family friend is ineligible to be invited). Todo: Make a list of everyone you will definitely invite ("A list") and others you would like to invite if you have space ("B list"). Force your fiance and all of your parents to do the same. Do this on a shared Google spreadsheet or similar and give yourself time to let the old friends spring back into memory.Vision: Discuss the overall vision with your fiance. Even those who haven't planned their weddings since childhood have likes and dislikes when it comes to their own weddings. Figure out the structure (is it multiple days? a single day? local? at some faraway destination?) and each of you should choose 3 things you absolutely want to have done well (e.g. great food, perfect dress, open bar). It's a good idea to keep some document (tab in that Google spreadsheet) to capture other special ideas you guys have.Budget: Discuss what you can spend, who else is contributing to figure out your overall budget. Weddings can vary vastly in cost depending on city (coastal cities can be >50% more expensive than in middle of the US) and your taste.II. Location & Date: With your vision, guest count range (estimate your invitee to attendee ratio which can be anywhere from 50-95%) and budget, start to solidify the types of wedding venue you want. Questions to ask yourself:Local or destination: Local is easier to plan, destination is more interesting and a decent way to force your guest list to a smaller size.Single site or multiple: Do you want your ceremony and reception to be at the same place or not? Are there other events (e.g. tea ceremony) which you need to hold during the wedding day?Indoor or outdoor: Time of year and location obviously a factor.Over 250 people or under: At a certain size, your choices become limited to large venues like dedicated wedding/event centers, large hotels or convention centers. Under about 250, you can consider less typical event venues like local restaurants, wineries, zoos, museums, schools, gardens, etc.Anything special you're looking for: a view of the ocean, a place where all guests can equally see the dance floor, a city view, a place you can overhaul entirely, a place with special meaning in your lives, etc.Do your research online, look at pictures of actual weddings from the place and then make appointments in blocks so you can spend a few days and hit a lot of places. If you're calling a non-traditional wedding venue, you should consider getting rental quotes on the phone without saying your are planning a wedding (call it a family reunion or other celebration) to avoid the wedding inflation. When you visit, bring a camera to take pictures to help you remember the sites.Once you have a short list, here are factors to consider when choosing and booking a location and date:Fees: Dig deep on the requirements. Some places require you use their coordinators. Others charge you a per person cake cutting fee. Many limit your choice of vendors.Size & layout: How many can be accommodated? Do you have buffer if your guest list balloons? Do you want a dance floor? Think through the things you'd want and what space requirements they'd have: e.g. slideshow (will it be dark enough in the room, is there room for screens large enough plus projection), a photo booth station, a 14-piece band, etc.? What would the layout of tables be and is it what you're looking for? Will the place photograph well?Date: What is available? Will these dates work for everyone (does it conflict with family members' graduations? other friends' weddings? any must-have vendors)? Note that Sunday weddings can be harder for traveling guests but can be cheaper; weekday weddings are even harder for guests and even cheaper for you.Book the place(s) with the required deposit. Be sure to actually read the rental agreement before you sign (and ask for edits and changes based on any special needs) and keep copies of it, contact info of the person at the venue and copies of your deposit receipt handy. Remember that your wedding, as special as it will be, is one of potentially hundreds of events the site is handling in a year. You (or your wedding planner) need to be responsible for following-up and keeping the site and your other vendors on point.III. Wedding Dress: For better or worse, the wedding dress industry is not nice to consumers. Brides are not that cost sensitive and unfamiliar with brands -- so they are a gold mine. Often dresses are not made until you and a bunch of others around the world order them, so that's why you hear about the notoriously long lead times and "rush orders" for dresses needed in less than 6 months. Factors to consider:Budget: You will wear this dress for maybe 12 hours or so, but it will be in a lot of photographs. Decide how much you are willing to spend and don't forget all the pieces you'll need to put the look together including the dress, alterations, shoes, undergarments, veil, other hair pieces, wraps/shawls, make-up, hair updo, cleaning the dress afterwards, etc.Styles: Get the bridal magazines, look online. When you go to stores, try on styles you weren't considering, you will likely be surprised as you most likely haven't ever seen a wedding dress on. Don't be surprised if most places require appointments and an assistant who suggests dresses versus let you browse. Often stores cut out brand labels and dress model numbers so you can't compare prices easily (evil, I know). Bring friends, relatives who will be helpful only. Take pictures if the stores let you.Timing: Check on the rush order timing, and as excited as you might be about your wedding date, I recommend you tell them your wedding date is 4 weeks earlier than it actually is to ensure on-time delivery.Alterations: See if the store requires in-store alterations. Wedding gowns aren't easy to alter well given the materials and complexity of some dresses, especially strapless dresses. Budget time for alterations as well as hundreds of dollars.Accessories: As you will know by now, all things "wedding" related cost more. Consider looking for accessories outside a bridal salon or borrow from friends if you don't want to spend hundreds on a veil.Cleaning: Depending what you do with your dress afterwards, you can have it dry cleaned and/or packaged in an archival box.Make-up & hair: Research make-up and hair options. Some people hire professionals to come to wherever they are getting ready; others go to a beauty salon. Consider whether bridesmaids and mothers will need professional services too. Some make-up artists stay with you during the day to help do touch-ups or hairdo changes.IV. Bridal party apparel:Bridesmaids dresses require some lead-time too, but usually not as much. Typically bridesmaids pay for their own dresses, but you can cover the expense if you wish. Work with your bridesmaids or have your maid of honor lead the coordination. Make the final call yourself in case of conflicts. Several stores have gotten into creating wedding apparel, e.g. J.Crew. Stores like rkbridal.com in New York offer online/fax orders and price matching.For men, tuxedo rentals are fairly flexible and many nationwide chains make it easy to get measurements taken. Do take special care to have folks pick up their tuxes at least a day in advance and they must try the tux on in the store in the fairly likely case there are sizing issues. (To be convinced, read my review of Men's Warehouse at http://www.yelp.com/list/my-wedding-palo-alto.)V. CateringFood: Decide what type of food and banquet style you want. You could serve lunch or dinner, or just have cocktail hour or a light brunch. Buffets are not any cheaper than plated food, but require fewer servers, yield hotter/fresher food and require space on your floor layout. Plated meals can feel more formal and be easier for guests. Food stations are good for lighter receptions but can be sufficiently heavy and interestingly diverse compared to a more tranditional meal. Do a tasting if you can.Fees: Caterers have lots of hidden fees, most notably the service fee which usually starts at 18%. Investigate staffing fees, rentals for tables, chairs, chair covers, linens, flatware, dinnerware, glassware, etc.VI. Cake: Some caterers or locations (e.g. hotels) can provide your cake. Definitely do a cake tasting though often with cakes of height, the density required as well as how long they have to be left out can make them taste bad. This is definitely not a rule as I was happy to find my wedding cake at a regular bakery which does delicious wedding cakes, though they book up fast. As a cost-saving measure, you can have extra sheet cake of the same type of cake made. The cake, once cut up, looks pretty unrecognizable, so the sheet cake might even look better. Watch out for the cake cutting fee on top.VII. Florist: Florists range from those who provide you with specific arrangements to people who are more event designers who can help you build out the decoration and look & feel of your ceremony and banquet tables. There's been some recent trends to get more creative than flowers for reception centerpieces -- rocks, potted arrangements, fruit, your favorite memorabilia or photos and other ideas can also be used.VIII.Invitations & Collateral: There are numerous online resources for creating invitations, programs, placecards, table cards and anything else you need printed for your wedding. A friend found artists on Etsy.com who would do custom designs for you and send you the files you need to get their logos, special fonts printed elsewhere. You can also use offline stationary, greeting card (e.g. Paper Source, Papyrus) or crafts stores (e.g. Michael's) to get invitations created.Tips: Personally, I think having consistent design throughout all your printed materials brings cohesion and polish to your wedding. That includes color choices, fonts, graphical elements, paper choice, etc. FedEx Kinkos can cut a stack of paper for around $1 per cut, so please do not waste time cutting your own invitations if you just need basic straight lines. Use a Google form or other form to collect updated mailing addresses; consider doing RSVPs online or save-the-dates online to save paper. If you mail RSVP cards, consider writing in light pencil a unique # that corresponds with each invitee in case someone doesn't properly fill out their name and you can't associate the RSVP card to the recipient. Obviously maintain a spreadsheet of RSVPs and make sure your RSVP cards include all the fields you need to provide the caterers with the info you need to give them (e.g. a couple wants chicken and fish, do you need to know which the wife wants vs which the husband wants for their placecards?).I'll call out wedding favors here since it fits as one of the things you will be physically handing out. If you have a theme, brainstorm what would be fun and creative. For the sake of the environment, before you buy 200 trinkets, think about what guests would actually want, use and keep.IX. Photographer & Videographer: After a wedding, besides your fond memories and funny stories, the photos and videos are what are lasting. Having an edited small set of photos and/or videos which highlight the day is priceless, both for the two of you as a couple, your parents, and also to your future children. Browse these vendors' online portfolios, ask friends to see their wedding albums and videos and find someone whose style you like. Note that even cheap ($1-3K) photographers may be terrible and no better than your amateur SLR-lugging photographer friends. So make sure you see some images which make you feel an emotion, awe you or otherwise make some good lasting impression on you. Consider hiring photographers and videographers who have worked with each other so they are used to each other and don't get in each other's way.Tip: Formal wedding albums are very expensive (many hundreds of dollars) given the archival quality of the book and binding. Unless you definitely want one, consider going with a photographer which doesn't force a package deal with it upfront. You may find after the wedding that you weren't sure what you were thinking spending all the money you did for the wedding; plus you realize you'd have to require white gloves for people to actually view your album. Instead, if you can get the digital copies, make a cheaper flip book for your coffee table.X. Entertainment: This can be your friend with a great iTunes playlist and nice speaker system to a DJ or a live band or two (perhaps different for your ceremony, cocktail hour and post-dinner dancing). Be wary of using house speakers for sound unless you've tested it out while the room is filled with talking guests. Often these systems are weak and made for background elevator music. Consider who will be your emcee -- a friend, the DJ or lead singer of your band. Provide clear instructions on the style you want (e.g. funny, raucous, stand-up comedian, etc.) and how self-promotional they should be. If they are doing your introductions, be sure to provide pronunciation guides for your wedding party.For your ceremony, do be sure people will be able to hear the officiant, you, your fiance and any musicians or speakers. You may be a little shy, but it isn't that fun to watch a wedding where you can't hear anything. Similarly think through the seating plan if that within your control to ensure people can see well.XI. Transportation: Map out all the relevant locations for your wedding day -- from where you, your fiance, parents, wedding party members will stay the night before, where everyone will get ready, where everyone will meet, when folks need to arrive for photos, the ceremony, in-between photos, the reception, etc. Figure out who is transporting themselves and whose transportation you care about and decide whether you will hire limos, shuttles or other transportation, or work with friends to chauffeur you around.XII. Rings: If you have an engagement ring, look for a wedding band which will complement it. Men's bands tend to be thicker and thicker bands need to be slightly larger that thinner bands for comfort. Consider engraving something special inside your bands. Allow for time for re-sizing when ordering.XIII. Personal details: Having been involved in many wedding and attended countless others, I strongly recommend you continually consider how to make your wedding day yours. Not for the goal of outshining other weddings, but to make sure it's a day that is about you, not what a typical wedding has to be since you are the ones shelling out the time and money. I've seen some nice personal touches, e.g. game lovers had guests do various brain teasers in a table competition. It's hard to think of these personalized details, so keep that running list of brainstormed ideas and ask your closest friends for thoughts on what makes the two of you unique.Day-Of coordinationHaving run day-of coordination many times, I'll have to write another answer on how to make sure your wedding runs smoothly as this one is long enough.

There are many websites now who are offering US company registration for around $500 and get you registered in Delaware for the business.Delaware has established a reputation around the world as the best and most business-friendly state in which to incorporate. More than 65 percent of all Fortune 500 companies and more than half of all U.S. publicly-traded companies are incorporated in the state of Delaware.Types of Business Entities a Foreign National Can Choose FromCorporation (C-Corp)Limited Liability Company (LLC)Would suggest starting an LLC since there are many advantages over a Corporation. Some of these advantages include:Pass through taxation will help you avoid the double taxation of business profits.Greatly reduced State Regulations and formalities compared to a corporation.A previous advantage of a corporation known as Corporate income splitting, is also now available to LLCs. An LLC must elect to be treated as a corporation for tax purposes by the IRS by filing form 8832. This is really only useful when the LLC is making sufficient profit that it can pay its members and still retain a significant chunk of it for reinvestment in the LLC.Steps to Form Your LLCSelect a StateThink about what State you want to start your LLC. You may already have a location in mind since that is where your customers are. If you primarily intend to conduct business from your own country then the (international-friendly) States to start an LLC include Delaware, Wyoming, or Nevada. The State Offices and Banks of these three States are very familiar in dealing with Non-US Citizens.Name your LLCChoose a Registered AgentIf you are starting an LLC in the US from your home country and will not have a physical address in the US that will be open normal business hours, we suggest you hire a Registered Agent Service. They will receive and forward all official mailings to you, such papers include service of process of legal action, and state filings.File the Articles of Organization with the StateCreate an Operating AgreementSteps after LLC FormationObtain an EIN (Employee Identification Number)Getting an EIN will grant you access to:Opening a US bank accountAccepting US paymentsPaying US TaxesRegister for State TaxA Non-US resident is taxed on US source income onlyA US Resident is taxed on worldwide incomeObtain Business Licenses & PermitsHire EmployeesGet InsuranceGetting an EIN (Enables your Company to open a Bank Account or Hire Employees)An EIN (Employer Identification Number) is the tax identity of your LLC, it is necessary to open a bank account, hire employees, and pay State Taxes. You will also be required to provide your EIN to other companies to receive payments exceeding $600 in a calendar year. Obtaining an EIN from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) for your Company is easy and, the IRS does not charge you any fee to issue your LLC with an EIN. You can only apply for the EIN after forming the LLC.Download the SS-4 Instructions and SS-4 FormRead the instructions carefully while filling out the formNOTE Line 7b: If you don’t have a US Social Security Number, ITIN, or EIN just put “N/A Foreign” on line 7b.Fax form to designated number provided on the form, be sure to give the IRS a number to fax your EIN back to.An ITIN (Individual Tax Identity Number) or US social security number is not necessary to obtain an EIN for your company if the above process is used.There are lots of online services that you can use to form an LLC for you (they essentially just complete the paperwork for you). Many include additional packages to obtain an EIN, but be aware, while they can form the LLC for you, they will NOT be able to obtain an EIN, as they assume you have a US social security number or ITIN, which most likely you will not.More on forming a company : How to Open a Company in the USAUS Physical AddressYou need a physical US address for receiving business documents. There are several mail service forwarding providers charging different rates.My choice was Virtualpostmail.com – a web 2.0 company who seemed to be miles ahead of others in what seems to be a very traditional industry. I chose the $20 plan.They scan mails and send you an email; you can choose emails that needs to be opened and the contents scanned or just forward those mails to any other international address.Before you can operate your account, you need to submit a notarized form 1583 from USPS to authorize Virtual Post mail to open mails on your (and your companies behalf).US Bank AccountYou need a Business checking account with a US bank. If you already have a personal bank account with a US bank you can try calling them to open a business checking account. I think this is the best option. I tried calling Wells Fargo and the person on the phone told me that I cannot open a bank account with Wells Fargo and that I had to physically go to Delaware and try opening it from Wachovia. I am sure this person was wrong and I think it should be possible with Wells Fargo. I love the bank but somehow could not get my business account opened there.If you do not have a US bank account but if you are visiting USA in the near future, you can just walk in to a bank with the incorporation documents of your company and open an account.I posted a question regarding this in Quora and a very nice gentleman who was an advisor to many startups contacted me and referred me to Silicon Valley Bank (who are considered very startup friendly) and I was able to open the account from India itself.Initially I found it amusing that I was asked to pitch my business idea or send a presentation of my business plan in order to open a business checking account. But I guess Silicon Valley bank offers so many other services to startups but our needs were pretty simple. But SVB has been great till now in terms of responsive support.Merchant AccountThe most popular alternatives are Paypal and US Home - Authorize.Net (they have many resellers). You can go to FeeFighters (Note: They were acquired by Groupon in 2013) to compare providers and choose one that works for you. I skipped the options provided by FeeFighters and went directly with Braintree Payment solutions even though they were slightly more expensive compared to others as I had read good things about them and I did not understand all the hidden fees etc.Braintree provides me a merchant account, a payment gateway, a PCI compliant vault to store customer Credit card data and can process recurring subscription billing.We thought we will worry about the fees when we are making millions of dollars and losing considerable money on feesBusiness Credit CardI applied for a mastercard credit card through Silicon Valley Bank – the card is secured with a money market account – basically secured with cash in my bank account.US Phone NumbersWe have a free Google Voice number and a Skype number which is $50 per year. The Google Voice number forwards the calls to our Skype number.We are considering 1-800 numbers from Grasshopper after we launch.We also got an iPevo skype phone for receiving Skype calls wirelessly, but the phone has stopped working and I am too busy to send it to the US and return it to Amazon.Business Leads, Development & Starting UpResearch about technology trends in the industry and based on which create your services niche meaning what they are looking for provide as your service be specialized in that particular area and grow your database of talent pool around the region or globe as you prefer to do the business.You need to find a person or an agency could be your advisory on hiring the business development professionals through a reference and once that person is in you can have him interview people in your company for rest of the roles.People play important role in shaping, growing and taking organizations to next steps so you need to make sure who is coming in so that you dont have to worry once they are in they are doing what they should be doing.You will need at least 6 people to kick start your staffing agency and follow is the break down.2X BDM : Who can focus on marketing your services and client attraction3X Recruiters : Who can find resumes on the requirement that BDM brings from clients1X Accountant: Who will be responsible for book keeping AR/AP, invoices, billing and etcThe above could be multiplied by groups and teams.After registering your company go for creating the website with a good name which could be a blend of staffing + technology through website service provider like go daddy and etc.Hire a content writer to write your area of interest in terms of services you want to provide for clients in Information Technology.RegardsSyed AiyazI help people in the staffing industry in terms of finding recruitment jobs globally specially in India, USA & Middle East, Recruitment training And even setting up a staffing firm and making it up and running through my knowledge and experience in the industry.THESTAFFINGCIRCLEAdvertise - Split - PartnerBest YouTube channel for US staffing, IT recruiting, sourcing tools, , software reviews , career mgt, Social Media recruiting & More. 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I listen to a lot of podcasts. And although I’m a conservative, I mostly listen to podcasters on the left. I don’t feel like I learn anything new when I listen to ‎The Ben Shapiro Show or Steven Crowder. So I mostly listen to podcasters on the left like Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Eric R. Weinstein, Konstantin Kisin, Francis Foster, Matt Taibbi and many others. One of my favorite public intellecutals in gender critical feminist Meghan Murphy.Gender critical feminists reject Gender Ideology, and many of its core belierfs such as gender being a performance and and that there are a spectrum of genders. Gender critical feminists basically believe that being a woman means being adult and female, and rejects the idea that a man can become a woman or should identify as a woman. For expressing these beliefs, the feminist writer and podcaster banned from Twitter. If you listen to Murphy for any length of time, she is clearly on the left, especially on the kind of economic issues that the left of North America was built on. But that doesn’t stop her from being harassed with everything from rape threats to unwanted dick picks. If she, or other gender critical feminists try to speak about the need for female spaces, they are met with protests aimed at silencing their opinions.Where does this censorius hostility, directed towards someone who agrees with most left-feminists on 90% of all issues, come from. In many ways it comes from the very institutions of higher learning where Murphy earned her Womens Studies degrees.Colleges are currently dominated by a far-left philosophy, almost a pseudo religion, that cannot tolerate the expression of opinions that differ from the world view of the most extreme voices on the left.This is a logical consequence of what is happening in the classroom. The political philosophies being pushed in academia actually promote the idea that “logic and reason are tools of oppression.” Check out 3 Reasons It's Irrational to Demand 'Rationalism' in Social Justice Activism. I love Reason #2.The idea that people who disagree use reason as a basis of a conversation and that through reason we come to some mutual understanding, even if we agree to disagree, is the very bedrock of true liberalism.It was those mutually agreed upon rules that enabled he likes of Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy to embark upon a joint speaking tour in 1982.It was what enabled Jerry Falwell and Larry Flynt to develop a friendship, even if the basis of that friendship with debating each other.After Falwell’s death, Hustler magazine publisher wrote of their odd friendship:“In the years that followed and up until his death, he’d come to see me every time he was in California. We’d have interesting philosophical conversations. We’d exchange personal Christmas cards. He’d show me pictures of his grandchildren. I was with him in Florida once when he complained about his health and his weight, so I suggested that he go on a diet that had worked for me. I faxed a copy to his wife when I got back home.”A liberal college would be a place where people with opposing views would engage in civilized debate, and that faculty and students alike would be eager to hear those ideas.One professor who relished the opportunity to debate someone with opposing views is Allison Stanger, who sought to debate controversial social scientists Charles Murray, co author of the Bell Curve. When she sought to challenge Murray and his views on a stage at Middlebury College, she and Murray were confronted by a mob that wouldn’t let them talk.Later that night, when the mob physically attacked Murray, Stanger tried to protect the older man. One of the attackers grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head. The assault sent her to the hospital with a neck injury.Murray is an advocate of a A Guaranteed Income for Every American, what Andrew Yang called a Universal Basic Income, which is generally not considered a conservative idea, he is generally viewed as a conservative. And one could expect a little non-violent opposition to a conservative speaking on a college campus. But campuses have moved so far to the left of conservativism that even left-of-center professors are not safe.In 2015, Yale Educator Erika Christakis had the poor taste to opine that colleges shouldn’t be in the business of telling students what Halloween costumes the students can and cannot wear. Professor Christakis expressed that students should be free to make mistakes and commit faux paus.“Have we lost faith in young people’s capacity—in your capacity—to exercise self-censure, through social norming, and also in your capacity to ignore or reject things that trouble you? …What does this debate about Halloween costumes say about our view of young adults, of their strength and judgment? Whose business is it to control the forms of costumes of young people? It’s not mine, I know that.”Her Husband Nicholas, also a professor at Yale, agreed with her. I can understand that as I would never publicly disagree with my wife. But Both professors are advocates for a truly liberal model of a university.For agreeing with his wife Nicholas Christakis found himself surrounded by an angry mob insulting him and calling for a change in his employment status.The clip above shocked many, but it was nothing compared to what would happen to another professor with even more left-wing cred.I present the case of Bret Weinstein, whom I mentioned earlier. Professor Weinstein taught Evolutionary Biology at a crunchy little left-wing college in the Pacific North-West called Evergreen State College. Weinstein is a pretty left-wing guy. He supported Bernie Sanders and Occupy Wall Street. If you go listen to his first interview with Joe Rogan, you can hear him make very well-crafted arguments in favor of abolishing nuclear power and why the capitalist system needs to be replaced.If you spend any time listening to Weinstein, you will see that by any objective standard, he isn’t just a man of the left, but he is a deeply committed progressive wanting America to adopt some, as yet, untried form of socialism.Despite being of the left, when Evergreen State College asked White faculty and staff to stay away for a civil rights-related day of absence, Weinstein sent this very carefully-worded letter of protest to colleagues and administration.For sending this very measured e-mail, Weinstein was targetted by his more radical-left colleagues who whipped students into a fury, then sent them out to disrupt his biology class.The students began with insults and profanity, but progressed to the point where armed students were searching cars (Portland Antifa style) for the professor. The campus police chief called Weinstein and told him not to come on campus because it wasn’t safe, and the college president had ordered the campus police to stand down…that is: the president ordered them to NOT PROTECT Professor Weinstein.This illiberal violence directed at Weinstein was stirred up by one of his very colleagues. Naima Lowe, an “art” professor at Evergreen State College who sees activism as the focus of her teaching.When some of her left-wing colleagues at Evergreen disagreed with her on how to achieve a more egalitarian campus, here’s how she responded. “You are now these motherf***ers that we’re pushing against. You can’t see your way out of your own ass.” She helped instigate verbal assaults on Professor Weinstein.Weinstein might be “deeply progressive,” as he describes himself, but when he disagreed with Lowe he found his classes being disrupted and his family being threatened by her students.By the way, this is what Professor Lowe’s “art” looks like:One can reasonably conclude that Lowe has limited earning potential in the private sector.So how did we get to the point where liberal, and even socialist, professors aren’t safe from radical mobs on campus, much less conservatives?There’s been something going on since the 1960s that German Marxist sociologist Rudi Dutschke coined the long march through the institutions. Basically, radicals like Dutschke saw institutions like colleges as the base from which to launch a Marxist revolution. Viewing the institutions in this manner, they staffed and over staffed them with like minded colleagues. That’s how you end up with former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers as an Education professor and how fellow left-wing terrorist Bernardine Dohrn would become a professor of Law.When you hear about all the crazy stuff happening on campuses, it’s largely as a result of the policies and culture that came about due to the long march through the institutions. To a certain extent, the movement of the most left-wing elements of society into academia was strategic. Some of them were certainly using their positions to lay the groundwork for revolution.Now the radicals who reshaped America’s universities were not your old school Marxists.They were part of what became known as the New Left, and they embraced a more radical version of Marxism called Critical Theory.Douglas Kellner, a proponent of the neo-Marxist Critical Theory, describes the evolution of thought from Karl Marx to what I had to learn to get my credential in California 20 years ago in From Classical Marxism to Critical Pedagogy by Douglas Kellner.“Alongside of the proliferation of neo-Marxian theories of culture and society and globalization of cultural studies, forms of an oppositional critical pedagogy emerged that explicitly criticized schooling in capitalist societies while calling for more emancipatory modes of education. In his now classic The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1972), Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire criticized the "banking concept of education" while calling for more interactive, dialogical, and participatory forms of pedagogy that are parallel in interesting ways to those of John Dewey. While Dewey wanted education to produce citizens for democracy, however, Freire sought, in the spirit of Marxist revolutionary praxis, to develop a pedagogy of the oppressed that would produce revolutionary subjects, empowered to overthrow oppression and to create a more democratic and just social order.”Over he last 2 decades, many branches of humanities and social studies have embraced what is known is Critical theory. So what is critical theory?In the early 20th Century, Marxism has become a political force. Proponents of Marxism made claims, and among them were:Communism was scientific and its benefits would be easily measurable.Those benefist would include a higher standard of living because of the efficiency of state control.Communist countries would be more humane than capitalist countries.By the 1960s, data was rolling in and it didn’t turn out exactly how the proponents of Communism had intended. Among the pieces of evidence the intellectuals had to take into account.The mass starvation of Ukranians by the Soviet Untion.Forty-five million Chinese peasants being worked, beaten and intentionally starved to death during China’s Great Leap Forward.The numerous purges through which the likes of Lenin, Staling and Mao killed more communists than all the world’s anti-communists combined.The final straw for many was the use of Russian tanks to suppress Hungarian student protesters in 1956.By the 1960s, an honest intellectual could not defend communism either on economic or humanitarian grounds. But as it turned out that there were plenty of intellectuals who thought that something … kinda … sorta … like Marxism was just what west’s culture needed. Intellectuals of the The Frankfurt School created a form of Marxism mostly devoid of economics. Instead of workers vs. capitalists, advocates of Critical Theory saw almost every cultural interaction as an instance where someone was oppressing and someone was being oppressed. It was men vs. women, whites vs. blacks, and homosexuals vs. heterosexuals; in all these interactions someone was being oppressed and someone was doing the oppressing.I’m oversimplifying to some extent. Professors of education and humanities didn’t just decide to adopt Neo-Marxist Critical Theory as the oporating system (so to speak) of academia. First they embraced the French philosophy of Postmodernism. But this radical philosophy was great for disecting and deconstructing existing institution, it wasn’t really suitable for building institutions.Advocates of Postmodernism, like renegade historian Thaddeus Russell maintain that most of the supposedly “postmodernist scholars” of the 1990s and 2000s completely missed the point Postmodernists like Michel Foucault were trying to make. One thing is without question, Postmodernists rejected the idea that anything could be known objectively, which is the basis of science. If “scholars” within humanities, social sciences and cultural studies kept anything from Postmodernism, it was a rejection of a scientific way of knowing.A new philosophy was crafted together based on equal parts mis-understanding of Postmodernism and a piss-poor understanding of Neo-Marxism. While the overriding philosophy is a miss-mash of “postmodernism” and “Neo-Marxism” As it evolved since the turn of the century, the guiding principle became Intersectionality. The idea is that some people are privileged in multiple ways while other people are oppressed in multiple ways.Look at the diagram above. Everyone will fit into more than one catagory.The more of your categories that appear above the horizontal line, the more privileged you are in society.The more of your categories that appear below the line, the more oppressed you are.Within this system of understanding, “knowledge” is given credibility based not on whether is is empirically true, it is based on the extent you are privileged or oppressed.If you mostly fit into categories below the horizontal line, your opinions are given greater weight. It doesn’t matter whether or not your beliefs are based on reality, because there is no real way of knowing; it’s all about power.If you mostly fit into categories above the horizontal line, your opinions are given less weight, even if you’ve compiled lots of facts and data to support your belief. The fact that you rely on “factoids” rather than emotion to make your argument means that you just don’t get it.More so than Postmodernism or Marxism, this is the overriding philosophy at work in American universities. If you have any interest in understanding how these ideas took hold in academia, I would recommend listening to Helen Pluckrose.Ms. Pluckrose is a left-wing critic of Postmodernism and Critical Theory.The real cultural fight on campus was between the advocates of liberalism and old-school socialism and the advocates of intersectionalism and Critical Theory. In this case the Classical Marxists represent the less radical world outlook.Khrushchev may have threatened to bury America……but his hatred for America is a lot less visceral than what is expressed by many of those we charge with educating our young adults, such as college instructor beating a political opponent with a bicycle lock in the photo below.As long as our institutions of higher education embrace philosophies that denegrate logic, reason and the free exchange of ideas, they will be a threat to political discourse.