George Mason University

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George Mason University is a distinguished (and sometimes merely distinguishable) public university in Virginia known for its various public outreach and research programs. One of their most well-known programs is their Center for History and New Media,^[1] which provides resources for history teachers. The university also once hosted the History News Network, a forum for commentary by historians from a number of universities on historical scholarship and current events. Some time around 2017, it was relocated to George Washington University,^[2] though it still maintains the Columbian College for Arts and Sciences banner.^[3]

Unfortunately, it's also a hotbed of crankery and prime supplier of experts for hire. Most of its crank hires are employed in global warming denial, libertarian wingnuttery, and occasional creationism.

Global warming denial[edit]

• Patrick Michaels, "distinguished senior fellow in public policy," also bankrolled by the Cato Institute.
• S. Fred Singer, physicist, left GMU in 2000. Another occasional Cato hack.
• Edward Wegman, statistician and author of the discredited and plagiarized Wegman Report, cleared after a foot-dragging "investigation" by GMU that violated the university's own policies on timeliness of such inquiries.

Intelligent design[edit]

• Caroline Crocker, fired from GMU in 2005 for teaching intelligent design and featured in the film Expelled.
• Sal Cordova, another IDiot. Holds the honor of being Entry 81 on the Encyclopedia of American Loons.^[4]

Liberal economics[edit]

Their public policy and economics departments employ a number of professors well-known for libertarian-leaning views, spread across the spectrum of small-government philosophy, ranging from absolutely brilliant (despite general Austrian School leanings) all the way on down to full-on crazy (again, with some climate denial mixed in for good measure). They're all part of the Mercatus Center,^[5] which is funded by Koch Industries. As sketchy as that may be, also eschewing that it has basically become the new de-facto Fortress of Solitude for the Austrian School of Economics, GMU's business and economic departments are highly respected and held in exceptionally high regard. Lately, they seem to be embracing more and more aspects of neoclassical and behavioral economics, but analysing the market through a lens of mathematical logic instead of pure methodology or hard science such as mathematical and statistical empiricism. This normative model has proven to be quite popular with economists worldwide, as well as the overall educational quality. Worldwide, the economics department at George Mason University is ranked among other prestigious universities.

Persons associated with GMU, past and present include:

• James M. Buchanan, Nobel-winning economist known for developing public choice theory. Also the guy who basically provided the Kochs with both ideological ammunition and grand strategy, according to historian Nancy MacLean’s 2017 book Democracy in Chains (which other historians have criticized for playing rather fast and loose with the facts)
• Vernon Smith, Nobel-winning economist and libertarian known for developing experimental economics. Also shagged up with the Cato Institute.
• Wendy Gramm, chair of Mercatus, wife of former Senator Phil Gramm; known for her role in the Enron scandal.
• Peter Boettke, prominent Austrian school economist.
• Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, economists who run the "Marginal Revolution" blog.^[6] By comparison, a moderate duo who try to eschew denialism and anti-science crankery but still condemn """wokeism""".^[7]
• Arnold Kling and Bryan "Keynes = militant unions" Caplan, the proprietors of the blog EconLog^[8] along with David Henderson (a notable climate denier, though not employed by GMU).
• Walter E. Williams, African-American economist infamously known for filling in for the scat-muncher on his radio show and promoting the Southern Lost Cause.^[9][10]
• Nathan Larson, white supremacist perennial candidate and pedophile.

Funding[edit]

Why so many hacks and quacks? GMU gets boatloads of funding from ultra-rich libertarian and conservative donors, including the Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, and ExxonMobil. Charles Koch is listed as an emeritus Board member.^[11] This is from a campus that is also desperately trying (like almost every single university in the country) to increase its taxpayer-funded endowment.^[12]

External links[edit]

• GMU homepage
• Sourcewatch entry
• George Mason: Climate Denial U?, Daily Kos
• George Mason University's Endless Inquiry, Deep Climate
• George Mason University's historical hoaxes

References[edit]