Columbia faculty members walk out after pro-Palestinian protesters arrested - Page 7 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15313663
Accusations of antisemitism have been weaponized.

It is impossible to even discuss the causal factors of the October 7 attack without being accused of antisemitism.

At this point, it would not surprise me if universities put cops into classrooms to arrest anyone who discusses the October 7 attack in any way other than to condemn Hamas.
#15313718
Pants-of-dog wrote:Accusations of antisemitism have been weaponized.

It is impossible to even discuss the causal factors of the October 7 attack without being accused of antisemitism.

At this point, it would not surprise me if universities put cops into classrooms to arrest anyone who discusses the October 7 attack in any way other than to condemn Hamas.



The parallels with Algeria are many. First of all, the USA currently has a brain-dead president, just like Algeria did for a number of years. Those "brain-dead president" years were very enriching for Algeria's oligarch class who stole most of the oil profits and deposited them in French banks.

This caused economic problems that lead to a temporary "multi-party democracy" that got the Islamist Party elected, and then cancelled by the military (like in Egypt).

belfercenter wrote:...In June 1990, Algeria held its first set of contested local and provincial elections. Though the party had formed mere months before, the Islamist FIS successfully mobilized voters and trounced the ruling FLN. In the 1991 national elections, the FIS offered a repeat performance, winning almost half of all the votes in the first round of elections and twice as many votes as the FLN, including 188 of the 430 parliamentary seats outright.

However, the Algerian military was unwilling to tolerate the prospect of losing power and cancelled the runoff, triggering protests that were met with severe army and police repression. In March 1992, the FIS was banned, and the ensuing confrontation between Islamist insurgencies and the military degenerated into a bloody guerrilla war. The violence continued through 1999, and peace was brokered in 2002, but not before some 100,000 Algerians had been killed. ...


And today, after the civil war that ensued and killed 100,000 people... Algerians are not allowed to remember this recent period of their history.

Brookings wrote:...For example, it (current Algerian government) passed the “Decree Implementing the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation” in 2008, which threatens to punish families seeking the truth about their disappeared loved ones with fines and imprisonment...


Americans are never allowed to remember recent propaganda events. They have already forgotten the Totalitarian way their government handled both COVID 19 and the many wars for kickbacks it has recently engaged in.

Not being allowed to remember important events... is an example of Orwellian control and it appears that Guy Debord was totally correct about our media being an instrument of Totalitarian control of people's minds.
#15313747
Pants-of-dog wrote:It is not surprising that the US wants to police speech on campuses to the extent of monitoring students, arresting protesters, and otherwise silencing any dissent about supporting human rights abuses by US allies.


Indeed. It's clear that these universities have decided that free speech doesn't count if the speech is against Israel.
#15313755
According to the website of one of the bill sponsors, the Secretary of Education gets to appoint the monitors, and the monitors get to decide what is and what is not antisemitism.

This seems like a likely scenario for a sort of regulatory capture wherein wealthy individuals can bend the ear of the Secretary and have sympathetic monitors appointed to the PSE of the wealthy individual’s choice.
#15313762
KurtFF8 wrote:Having the police come and arrest students is hardly a "weak" response. Looks like you're just copy and pasting your talking points from Fox News at this point.


After many such videos surfaced and the Title VI lawsuits started to pour in...

...And even then, there are schools - like Columbia - that have yet to call the police.
#15313769
Pants-of-dog wrote:1. The university itself is investing money and resources into an army killing civilians en masse as we speak. I think that counts as harassment too.

2. And my point. that everyone seems to ignore, is that centrists and liberals refuse to acknowledge this radically more abusive support of human rights abuses.

3. You are, in this part, agreeing that we habitually invest in regimes that enact human rights abuses and you are trying to justify it.

4. When the laws say that giving money to an army that bombs kids in their homes is fine but protesting that fact is not, the laws are wrong.

1. How is it doing that? Do they have investments in Israeli bonds? Are you arguing that investing in private companies that headquarter in a country with a government that commits human rights abuses is akin to supporting and financing those war crimes? I mean, ok, but then you nor I nor anyone else including the university could invest in any companies in any country since every country commits human rights violations. So then universities need to divest in all middle eastern/Muslim countries, most Asian & European countries, all African and Latin American countries, plus the USA, Canada etc. It's a bit unrealistic. Plus you have to link the companies to the actual government committing the abuses. Is Oprah guilty for US war crimes?

2. I disagree, you're generalizing all liberals and centrists. The situation isn't as simple and black and white as you make it seem.

3. How do you measure "investing in regimes"? Most people have mutual funds and index funds. Those are investments in companies, not governments. I don't have an issue with individuals making decisions to not invest in whatever companies they don't want to, but a university represents a diverse group of students. Even if the university invested directly in every government in the world, they can't just pick and choose who to invest or not invest in based on the personal politics of every student group at the university. It's ridiculous.

4. Nobody is being arrested for protesting, because "protesting" is not against the law.
#15313770
skinster wrote:

German youngsters have an encampment outside their Parliament building. Pigs are being pigs there as they are against students in the U.S. campuses.

Your first tweet is a photo, there's no video proving anything claimed in the tweet. Where's the footage?

The 2nd tweet wasn't a "savage attack", it's called an arrest. What context is there for the video? What were they arrested for? Trespassing? Disturbing the peace? I'm not going to deny that police abuse their powers at times, but if you're going to make a claim we need basic info and context and evidence. Protest doesn't give you the right to go anywhere and do anything, as the Canadian trucker convoy learned.
Last edited by Unthinking Majority on 30 Apr 2024 03:02, edited 1 time in total.
#15313771
KurtFF8 wrote:Having the police come and arrest students is hardly a "weak" response. Looks like you're just copy and pasting your talking points from Fox News at this point.

Do people understand that people can commit illegal acts during their protesting? I can't just stand on your lawn overnight and hold a sign.

I support everyone's right to protest as long as they follow basic law. It's not that hard. There's protestors blocking roads. You can't blackmail society and infringe and everyone else's human rights until you get your way, these people are so entitled. Just like the Canadian rightwing trucker convoy. Stand on the sidewalk and make your point, that's the right guaranteed to you.

#15313773
Unthinking Majority wrote:1. How is it doing that? Do they have investments in Israeli bonds? Are you arguing that investing in private companies that headquarter in a country with a government that commits human rights abuses is akin to supporting and financing those war crimes?


I suggest Googling it.

I mean, ok, but then you nor I nor anyone else including the university could invest in any companies in any country since every country commits human rights violations. So then universities need to divest in all middle eastern/Muslim countries, most Asian & European countries, all African and Latin American countries, plus the USA, Canada etc. It's a bit unrealistic. Plus you have to link the companies to the actual government committing the abuses. Is Oprah guilty for US war crimes?


So now that we have normalized investing in human rights abuses, you are arguing that we should continue to do so because it is normal.

This implicitly agrees with my claim.

2. I disagree, you're generalizing all liberals and centrists. The situation isn't as simple and black and white as you make it seem.


No. This is a (deliberate?) misinterpretation of my words. Note that you just acknowledged that universities invest in regimes that commit human rights abuses, but you see nothing wrong with that. This is an example of centrist acceptance of such support of such regimes.

4. Nobody is being arrested for protesting, because "protesting" is not against the law.


Yes, they are being arrested fro protesting.
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