75 Comments
Next up in our continuing Senior Wisdom series: SEAS soon-to-be-graduate David Judd.
Name, School:
David Judd, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. (Which should still be called the School of Mines, clearly.)
Claim to fame:
Left-wing mujahid. (See here & here.)
Post-grad plans:
For now, a Java programming job in eastern Jersey. Maybe in a couple years, a computer science master’s. Someday, the victory of socialism.
Preferred swim test stroke?
None! (See here.)
What are three things you learned at Columbia?
1. Fox News personnel have a curious obsession with male genitals.
2. There is no demonstration so innocuous that it will not be controversial at Columbia, nor is there any statement so shamelessly callous that some “liberal” Columbia student will not take proud ownership of it.
3. If you share the element of bitterness expressed in (2), it is a bad idea to let it slip out in a job interview. Honesty is important, but so is tact…
Justify your existence in 30 words or less.
Engineers, who go along with too much shit, need more radicalism. Radicals, who talk too much shit, need more engineering.
What was your favorite controversy in your time at Columbia?
Despite all the backlash, not only was protesting the Minutemen a lot of fun, but more importantly I do believe that publicizing their racism and making them look impotent contributed in a small way to their subsequent organizational decline.
What Columbia memory best exemplifies your college experience?
Hmm – my college experience was marked by a fairly sharp partitioning of different elements of my life, so I’m not sure there is one. But what pops into my head as somehow characteristic is an argument with a friend one drunken late night in Lion’s Head about the need for a revolutionary party, in which I was apparently really persuasive but neither of us could remember why in the morning. Two steps forward, one step back?
Which prof do you think would be the best kisser?
Bashir Abu-Manneh, not only hot but my vote for professor most deserving of greater recognition as a brilliant teacher & scholar.
What percentage of seniors do you think are virgins?
Fuck if I know. 20?
Would you rather permanently give up oral sex or cheese?
Well, given my current diet, if I gave up cheese I’d probably starve to death, and therefore lose both…
Days on Campus memory?
I had such a positive impression of the school.
Regrets?
Didn’t take enough advantage of living in New York. Never took a class with Dalton, Fields, Mamdani, Massad, or Young. Failed to save the policy debate team from sliding into oblivion. Never occupied a building. Never met Lee Bollinger in a dark place with no witnesses. (Which I regret because he’s so very sexy, of course!)
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75 Comments
@hahaha i laugh at the irony of his existence. just laugh at him with me. just for a minute, then you can go back to debating his douchebaggery.
(which is too easy to really be rewarding, and you know it)
@oh man so now it’s apparently become conventional wisdom on bwog, thanks to a couple of anonymous comments, that david has a beamer & a wall street job? too funny. DAMN, some of you folks are stupid…
@its also ridiculous that this thread is still going, and has spilled into the comments on maxim’s.
@socialism it’s silly to criticize someone who is a socialist by saying “well then where’s my cut of your paycheck, sir” because socialism only works if a whole SOCIETY partakes. if it’s just him giving out money, then he’s just a generous person in a capitalist society. so in the mean time, he totally has the authority to enjoy the fruits of his labor if he wants to until the rest of society changes its mind.
@wow Columbians can be quite Juddgemental
@juddy i’m almost positive that judd’s taking a job on wall street. not that he’d boast about it or anything.
@will I be receiving a portion of his check, as per his politics, or will he be engaging in irony?
@judd fan DAVID JUDD IS COOL BY ME!
he’s a nice guy despite what you think of his politics.
@Poison apple Probably. But will he share said Beemer and condo with the struggling and oppressed peoples of his community? Doubtful.
@psh You are about 9 years off in that estimate. 5 years from now he will have already been driving the beemer his parents got him for something like 8-9 years. I wonder if he goes cruising in the ghetto, “distributing” free rides to the oppressed masses.
@$$$$$ I give him five years before his first Beamer and condo.
@mmm Most of these commenters seem pretty insecure – Judd’s idealism isn’t something to frown upon. Maybe you guys should get out of your chairs and start taking some action?
@Obtuse “Judd’s idealism isn’t something to frown upon.”
Idealism per se is a fine thing. It’s his ideals that suck. Easy for someone who hasn’t earned his own wealth to blithely advocate redistribution of others’ wealth.
I frown upon his ideals. Nay, I scowl.
@1-900-POISON3 #63 is quite right. Don’t confuse the general virtue of a quality, such as idealism, with a particular incarnation of that quality (socialism). ALthough, personally, I find the virtue of idealism itself less than fully compelling. Certainly less so than, say, the behavior it may motivate.
Also, I don’t need to get out of my chair and take action, since action regularly comes to my chair. So there.
@spec column i’m – judd’s column is not exactly great literature, but who’s columns are better? Really? Kulawik, lolz. nope. What’s his face philosophy ranter, HELL NO. The guy who talks about love and feelings and racism, nothing there. Judd’s columns present a well thought out, if predictable, expression of leftist ideas. It’s not great, but what Spec columnist is. I think you people are losing sight of who we’re comparing Judd to.
@so... when is he going to redistribute his wealth? His parents are loaded…I wouldn’t mind gettin in on some of that.
@are they? like the hedge fund stuff, this kind of claim could use sourcing…
@source one of his SO’s.
@oic very reliable.
@Overrated Re-reading the guy’s stuff, he comes off as the wine-and-cheese, white-liberal-guilt type of privileged socialist that does, indeed, end up in a hedge fund laughing all the way to the bank later.
@Poison Ivy 3 iz hoTT His response to the cheese/oral question was surprising because I’ve always assumed taking socialism seriously and being a cocksucker went hand in hand. Oh well.
@say cheese David Judd is the illest. Anyone who belittles his politics is clearly an unthinking liberal scumbag.
@jerkstore what’s wrong with you guys? the guy’s senior wisdom profile is not exactly confrontational or “toolish”. If this kind of thing offends your sentiments… the jerkstore just ran out of you.
and what is all of this reactionary, oh “i feel victimized because everyone is always blaming israel” crap? people RARELY blame israel, even on the columbia campus. if anything conversations on israel are so unbalanced in Israel’s favor that people feeling like this is something extremely pervasive are just smoking crack.
@I have to agree with #47… It’s really quite sad to see how many ridiculous things people can say while they procrastinate — because to be honest that’s what I’m doing right now. Maybe we should all use our time a little more constructively?
Anyways, David Judd is a really great guy… and whether or not you agree with his political ideas is irrelevant. He cares, and he has done a lot of great work on this campus. He is also always open to discuss his ideas, so if you have such a problem with him, why don’t you approach him and have a real conversation?
@i can't believe how mean people are on this site. these senior profiles really bring it out. get a grip people. do you really think that saying cruel things about someone you don’t even know is fun? it being anonymous just makes it worse. maybe it’s entertaining, but so’s a bearbaiting. grow up.
@lolz http://www.wikicu.com/Laura_Durkay
@what makes Judd seem so douche-y in this senior wisdom are not so much his political views as much as the fact that he incorporates them into almost every answer. It makes him seem one-dimensional and, well, really toolish. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but if you’re going to make your Senior Wisdom a soap box for your political views (and Judd doesn’t even really do that as much as he just brags about the fact that he is a “radical”), you have to know that you do it at the risk of looking like a total douchebag.
@as i said trolling
@the last nutjob socialist who penned a column in the Spec, Laura Durkay, is now working at mid-Manhattan hedge fund DE Shaw
@Jake I think that it is rather cowardly to insult someone while remaining anonymous. That being said, is it that hard to come up with more nuanced jabs?
#10 and #23, please look up “anarchism” and “socialism” in the dictionary.
Along those lines, David Judd has never shied away from explaining his views. We disagree on many points, but he is VERY well read and an EXCELLENT debater.
Thanks for all your political work, both on campus and in New York.
@well Just because someone is well read and an excellent debater doesn’t make what they have to say any more valid!
@Maybe a tangent Validity is a funny thing–if someone is well read and knows their shit enough to debate it well, then it is valid, maybe you don’t believe it or agree with it, but it’s valid. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do with our education–embrace subjectivity and individuality to understand the nature of things outside of ourselves? Closed-mindedness is really dangerous.
@Oh right, because Anarchists and Socialists have never found their projects compatible enough to cooperate
@correc ignorance….as opposed to lack of ignorance
@Multifaceted To commenter #33: Personal conversation is useful indeed; however, he puts his views and justifications in the paper for all to read. Anything that he can say in person he has argued in print. And he’s a douche.
To #29: Don’t frame this into a single issue. He politics are anarchistic, and his views on Israel completely unbalanced. He’s still a douche.
And to #26: I’d put my money on Lipsky. He seems like less of a sissy man than the other two.
@you've just displayed your complete lack of ignorance re: judd. his politics are anything but ‘anarchistic’…hes head of columbia iso lol
@thirty-three well, if you have argued with him in person, you would probably find it very difficult to actually top him. his arguments are very sound, and very well thought out. politically i disagree with him strongly, but it’s hard to have a conversation with him and actually believe that he’s a douche. anything that you say to him, he’ll think about and point out where that disagreement stems from.
@teehee Bashir is so hot! His voice is deep and sexy!
@I'd like to punch him hard in the testicles. Then he’d be an a-nard-ist. Tee hee!
@epb I remember that he slept in every Principles of Economics lecture. Lefties!
@i wonder how many of you have ever engaged david in an actual conversation or debated with him about his politics…
@oh that said “i heart.” i guess bwog doesn’t heart less than signs w/ the number three
@i david judd. he’s just a cute lil nerdy engineer w/ some radical politics… is that really that offensive to yall?
@lolz the ignorance of these comments is pretty amusing. david judd is a smart dude and a nice guy. The vicious backlash against him makes sense…seeing that he advocates, viable or not, a redistribution of wealth…. something probably against you columbia kids class interests….
@lol2 lol… i actually wouldn’t mind some of that wealth to be ‘redistributed’ my way.
but that doesn’t change the fact that judd is a douche.
@Little Liverbird Nope, I’m all for greater redistribution of wealth, I’m just not for doing it in the ridiculous way advocated by self-righteous Ivy League socialists who are too busy shouting “REVOLUTION!!! SMASH THE EVIL CAPITALIST ZIONIST TERRORIST REGIME!” to listen to any practical ideas.
@wow took till comment 27 for someone to say something nice. speaks volumes
@Judd is a good man. thanks bwog.
@Threeway Duel! Lipsky, Judd & Kulawik should fight.
@trolling … in the interview answers?
“2. There is no demonstration so innocuous that it will not be controversial at Columbia, nor is there any statement so shamelessly callous that some “liberal” Columbia student will not take proud ownership of it.”
this (like some of the other stuff) seems carefully calculated to maximally piss off bwog commenters. if so, seems to have worked.
@next Now that we’ve heard Senior Wisdom from Josh Lipsky and David Judd, let’s complete the political triumvirate with Chris Kulawik.
@I don't think we’ve really given enough credit to David Judd. He’s brought the munificense of his socialist ideology to the hedge fund world. Way to bridge the gap, buddy!
@where exactly is this “hedge fund” stuff coming from?
also, i’m sure Kulawik’s wisdom is coming…
@Hey I rather liked this. Someone’s got to be idealistic, unlike all these assholes before me.
@Anti-protesters You call anarchy and mass demonstrations against almost anything idealism? Whatever, dude. Let’s just hope you never hold a position of power.
@Lingo upthefuckshut, trolls. judd, you okay with me.
@wisdom? senior wisdom? this kid has his head stuck up his ass farther than most of the professors here.
@Note Note to all Columbia socio-anarcho-crazies: People wouldn’t hate you so much if you weren’t so goddamn self-righteous all the time. kthxbai.
@Wow It takes real talent to be universally reviled.
@Ponyboy Eff those Soc’s. Now pass me some cancersticks, Sodapop.
@Little Liverbird I am tired of hearing this “revolutionary,” radical-for-the-sake-of-being-radical, oh-look-blame-Israel-for-every-problem-in-the-world crap.
@Anti-protesters It’s people like this that make Columbia suck. It would be nice if we could just stop admitting idiots like this who are interested in nothing other than anarchy and causing disruptions to student life here. Whoever gave him a column in the Spec should be ashamed, just like the person who gave a column to Anthony Kelley.
@yesss thank youuuu
though admittedly, it’s nice when people make permanently available via google/spec website their idiocy, is it not?
@hear hear Kelley’s column is only a little less self-righteous than this one.
Judd was useless. He also works on wall street. wonderful
@Anonymous “It’s people like this that make Columbia suck”
Ummm I’m more inclined to think that people who put up “I DONT CARE” signs in response to reading the names of those killed in the Iraq War make Columbia, and the world generally, suck. A LOT more than some kid who spent 4 years here putting serious energy into what he believes, and being the campus focal point for lefty-bashing (see above 50 comments)- whether or not you agree with him or think he was effective.
conviction > apathy, no?
@yeah we’ve all known judd’s politics sucked–in a way that almost transcends suck–but now we know he’s a selfrighteous prick too
@... I find David Judd ideologically horrifying, but I like this senior wisdom a lot.
@I don't like this guy’s column in the Spec– it’s all a bunch of European Leftist, anti-Zionist sentiment.
Don’t know him otherwise.
@three words socialist
douche
boring
@sad Please. Socialism won’t work, people! It’s never worked! It will never ever work! Get over it!
@Never work? have you ever taken a look at 1947 america? it definitely worked
@spec http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/30770
@seriously bwog, Is this the best you could do. I have more personality in my left testicle…what a tool
@didn't want to be the 1st to say it.
hear hear!
@the world what a douche