by Travis Mateer
A young man getting a scholarship isn’t usually a newsworthy event, but when that scholarship offers a path to becoming a globalist, well, I guess the Missoulian would like you to know about it.
From the link (emphasis mine):
Missoulian has been selected for a highly competitive program that will send him to China to study Mandarin and global affairs.
Of the roughly 4,200 global applicants to Schwarzman Scholars, Brendan Campbell, 25, was one of only 150 people selected. Campbell, who attended Target Range and then Hellgate High School before heading east to Yale University, will spend one year in Beijing working toward his graduate degree and immersing himself in the language.
Whereas many of his fellow awardees might aspire toward careers in international business or global affairs, Campbell plans to root his experience in how he can benefit his home state.
“It’s always been about Montana,” he said.
If this was JUST about a young men getting educated, I wouldn’t be writing this post, but it’s not. No, this is about politics, so before we get to Senator Tester, let’s take a look at Brendan Campbell’s Facebook page.
See that? Brendan Campbell was a field organizer for Montana Democrats. Isn’t that interesting? What’s even MORE interesting is how this Missoulian article uses this China-bound scholar to shame Senator Tester for not loving China as vigorously as, say, the Biden family loves China. From the link: (emphasis mine):
This opportunity comes at an interesting moment for the born-and-raised Missoulian, whose home state has made curbing the influence of China a priority in recent years.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester launched an investigation into federal intelligence systems after a suspected Chinese spy balloon floated into U.S. airspace above Billings in early 2023. Tester also introduced language in the defense spending bill that prohibited people or businesses from China, among other countries, from buying U.S. agricultural land, and he calls China the “greatest threat facing our nation” in a recent campaign ad.
Do I agree with Tester about China being a threat? If we’re talking about regular Chinese people then no, I don’t think they are threats. But if we’re talking about the Chinese GOVERNMENT then YES, I think we have a problem, but it’s not JUST the CCP we have to worry about.
The corporations who give ZERO FUCKS about inflicting misery on mankind in order to make a buck are ALSO a big part of the problem, so imagine my keen interest in discovering just which corporation is behind this Schwarzman Scholarship. From the link (emphasis mine):
Schwarzman Scholars was started in 2015 by Stephen A. Schwarzman, a billionaire and chairman and CEO of private equity firm Blackstone. It would be easy to be lulled into admiration by the prestige of Schwarzman Scholars, with its 4% acceptance rate and long list of notable supporters including diplomats and elected officials.
Campbell, a neuroscientist with a diploma from Yale who then worked as a community organizer and raft guide, says he’s grappled with his own participation in a system that he thinks can inflict harm and perpetuate inequality — whether it be his alma mater, the Schwarzman program or the other privileges he’s enjoyed that have gotten him to this point.
Is this a fucking joke? Does the Missoulian really think anyone who reads this shit is going to be impressed by a “community organizer” after our “community organizer” President conned America with HOPE and CHANGE before letting Citigroup pick his cabinet in 2008?
If you’re curious what corporate soullessness looks like, check out this amazing video which is apparently real and NOT a fucking joke (like anything produced by the Missoulian):
It’s fascinating to see the Missoulian use this scholarship and budding Democrat operative in order to highlight Tester’s political strategy of China-bashing, which is part of a larger strategy to be a better conservative than the idiots who run the Montana Republican Party.
Is this kind of covert political coverage something we can continue to expect from the Missoulian’s new editor, Stevie Kiggins? Since Tester’s race will be one of the most important ones to watch for the people who think this stuff matters, I’ll do my best to keep an eye on the Missoulian’s coverage, if only to tear it apart.
To support THIS coverage of local happenings, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to help, or you can make a donation at my about page.
Thanks for reading!
“which is part of a larger strategy to be a better conservative than the idiots who run the Montana Republican Party”
That line ranks up there in your top 5 of Travis Realisms. Well done.
Thank you! Even calling them a singular party is being generous to the chaos and disorder I saw in Helena during the legislative session. One of the few things that unites them is a cowardly fear of Gianforte and his wealth.
So, immersing oneself in another county’s culture and language turns one into a globalist. We should all stay in our own little enclaves with our own tribe and not experience disparate manners of living. Brilliant. This will certainly lead to a better understanding of other people’s customs, institutions and achievements, and will herald good will towards humankind, and world peace.
It’s nice to see that you still care enough about little old me to pop up and make some noise. Thanks! I’m looking forward to evolving my effort to expose the various influences that give zero fucks about things like customs, your Daddy and his CIA would understand what I’m talking about.
No one understands what you’re talking about.
Trav, the increasing use of ‘guilt by association,’ vilification of persons based on purported sins of their ancestors, use of one example as proof of a purportedly universal rule, conflation of unrelated phenomena, etc. tends to make you sound like Lyndon LaRouche, at best.
First, the award recipient made clear that he has no intention of becoming a ‘globalist.’
Second, it’s quite a stretch to find one primary donor to the award, pull up an ad for the donor’s private equity firm, and based on that ad, ascribe some conspiratorial, sinister motive to the program.
Third, it’s an even larger stretch to add The Missoulian as a purported co-conspirator,.
It’s nice to see you bash “soulless corporations” that will promote anything which increases their shareholders’ profits, regardless of negative societal effects. But crediting The Missoulian with the acumen to propagandize in favor of that agenda by exploiting this grand achievement by the award recipient, is laughable.
The reporter’s side commentary about Tester and the anti-China, MAGA double supermajority MT Legislature’s anti-China ethnocentrism and xenophobia, is of some relevance although it really is just the writer’s attempt to highlight his breadth of knowledge. It is, however, a bit ironic, I suppose, that one of the recipients is from a state with such a xenophobic population. I’m wondering why the author didn’t use as an example, the MT legislature’s ludicrous and unconstitutional ban on Tik Tok.
I’m pleased to see The Missoulian/Lee Enterprises publish the story. When I nabbed a United States Senate Youth Program political science scholarship funded by the Wm Randolph Hearst Foundation, and spent a week in DC lunching with US Senators, meeting the POTUS, and learning how Senatorial staffers do their jobs, upon garnering the top score among MT high school seniors on a comprehensive examination on the U.S. Constitution, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of MT had a photo taken of us beneath the portrait of JFK hanging in Mansfield’s outer office, a gift to him from the Kennedy family, a photo of Mansfield presentimg me with the award. His staff sent the photo, accompanied by a letter from Sen. Mansfield toutimg my accomplishment, to The Missoulian together with a press release. The Missoulian did not deem the story “newsworthy” and would not run anything about it. OTOH, my high school principal was beside himself, as I was a fomenter of resistance and rebellion among the student body. He had my parents show up in his office without indicating why, in order to inform them, and to express his surprise that I had won, and with a bite of crow tell them that I had enhanced Hellgate High’s reputation by doing so. That year I also was awarded an “Americanism” medal by the American Legion. A year earlier, I was elected Chief Justice at Boys State and was elected as a Senator to attend Boys Nation in DC. I was then already a libertarian socialist and these awards gobsmacked my principal. My point is, that one can’t ascribe anything to recipients of privately funded awards & scholarships, predicated on the politics or values of the institution(s) making the awards.
Brendan’s achievement is quite noteworthy. There are bits of truth in your commentary, but with respect to the various players involved in it, they probably couldn’t agree on lunch.
Spot on, Pete. You said it before I had the chance. There’s a great deal of non sequitur reasoning on this piece.
ERRATA: I meant to write that “Campbell’s,” not “Brendan’s,” receipt of the honor is noteworthy. Mea culpa.
P.S. — Brendan Campbell’s work as a field organizer for MT Dems’ coordinated campaign, is not comparable to Obama’s work as a community organizer, and in any event there is no relevance whatsoever to Obama’s purported failure to deliver on promises of hope and change, in relation to Campbell’s volunteerism for MT Dems. This is another example of stream-of-consciousness writing that makes erroneous cause/effect conclusions based on remote phenomena bearing no connection to one another. The effect produced is more akin to word salad than to elucidation of hidden conspiratorial agendas.
You guys are adorable, and also missing a critical word: BECOMING. This youngster is just starting on his journey of BECOMING a globalist, so I agree that he’s not a globalist YET, but this is how they are groomed, and I’m documenting it, along with my speculation about what this kind of grooming portends. I hope I’m wrong!
Travis, I’m afraid your understanding and use of the words “globalist” and “globalism” are uselessly coarse and narrow. Globalism is an inevitable feature and consequence of the evolution of rapid long distance transportation and instantaneous long distance telecommunication. Globalism began with the first organization of civilizations that embarked on missions of conquest and mercantilism. It’s erroneous to define globalism per se as an ideology. With the proliferation of city-states and nations, globalism was the effort of nations with powerful armies and developed navies to extract valuable commodities from other lands through colonization and slavery. This initially focused on precious metals and spices, and with the ascendancy of capitalism expanded to agriculture and during the industrial revolution expanded to include more extractive practices. One of the main commodities of those epochs was human beings, because labor produces all wealth and slave labor thus created dynastic, oligarchic wealth for capitalists.
Characterizing someone as a “globalist'” says nothing. Saying that Brendan Campbell is “not yet a globalist” is almost nonsensical. There is no elimination of globalism absent nuclear armageddon, irrepressible pandemic that wipes out civilization, destruction of the biosphere secondary to anthropomorphic climate change, etc.
Along with its obvious negative consequences, globalism quite obviously has had positive effects, such as eradication or control of numerous debilitating and deadly diseases, reduction of famine, etc. Hence, before meaningfully pontificating on globalism, it’s essential to focus the inquiry. This is where MAGA-types get it wrong.
Later stage imperialist capitalism is the driving force behind the evils endemic to both globalism and globalization. The two primary features of modern capitalism are (1) free movement of capital among nations by means of central banks and stock markets; (2) the restriction of free movement of labor across national borders. This construct facilitates wholesale disemployment of workers in advanced capitalist nations, the devolution of labor unions in all markets, and the infliction of wage slavery and environmental devastation on underdeveloped nations, the latter which also find themselves increasingly in debt to foreign nations and global capitalist NGOs such as the IMF and World Bank, that force “austerity” measures upon the oppressed and economically repressed debtor nations that exacerbate extreme poverty and vitiate those nations’ sovereignty. This is neoliberal globalism.
Simplistic denunciation of “globalism” is a distraction from the actual forces driving many of the evils you condemn. I’m pleased to read in a subsequent post that you perceive big “soulless” corporations as major elements of the economic cleansing decimating America’s working class communities. I invite you to adjust some of your positions concerning the underclass, accordingly. Incarcerating the victims of centuries of exploitative economic hegemony, various forms of enslavement, and ever-advancing neoliberalism here and abroad, cannot cure the ills produced by those practices, and is an example of the rising tide of fascism that has reduced a third of the U.S. population and large segments of other “free world” nations.
I will have more to say about this, in reply to your post of today about what I refer to as the economic cleansing of Missoula.
I have a different way of looking at things, which my post tomorrow will be dealing with, and some of your commentary is helping me make some distinctions between what I feel is credible to MY understanding of what’s happening in this world vs. what someone of your generation is going to see as credible.
Errata: The phrase “reduced a third of the U.S” should read “seduced” instead of “reduced.”
Bloomberg philanthropy https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://missoulian.com/news/local/government-politics/missoula-cop28-dubai-climate-hess-strohmaier/article_8f936c38-9f6c-11ee-995b-1f37aa9be442.html
I saw that, and my knee-jerk reaction will be part of Sunday’s week in review. They really do truly believe sucking the COP of the globalists is what is best for humanity. People who don’t agree need to do more than wake the fuck up, they need to start preparing for their precious routines and expectations to be severely disrupted.