I like many points you’ve made in the article, Maximus. A protest is only such if there is resistance from the authority that which you are protesting. Good article!
Unfortunately this crowd wasn't smart enough to connect the dots of "I support the racist behavior of the college and don't like protests" being a pretty racist stance. Too much of only listening to their favorite conservative podcasts turned their brain to mush I guess
Thank you for this incredibly important, powerful, and illusion-shattering post. You are more brave than I. I think it would be very illuminating to hold an itemized secret ballot referendum on campus, for all students, faculty, staff, and administrators, on each of SVE's demands, with the tweaks of making 2 independent of 1, and separating 3 and 4 into two items each. Of course, this is not a demand of the SVE, nor of the faculty, administration, or trustees. Why is that?
Nigh simultaneously with SVE's sit-in, some Tufts University students protested against a pro-Israel group holding a "discussion" event on campus. The protestors sat together in the audience, stood up about 15 minutes in, chanted for a few minutes, and left when it was announced that campus police were on their way. The administration's reaction? “Tufts University police and other relevant offices at the university are investigating and we will hold accountable any members of our community who are found to be responsible.” So much for colleges "respecting students' First Amendment rights!" (To be clear, I do not think the First Amendment protects disruptive, "shouting-down" actions that prevent others' speech, but the SVE sit-in is far more disruptive, yet the difference in responses is glaring.)
By comparison, I do not think it is accurate to even call the Conn administration's response "complicit" with SVE or "weak," because it maintains the charade of "resistance" itself. It maintains the charade that they are truly "in opposition" on anything meaningful. Let's imagine holding the aforementioned itemized referendum (minus point 1, on removing Kathy) in Fall 2022, in order to remove the distortionary effect of the protests on people's stated preferences. I suspect we would observe the following:
- Students would have been extremely split on most of the items, particularly if they were also informed of the college's existing Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity policies (eg., increasing the non-White, non-Jewish percentage of faculty from about 15% to 30% in just 20 years; extreme levels of discrimination against Whites in admissions; the per-student cost of DIE and related departments and activities; the number of DIE-adjacent events on campus; and so on.)
- The change in support for SVE's demands from Fall 2022 to today would be much greater for students (entirely due to the psychological effect of current events), and nearly zero for faculty and administrators.
Rather, SVE, the majority of the faculty, the administration, and the trustees are in total agreement (except the administration, on removing President Bergeron.) It is an important facet of the dominant ideology that it build itself up as being "the resistance," not "in power." It is not meaningfully a "protest." Yes, they are occupying a building, and waving signs, and making noise - they are performatively doing the things that a "protest" looks like - but it is not protesting against systemic power. They are not speaking truth to power; they are power, speaking! They are regurgitating the same ideology that they were taught to hold, because it is what "good people" believe, and to maintain their economic and social standing in the system.
Hyperreality is "an image or simulation, or an aggregate of images and simulations, that either distorts the reality it purports to depict, or does not in fact depict anything with a real existence at all, but which nonetheless comes to constitute reality." In the context of the political, the ruling ideology of the American system - so-called "liberal" "democracy" (though it is not much of either), "woke capitalism," market Bolshevism, neo-Weimar-ism, whatever you wish to call it - must lie. It presents its doctored declaration of how the world actually is, in spite of the listener's lying eyes, as "more real than real," presented by a saturation of entertainment media, news media, academic babble, corporate diktat, and government policy - the all-permeating top-down cultural zeitgeist. (There is a reason people when polled consistently overestimate the representation of LGBT, non-Whites, and interracial relationships amongst the American population. You even get situations where people who hold a majority political belief, when it is in opposition to the dominant ideology, also themselves grossly underestimate how many people hold that belief!)
SVE's and the faculty's demands and statements are not just borrowing on, but contributing to and reifying, the hyperreality.
The funny thing about the post-WWII American system (and even pre-WWII for a good bit) is that it manufactures "protest" movements in support of the things it was always going to do anyway. The most salient example of these is the Civil Rights Act, but there are plenty others. "Love is love," "No human is illegal," "Black lives matter," "Defund the police," "Protect trans kids." Media, money, and political power was settled on passing the Civil Rights Act well before 1964, just as the entire system is in complete agreement with SVE's demands. It was just a matter of (to flex on the king of faux-dissent himself, Noam Chomsky) "manufacturing consent."
I read these articles to be aware of different perspectives on campus. I do, however, disagree with your assessment of the current situation on campus. Thank you for providing me with some food-for-thought but I am unwavering in my support of the student-led efforts.
I like many points you’ve made in the article, Maximus. A protest is only such if there is resistance from the authority that which you are protesting. Good article!
Very well written article
Great piece and hope some reflection is had by all.
ur a total chvd fascist why would you think it’s okay to publish this purest form of hate
Do you even know what “fascist” means?
Fascism is something I disagree with, the more I disagree with it the more fascist it is.
What if the real fascists were the friends we made along the way?
sorry i’m unapologetically jewish✌️
Unfortunately this crowd wasn't smart enough to connect the dots of "I support the racist behavior of the college and don't like protests" being a pretty racist stance. Too much of only listening to their favorite conservative podcasts turned their brain to mush I guess
A little hyperbolic…
“Fascist” because the author disagrees? LOL
keep eating that red pill bud.
“Purest form of hate” — perhaps you should attempt to be less sensitive, the outrage you’re projecting at this article is outright hilarious
i bet you use plastic straws
RETVRN TO CHVD
Thank you for this incredibly important, powerful, and illusion-shattering post. You are more brave than I. I think it would be very illuminating to hold an itemized secret ballot referendum on campus, for all students, faculty, staff, and administrators, on each of SVE's demands, with the tweaks of making 2 independent of 1, and separating 3 and 4 into two items each. Of course, this is not a demand of the SVE, nor of the faculty, administration, or trustees. Why is that?
Nigh simultaneously with SVE's sit-in, some Tufts University students protested against a pro-Israel group holding a "discussion" event on campus. The protestors sat together in the audience, stood up about 15 minutes in, chanted for a few minutes, and left when it was announced that campus police were on their way. The administration's reaction? “Tufts University police and other relevant offices at the university are investigating and we will hold accountable any members of our community who are found to be responsible.” So much for colleges "respecting students' First Amendment rights!" (To be clear, I do not think the First Amendment protects disruptive, "shouting-down" actions that prevent others' speech, but the SVE sit-in is far more disruptive, yet the difference in responses is glaring.)
By comparison, I do not think it is accurate to even call the Conn administration's response "complicit" with SVE or "weak," because it maintains the charade of "resistance" itself. It maintains the charade that they are truly "in opposition" on anything meaningful. Let's imagine holding the aforementioned itemized referendum (minus point 1, on removing Kathy) in Fall 2022, in order to remove the distortionary effect of the protests on people's stated preferences. I suspect we would observe the following:
- Students would have been extremely split on most of the items, particularly if they were also informed of the college's existing Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity policies (eg., increasing the non-White, non-Jewish percentage of faculty from about 15% to 30% in just 20 years; extreme levels of discrimination against Whites in admissions; the per-student cost of DIE and related departments and activities; the number of DIE-adjacent events on campus; and so on.)
- The change in support for SVE's demands from Fall 2022 to today would be much greater for students (entirely due to the psychological effect of current events), and nearly zero for faculty and administrators.
Rather, SVE, the majority of the faculty, the administration, and the trustees are in total agreement (except the administration, on removing President Bergeron.) It is an important facet of the dominant ideology that it build itself up as being "the resistance," not "in power." It is not meaningfully a "protest." Yes, they are occupying a building, and waving signs, and making noise - they are performatively doing the things that a "protest" looks like - but it is not protesting against systemic power. They are not speaking truth to power; they are power, speaking! They are regurgitating the same ideology that they were taught to hold, because it is what "good people" believe, and to maintain their economic and social standing in the system.
Hyperreality is "an image or simulation, or an aggregate of images and simulations, that either distorts the reality it purports to depict, or does not in fact depict anything with a real existence at all, but which nonetheless comes to constitute reality." In the context of the political, the ruling ideology of the American system - so-called "liberal" "democracy" (though it is not much of either), "woke capitalism," market Bolshevism, neo-Weimar-ism, whatever you wish to call it - must lie. It presents its doctored declaration of how the world actually is, in spite of the listener's lying eyes, as "more real than real," presented by a saturation of entertainment media, news media, academic babble, corporate diktat, and government policy - the all-permeating top-down cultural zeitgeist. (There is a reason people when polled consistently overestimate the representation of LGBT, non-Whites, and interracial relationships amongst the American population. You even get situations where people who hold a majority political belief, when it is in opposition to the dominant ideology, also themselves grossly underestimate how many people hold that belief!)
SVE's and the faculty's demands and statements are not just borrowing on, but contributing to and reifying, the hyperreality.
The funny thing about the post-WWII American system (and even pre-WWII for a good bit) is that it manufactures "protest" movements in support of the things it was always going to do anyway. The most salient example of these is the Civil Rights Act, but there are plenty others. "Love is love," "No human is illegal," "Black lives matter," "Defund the police," "Protect trans kids." Media, money, and political power was settled on passing the Civil Rights Act well before 1964, just as the entire system is in complete agreement with SVE's demands. It was just a matter of (to flex on the king of faux-dissent himself, Noam Chomsky) "manufacturing consent."
First Amendment Freedom of Speech does not apply to private universities.
Sorry, I like to hear myself think.
I read these articles to be aware of different perspectives on campus. I do, however, disagree with your assessment of the current situation on campus. Thank you for providing me with some food-for-thought but I am unwavering in my support of the student-led efforts.
I think using your real name might have been the stupidest thing u could have done. just sayin
If that's the stupidest thing I could have done then I think I'm in pretty good shape.
sorry libtard,cry about it while you watch barfed out disney bullshit