Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Long story short, it is the right of American citizens to protest, if it doesn’t suit a certain narrative then it’s not their problem. If these kids want to protest, then they have every right to do so, there is a big Zionist lobby that has tried to control every opinion and aspect of this conflict since 10/7 and anyone not agreeing with Israel is promptly labeled antisemitic. Frankly, it’s nauseating.
It is their right. But their pro-Hamas protests win no hearts or minds.
The right wingers and administrators who are siccing the cops on them aren’t winning any hearts and minds either.
They are breaking the law by violently protesting, accosting police, and trespassing. Yet you think there should be no consequences? Of course you do. This is why normal, sane people think you are crazy.
This started with a bunch of dumb college kids camping in tents holding signs. The administration could have just ignored them and let them be stupid. They overreacted and made this a power game.
+1. It’s like University Presidents are CEOs with no actual understanding of college kids.
I talked to my college kid (on a so far protest free campus, thank goodness) last weekend. They were having trouble with a housemate’s behavior. And I reminded them that we weren’t in September, when a permanent solution to the behavior was needed to avoid an unpleasant school year. Instead, a light touch and keeping the peach for 10 days would get them through finals and that they weren’t scheduled to room with that person next year.
Columbia’s President kow-towed to the extreme right in Congress, because they had cancelled prior university presidents. And then followed through by dealing with theColumbia protestors with a heavy hand *from a war room in DC* with no attempts to deescalate or contain the protestors first. And it backfired bigly. Anyone who actual knows college kids could have told her that would happen. She massively over reacted, and there was a backlash.
There is an alternative universe where she ignored the students and dealt with any specific behaviors that were actually violent or threatening (as opposed to expressing a distasteful viewpoint or being annoying, which is the point of protest and is protected under 1A). Had professors flunk kids who didn’t show up for finals. And issued trespassing citations and cut off campus building key card access for kids who were not off campus within 24-48 hours after their last final (the rule at my kids college). And most of the kids would have dispersed before commencement.
Then she doubled down on what didn’t work yesterday, and now they took over a campus building.
It’s like she had no understanding of college kids and is a Fortune 500 CEO primarily there to make donors happy and have an occasional orchestrated photo op with students. Because that’s what she is.
I have no idea why she did not just ignore them as group until the end of the semester, discipline only bad actors, and wait for summer DP vacation, when everyone could take a breath and calm down.
Stupid. What she did was stupid. Divorced from the reality of how 18-22 year olds think annd operate. And seemed designed to cause more problems than it solved.