Not a disjointed reply and I agree with you on these campus protests.Quorra2.0 wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2024 1:00 pmI apologize in advance if my reply is all over and disjointed. Lines are blurred and lines have been crossed. These protests have become problematic for multiple reasons.
The left and right have been responding out of their normal playbook. It just is not working this time. The right is focused, as usual, not on peaceful protesters, but on the unlawful. Problem with this: they are ignoring their own among the ranks of unlawful. The left is focused, as usual, on the peaceful protesters, dismissing the unlawful or only pointing fingers at the “right” participants and paid participants. Problem with this: either they need to own it or condemn it. This can’t be ignored and dismissed as just paid protester, a few extremists, or right exploiters.
If you have white supremacists joining you, you should probably step back and re-evaluate the message you are sending. If you are calling for the execution of people, you need to step back and re-evaluate the message you are sending. If you are using hate speech, racial slurs, derogatory name calling, you need to step back and re-evaluate the message you are sending. If you have the option of peaceful, lawful protest and are choosing unlawful protest, you need to step back and re-evaluate the message you are sending.
By law, hate speech at an unlawful protest is a hate crime. Condoning it now, minimizing it now, endangers not only the people it’s directed towards but also others.
Should we be making distinctions? Absolutely, but we shouldn’t be dismissive, deflecting, and casual about these incidents.
I think some of the issue comes from the fact that it was almost a requirement for people to pick sides and no room was given for nuance or deviation. Someone I follow on Twitter, Charlotte Clymer, wrote about this back in October. Kind of long but good read and she's a good writer which helps!
As far as the campus protests, yes. If you are protesting for peace then you damn well better be peaceful not only in your actions but in your verbiage or you've lost the plot. It's really hard to argue with peace protestors except when they are no longer peaceful.
There was a really good interview in Haaretz yesterday(?) with Mark Rudd (yes, that Mark Rudd) explaining what the campus protestors are getting wrong:
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2024-05 ... 426082174a
IMO, Universities handled this poorly but so have some of the protestors, the politicians, and media, both left and right.
That all being said, I believe in peaceful protest (even a little civil disobedience) and I worry that some of those rights to protest will be taken away. Violent protest is not okay and when one engages in it a risk is the reduction of rights of those who are protesting non-violently.