No sure who has been following this but US colleges going through a moment with the Israeli-Palestine war flaring up.  Jews and allies are protesting against Palestine on campuses demanding the safe return of their hostages and end of terrorist attacks while Palestinians and allies are protesting the end of hostilities.  And the two sides have gotten close to brawling in several locations, and have ongoing persistent protests in others.

Many are saying this is their Vietnam, except you know, they are not facing down being forced to go play GI Joe in the Jungle.

As someone who had to learn a bit policy for graduate school, this situation is something the US colleges never seen before.  We have two minority groups, protesting basically each other now, that taking action against could be a civil rights violation, as will be taking action and banning both groups for protesting.  And if you do nothing and let them fight, you could be seen as encouraging each side to commit hate crimes against each other.  

So far, colleges were hands off, until this week when schools started to send in riot cops to clear the protests after they started to get too heating arguing with each other.  And as expected everyone is now threatening to sue.  Which is where I got interested in this, as from a policy point of view, this is like a choice your own adventure book where every single decisions ends with you are sued for civil rights violations.  Moreso, when teachers and graduate student lecturers are involved.

As usual the college students are idiots.

I will maintain that Hamas and Zionism are different sides of the same coin and should both be treated as terrorists.

The protests began as an appeal for the people of Palestine, but at some point became a Pro-Hamas movement.
It's somewhat ironic given the work Jewish people have done for years on the social justice front and even the BLM movement. I guess it goes to show that if you give your dog a taste for human flesh, it will eventually take a chunk out of you.

These people have zero critical reasoning skills and I am sure all of them would have just as emphatically supported BLM or Occupy Wall Street.

I don't think Israel deserves a free pass here, but it's just bizarre seeing groups like gays for Palestine when any gay person would be thrown off a roof in Palestine.
It's a shambles and a poor reflection on the Marxist ideology pumped into these kids semi functional brains.

So people are going to sue each other because words were said they didn't agree with?

Typical.

Take a major geopolitical event, war and a dash of terrorism that has seen millions displaced and hundreds of thousands killed or injured and somehow how make it about you.

No both groups are going to be suing the schools for not endorsing their views that the other side are monsters that should be banned from campuses for hate.

I support the right to protest but always been interested in two body problems on campus where two sides with equal right, and good faith reasons to protest do so. So this is a perfect storm to see how colleges find an out. And sadly that out seems to be just bash and bang the students until they stop protesting.

Hamas and true Zionism (belief in Jewish rule) are the opposite ends of extremism of both views.  But the protesters on both sides are not entirely wrong, nor are they taking the extreme views in most cases. Israel has a right to the protest back and reparations for the harm caused, and Palestine has the right to exist and not be mass slaughtered because of the actions of a minority terrorist group. 90% of protestors just want to try to do whatever to help and are told this is a way they can help. Only the minority are batshit insane on either side.  And the insane kids the media focuses on because measured protester views will not drive any engagement.  The insane kids however often go viral.

So these people, let's call them idiots, are going to sue the school because the school doesn't endorse their world view and condemn the other?

They've managed to take a war on the other side of the world and make themselves into the victims. America everyone....

Well todays wave of violent is def gonna bite big colleges in the ass. Several full professors attacked by police including Caroline Fohlin at Emory. Fohlin will be getting a multimillion dollar settlement in the near future, others likely the same.

In the lawsuit situation, yeah likely will be lawsuits on both sides saying the school was islamophobic or antisemitic in their enforcement. Whether the school loses or not, they will be spending large sums of cash on defense.

Shit reading more into the mess, Noëlle McAfee, head of Emory's phil department also was arrested and banged up by the police.

Local DA's in college towns are dropping all of the charges for the majority of people the police attack at the first hearing.  Saying in Texas that police lacked the cause to arrest most of the of the people arrested and that probable cause to take any action was without merit.

Cases likely to be dismissed in bulk in Cali and Boston in coming days that did not involve jumping the cops.

At leasts with Emory calls into a federal investigation are being made given the use of force again non-violent protestors.

Columbia muslim students have filed a federal civil rights complaints as well, and this one looks like it has legs.


One thing is for certain so far, a lot of professors will not be returning to Emory in the fall after today.  And to the point it may drop their research rankings.  Professors are pissed at the Fohlin video being shared of her getting slammed to the ground violently.  

Am I the only person alive who actively no sells this conflict? Enough that I honestly think it's weird how passionate people are protesting it.

Yeah I really do not care at all. Hamas and Israel deserve each other. Feel bad Palestine is getting destroyed, but if I can do fuck all to change anything about it, like hard to feel attached on any level.

My take is all these kids are working themselves into a shoot brother.

It's unlikely any of these protestors could fight their way out of a wet paper bag, let alone wage a war against capitalism. 😂

🤔

Can't just have the jews coming in and talking your land like they are known for <.<


Funny how people celebrate the kids getting manhandled when in two years time, they will be settling for hundreds of thousand if not millions with the schools to avoid open court lawsuits.  Seen time and time again civil rights groups will take the cases pro bono and hammer the schools, and schools always settle to avoid discovery and to be able to attach a NDA.

Apr 28, 2024 2:02:37 GMT c said:

Can't just have the jews coming in and talking your land like they are known for <.<


Funny how people celebrate the kids getting manhandled when in two years time, they will be settling for hundreds of thousand if not millions with the schools to avoid open court lawsuits.  Seen time and time again civil rights groups will take the cases pro bono and hammer the schools, and schools always settle to avoid discovery and to be able to attach a NDA.

Really? If they are asked to move and they don't, it's trespassing.
Personally I would turn the sprinklers on and pump maximum volume middle eastern music through the speakers 24/7.

Does seem a lot like CHAZ though, it's always nice to see socialist movements fail at the first ethical hurdle. 😂

All socialist utopias are underpinned by enforcing a police state.

Try to convince a jury that a student playing 50k a year is trespassing and needs to be violently removed from campus. And get the board to allow discover rather than just paying to NDA everything.

Apr 28, 2024 2:45:02 GMT c said:

Try to convince a jury that a student playing 50k a year is trespassing and needs to be violently removed from campus. And get the board to allow discover rather than just paying to NDA everything.

Not sure how the cries for intifada will play in a court room

There is a reason none of the charges against these kids stick. No one wants this shit in court. Even if the DA keeps them, the college itself will not participate in the cases.

Unless you damage college property or hit a cop, any arrests in these have charges dropped within hours.

We learned in Vietnam, these end up in front of a jury, it is very, very expensive for the college, and will flood them with negative press.

And yesterday a real line got crossed. Police hit Jill Stein with a bike then dragged her out of a protest and arrested her. I imagine everyone involved will be fired by day's end now the video is circulating.

Weird that conservatives are not freaking out about another presidential candidate getting indicted.  Clearly a witch hunt.  

What's the point of all this?

Really? What is it?

Israel doesn't want to listen. Despite indiscriminately bombing a civilian population. Palestinian, or Hamas isn't going to stop waging war. Iran isn't going to stop harbouring terrorist cells throughout The Middle East. The United States isn't going to stop interfering, as it needs influence in the area to combat the influence an axis between Iran and Russia is having on the region.

It's not going to stop because some privileged white people in The United States are angry... because, words.

So, outside of writing another chapter in the deliberate continual culture wars in The Western world, and academic grandstanding, what is it?

Because these sides weren't picked based on current events. It is an existing political ideology scotchtaped onto another world event, again. The lines were drawn on Covid and the lines have been drawn again, and guess what... the exact same teams have been picked. The Queers for Palestine highlights this - Islam ain't exactly tolerant guys, and it's highlighted very clearly when a Gay Reporter is told very clearly they hate him. Indigenous and Left Wing Academics and Politicians here linking the war in Palestinian to the plight of Aboriginal Australians is outright disgusting and shameful. In the case of Q4P, it shows the lack of real understanding of the culture at the expense of waving a flag because they've been told The Israelis are right wing. Here, it highlights how opportunistic these people are to build a narrative while ignoring 100 years of geopolitical tension and war. Then on the other side, hiding behind race as a justification for a near genocide is just plain ignorant.

Both sides of this conflict are awful. There are no good guys here.

US protests are mostly rich liberals supporting Israel vs poor liberals supporting Palestine. Conservatives are still protesting against white discrimination in college areas and do not give a shit about either Jews or Muslims.

Nuance never exists in college protests, so pointless to try to point out things like Hamas still has American hostages or the numbers are nowhere a near a genocide. Sure Israel would love to get away with a genocide, but these numbers are not what genocide looks like in the wild.

As for the why, college kids are learning about the world, and this is the first time they feel they can do something about injustice, even if it is something so minor as protesting. So college kids regularly protest things. Usually it is so few you can ignore them, but every few years they get the numbers to have the media cover them, which then justs allows them to grow.  Dunning kruger effect goes really hard at these ages.

What I assume is going to happen is this is the end of college spring semester classes this week. I imagine next week, everyone not in classes for summer season 1 will be banned from campuses. Easiest way out policywise to let those who have reason to be on campus protest, while limiting them.

Personally I always hated college activists.  They become hyper focused on ideals and throw punches at everyone.  One of the reasons liberals always attack each other, these liberals tend to focus more on attacking their own party, then the other party.  For them Biden is worse than Trump, despite them being hard left and will scream and cry if when they vote for Stein, Trump gets reelected.

As I predicted, Jewish group just sued Columbia for promoting an unsafe learning environment for Jews.

Throughout history the story has been that might is right and the strongest wins.

Now we have a really stupid idea that anyone with power is automatically wrong:
Men
White people
Jews
Christians
Heterosexuals
Rich

Now the weaker party is automatically right of they are perceived to be on the wrong side of a power imbalance.
That's why you have queers protesting on the behalf of Muslims who would throw them off the roof given the chance.

What bothers me most about it is how incredibly stupid and shallow that logic is.

I will not accept a white cis male mansplaining from his palace of privilege. Not on my watch.

Apr 30, 2024 12:13:26 GMT N A T H said:

I will not accept a white cis male mansplaining from his palace of privilege. Not on my watch.

What if I tuck my dick between my legs and listen to the Cure?

Apr 30, 2024 12:13:26 GMT N A T H said:

I will not accept a white cis male mansplaining from his palace of privilege. Not on my watch.

I lost it in grad school with the privilege shit.  Had a rich white girl lecture me about privilege a week after I had to get the police involved to keep my wife from coming back to the apartment after she got violent.  Was always funny, all these champions for the underprivileged would never want to be in my neighbor because of the crime.  And by crime I mean I lived in the hispanic neighborhood instead of the posh student one for twice the rent.  

What is interesting is our school was one known for teaching of privilege theory.  For years I would read dissertations to keep up with bleeding edge stuff.  One theme from the black students in their papers was the co-opting of minority suffering by the white community via privilege, where they reworked racism to make it about themselves, while enduring none of the suffering.

There is logic in one historically oppressed group supporting another oppressed group despite large differences between them.

Smh @ c oppressing the most disadvantaged group in the history of our species. Next thing you know he's busting out the k-word.

Band-aids don't fix bullet holes
You say sorry just for show
If you live like that, you live with ghosts

Columbia protest about to turn. Students occupied Hamilton Hall, vandalized it, and appear to be actively looting shit from it. All students who do not live on campus and all non-essential staff barred, and people involved in the Hall takeover all now face expulsion and arrest. White House already condemned the action.

Unlike a lot of the minor unauthorized protest charges, these charges will be far more serious.  Comparable to Jan 6th, which is seeing people get 1 to 4 years in prison for if they merely followed in the crowd and vandalized with them.  Students right now are fortifying themselves inside in the hall.  Likely SWAT or the Guard will have to come in to get them out.  I imagine they did not think this through though and likely have little to no food.

Saw someone suggest they should be allowed to keep the hall until the 4th, then as they celebrate, crush the rebellion as part of a may 4th celebration.

Appears everyone in the hall is now facing immediate expulsion.  Then arrest.

What did they think was gonna happen?