The Gaza War

[RatkoVarda]

NYPD looks like a bunch of pussies compared to California cops, who are using flashbangs and rubber bullets  to clear UCLA protestors

the only accomplishments these bozos have achieved: 1) stalled billions to Israel got passed; 2) ridiculous antisemitism bill passed house; and 3) increased chance Trump - who would love to see a nuke dropped on Gaza - wins

[chasfh]

The whole idea that these protesters are a monolith consisting of domestic terrorists who were polluted by our K-12 system which established their godless Musilm antisemitism but are also cosplayers being controlled by Marxist professors while they plot their mundane lives in the suburbs in ten years is just so on-script

Edited May 2, 2024 by chasfh

[Motown Bombers]

I'll guess the feeling would be different if they were harassing black students instead of Jewish students and told black students to go back to Africa instead of telling Jewish students to go back to Poland. 

[pfife]

"If a bunch of stuff that didn't happened happened by a bunch of people who didn't do the stuff that didn't happen, the people who didn't react to the stuff that never happened would OBVIOUSLY react in a totally different way according to my opinion which is also conveniently my argument"

 

[pfife]

33 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Breaking bomber by getting him to hand out his first-ever reactions to you and running up your score is just straight-up gangsta 

nah he's just stealing someone else's schtick again

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

Hopefully when they are living in the suburbs they take better care of their houses. 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

Surprised non kosher wasn’t one of their demands. 

 

[chasfh]

As long as posting guest opinion columns about the awful and out of control nature of everything is considered in-bounds here, might as well get another perspective on it.

 

[oblong]

2 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Surprised non kosher wasn’t one of their demands. 

 

No sunscreen?  Of course they all look like vampires anyway so I guess they don't need it.

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[mtutiger]

4 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

NYPD looks like a bunch of pussies compared to California cops, who are using flashbangs and rubber bullets  to clear UCLA protestors

the only accomplishments these bozos have achieved: 1) stalled billions to Israel got passed; 2) ridiculous antisemitism bill passed house; and 3) increased chance Trump - who would love to see a nuke dropped on Gaza - wins

I've been hesitant to weigh in on this topic just because of how heated it's has been / has gotten, but really this is correct.

Whether it's these latest campus protests or whether it's protesters blocking Interstate 190 going into O'Hare of the Golden Gate Bridge or whatever, ultimately if the goal is to change hearts and minds on this issue, are these actions effective in doing so? And what, exactly, is the goal?

Setting aside my personal beliefs about the cause, I don't see any actual goal. Most Americans are likely not seeing any actual goal. All they are seeing is chaos and disorder. If the goal is to generate sympathy for the cause, I couldn't think of worse imagery than what is being produced by taking over college buildings. 

Edited May 2, 2024 by mtutiger

[Tigeraholic1]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

Yes sir, the American way. 

[gehringer_2]

5 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

Elections in the US, elections in Israel, and elections in Gaza.

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, chasfh said:

As long as posting guest opinion columns about the awful and out of control nature of everything is considered in-bounds here, might as well get another perspective on it.

 

We don't want perpsective, we want CLICKS!

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, mtutiger said:

I don't see any actual goal

MTU, you've read my mind, I was going to make a very similar post. Protest has to be directed at something where there is some prospect of actual leverage or at least some 1/2 way concrete outcome to have any value, otherwise it's just performance. Civil disobedience has to be violation of unjust laws to be meaningful, not just vandalism against the nearest University Library - what's the point of that? The historical truth is that protest against the War in Vietnam never moved the public or US Gov because of the war itself, it was eventually opposition to the draft that did because it was US kids being impacted. And this isn't even our war or our people. They'd have accomplished as much by writing their Congress critters and letting them know their votes are at stake because beyond that the larger public doesn't care about these kids or their views the way America cared about the targets of discrimination in our own society or the American boys dying in Vietnam. The attempts to draw parallels to those movements is just a miss. And of course letting blatant anti-semitism and Hamas sympathizers into their midst nullified what little interest there was in paying attention to them.

[mtutiger]

16 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

We don't want perpsective, we want CLICKS!

I also think that journalists are likely overstating how much this stuff is ultimately going to break through to the GP. The obvious comparison point is the BLM stuff in 2020 and other activist moments that happened during that year, but that was also during a worldwide pandemic that saw, among other things, entire sports leagues shuttered and a population stuck at home far more often than normal. 

Not saying that people aren't noticing this stuff, but it's a lot more in the background than it was four years ago for those reasons. Even the stuff happening locally, at least where I live, isn't getting a ton of news coverage relative to other events going on in the area.

Having said all of that, I do think the protests are counterproductive and do more harm than good... but I think the perspective of the professor is well taken.

[Motown Bombers]

The goal is obvious. It is to get Trump elected. It is no coincidence these protests escalated as soon as Trump's trial started. There more media attention on the protests than on Trump's trial. 

[pfife]

https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4633580-brown-university-israel-divestment-vote-student-palestine-protesters/

 

[pfife]

There was a lot of discussion about protestors in this very thread well before trumps trial started.   

[mtutiger]

23 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

The historical truth is that protest against the War in Vietnam never moved the public or US Gov because of the war itself, it was eventually opposition to the draft that did because it was US kids being impacted. And this isn't even our war or our people. 

Right, in terms of public opinion, things change when there is a direct connection between Americans and the issue. Something that, for better or worse, largely doesn't exist here; any number of issues, including the economy, immigration, abortion rights, etc., impact the average person far more acutely than this issue does.

I don't think that it's all about Trump, at least for the vast majority of these protestors, but I do think in the macro it's a primal scream for attention from a public that doesn't care as much about this cause as much as they do. But the rub is that by doing things like blocking interstates and vandalizing university buildings, while they may raise the salience somewhat, they are also likely to generate negative feelings toward the cause.

It's just incredibly counterproductive.... not just with these protests but with previous less, publicized ones, I don't know that these folks know or care how negative the perceptions are.

[Motown Bombers]

17 minutes ago, pfife said:

There was a lot of discussion about protestors in this very thread well before trumps trial started.   

Good thing I said escalated and not started.