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Bari Weiss Has a New Grift in the Unaccredited “University of Austin’s” “Forbidden Courses”

A screengrab of the university of austin's description of "the forbidden courses"

Professional cancel culture victim Bari Weiss introduced a new grift Monday, announcing that she and a number of other right-wing figures are founding “a new university dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth.”

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The new university is called The University of Austin and if you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait, isn’t there already a University of Austin?”, there is not. You’re thinking of the University of Texas at Austin. But also, this new university isn’t really a university at all, in that it’s not accredited, offers no degrees, and does not have a physical campus. It is seeking accreditation, but apparently it’s doing so from an accreditor that doesn’t operate in Texas.

What the “university” does offer is a (not for credit) summer program for students currently studying at real schools, exploring what its founders are calling “The Forbidden Courses.”

Weiss famously “self-expelled” from the New York Times after spending years complaining about receiving mild pushback for the offensive, oppressive opinions she was able to publish on the world’s most respected platform. She frequently rails against “cancel culture” and loves to complain about how she and other super successful, endlessly platformed conservatives (whom she refers to as the “intellectual dark web”) are being silenced.

Weiss is hardly alone among conservative public figures in turning the stoking fears of “cancel culture” into a full-time grift. Her companions in this latest fundraising-heavy scheme are a motley crew of right-wing intellectuals with careers built on yelling about ideological persecution.

So if you’ve been looking to take unaccredited courses in cancel culture from TERFs, anti-vaxxers, and David Mamet, all while filling Bari Weiss’ pockets, the University of Austin must sound very exciting to you! For everyone else, it’s at least a good (if exasperated) laugh.

(image: www.uaustin.org)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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