The Pity of Niall Ferguson
By 
Historian turned sixth-rate winger hack pundit Niall Ferguson is advancing the cause of free speech by…trying to conduct oppo research on students whose political views he doesn’t like:
Emails between the Hoover Institution’s Niall Ferguson and well-known Republican student activists John Rice-Cameron ’20 and Max Minshull ’20 reveal coordination on “opposition research” against progressive activist Michael Ocon ’20 — referenced as “Mr. O” — and efforts to shore up support among members of the Cardinal Conversations steering committee.
Ferguson resigned from his leadership role in the Cardinal Conversations program on April 16, after Provost Persis Drell became aware of the email chain.
“I very much regret the publication of these emails. I also regret having written them,” Ferguson wrote in a statement to The Daily.
Drell said that Ferguson “offered to resign,” and that she accepted the resignation.
“The emails … were contrary to the spirit and intent of Cardinal Conversations,” Drell said.
Ferguson himself is well-known for his conservative views. He made headlines in March for organizing a conference of 30 white male historians.
The Ocon emails are not the first time that Ferguson has made a statement he later withdrew.
In 2013, for instance, he stated that acclaimed economist John Maynard Keynes did not care to consider future generations when discussing current affairs because he was gay. Ferguson later apologized for the statement.
He has also been criticized for his outspoken support of colonialism and the British empire.
Ocon — the subject of the emails — may be remembered for his recent ASSU executive campaign alongside Khaled Aounallah ’19, which became particularly dramatic thanks to a facetious last-minute “endorsement” from The Stanford Review that claimed Ocon had links to the conservative Turning Point USA Foundation (TPUSA).
Rice-Cameron is known on campus for his role in organizing for that same group, TPUSA, as well as his role as president of Stanford College Republicans (SCR). Minshull, meanwhile, was recently in the news for his involvement with a recent “coup-attempt” of the Stanford Conservative Society, as written about by the Fountain Hopper.
The emails use harsh and at times war-like language to describe liberals and “social justice warriors” (SJWs).
“Slowly, we will continue to crush the Left’s will to resist, as they will crack under pressure,” Rice-Cameron wrote.
It really is how far an Oxbridge accent and the ability to wear a suit well can carry a mediocre white guy.