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UT Pro-Palestine Protest Thread


Captainant

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8 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

I don’t know. I guess maybe don’t suck off on Hamas and cry fowl when the chickens come home to roost? Like this is a very organized protest across college campuses for what purpose? educate all of us on how sad it is? This 1000 year old war. Make us stop what exactly? Protesting the strikes on Gaza for what end? Why now? Especially after an unprecedented attack by Hamas. These fucks protesting need to go the fuck home. Go home. 
 

You have to pick a side in this war. Sitting and cover your faces and crying about a thousand plus year old war. I have sympathy  for the innocent people in harms way. But this is bullshit and these hired fucks should go the fuck home. 
 

if you do what you’ve always done you will get what you’ve always gotten. The Middle East and Russia remind me of this. Still trying to do the same shit and get different results. Maybe I don’t know try new leadership. Find better leadership. I have about as much sympathy overall for the Middle East as I do the Russian people. Time and again they choose poorly. Boo the fuck hoo. 
 

if I seem pissed the fuck off I am. I rarely wade into this shit. I’m Lebanese, Jewish and German/english. I studied history. What the fuck do I know? Not much. Go home protesting dumb fucks. Go home. And who paid them to organize like this? And fuck them too. 

Right, maybe, I don't know, actually read something about what happened before commenting. Or stick to the lake murdering. Whatever. 

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27 minutes ago, Bevo said:

 

Curious on your thoughts outside this direct discussion - During the Civil Rights Movement there were Clansmen rallies trying to prevent colleges from integrating and trying to intimidate blacks and keep them out of universities. Later, there were racist screams on campus calling blacks names and making them feel unwanted. I assume all that hate speech was stopped. What was done to protect blacks and help the schools integrate and provide a safe and welcoming environment?

I can tell you for fact that Jews feel uncomfortable at many colleges including UT. The fraternities and sororities at UT  have had to beef up security. Women are told to walk in groups. Most jewish organizations were grateful to Hartzel and Abbott for the protection. You stated:

Jewish students shouldn’t be threatened or terrorized. Neither should Arab or Palestinian students. They each should be able to take public positions that make the other side uncomfortable or even angry, so long as they do so peacefully without violence, threats, or intimidation. And people who engage in violence, threats, and intimidation, should be held accountable.
I don’t care what your cause is, I stand for that proposition. If we don’t, then we’re worthless as well.

Where is the line drawn between uncomfortable and dangerous? From your words, I assume it is okay to make groups feel bad and unwanted and scared or angry but when is the line drawn? Is it when an individual gets hurt or injured? Is it when people bring guns and knives? Can words do it? When should we feel worthless?

I ask again, what does any of this have to do with what happened on the UT campus? Don't talk about other events, other places, other times. Talk about UT. 

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Just now, 956 Worldwide said:

But that has to actually happen, it can’t be wish-casting based on what people did in LA or NYC. 

No, no let the people who think "anti fascist" is an insult continue to advocate for collective punishment. They don't realize how they look, but at least they're finally saying it out loud. 

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3 hours ago, wood said:

In December, the state Republican committee voted 39-32 to continue permitting members to meet with groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial,” stripping a clause that would have banned such meetings from a statement of support for Israel, according to The Texas Tribune.

Half the board also voted not to keep any record of that vote. 

Grammy Awards GIF by Recording Academy / GRAMMYs

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Hartzell calling in the riot cops on his own student body because he didn't like their speech is beyond the fucking pale. He can repeat abbott's party line on his justification, but it's has nothing to do with what happened yesterday on campus.

It's unsurprising and predictable that so many people on this board are uncritically believing whatever their preferred authority figure tells them, but holy fucking shit. 

Just now, YGIFS said:

Who we talking about?  

Hartzell being confirmed by the Daily Texan (publication, not board) to have called in the jackboots

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1 minute ago, Captainant said:

Hartzell calling in the riot cops on his own student body because he didn't like their speech is beyond the fucking pale. He can repeat abbott's party line on his justification, but it's has nothing to do with what happened yesterday on campus.

It's unsurprising and predictable that so many people on this board are uncritically believing whatever their preferred authority figure tells them, but holy fucking shit. 

Hartzell being confirmed by the Daily Texan (publication, not board) to have called in the jackboots

Hartzell fucked up big time. 

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1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

 


It’s nearly impossible to draw the line in the abstract. The answer is “it depends.”

Yes, physically hurting someone is over the line. Brandishing weapons may well be over the line. And yes, words can be over the line, but that’s where it gets tough.

Painful speech, speech that makes people feel bad, feel worthless, is not necessarily outside first amendment protection. It sucks. I hate it. But the law allows many things I really don’t like. If those words are directed to terrorize, threaten, and the like, then they may be actionable under the law.

I know that’s not the answer you want. It’s not an answer that makes me happy. But in order to protect all speech, essential speech, the law must protect abhorrent and racist and dangerous speech.

I see no harm in falling back on the law vs. your opinion. But if we fall back on the law, legal, undeniable proof is necessary (I don't even know what is admissible - video, audio, a non-friend witness). Then there are courts, attorneys, jurors, publicity - with no significant gain for the public or the individual attacked if a case is tried and won. I just don't see that going anywhere.

And as we know each person has a different threshold for intimation. Young women are especially having a problem with this. Young athletic, cocky men don't have a problem until they grow up and put their kids put into such environments.

And of course when we sit behind the law, it kind of protects us from doing nothing and answering the question of when we should feel worthless for not standing up. And I should point out that the protestors are not monolithic. As we know the protests have outside support and outside supporters with specific agendas. Some people are clearly anti-Israel but some are antisemitic. There is very clearly a blend between the two. Separating the two isn't very easy.

It has caused me to lose sleep. I'm not worried about my boys. I'm not worried about myself. But, I see, and my friends from college and beyond see, dangerous trends in the world. It is easy to say, oh it is just about Israel. But when you are in the thick of it, you know that just isn't true. Unfortunately, not even close to the truth. The bright side is that the conflict in Israel will die down temporarily and so will the protests. Of course, when we have to deal with a nuclear Iran, all this will come back with a vengeance.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Steel Shank said:

Before I went to UT, while I was at UT, and after I went to UT :

UT is not my mother, father, nor caretaker.

I am my own person. They owe me nothing, and I owe them nothing.

I don't understand people wanting universities to follow their own individual views of the world. Am I crazy?

Batshit crazy

 

2000 called. They want their expectations back. 

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33 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

Like this is a very organized protest across college campuses for what purpose? educate all of us on how sad it is? This 1000 year old war. Make us stop what exactly? Protesting the strikes on Gaza for what end? Why now? Especially after an unprecedented attack by Hamas.

This is the only on-topic portion of your post I'll address in this thread. 

Obviously, the overall goal of these protests is for Palestinians to have their own land; HOWEVER, I *think* the most direct action they believe they can take is to get The University of Texas Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions movement (BDS). Yeah, I don't think that will work out for them over the short term either.

Another goal, I'm sure, is to raise the profile of the Palestinian cause, especially among those who might influence U.S. policy over the long term (you know, future American leaders, i.e., college kids that go to really good schools). On this point, I think they're likely making headway and will continue to do so if they don't end up shooting themselves in the foot with over-the-top violence or antisemitic actions. From my standpoint, thus far, the UT student activists have been much more successful in curtailing that other stupid shit than their Ivy League counterparts.

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46 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

I don’t know. I guess maybe don’t suck off on Hamas and cry fowl when the chickens come home to roost? Like this is a very organized protest across college campuses for what purpose? educate all of us on how sad it is? This 1000 year old war. Make us stop what exactly? Protesting the strikes on Gaza for what end? Why now? Especially after an unprecedented attack by Hamas. These fucks protesting need to go the fuck home. Go home. 
 

You have to pick a side in this war. Sitting and cover your faces and crying about a thousand plus year old war. I have sympathy  for the innocent people in harms way. But this is bullshit and these hired fucks should go the fuck home. 
 

if you do what you’ve always done you will get what you’ve always gotten. The Middle East and Russia remind me of this. Still trying to do the same shit and get different results. Maybe I don’t know try new leadership. Find better leadership. I have about as much sympathy overall for the Middle East as I do the Russian people. Time and again they choose poorly. Boo the fuck hoo. 
 

if I seem pissed the fuck off I am. I rarely wade into this shit. I’m Lebanese, Jewish and German/english. I studied history. What the fuck do I know? Not much. Go home protesting dumb fucks. Go home. And who paid them to organize like this? And fuck them too. 

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12 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Hartzell calling in the riot cops on his own student body because he didn't like their speech 

At least get the text right.  It stated he called them because they affirmatively stated they wanted to do the same takeover encampent bullshit they did at Columbia.  The National Chapter.  If that is actually the case and that was the intent - good for him.  

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8 minutes ago, Bevo said:

And of course when we sit behind the law, it kind of protects us from doing nothing and answering the question of when we should feel worthless for not standing up. And I should point out that the protestors are not monolithic. As we know the protests have outside support and outside supporters with specific agendas. Some people are clearly anti-Israel but some are antisemitic. There is very clearly a blend between the two. Separating the two isn't very easy.

There is also a very large share that you are completely ignoring or refusing to acknowledge: those who are neither anti-Israel nor antisemitic but only want Palestinians to be allowed to have their own homeland.

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Just now, Captainant said:

Oh bull fucking shit. This is the equivalent to a "furtive movements" affidavit by a cop that just gunned a person down in their own home. Are you saying that you think the correct move whenever the school administration is concerned is to call in the fucking riot cops to crack some heads?

 

You and the rest of the scared victimhood boomers continually go back to what has happened elsewhere, as if it resembles what happened yesterday. I have fucking eyes. There is not an equivalency no matter how much you wish there is. 

Boomer.  Ok bud.  I can assure you Hartzell would have been under a lot more fire from the donors that matter if he let the campus turn into the idiocy that is all over the news at Columbia and elsewhere.   Mistakes appear to have been made but if there was actual intel these losers were descending on campus to wreak havoc (and I did see the stat that many arrested had no UT affiliation) I have zero issue taking steps to make sure that didn't happen.   

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8 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Having a presence ready and as a visible deterrent is one thing.  As far as any evidence I’ve seen in this thread goes, they acted to break up a peaceful gathering of people in a public space at a time that people are expected to be in that space. 

I agree.  It certainly appears mistakes were made.  But this board started going apeshit over the text message chain, and if what Hartzell stated was accurate in the chain, I personally have no issue with him requesting backup. 

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Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, Skipper said:

I agree.  It certainly appears mistakes were made.  But this board started going apeshit over the text message chain, and if what Hartzell stated was accurate in the chain, I personally have no issue with him requesting backup. 

I don't see the text statement as any different than his emailed letter. If there was evidence of something nefarious, he would have released it. So far, the only evidence is that they intended to occupy the South Lawn. And, if they ended up doing something actually bad, the police could have arrested them. But apparently, we are really afraid of a picnic on the South Lawn. 

Edited by Dahobbs
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Just now, Captainant said:

Ya know, if you turn off the fox and newsmax it turns out you're actually NOT under attack by immigrants and brown people. This sort of rote and unthoughtful acceptance, internalization, and repetition of the State and Party line for why they had to put down this peaceful protest is how you end up with a fucking boot on your neck. 

This is nothing but trump and abbotts fear and propaganda speaking through you. 

LOL.  JFC dude. I'm a Trump hating Biden and D voter across the board outside of random local races.  The constant far left circle jerk on this site is hilarious.  You all live in the same fantasy world the MAGA nutjobs do and you don't realize it.  

If you read what Hartzell actually stated (not the bullshit you projected on him or me), assume it was true, and you still think he was wrong, that's fine.   That's your opinion.  But I assure you it's a minority one no matter what you all convince yourselves talking to each other on this board.

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21 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

You have to pick a side in this war.

I wish it were that easy, but it's not - one of my best friends from high school is an Israeli-American, and if you asked him to pick a side, it would be anti-Hamas/anti-Iran. It doesn't mean he hates Palestinians, nor does it mean he supports Netanyahu or the Israeli government (he doesn't support either).  He's got a bias that he could be excused - his son was called up to active duty after last October, and he had friends/family who were caught up in the shit that went down , but his anger is reserved for the people who did what they did. He's my goto 'weather rock' for what's happening there, since his dad's company, and now his company, has dealings out of Houston and Israeli and had employed Palestinians for decades.  He has a much more restrained outlook on things that many Americans that I know, because he has to live with what actually happens. It's similar to family from Oklahoma or Arkansas trying to tell me about border issues.  They've never visited the border or have friends/family down there, so when they try to paint everything as black and white, I have to push back and say it's a lot more gray than they'd like it be.

I honestly didn't give a shit about any protests this week, given how many hundreds/thousands of protests that have happened since I first set foot in Austin back in the 90s (the anti-abortion ones were the worst IMO), and I felt like it was just another such protest that will never been seen or heard outside of Austin.  The woman who caught the 30-pound koi out of Town Lake this week was far more interesting to me.

But seeing how it was handled and what went down, I do give a bit of a shit.  These people could have been protesting for the right to kill baby owls and I'd be down there hanging with them tomorrow if I was able to. I'm used to Texas looking like it does as far as the rest of the nation goes, but I can at least pretend UT was staying above the fray as much as possible, at least until yesterday's shit gets blasted across the nation.  Now I've had multiple relatives chiming in on Facebook asking if I'm worried about terrorists, and what's happening in Austin, etc., and yet they aren't interested in seeing videos that contradict what they believe.

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Posted (edited)
31 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

As far as any evidence I’ve seen in this thread goes, they acted to break up a peaceful gathering of people in a public space at a time that people are expected to be in that space. 

And the bigger concern is that if it happened without any serious blowback, it takes us down a very dark road (and what that dark road is, is more suited for CR). The main thing is that UT-Austin appears to have been treated differently and that should concern all who attended here (or another school in the system) or parents of UT students.

Edited by atomheartbevo
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2 minutes ago, Skipper said:

If you read what Hartzell actually stated (not the bullshit you projected on him or me), assume it was true, and you still think he was wrong, that's fine.   That's your opinion.  But I assure you it's a minority one no matter what you all convince yourselves talking to each other on this board.

Then you are a fucking coward if you think the right way to handle a peaceful protest is to call in the fucking stormtroopers to crack heads. 

I do not buy Hartzells statement for a moment because he is speaking from a place of fear, not leadership. Instead of speaking to his students and faculty, he called in RIOT COPS to fuck em up. 

Your reaction, and applauding what Hartzell did will only serve to ensure more crackdowns like this for unallowed speech. 

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4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

yet they aren't interested in seeing videos that contradict what they believe

Neither is Skippy or the rest of the gang. They don't want to believe their lying eyes and trust hot wheels and hartzell instead

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2 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

The main thing is that UT-Austin appears to have been treated differently and that should concern all who attended here (or another school in the system) or parents of UT students.

I believe the protest at UTSA happened without interference or drama. It feels like UT was an intentional target.

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1 hour ago, Nicole44 said:

I don’t know. I guess maybe don’t suck off on Hamas and cry fowl when the chickens come home to roost? Like this is a very organized protest across college campuses for what purpose? educate all of us on how sad it is? This 1000 year old war. Make us stop what exactly? Protesting the strikes on Gaza for what end? Why now? Especially after an unprecedented attack by Hamas. These fucks protesting need to go the fuck home. Go home. 
 

You have to pick a side in this war. Sitting and cover your faces and crying about a thousand plus year old war. I have sympathy  for the innocent people in harms way. But this is bullshit and these hired fucks should go the fuck home. 
 

if you do what you’ve always done you will get what you’ve always gotten. The Middle East and Russia remind me of this. Still trying to do the same shit and get different results. Maybe I don’t know try new leadership. Find better leadership. I have about as much sympathy overall for the Middle East as I do the Russian people. Time and again they choose poorly. Boo the fuck hoo. 
 

if I seem pissed the fuck off I am. I rarely wade into this shit. I’m Lebanese, Jewish and German/english. I studied history. What the fuck do I know? Not much. Go home protesting dumb fucks. Go home. And who paid them to organize like this? And fuck them too. 

All of these people in the Middle East getting killed somewhere besides a lake seems to really get you agitated. 

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1 minute ago, Captainant said:

Then you are a fucking coward if you think the right way to handle a peaceful protest is to call in the fucking stormtroopers to crack heads. 

I do not buy Hartzells statement for a moment because he is speaking from a place of fear, not leadership. Instead of speaking to his students and faculty, he called in RIOT COPS to fuck em up. 

Your reaction, and applauding what Hartzell did will only serve to ensure more crackdowns like this for unallowed speech. 

He was speaking from a place of watching a bunch of losers take over campuses across the country.  USC just cancelled commencement because of these assholes.   Imagine just being a normal student or parent of said student and getting commencement cancelled because of this bullshit.  I don't give a damn about what side you are on.   Palestine, MAGA, BLM, whatever, protest all you want until you start interfering with everyone else just living their lives thinking your cause is more important.   I'm not opining on what actually happened.  I'm pushing back on the thought that it was a mistake to prepare for the possibility the same thing could happen at Texas that has happened elsewhere.

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Just now, Skipper said:

don't give a damn about what side you are on

I'm on the side that says that the state of Texas passed a "free speech on college campus" law and then beat up protesters because abbott didn't like what they were saying. 

There were similar statements about UTSA and other UT system schools and the protests there happened without any thuggery or State violence. Wonder what the difference was. 

3 minutes ago, Skipper said:

I'm not opining on what actually happened.

Oh, it's abundantly clear you don't want to address what ACTUALLY happened and would rather treat a hypothetical as objective fact. 

4 minutes ago, Skipper said:

I'm pushing back on the thought that it was a mistake to prepare for the possibility the same thing could happen at Texas that has happened elsewhere.

No, you're talking out of your ass and saying that hartzells response was """not great, not terrible""". Motherfucker he called in RIOT COPS because he was scared his students speech would upset the governor and hurt his political capital with the state lege, and he was more than happy to trade the health and wellbeing of his student body to do so. 

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1 minute ago, Skipper said:

He was speaking from a place of watching a bunch of losers take over campuses across the country.  USC just cancelled commencement because of these assholes.   Imagine just being a normal student or parent of said student and getting commencement cancelled because of this bullshit.  I don't give a damn about what side you are on.   Palestine, MAGA, BLM, whatever, protest all you want until you start interfering with everyone else just living their lives thinking your cause is more important.   I'm not opining on what actually happened.  I'm pushing back on the thought that it was a mistake to prepare for the possibility the same thing could happen at Texas that has happened elsewhere.

Preparing for it is fine. You still don't get to act until it happens. Also, what exactly happened at USC that frightens you so? From what I've read, the things you're complaining about are the results of choices by the school, not the protesters. 

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Just now, Skipper said:

He was speaking from a place of watching a bunch of losers take over campuses across the country.  USC just cancelled commencement because of these assholes.   Imagine just being a normal student or parent of said student and getting commencement cancelled because of this bullshit.  I don't give a damn about what side you are on.   Palestine, MAGA, BLM, whatever, protest all you want until you start interfering with everyone else just living their lives thinking your cause is more important.   I'm not opining on what actually happened.  I'm pushing back on the thought that it was a mistake to prepare for the possibility the same thing could happen at Texas that has happened elsewhere.

Being prepared is very different than sending in an army of riot police in a highly aggressive stance before the protest even started. The response came nowhere near matching what was a peaceful assembly.
 

I’m assuming you haven’t watched the videos, and that’s okay, but if you had you would have seen no aggression on the side of the protesters. The aggression came from one side and one side only. Video shows protest organizers wearing day glo vests issuing directions to the protesters to clear the way. The way that they were provoked by aggressive cops, I give them a ton of credit to the protesters for not escalating things. The cops arbitrarily left around 7p so there was clearly no actual threat. At that point, some protesters returned to the south lawn and assembled peacefully. Today, without the spectacle and publicity stunt, people once again peacefully assembled on the south lawn.

I understand your viewpoint, but in my opinion, the response from UT was way out of whack and actually risked ramping up the crowd into violence which, if you’re cynical, you might think was the intended outcome to score political points in certain circles.

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“I asked them when they arrested me, 'What are you arresting me for? What are you arresting me for?' They said, 'I don't have to tell you.' I said, 'Yes, you do.' They said, 'here did you get your law degree?' It's like OK, whatever. I got to the jail – they said it was for criminal trespassing," Kayden Casper said. "They can't hold us for too long because we didn't do nothing."
 

Good on Casper the friendly protesting ghost getting into UT. He goes there I guess? Right? Like all the other protestors on campuses across the country. He’s quoted in no fewer than a dozen articles. Maybe he’s an aggy. The plan is to destroy all college campuses in the hopes they can win a title for something if we are all distracted. I’m just glad I got into UT back in the day. Seems a lot harder now. 

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