Columbia University really stepping in it over the past week:
Elise Stefanik and co. dragged its president, Minouche Shafik, in front of her House Anti-Israeli Activites Committee (always funny to me that these dipshit university administrators show up to these things when they’re free to just decline the invitation)
Under the incorrect and very big-brain assumption that kowtowing to their demands will get conservatives off the back of an elite liberal university president and keep her from getting Claudine Gay’ed, she largely says the stuff they want her to say, like “yeah saying ‘river to the sea’ is totally a hate crime we should discipline”
To further demonstrate her commitment to saving her job, right after this she calls the NYPD to break up nonviolent pro-Palestine protests at the university (like, kids camping out on a relatively public lawn), an incredibly disproportionate escalation
The university then banned journalists from its campus, a sure sign that what you’re doing is normal and fine
To the surprise of no one, the Christopher Rufo constituency still wants her fired for the crime of being a woman of color in the position she has, and now everyone on the left wants her head too:
Bonus moment: NYT columnist Pamela Paul, a regular on the “free speech is under attack on college campuses” beat, was like “fuck yeah great job arresting those students” with no self-awareness lol
The students are occupying… a lawn? They’re not even occupying admin offices like the did back in the 60’s, what a clowny over-response by the authorities.
It’s truly amazing we are like 30 years into this, dating back to Newt Gingrich and Clinton appointing Ken Starr, and lefties still somehow don’t understand it is literally impossible to appease bad faith right wing assholes.
just for context, Jane Mayer is a direct descendant of one of the Lehman brothers. absolutely the worst possible person to be making the “Joe Biden is bad for ignoring media elites” argument.
No way I’m clicking that link but am I to understand that Stefanik is mad that bringing in the NYPD and arresting everyone for trespassing at the university they attend is not draconian enough? lol like river man said anyone who thinks you can appease these bad faith dipshits is a moron
Hey remember FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), the ultimate campus freeze peach warriors? Wonder if they have any takes on recent news:
Oh hmm, still on Stanford law kids shouting down psycho Trump judge Kyle Duncan over a year ago, but nothing about Columbia. Maybe their CEO (Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt’s coauthor on Coddling of the American Mind) has something to say on Twitter? Hmm, no looks like this is his only related tweet in recent days:
The arrests at Columbia caused protests to increase at like 5 other schools, let’s see if they can all arrest their way into getting college kids to shut up (seems unlikely)
Talk about a situation where there are no good guys in leadership on any side and lots of victims across the board. Just an endless cycle of violence, deprivation, and retribution.
I don’t understand how any protestor claims moral clarity/superiority.
Percussing! His perspective! Into his daughter! He also opens with an anecdote about how he was teaching a music humanities course and couldn’t have students listen to a “piece” that calls for being silent and listening to the world around you. Because of the protests, and how listening to those isn’t appropriate for his lesson. I wonder if he understands the point of his own material?
Oh and bonus:
FIRE finally has a statement. Let’s check it out, I’m sure it spits hot fire about the importance of our nation’s founding values!
Hahahahahahaha. Who could have guessed that all the freeze peach warriors were actually lying the entire time and only wanted to elevate right-wing hate speech because they don’t actually object to it that much?
USC’s valedictorian this year is a Muslim woman who supports Palestinians. Can’t have that sort of person getting a platform, so her graduation speech is canceled. No first amendment right to a platform right? Well, that predictably caused a controversy, so then they canceled all speakers at graduation, so they weren’t singling her out. But then that still was causing controversy, so they canceled the whole ceremoney. gjge guys.
You need only see the line of cops, summoned by the University of Texas, brandishing their clubs while standing next to a sign that reads, “What starts here changes the world. It starts with you and what you do each day.” What the cops did next showed that the institutions were prescient about hypothetical violence on campus, just not in the way they intended.
So, which do you think is the principle that right wing authoritarians are more aghast to have questioned by these protests, such that any speech at all is getting brutally censored? It’s easy to think that it’s “Israel shall not be questioned,” but I think it’s actually “Palestinians don’t count as people.”
I think it’s a combination of that and a more important principle, which is that “free speech” (especially on college campuses) is only for Ben Shapiro and not for pinko commie 20 year old liberal arts majors. We would see a similarly authoritarian response to protests on college campuses for a wide range of subjects, even if this current moment had nothing to do with Israel (though it certainly helps for the fascists that it does).
moment: NYT columnist Pamela Paul, a regular on the “free speech is under attack on college campuses” beat, was like “fuck yeah great job arresting those students” with no self-awareness lol
