Largely my comment was in the abstract. I knew most of the ones that had been getting attention were about divestment in their university, but I presumed that at least some were students trying to raise awareness over a subject the uni had no power over. And that's perfectly legitimate! It's just something that you do have to expect the possibility of an arrest for.
Unfortunately, as I noted, US police are not known for reasonable, proportionate responses.
Aside from the completely disproportionate police response, schools like Columbia don’t really help themselves with how they want to glorify their history of student activism to draw in new students, but turn their backs on those principles once the students are protesting in favor of causes that the school administration decide are the wrong causes.
Uni admins and being bloodsucking hypocritical parasites - name a more iconic duo.
I want to see the people coming into these threads defending the cops closing down these camps defend the cops arresting 2300 people.
I'll half-bite, I suppose - disruptive encampments and occupations of buildings of institutions that are attempting to continue functioning are situations in which one should expect a police response to disperse after a period of time. These institutions have an obligation to the other students and faculty, not just to the demands of the protesters, and the right to dictate what is and is not appropriate usage, or after what period of time it becomes inappropriate usage, of the university's buildings. And if the demands of the protesters are unrealistic or out of the hands of the institution, then there is no other real recourse but a police response.
Of course, on the other hand, anyone who has seen what the police response is knows that it's American police being more militarized than the US military and using the opportunity to vent some of their roid rage and testosterone poisoning.
But police closing down such protest encampments is not inherently illegitimate.
It walks a very fine line that appeals to both Christians and non-Christians. It's more about the drama and struggle around Jesus, without ever directly addressing his divinity or lack thereof. Judas has all the banger songs, though. He's the protagonist, really.
A Gallilean philosopher and ex-slave was teaching a class on Paul, known Christian.
"Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship Jesus Christ and accept that he is the greatest deity ever, even greater than Jupiter Optimus Maximus!"
At this moment, a brave, patriotic, Centurion who had served 30 years duty and worshiped the Emperors every day stood up.
"Who is the son of god?"
The arrogant philosopher smirked and smugly replied "Jesus Christ, you stupid pagan"
"Wrong. It’s Augustus Caesar. If it was Jesus Christ, as you say... then why did he die pathetically on the cross instead of creating an IMPERIVM SINE FINE?"
The philosopher was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and copy of the Gospel of Luke. He stormed out of the room crying those crocodile tears. The same tears Christians cry for the conquered Gauls and Britons (who today live in such luxury that most even visit baths every week) when they jealously try to claw justly earned riches from the deserving legionaries. There is no doubt that at this point the "learned" Christian wished he had joined the auxilia and become more than a cultist preacher of barbarian superstitions. He wished so much that he had a gladius to disembowel himself with due to the shame, but he had none for he himself had always preached unconditional pacifism!
The students applauded and all joined the legions that day and accepted the Emperor as their lord and savior. An eagle flew into the room and perched atop the SPQR symbol and shed a tear on the chalk. The 12 tables were read several times, and the Emperor himself showed up and sentenced all Christians to die in the Flavian Amphitheatre.
The philosopher lost his tenure and was sent to the lions the next day. He died with a thunderous applause and was tossed into Tartarus for all eternity.
Although admittedly “that’s gay” was more common for something uncool, whereas if someone was trying to get you to lower a price on a sale, they were trying to “Jew you down.” Which is something I heard at a garage sale several times, so that was nice.
Holy shit, really? I always thought I lived in a shitty area for racism, but "Jew you down" was something that would get even someone's racist old grandfather horrified looks here.
No, no, don't worry, they're attracting Chinese tourists and selling the nation's mineral rights to Chinese corporations, so it's actually Socialism With Chinese Characteristics.
Largely my comment was in the abstract. I knew most of the ones that had been getting attention were about divestment in their university, but I presumed that at least some were students trying to raise awareness over a subject the uni had no power over. And that's perfectly legitimate! It's just something that you do have to expect the possibility of an arrest for.
Unfortunately, as I noted, US police are not known for reasonable, proportionate responses.
Uni admins and being bloodsucking hypocritical parasites - name a more iconic duo.