The way that university officials have begun to treat “peaceful” and “disruptive” as antonyms, when they in fact are not antonyms, is the kind of violence to language that one expects of authoritarians
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The problem with uni protests is that the protesters think they are at a place of higher learning and ideas, when in fact elite unis are just monetary sinkholes.
I agree that “peaceful” and “disruptive” are not antonyms. I thought the whole point of civil disobedience was to be disruptive without resorting to violence.
There’s a line in the movie “Ghandi” where he expresses dislike for the term “passive”, saying essentially that he wants to take action that is both disruptive and non-violent.
But I also think it’s a mistake to use the term “violence” for a non-physical attack. I know there is a long history of using the term “violence” that way. But to most people, “violence” implies a physical attack, not merely a philosophical attack.
Harvard did this to Divinity School faculty reading quietly in the library at a long table. Small paper "tents" stated their witness against the war against Palestinians. They have been banned from library for some period for "disruption".
Unfortunately, some people will claim anything they personally dislike is “disruptive”. To me, simply disliking something that could or should be easily ignored doesn’t rise to the level of “disruptive”.
The history of student protests in the US has both; always been on the right side of history, and has been met with violent resistance from authorities defending a status-quo
I think "peaceful" ima lot of mainstream discourse has just come to mean "completely ignorable and ineffective". anything that causes itself to be noticed it by definition not peaceful.
You have it backwards. During MLK Civil Rights protests, the opposition sent in troublemakers to discredit the movement. If you have a movement with several million people, if one person acts out, why is the movement responsible?
This correlates with how Americans report feeling like crime is worse than ever despite being at record lows when what they're really noticing is recover levels of homelessness
Also, the "violent threats" refer to "graffiti" NYU's president and provost claim to have "found" without saying where, when, what it says and how it's supposed to be related to the protest (a sit-in!) Not just authoritarian but positively Orwellian.
Also love the way that a library got leveraged as a venerated and nearly sacred building, after having been accused of "ideology" and "indoctrination."
For people like this, the only acceptable protest is one that they don't see, hear, or ever notice, i. e., a protest which is completely neutered and convenient for them
this isn’t new as the media and folks who identify with the status quo of white supremacy and patriarchy have being doing this to other peaceful protestors for so long. But yes, I agree it’s indeed upsetting to see this coming from so many universities
They are disrupting the university's functions in order to achieve a specific set of demands related to divestment, in order to stop a genocide. Something is wrong with you if you're angrier about noisy students than the mass butchery of children.
It's not what you are trying to say here, but the contrast between this library thing and the Greensboro activists speaks volumes. Their goals, their tactics, the execution.
Not to mention that nothing the students have done has been remotely as disruptive of campus business as the violence of riot police, jailing of students and faculty, having to go through armed checkpoints to get to the library or cafeteria. Seriously!
School administrators are paid egregious sums. Why do public school administrators make more than Congress (before the bribes/insider trading, of course).
Cocaine is the drug of choice for Police and Politicians. The only reason Administrators need to get paid so much is for cocaine. Find their Coke dealers...
If you're "protesting" some authority/institution, and that authority is still allowing you to "protest," then it means they don't think you're a threat. There is no such thing as a "peaceful protest." A "peaceful protest" is just a parade for you and your friends.
At this point they’ve invested so much (materially, legally, psychically) in criminalizing protest that even the least disruptive protests are cast as potentially violent and so subject to violence. Campus is a crime scene waiting for a crime.
So you’re giving each one of your students an A, because they weren’t able to concentrate on their final papers? - — As the line goes in Apocalypse Now: The bullshit piles up so fast in Vietnam. You needed wings to stay above it.
No I am not putting up with this ridiculous group Librarians With Palestine. They sound like a bunch of idiots. And their political stance implies censorship, which is a violation of library ethics.
I can promise you that a majority of the workers in that library building do not approve of university administration’s decisions and wish to have no affiliation with their McCarthyism. Protests happen inside NYUs library because university admin offices are located on the top floor.
Our number one complaint from patrons is not about books, it’s “Stop people from talking to each other! The library must be quiet!” We have to break the news that people are allowed to talk in the library. 😂
Maybe the "violent threats" no one seems to want to clarify have complicated matters enough that charges of authoritarianism should be reserved until a later date.
In their mind "peaceful" "protest" means as long as we can't hear you (your message) or be inconvenienced in the least. As long as you are easily IGNORED.
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Guessing it's 'they were chanting things like intifada,' but still, good to know.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-helped-ignite-george-floyd-riots-identified-white/story?id=72051536
Also, no, I'm not "angry" about a library protest.
None of that changes how almost perfunctory these protests have become.
I've got some unfortunate news for you about the powerful people in the United States and its Government
It's self-parody.
Real protests are violent.
Disappointing.
https://bsky.app/profile/geekergrl.bsky.social/post/3ldrkybwkqk2k
Our number one complaint from patrons is not about books, it’s “Stop people from talking to each other! The library must be quiet!” We have to break the news that people are allowed to talk in the library. 😂
"Disruptive if administration takes a different view.