If there were any serious journalists wishing to uncover some real truths about Columbia, Susi, Bari and the Free Press might want to ask around and find out who admitted activist spokesmoron Johannah King-Slutsky ("from the River, to the sea, please bring us some KFC!") to Columbia as a Doctoral student, which classes she "instructed," and who advises her Doctoral Dissertation.
They might also want to find out how Columbia Undergraduate Admissions Dean Jessica Marinaccio (a Harvard Alumna) has been allowed her to stay in place for years after admitting people like Khymani James, Emma Sulkowicz and their ilk over decades.
These individuals are as responsible for the rot as much as the newly installed President who is trying to un-Claudine herself this week.
Have you seen Allysia Finley's latest piece in the WSJ on the problem of admissions offices at elite schools? One example of a Stanford applicant's essay and Stanford's gushing response is absolutely edifying.
Totally agree and exactly what I was thinking. I've recently been through the college admissions process for my 3 boys (latest just about to enter college in the fall). The way they frame their supplemental essay questions will give you the answer, and many schools require some kind of affirmation of your DEI bona fides. My eldest applied to a graduate engineering program at USC and had to write a paragraph about how his experience fits into the DEI framework, what he's done to help marginalized people, etc. He got in but didn't attend given a better job offer, but called me to review his BS answer to this ridiculous bunk. Folks, that doesn't make airplanes stay up in the sky (he's an aerospace engineer) or cure cancer. The other issue is that it really does begin in grammar and high school, though, with the curriculum. A colleague's daughter is training to be a teacher and wow, it's unbelievable what they're emphasizing.
After learning that 40% of the arrests at Hamilton Hall were of people not affiliated with Columbia, the same said enterprising reporter might want to find out how all those unaffiliated rabble rousers were able to get into a "locked-down" ID-mandated campus to take over a building in the past week.
Did students give their IDs to the professional protesters? Which ones - and are they being punished for this?
Did the security guards fail at their jobs? Or worse, facilitate access?
Did faculty sneak them in?
What will happen to those students and faculty who collaborated with non affiliated protesters in violation of University rules?
Will they get a slap on the wrist? Will someone bring them humanitarian aid?
I was there for the '68 riots. Both sides of that controversy were tough, committed and passionate. This group really not in the same category. Let's hope they up their game by the time of the Democrat Convention in Chicago this Fall.
The protesters who did not leave when told to do so, and those that broke into university buildings, should be expelled. It's the only way to ensure decent behaviour in the future.
They're protesting occupation ... by occupying buildings ... that are staffed and maintained by their tuition money ... which enriches the colleges they attend ... and that they denounce for financing genocide, racism and apartheid ... which they publicize online with iPhones ... made by children forced into factory work by China ... which enslaves a million Uighers for being Muslim ... and which also supports Iran ... which beats and murders university students for protesting actual oppression ... and which also supports Hamas ... which like Iran oppresses, criminalizes and kills non-Muslims for not being Muslim ... and opposes anyone who oppresses Muslims ... except when it comes to China and Muslims who kill the Muslims they don't like ...
To sum up: They're protesting what they're supporting and ignoring what they're protesting.
And probably using other products and services that are affiliated with Israel at the same time they are demanding divestment of the colleges from those companies using those services/products.
Insanity, as I was watching some of the videos I wondered to myself how is this helping Palestinians. There is no intent here to take any action that may actually help the people they are so concerned about. For example, raise money for humanitarian aid or the transport of aid. Collaborate with any of the agencies that coordinate aid so they can send supplies specifically to the childrem of Gaza. Oh wait, this is really not what the protests intent is.
To the student requesting humanitarian aid it baffles me how so many in this generation have no sense of personal responsibility your hosting the party you need to provide the food.
Most of these protesters are just role playing. What the nerd kids used to call LARP’ing (maybe they still call it that). By following the herd they gain/maintain social acceptance, and play live action figure. It’s keffiyeh-kosplay.
They are also protesting for their school endowments to cease doing business w/ companies that do business with the State of Israel (who they perceive as an oppressor of Palestinians). Student protestors did the same thing (successfully) in the 1980’s when the target was Apartheid South Africa.
It shouldn’t be baffling. It’s perfectly understandable to me, and I state that while also opposing their view/position.
Columbia should be forced to reimburse NY city for the expense of the NYPD being called to its campus. The inaction of the administrators allowed this to evolve into a larger and larger gathering while supplying the demonstrators with electricity for charging their cell phones, with WiFi, etc. The administration also supported the students by zooming classes so that the students could continue to camp without having to make the decision to fail/drop out by being a protestor or remain a student.
The administrations failure to address the issue and "nip it in the bud" has cost NYC thousands of dollars in police man hours at a time when NYC is struggling to provide essential services to its citizens. Kids who don't live in NYC being able to divert resources to those who truly need it is one more reason to despise these rich entitled brats and recognize that Antifa protestors are society's worse.
Most universities are tax exempt and most universities contribute to the economic well being of their surrounding communities. But what happened here is not the normal police activity required to support the university’s security or “protect and serve” the surrounding area. This was an event sponsored by the university albeit unintentionally, but the administrators failure to control the growing mass and danger caused the need for serious and costly intervention. NYC doesn’t have the funds Columbia probably does, so why shouldn’t Columbia contribute for the mess caused by an inattentive administration rather than the citizens of NYC lose more resources.
As for the vandalized administrators offices at Cal Poly H office, don’t repair it! Let each scrawl and broken item be a reminder of indulging and coddling rather than truly protecting free speech.
In state schools who should pay for the repairs? As a tax payer, do my taxes increase or does my community have shorter library hours, fewer police, or other service to insure colleges are able to make repairs from the riot? A solution if colleges fail (as they probably will) to expel students arrested for trespassing, etc. at the antiIsrael riots is the fee for repairs is charged to every student. The charge is clearly marked on their bill as vandalism repair. Another option is DEI departments are cut and their salaries are now earmarked for vandalism repair.
But as far as the taxpayer being responsible for riot damage that is a “Hey Ho …absolutely No!”
Boy, when you Democrats "capture" a campus you pretty much fuck the whole place up. I really want to see these kids form a massive swarm, like a plague of locusts, and move across all universities under the control of the Democratic Party... and when they're done... off to the offices of NPR.
You couldn't make up a funnier parody. I just love that PhD thesis (sarcasm). How far elite higher ed has fallen under the strait jacket of critical theory.
Funny the reaction from the Free Press now that antisemitic protests reign. These same reporters were (at best) silent when the anti-white BLM protests were raging. At least those were real protests that burned stuff and destroyed minority businesses. Oooh, a Jewish student is precluded from entering a stinky encampment. OK, sarcasm over. Thank you for your indulgence. These protests are just as racist as the BLM protests and are the American Left. Who taught these kids to hate anyone not in the protected class of the day? Who admitted them based on their admissions essays regaling their adventures as HS campus agitators? Who spent every day in their BS classes making them racists? Wasn't the feared white supremacists (who, frankly, barely exist).
I often think the same thing. I'm glad former committed lefties are getting red pilled now that the hatred on the left can't be denied, and its the Jew's turn in the progressive barrel, but when it was my people, poor white Christians from the South, constantly denigrated, when men like Bret Kavanaugh were put through the wringer, when people who just wanted to pay less in taxes and love their country, when WE were under threat, where were they then? Now it's a full blown crisis? 40 years ago, these crisis could be seen coming. There are more conflicts on the horizon. I'm pleased to be on the side of the Jews, but, hey, were ya'll been all these years?
And if you say who, you're an antisemite......even though you are pointing out actions not ethnicity. Of course Free Press reporters/editors in previous jobs said Trump was the racist
I believe these camping children are a distraction
I suspect the real action is behind the scenes. There absolutely has to be big money funding this. And the money is not being spent on these children. The children do what they do because they're vain and stupid and therefore easily manipulated.
The college administrators are not afraid of the camping children. They are instead justifiably afraid of the inevitable lawsuits if they attempt to do anything about them (and they know the boards of trustees and professoriate will abandon them at the first sign of trouble). Lawfare. That is where the big money lives. The professional agitators are human VISA cards. They stir things up and swipe themselves at all of these demonstrations, and then George Soros and so on (including NGOs) get the bill each month and pay it off. Then it's off to the next thing: BLM, Gaza, Occupy Wall Street, Just Stop Oil, Fill in the Blank, etc., etc. And we get a little closer to their goal, inch by inch, month by month. A bottomless pit of money to support the march to the leftist singularity.
Absolutely. I feel that ingrained muslim vitriol, and aggression is being used in this way world wide. Emotionally radicalized to sew division, using the Iranian propaganda of "Islamaphobia" both as a shield, and opiate to control the vapid, mainly Leftist masses.
The Ivy League and most universities have become destructive indoctrination factories, run by cowardly administrators who are slaves to their anti-white, America hating "faculty". Their only mission is to pump out the next generation of "leaders" who will continue the destruction of our civilization.
I agree. They seem to have much more in common with the KKK than civil rights protesters. During the Viet Nam protests, the protesters didn't cover their faces as they protested the Viet Nam war, they had actual courage and stood by their convictions. They are bullies and cowards who simply want to hurt people.
Good point. They terrorize with anonymity, throw tantrums, and burn/tear stuff down to intimidate. The crazy thing is, most have almost no facts, data or knowledge to support their protests.
How does someone get arrested 80-100 times (probably for petty stuff) not be in jail for a long time? If I keep treaspassing over and over again (80 times), wouldnt the judge say alright you need to be in jail for a good long time.
Meanwhile at UCLA a riot broke out when Jewish students and their friends confronted the Antisemitic encampment that, the day before, beat a Jewish girl unconscious and ultimately was hospitalized.
“I guess it’s ultimately a question of what kind of a community and obligation Columbia has to its students,” King-Slutzky reflects. “Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill even if they disagree with you?”
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes. OR Actions Have Consequences.
Actually *Disagreeing is NOT the problem. taking over buildings/Public spaces/property THAT is the problem.
I would have shut off their power supply and wi fi access on the first day of "camp". On the second day I'd blare non stop fire alarm type sounds. Anyone still there on day 3 gets a stinky stunt. Make it uncomfortable.
And The Uncivilized world. They'd hold a party to watch.
Something so many people don't understand, We Live In A Bubble. Dinesh D'Souza once asked a person why they wanted to come to America? "I really want to move to a country where the poor people are fat.”
In 1968 I did an all expenses paid visit to the ROK. What an eye opening experience That was!
Like many of The Free Press community, I too was a student protester back in the day.
Divestment to end Apartheid was our cause.
Two things strike me as very different between the two times.
First, we argued and disagreed a lot - but kept talking to people who disagreed with us.
Second, divestment to end Apartheid seemed very sensible, even if one was a strict moneytarian. It might have seemed naïve to some, but not whacky.
Comparatively, almost nothing seems to make sense about the Free Palestine crowd.
Beginning with the idea that the magnitude of the human, Gazan, tragedy was the main thing.
But, if the scale of the human tragedy was really the thing, why weren't and aren't the protestors much more concerned with the Syrian Civil war (half a million dead, including many children) and the Second Congo War where several million died.
When worried about human suffering, scale is significant.
A snarky observer might note that there are apparently very many fewer fashion forward keffiyeh wearing poets strolling around American college campuses from Syria and the Congo.
But the most dramatic difference between these current protestors and the divestment movement is coherence, or lack thereof.
The divest in Apartheid movement was highly coherent.
There was a worthy goal, democracy in South Africa and an end to Apartheid, and an actual operational plan to achieve that goal - find an equally good investment elsewhere - it was all coherent.
The current protestors are incoherent to a staggering degree with a Rube Goldberg device of a world view: where LBGTQ folks support a group, Hamas, who would be happy to see them dead for being LBGTQ; where middle eastern Jews are seen as oppressor colonialists, oppressing middle eastern Muslims; and social justice seekers root for a group, Hamas, who rapes at gun point.
Maybe I'm just old and crotchety, but to my jaded eye, this all looks like a massive virtue signaling exercise, and one where endless self regard meets really poor judgement.
From the river to the sea, all the protesters say Look At ME.
Donald, when you protested against Apartheid you were protesting against ‘oppression’. I recall big companies (like Coca Cola) boycotting sales in South Africa as a result. Back in 1980’s, students at Columbia, Michigan State and many (many) other campus pressed their school and its endowments to divest of any companies doing business with South Africa. The kids now think they are also protesting an oppressor (just like you did in past), this time it’s the government of Israel for the ‘apartheid’ they perceive is inflicted on Palestinians, and demanding the institutions they attend do not support Israel, or companies that do biz w/ Israel.
It’s the same thing, all over again.
You of the past and the protester of today are not as different as you think. There are differences sure, but also strong similarities.
Perhaps what is different today is the social-media driven mimetic desire for keffiyeh-kosplay.
I think the main similarities are in the stories we told ourselves about what we were doing, and what the protesters today are telling themselves about they are doing.
And thinking about that, I stand by my coherence, or lack there of, argument completely.
Our story made sense and was essentially true.
Their story is what someone might want to be true - but isn't, not at all
As Mandela and the ANC proved once in power, they didn't hate white South Africans.
We thought we were removing Apartheid to allow democracy - and Mandela had the same idea, and that's pretty much what happened.
There is nothing like that today.
A gay Hamas supporter makes no sense.
Hamas for peace, or humane behavior, or even love of their own people, makes no sense.
And how much different is Israel's treatment of the Palestinians than that of Egypt or Jordan. If Hamas shot rockets into Cairo to protest the closed border with Egypt, does anyone think the Egyptians wouldn't shoot back?
If Israel stopped fighting and surrendered, there would be no peace, only more killing.
If Hamas stopped fighting and surrendered, there would be instant peace, or at least no more killing.
If one is telling themself a story they feel compelled to act on, they should put considerable effort into finding out how close to reality that story is.
Mandela remains one of my heroes to this day (along with TR), I marvel at the man he was.
I still feel good about protesting Apartheid, even though I got in a fair amount of trouble, I was detained by the Secret Service for hours.
Before Apartheid, it was Nestle and Gallo. Even in the retrospectiscope all those actions still seem quite righteous.
The Free Palestine protest doesn't pass the righteous test even in real time.
The purpose it does seem to service is performative - very modern.
This is what you get when your admissions department stops using test scores and starts using checkboxes.
It's no surprise these hyper-privileged children cannot handle an academic curriculum. And, given the lack of thought diversity, no surprise they've gone full KKK and have started wearing masks and hoods while chanting genocidal slogans.
I'm sure by this time, employers are aware that a COVID-era Ivy League degree is simply an expensive piece of paper indicating thorough indoctrination into a specific world view. Something to avoid, not something you'd ever want in your workplace.
If there were any serious journalists wishing to uncover some real truths about Columbia, Susi, Bari and the Free Press might want to ask around and find out who admitted activist spokesmoron Johannah King-Slutsky ("from the River, to the sea, please bring us some KFC!") to Columbia as a Doctoral student, which classes she "instructed," and who advises her Doctoral Dissertation.
They might also want to find out how Columbia Undergraduate Admissions Dean Jessica Marinaccio (a Harvard Alumna) has been allowed her to stay in place for years after admitting people like Khymani James, Emma Sulkowicz and their ilk over decades.
These individuals are as responsible for the rot as much as the newly installed President who is trying to un-Claudine herself this week.
Have you seen Allysia Finley's latest piece in the WSJ on the problem of admissions offices at elite schools? One example of a Stanford applicant's essay and Stanford's gushing response is absolutely edifying.
That was a really good article…thanks for the suggestion.
There is much focus on the professoriate, but the boards and admissions offices are the real fifth column.
Totally agree and exactly what I was thinking. I've recently been through the college admissions process for my 3 boys (latest just about to enter college in the fall). The way they frame their supplemental essay questions will give you the answer, and many schools require some kind of affirmation of your DEI bona fides. My eldest applied to a graduate engineering program at USC and had to write a paragraph about how his experience fits into the DEI framework, what he's done to help marginalized people, etc. He got in but didn't attend given a better job offer, but called me to review his BS answer to this ridiculous bunk. Folks, that doesn't make airplanes stay up in the sky (he's an aerospace engineer) or cure cancer. The other issue is that it really does begin in grammar and high school, though, with the curriculum. A colleague's daughter is training to be a teacher and wow, it's unbelievable what they're emphasizing.
It would also be interesting to know who they've turned down.
White, male, straight
After learning that 40% of the arrests at Hamilton Hall were of people not affiliated with Columbia, the same said enterprising reporter might want to find out how all those unaffiliated rabble rousers were able to get into a "locked-down" ID-mandated campus to take over a building in the past week.
Did students give their IDs to the professional protesters? Which ones - and are they being punished for this?
Did the security guards fail at their jobs? Or worse, facilitate access?
Did faculty sneak them in?
What will happen to those students and faculty who collaborated with non affiliated protesters in violation of University rules?
Will they get a slap on the wrist? Will someone bring them humanitarian aid?
I was there for the '68 riots. Both sides of that controversy were tough, committed and passionate. This group really not in the same category. Let's hope they up their game by the time of the Democrat Convention in Chicago this Fall.
It's called DEI.
The protesters who did not leave when told to do so, and those that broke into university buildings, should be expelled. It's the only way to ensure decent behaviour in the future.
Plenty of them should be eligible for the no fly list.
They're protesting occupation ... by occupying buildings ... that are staffed and maintained by their tuition money ... which enriches the colleges they attend ... and that they denounce for financing genocide, racism and apartheid ... which they publicize online with iPhones ... made by children forced into factory work by China ... which enslaves a million Uighers for being Muslim ... and which also supports Iran ... which beats and murders university students for protesting actual oppression ... and which also supports Hamas ... which like Iran oppresses, criminalizes and kills non-Muslims for not being Muslim ... and opposes anyone who oppresses Muslims ... except when it comes to China and Muslims who kill the Muslims they don't like ...
To sum up: They're protesting what they're supporting and ignoring what they're protesting.
Their parents should demand tuition refunds.
What don't you understand?
And probably using other products and services that are affiliated with Israel at the same time they are demanding divestment of the colleges from those companies using those services/products.
I don’t understand how any one can be that ignorant while attending the elite universities. They are missing an incredible amount of information.
It depends on who is supplying what information. Garbage in, garbage out.
Rich, logic? Really? Come now, logic need not apply.
The Molotov -- Ribbentrop treaty made more sense.
Insanity, as I was watching some of the videos I wondered to myself how is this helping Palestinians. There is no intent here to take any action that may actually help the people they are so concerned about. For example, raise money for humanitarian aid or the transport of aid. Collaborate with any of the agencies that coordinate aid so they can send supplies specifically to the childrem of Gaza. Oh wait, this is really not what the protests intent is.
To the student requesting humanitarian aid it baffles me how so many in this generation have no sense of personal responsibility your hosting the party you need to provide the food.
Most of these protesters are just role playing. What the nerd kids used to call LARP’ing (maybe they still call it that). By following the herd they gain/maintain social acceptance, and play live action figure. It’s keffiyeh-kosplay.
They are also protesting for their school endowments to cease doing business w/ companies that do business with the State of Israel (who they perceive as an oppressor of Palestinians). Student protestors did the same thing (successfully) in the 1980’s when the target was Apartheid South Africa.
It shouldn’t be baffling. It’s perfectly understandable to me, and I state that while also opposing their view/position.
They want scholarships for Muslim students and cultural centers for Islam, so um yes, no not Gaza
Columbia should be forced to reimburse NY city for the expense of the NYPD being called to its campus. The inaction of the administrators allowed this to evolve into a larger and larger gathering while supplying the demonstrators with electricity for charging their cell phones, with WiFi, etc. The administration also supported the students by zooming classes so that the students could continue to camp without having to make the decision to fail/drop out by being a protestor or remain a student.
The administrations failure to address the issue and "nip it in the bud" has cost NYC thousands of dollars in police man hours at a time when NYC is struggling to provide essential services to its citizens. Kids who don't live in NYC being able to divert resources to those who truly need it is one more reason to despise these rich entitled brats and recognize that Antifa protestors are society's worse.
Columbia could say that their tax dollars pay for the Police, only Columbia is most likely a tax exempt institution.
Most universities are tax exempt and most universities contribute to the economic well being of their surrounding communities. But what happened here is not the normal police activity required to support the university’s security or “protect and serve” the surrounding area. This was an event sponsored by the university albeit unintentionally, but the administrators failure to control the growing mass and danger caused the need for serious and costly intervention. NYC doesn’t have the funds Columbia probably does, so why shouldn’t Columbia contribute for the mess caused by an inattentive administration rather than the citizens of NYC lose more resources.
As for the vandalized administrators offices at Cal Poly H office, don’t repair it! Let each scrawl and broken item be a reminder of indulging and coddling rather than truly protecting free speech.
In state schools who should pay for the repairs? As a tax payer, do my taxes increase or does my community have shorter library hours, fewer police, or other service to insure colleges are able to make repairs from the riot? A solution if colleges fail (as they probably will) to expel students arrested for trespassing, etc. at the antiIsrael riots is the fee for repairs is charged to every student. The charge is clearly marked on their bill as vandalism repair. Another option is DEI departments are cut and their salaries are now earmarked for vandalism repair.
But as far as the taxpayer being responsible for riot damage that is a “Hey Ho …absolutely No!”
Boy, when you Democrats "capture" a campus you pretty much fuck the whole place up. I really want to see these kids form a massive swarm, like a plague of locusts, and move across all universities under the control of the Democratic Party... and when they're done... off to the offices of NPR.
Your chickens are finally coming home to roost...
The Democratic Party of America delenda est!
All true. But different only in kind when higher ed was run by WASPS.
You couldn't make up a funnier parody. I just love that PhD thesis (sarcasm). How far elite higher ed has fallen under the strait jacket of critical theory.
Funny the reaction from the Free Press now that antisemitic protests reign. These same reporters were (at best) silent when the anti-white BLM protests were raging. At least those were real protests that burned stuff and destroyed minority businesses. Oooh, a Jewish student is precluded from entering a stinky encampment. OK, sarcasm over. Thank you for your indulgence. These protests are just as racist as the BLM protests and are the American Left. Who taught these kids to hate anyone not in the protected class of the day? Who admitted them based on their admissions essays regaling their adventures as HS campus agitators? Who spent every day in their BS classes making them racists? Wasn't the feared white supremacists (who, frankly, barely exist).
I often think the same thing. I'm glad former committed lefties are getting red pilled now that the hatred on the left can't be denied, and its the Jew's turn in the progressive barrel, but when it was my people, poor white Christians from the South, constantly denigrated, when men like Bret Kavanaugh were put through the wringer, when people who just wanted to pay less in taxes and love their country, when WE were under threat, where were they then? Now it's a full blown crisis? 40 years ago, these crisis could be seen coming. There are more conflicts on the horizon. I'm pleased to be on the side of the Jews, but, hey, were ya'll been all these years?
They are learning the tale of the scorpion and the frog.
BLM, Antifa, Pro-Palestine, all funded by the same/similar organizations and individuals.
And if you say who, you're an antisemite......even though you are pointing out actions not ethnicity. Of course Free Press reporters/editors in previous jobs said Trump was the racist
Don't forget you could get fired for saying all lives matter.
Exactly.
I believe these camping children are a distraction
I suspect the real action is behind the scenes. There absolutely has to be big money funding this. And the money is not being spent on these children. The children do what they do because they're vain and stupid and therefore easily manipulated.
The college administrators are not afraid of the camping children. They are instead justifiably afraid of the inevitable lawsuits if they attempt to do anything about them (and they know the boards of trustees and professoriate will abandon them at the first sign of trouble). Lawfare. That is where the big money lives. The professional agitators are human VISA cards. They stir things up and swipe themselves at all of these demonstrations, and then George Soros and so on (including NGOs) get the bill each month and pay it off. Then it's off to the next thing: BLM, Gaza, Occupy Wall Street, Just Stop Oil, Fill in the Blank, etc., etc. And we get a little closer to their goal, inch by inch, month by month. A bottomless pit of money to support the march to the leftist singularity.
Agree with your point but they are not "children" and all participants should be prosecuted as adults.
Absolutely. I feel that ingrained muslim vitriol, and aggression is being used in this way world wide. Emotionally radicalized to sew division, using the Iranian propaganda of "Islamaphobia" both as a shield, and opiate to control the vapid, mainly Leftist masses.
A tale of two Columbias?
Who cares about either one?
The Ivy League and most universities have become destructive indoctrination factories, run by cowardly administrators who are slaves to their anti-white, America hating "faculty". Their only mission is to pump out the next generation of "leaders" who will continue the destruction of our civilization.
Unmask, photograph, expose and expel all that took part in the deliberate vandalism, and public hate speech.
I agree. They seem to have much more in common with the KKK than civil rights protesters. During the Viet Nam protests, the protesters didn't cover their faces as they protested the Viet Nam war, they had actual courage and stood by their convictions. They are bullies and cowards who simply want to hurt people.
Good point. They terrorize with anonymity, throw tantrums, and burn/tear stuff down to intimidate. The crazy thing is, most have almost no facts, data or knowledge to support their protests.
How does someone get arrested 80-100 times (probably for petty stuff) not be in jail for a long time? If I keep treaspassing over and over again (80 times), wouldnt the judge say alright you need to be in jail for a good long time.
Meanwhile at UCLA a riot broke out when Jewish students and their friends confronted the Antisemitic encampment that, the day before, beat a Jewish girl unconscious and ultimately was hospitalized.
I didn’t know that part about a Jewish girl being beaten - that is horrific.
“I guess it’s ultimately a question of what kind of a community and obligation Columbia has to its students,” King-Slutzky reflects. “Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill even if they disagree with you?”
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes. OR Actions Have Consequences.
Actually *Disagreeing is NOT the problem. taking over buildings/Public spaces/property THAT is the problem.
*I Love disagreements. Lets Talk.
It's good the police went in before they were reduced to drinking tap water.
I was thinking shut the power off and turn off the water...Wait.
I would have shut off their power supply and wi fi access on the first day of "camp". On the second day I'd blare non stop fire alarm type sounds. Anyone still there on day 3 gets a stinky stunt. Make it uncomfortable.
Loud speaker playing Hava Nagila? :-)
LOL and the vending machine snacks aren't organic.
...and no vegan options. "Da horror... "
Wait 'til she finds out how most of the civilized world would answer her question about "let 'em starve"
And The Uncivilized world. They'd hold a party to watch.
Something so many people don't understand, We Live In A Bubble. Dinesh D'Souza once asked a person why they wanted to come to America? "I really want to move to a country where the poor people are fat.”
In 1968 I did an all expenses paid visit to the ROK. What an eye opening experience That was!
Like many of The Free Press community, I too was a student protester back in the day.
Divestment to end Apartheid was our cause.
Two things strike me as very different between the two times.
First, we argued and disagreed a lot - but kept talking to people who disagreed with us.
Second, divestment to end Apartheid seemed very sensible, even if one was a strict moneytarian. It might have seemed naïve to some, but not whacky.
Comparatively, almost nothing seems to make sense about the Free Palestine crowd.
Beginning with the idea that the magnitude of the human, Gazan, tragedy was the main thing.
But, if the scale of the human tragedy was really the thing, why weren't and aren't the protestors much more concerned with the Syrian Civil war (half a million dead, including many children) and the Second Congo War where several million died.
When worried about human suffering, scale is significant.
A snarky observer might note that there are apparently very many fewer fashion forward keffiyeh wearing poets strolling around American college campuses from Syria and the Congo.
But the most dramatic difference between these current protestors and the divestment movement is coherence, or lack thereof.
The divest in Apartheid movement was highly coherent.
There was a worthy goal, democracy in South Africa and an end to Apartheid, and an actual operational plan to achieve that goal - find an equally good investment elsewhere - it was all coherent.
The current protestors are incoherent to a staggering degree with a Rube Goldberg device of a world view: where LBGTQ folks support a group, Hamas, who would be happy to see them dead for being LBGTQ; where middle eastern Jews are seen as oppressor colonialists, oppressing middle eastern Muslims; and social justice seekers root for a group, Hamas, who rapes at gun point.
Maybe I'm just old and crotchety, but to my jaded eye, this all looks like a massive virtue signaling exercise, and one where endless self regard meets really poor judgement.
From the river to the sea, all the protesters say Look At ME.
the protesters are the cat's paw
Donald, when you protested against Apartheid you were protesting against ‘oppression’. I recall big companies (like Coca Cola) boycotting sales in South Africa as a result. Back in 1980’s, students at Columbia, Michigan State and many (many) other campus pressed their school and its endowments to divest of any companies doing business with South Africa. The kids now think they are also protesting an oppressor (just like you did in past), this time it’s the government of Israel for the ‘apartheid’ they perceive is inflicted on Palestinians, and demanding the institutions they attend do not support Israel, or companies that do biz w/ Israel.
It’s the same thing, all over again.
You of the past and the protester of today are not as different as you think. There are differences sure, but also strong similarities.
Perhaps what is different today is the social-media driven mimetic desire for keffiyeh-kosplay.
Matt,
I think the main similarities are in the stories we told ourselves about what we were doing, and what the protesters today are telling themselves about they are doing.
And thinking about that, I stand by my coherence, or lack there of, argument completely.
Our story made sense and was essentially true.
Their story is what someone might want to be true - but isn't, not at all
As Mandela and the ANC proved once in power, they didn't hate white South Africans.
We thought we were removing Apartheid to allow democracy - and Mandela had the same idea, and that's pretty much what happened.
There is nothing like that today.
A gay Hamas supporter makes no sense.
Hamas for peace, or humane behavior, or even love of their own people, makes no sense.
And how much different is Israel's treatment of the Palestinians than that of Egypt or Jordan. If Hamas shot rockets into Cairo to protest the closed border with Egypt, does anyone think the Egyptians wouldn't shoot back?
If Israel stopped fighting and surrendered, there would be no peace, only more killing.
If Hamas stopped fighting and surrendered, there would be instant peace, or at least no more killing.
If one is telling themself a story they feel compelled to act on, they should put considerable effort into finding out how close to reality that story is.
Mandela remains one of my heroes to this day (along with TR), I marvel at the man he was.
I still feel good about protesting Apartheid, even though I got in a fair amount of trouble, I was detained by the Secret Service for hours.
Before Apartheid, it was Nestle and Gallo. Even in the retrospectiscope all those actions still seem quite righteous.
The Free Palestine protest doesn't pass the righteous test even in real time.
The purpose it does seem to service is performative - very modern.
This is what you get when your admissions department stops using test scores and starts using checkboxes.
It's no surprise these hyper-privileged children cannot handle an academic curriculum. And, given the lack of thought diversity, no surprise they've gone full KKK and have started wearing masks and hoods while chanting genocidal slogans.
I'm sure by this time, employers are aware that a COVID-era Ivy League degree is simply an expensive piece of paper indicating thorough indoctrination into a specific world view. Something to avoid, not something you'd ever want in your workplace.