Protests and police on campus

[jimbogumbo]

Abbott even made Christopher Rufo and FIRE angry with this one:https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4620838-texas-governor-abbott-backlash-mass-arrest-ut-austin-pro-palestine-protest/

[spork]

I can't think of any example where a superior military power was actually able to dislodge a rag tag militia that can hide among the populace, take a few pot shots, and disappear back into the crowd.

It is forgotten that the French military won the Battle of Algiers and, indeed, controlled Algeria. Algeria gained independence because of support from outside. This was called "the internationalization of the conflict". This strategy has been imitated by the PLO, and now Hamas. Placing armed fighters among the civilian population is intended to cause lots of civilian casualties, which are then thought to stimulate outside support.

I don't think it will be successful because the Battle for Gaza is being fought by a neighboring, independent country with an existential interest in complete victory, something that metropolitan France never had -- French soil was not seriously threatened by the NLF.

Less dramatic historical memory surrounds the Malayan Emergency [1948 - 1960] because the British defeated the insurgents.

^ This.

Viet Nam is a great example.

The US Civil War was a classic example. On paper, the North should have won in 20 minutes. They had all the industry, weapons, wealth. What did they have to do to the South, and how long did it take, for them to finally get the South to surrender?

It is also overlooked that the Viet Cong were destroyed upon their Tet offensive. But the war didn't end because North Vietnamese regulars got involved. What Hamas has learned from the Vietnam War is that to defeat the United States, or affect its policy, one has to get at the US home front propagandistically. This is what is unfolding now. But there is so little at stake for US voters, I doubt it will make any difference.

The US Civil War was a conventional war. It is an example of something else: The attempt to internationalize the conflict, as the NLF did successfully. The South initially embargoed cotton, hoping to starve British factories of inputs and thus getting Britain to declare war on the North. This failed miserably. It did what the North could not do the first year of the war -- blockade the South.

The data indicates that separatist/irredentist/independence movements generally only succeed when they have external material support, which almost always comes from a neighbor. Sympathetic stories in international media do nothing by themselves. The military outcome of the current war is a function of how long Hamas's pre-war munitions stockpiles will last, since it's highly unlikely that Iran can get new supplies into Gaza. As secundem_artem mentioned upthread, Hamas made a horrific calculation and Netanyahu, while politically talented at saving his own skin, is a terrible statesman.

Back to campus protests:

I find it amusing that college students have taken up divestment as a cause. Divestment from what? The U.S. military-industrial complex? If they want to strike an economic blow against universities, they should spend their tuition money somewhere else -- other universities that are presumably less prestigious -- and convince others to do the same. Calls for divestment are either clueless or virtue signaling.

Also . . . doesn't it seem a bit odd that the university presidents grilled by headline-seeking members of Congress have been women, and that the grilling has largely been initiated by female members of Congress?

[spork]

p.s.

Meanwhile, in Haiti . . .

[Hibush]

I find it amusing that college students have taken up divestment as a cause. Divestment from what? The U.S. military-industrial complex? If they want to strike an economic blow against universities, they should spend their tuition money somewhere else -- other universities that are presumably less prestigious -- and convince others to do the same. Calls for divestment are either clueless or virtue signaling.

The template comes from the divestment from South Africa to end apartheid. Because divestment was so widespread then it may have had some policy impact. (I understand that the social scientists studying it have found the sports boycott was more influential.)

It is now part of the Boycott-Divest-S[] package of actions to try influencing Israeli policy on Palestinian rights, so it makes sense that this action is being requested.

Students at my school were really gung ho on divesting from fossil fuels a few years ago. They thought that news of our school selling all its oils stocks would galvanize the CEO and BoD of Shell, Exxon et alia to change their business model and go to renewables in order to win back our holdings. That seems like a fanciful expectation. More so when you realize that our holdings represented several minutes of trading in those securities on the NYSE, so even if they got dumped in a single market order, it wouldn't even blip the share price. There would be nothing for the CEO to notice.

The unfortunate thing is that the university does thousands of things, through research and even operations, that have a large potential impact on climate change in general and fossil fuel demand in particular. If the goal is to get the university to do more to prevent or mitigate climate change, encourage more investment in those activies. Or even join into them as a student. That would make far more difference than divestment.

I suspect the arms industry follows the actions of university endowment managers even less than the oil industry does. 

[marshwiggle]

Students at my school were really gung ho on divesting from fossil fuels a few years ago. They thought that news of our school selling all its oils stocks would galvanize the CEO and BoD of Shell, Exxon et alia to change their business model and go to renewables in order to win back our holdings. That seems like a fanciful expectation. More so when you realize that our holdings represented several minutes of trading in those securities on the NYSE, so even if they got dumped in a single market order, it wouldn't even blip the share price. There would be nothing for the CEO to notice.

This needs a term, like "recursive slacktivism"; where "activism" means doing nothing other than yelling for someone else to do something which in turn will have no discernible effect.

Kind of like Riddhi Patel in Bakersfield.

Or like Kony2012.
From the above article:

Since the video's release, Invisible Children has come under criticism for oversimplification of events in the region and has been accused of engaging in "slacktivism", in which a person donates or takes actions that have little to no effect beyond making said person feel as if they contributed to a positive cause.

[jimbogumbo]

Have we learned nothing? Troops on campus is a horrible idea: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/25/republicans-campus-protesters-democrats-00154508

[Ruralguy]

Of course its a horrible idea. But some people will call for horrible solutions knowing that its the way to get attention.

[Hibush]

This needs a term, like "recursive slacktivism"; where "activism" means doing nothing other than yelling for someone else to do something which in turn will have no discernible effect.

That neologism is both accurate and easily interpreted! Thanks, I shall endeavour to put it to good use.

[jimbogumbo]

Of course its a horrible idea. But some people will call for horrible solutions knowing that its the way to get attention.

It is in my opinion a serious mistake to think that this was just a way to get attention. The GOP has a non trivial number of supporters and elected officials that want to do this and similar things as policy. I believe he and others (see my earlier post about Governor Abbott in Texas) want to and have done exactly this.

[jimbogumbo]

Sorry for the double. More on Texas: https://www.thefire.org/news/texas-tramples-first-amendment-rights-police-crackdown-pro-palestinian-protests

[apl68]

Now USC has cancelled its main graduation ceremony entirely:

In the wake of a controversy surrounding the valedictory address and pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus, the University of Southern California on Thursday announced its main graduation ceremony will not be held.

"With the new safety measures in place this year, the time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus will increase substantially," the school wrote in an announcement. "As a result, we will not be able to host the main stage ceremony that traditionally brings 65,000 students, families, and friends to our campus all at the same time and during a short window from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m."

School officials said they plan to post details of their updated commencement plans on the graduation website by April 30.

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/usc-cancels-main-graduation-ceremony/


Were I a graduating senior (or parent of one), I'd be very unhappy with the activists who brought this about.

[secundem_artem]

I don't know what percentage of police officers rather look forward to a small scale riot so they can break out the bats and hats and do a little recreational billy clubbing.  But from the photos I've seen, that numbers is not zero.

This is not gonna end well.

[Hibush]

]

Were I a graduating senior (or parent of one), I'd be very unhappy with the activists who brought this about.

If I were a parent who had traveled for commencement, I might consider occupying the presidents office (or the SVP of alumni relations and development) in protest of a stupid response to student engagement with the improtant issues of the day.

[Wahoo Redux]

Now USC has cancelled its main graduation ceremony entirely:

This is the kind of stuff that hardcore Republicans love to hate and talk about endlessly.

[kaysixteen]

The boneheaded decision to cancel the valedictorian's speech is the root of this particular issue, a numbskull adminiscritter's foolish desire to appease potentially offended-by-the-as-yet undelivered speech.