They Aren't Protesting On College Campuses; They're "Protesting"
At The Daily Beast, John McWhorter writes that campus protests stopping speech are not so much protests as they are a form of attention-getting theater in a social media age:
Yes, there is always an element of the theatrical in protest. One makes signs, one speaks loudly, one seeks attention. But these new campus developments are something different. The environmentalist crafts slogans and raises their voice, but their concern for the state of the planet is concrete, based on a literal fear of impending biological catastrophe. One is arguing from different grounds to disallow someone to even give voice to an argument that the police help more black people than they kill, or that the state of the employment market is not the only reason people may be poor, or that our nation's immigration policies are too lax. Whatever one's take on those views, to insist that they are equivalent to those of Hitler or a Southern segregationist displays a shocking blindness to simple proportion--unless one's actual intentions are different than we are assuming. They are.Namely, this is protest at a kind of remove from, of all things, reality. It is, rather, an imitation of protest: "protest." One can see a certain logic--in itself--in executing a pose of receiving today's writerly controversialist with the furious revulsion one would direct toward a revivified John C. Calhoun. Doing this signals that you well and truly understand certain philosophical resemblances between these new views and hideous older ones, and that we must be vigilant against the return of the latter views themselves. You "get it." This signaling, in the immediacy of its visceral payoff, risks seeming more important than the reality, which is that the modern views are as unlike the old ones as they are similar, are usually more reasonably subject to reasoned debate, and if they aren't, typically pose no threat to the common order.
...When footage of recent protests is endlessly available in everyone's pockets, the visceral impact of the reproduction as show can take precedence over the substance of the issues that were involved. The event, in its passion and vibrancy, becomes something you want to imitate, to be part of, to "do," just as one often identifies with movie and musical performances. Our protesters are, in their way, like teenagers playing air guitar.
...Because these protests are at heart a kind of acting, sober objections about the nature of free speech and intelligent inquiry argue past the participants. These protesters are quite aware that shutting down the expression of ideas does not eliminate those ideas from society, and if anything, only calls more attention to the speakers in question. All of these protesters are people who would bristle at any charge that they lack strength or self-regard, so fragile as to be constitutionally incapable of hearing dissent from their own beliefs.
Rather, we are watching people who have internalized a sense that to mime white-hot and even violent indignation, against expressions of ideas rather than against actions, demonstrates one's moral sophistication in modern society. Logical argument will be as powerless against this new practice as it is irrelevant to its motivations.
That is, unless university administrators and professors revise the kind of logical argument they are presenting, and face a responsibility sadly difficult to step up to in our current atmosphere. If we are to allow a reasonable conception of free speech on today's college campuses, then student protesters of this purging impulse must be told that despite the imperfections of society, their position on right-wing speakers will be neither accommodated nor sanctioned, not only because it threatens free speech and civility, but because it is a histrionic pose based on stark exaggeration.
Short of that--and let's face it, all indications are that we shall be short of it--it would seem that we are in for a future in which controversial speakers stop even venturing to speak on college campuses, such that collegetown life becomes even more of an echo-chamber than it already was.
What lovely times we live in, in which we not only have a "president" on the right, but also a campus climate in which "progressivism" successfully exterminates the expression of all views rightward of The Nation--as in, most of the spectrum of human opinion.
via @SteveStuWill
The Left had concluded, after two terms of President Barack Obama, that they had won the ultimate victory. We watched as the masks came off. No longer was there any need for the pretense of being concerned with civil rights, equality, or liberation. Hillary Clinton's victory was assured; there was no need to engage in debate or persuasion. Being that Leftism is a Cluster B philosophy, its followers needed to let it all hang out eventually, and they did. They shamed and insulted flyover country, not because they thought it would be persuasive, but simply because it felt so good to be cruel to the Other. When you don't have to worry about social niceties, and have scapegoats to blame for all of your problems, life's a breeze.
We saw how well that worked. The democratic process denied them the Ultimate Victory. So, having failed at that, the Left has decided that it will have its victory by undemocratic means. There is nothing in their philosophy that prohibits this; it's simply a strategic decision. Violence is part and parcel with it. The reason we don't see more of it is because the gentry-Left can't be bothered to muss their own hands. They prefer to contract that work out.
This includes university administrators. They are not there for the purpose of upholding traditional scholarly values. They have completed the long march, and now they need to consolidate power. The "students" are doing their dirty work for them. To keep up appearances, for now, they have to maintain a nudge-nudge-wink-wink relationship. But this is temporary. Don't think for a minute that the protesters aren't being aided by the administration.
As for the protesters themselves, there persists this Romantic notion that they are simply earnest but misguided. No. They know exactly what they are doing. They appeal to the worst traits of human nature -- xenocentrism, envy, the desire to vandalize and bring others down. They have no moral qualms about what they are doing; their own victory will be self-justifying. Ordinary politicians on both sides of the political spectrum worry about giving the authorities too much power, lest that power be turned against them in the future when the other party is in power. The Leftists, however, do not. They see themselves as so close to the Ultimate Victory that they can taste it. All they have to do is clean up and consolidate, and once that is done, they will never have to worry about what they do unto others, since the others will never have an opportunity to retaliate.
I'll repeat, Leftism is a Cluster B philosophy. Keep in mind what Cluster B's do:
1. They lie, seamlessly. They've had lots of practice at it.
2. They break trusts and confidences.
3. They steal. As they see it, everything rightly belongs to them anyway.
4. They DARVO (deny, accuse, reverse victim and offender).
5. They engage in negotiation only as a battle tactic. In their minds, they are good and anyone who disagrees is evil. There is no room for compromise.
6. They go out of their way to be cruel, even when doing so has no obvious benefit to them. They are cruel because they enjoy it.
Cousin Dave at May 3, 2017 5:38 AM
Nothing new here except that more people are "seeing" what's going on and are acting on it. (ex. 53% of white women voted for Trump - so much for complaining about patriarchy)
Not going to stop (IMO) something that started before WWII in news, media, and college.
Experienced in the '70's first hand via news coverage, professor treatment of Christians/non-liberal views, and so on.
The difference between now and then was the amount of 'Nam Vets on campus, perception of their ability to do violence, and a quickness (in the South at least) to do personal violence.
LOL if you think a big soft Black dude is going to stop a small Tunnel Rat vet who has had a bad day from going through a college entrance to get to a class he's late for. It's comical.
Bob in Texas at May 3, 2017 5:58 AM
My sister is at Berkeley now, getting an advanced degree so she can help old people have quality of life at the end of their lives. (I'm proud as fuck of her.) She's tough and is not about to walk through some brook to get to class because some asshole is blocking the way for white people, as was happening a few months ago, in a bit of "racism is progressivism!"
Amy Alkon at May 3, 2017 6:28 AM
The protestors as children pretending to be adults, rubes pretending to be sophisticates? Interesting viewpoint, and probably truer than the protestors want to admit.
Many a former '60s hippie has admitted that he joined protests because that's where the girls were. Probably a lot of the same dynamic at work here.
A recent news report showed that kids at local high schools are staging beat downs and filming them for social media. Content production for social media stardom. Wonder how much of the protest movement is little more than content production for social media stardom.
Conan the Grammarian at May 3, 2017 6:37 AM
It's becoming like in "PCU":
Jock #1: [at a party] What's up, babes?
Womynist #1: Pack up your rape culture and take a hike!
Jock #1: [holds up a beer] You want a brewdog?
Womynist #1: We're not interested in your penis!
Womynist #2: Wait, wait, I think he's offering us a beer.
[turns to jock, speaks slowly]
Womynist #2: Um... Yes. We, would like, a beer.
Jock #1: Okay!
[turns around to get a beer]
Womynist #1: So it's like, if you're nice to them, they *bring* you things?
Womynist #2: Exactly.
...
Afrocentrist: ...and the walls are painted white, and the chalk is white, and the copy machine paper is white. This, my friends, is a white devil's conspiracy.
Stinky the Clown at May 3, 2017 8:35 AM
PCU - We’re Not Gonna Protest
https://vimeo.com/202223871
Stinky the Clown at May 3, 2017 8:42 AM
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