USC cancels graduation ceremony and dozens are arrested on other campuses as anti-war protests grow
USC cancels graduation ceremony and dozens are arrested on other campuses as anti-war protests grow
The University of Southern California's move also comes after the school was criticized for canceling the valedictorian's speech.
"Oh yeah? You don't like genocide? Well you don't get your cap and gown ceremony. So there."
That'll show 'em.
I wish mine had been cancelled lol, what a pain in the ass
You know you can just take the diploma and not show up? My college wanted like $200 for the official cap and gown. I said fuck that and moved out graduation weekend.
They mail out the real diploma anyway.
"Oh well you didn't get that memory!" Of what? Being fleeced by the corporation that just fleeced me for four years, so I can be hot for 3 hours sitting nowhere near anyone I've met before? No thanks, I went to dinner with my GF (now wife) and had more fun than anyone who went.
I work for a university and am glad that it’s public because this nonsense doesn’t happen. We’re beholden to the public rather than to donors.
The moment they canceled the Valedictorian speech, I would have simply failed to show up to the commencement. And I would have done my best to surprise USC of it. And I'd have organized or at least hoped other people would do the same thing.
Meh graduation ceremonies are cringe anyway.
Why is everyone afraid of college students protesting? I mean this police state response goes back to before Kent State and Tianemen square no doubt.
Well if it’s frightening- keep it up! There must be some form of agency there
I don’t think it’s the protesting, but rather the target of the protests. For some reason Israel seems to be held in higher regard than any American interest. We can protest and shit talk our own terrible politicians all day long and nobody really bats an eye. But ask that we stop murdering innocent brown children in Gaza? Threaten economic consequences for Israel if they don’t stop the murder? For some reason that is a grave offense worthy of trampling on our first amendment rights.
Think about how wild that is - speaking out against the atrocities a foreign government is committing is worthy of taking away your freedom in the US.
The joy of a country run by religious loons that believe Israel will kickstart the Second Coming for them.
Remember, everyone: they want Israel to start a serious war in the Middle East. Because that’s the first step in all the Jews dying and those old rich white Christians being raptured up to heaven.
If anything, the only reason they don’t want it to start now is because they haven’t convinced all the Jews to go back to Israel yet.
I think it is just as simple as "oh no the youths" reminder when Reagan was governor of California he cracked down on a small protest over some benign shit, it wasnt even violent until Reagan stepped in the students and administrators were in talks about the whole situation.
Old people have a suicide death grip on this country and they would rather die and be buried under the rubble of their own hubris than let the people that have an actual stake in the future change anything.
Historically, it seems like they can inspire a whole nation especially if demonstrators get hurt or get killed by the police or military
Eventually every mishandled conflict becomes about the response to the conflict instead of the issue that started it. I still remember the end of OWS when no one was talking about the bailouts anymore instead talking about the difference between camping and protesting I also remember the daily reminders that some anti-war protestor in 2003 threw acid at a cop.
People have the right to make their voice heard. Governments should understand that, establish areas where they can make it heard, and do nothing to make it turn violent. Likewise protestors should make sure that they focus on the issue they care about an expel ones that start shit.
They aren't.
They are afraid of being labeled anti-semitic. That is what is driving this. Allowing the protests to exist gets the uni/president labeled anti-semitic, and that is unacceptable for the universities. The universities are then asking the police to break them up by force, because violent against students is more acceptable than being labeled anti-Semitic.
I remember them going after us for protesting the Iraq war.
This is why freedom of speech is important and why it's important to argue specifics instead of generalities.
It's easy to say something is "antisemitic" and get an emotional response from useful idiots. It's a lot harder to explain why something is antisemitic and get the same response if it's not actually antisemitic.
Why is everyone afraid of college students protesting?
Its not fear, its a show of force. This is an opportunity to unleash pent up rage and inflict callous brutality on a group of people that mass media have flogged and hated on for decades. College students are poor, weak, and exceptionally vulnerable. Teachers are poor and overworked and increasingly precarious in their employment. College campuses are hotbeds of Marxism according to your average Boomer or news hour talking head.
So this is where municipal and state officials can drop the hammer unimpeded. This is where they can really indulge in their fascist impulses. This is where they know nobody will try and stop them.
I mean this police state response goes back to before Kent State and Tianemen square no doubt.
If Tienanmen Square happened in DC today, the guy standing in front of the tank would be labeled at Tankie by the NYT Op-Ed section.
College students are easily subjugated.
I feel like this is having a bit of a Streisand effect.
Watching the American democracy go down and the Palestinian people with it. So many young people losing hope and the alt right will elect a man even more opposed to the Palestinian cause than the current government of the United States. What a time so be alive.
Freedom isn't free.
This generation needs to learn to fight.
Because as their elders we failed. Freedom can be bloodlessly maintained but not bloodlessly regained
Maybe it's our turn to storm the capitol (peacefully) and establish actual fucking democracy (peacefully).
Unfortunately, revolutions don't happen in a peaceful way. The ones in charge of this country would not simply give that power up without a fight. They won't even let college students protest US support of Israel, peacefully.
This time they'd actually bring out the machine guns.
I'd legit settle for us no longer being useful idiots in our social circles.
i.e. being proud to pay for things we can get for free while complaining we don't have enough money.
the alt right will elect a man even more opposed to the Palestinian cause than the current government of the United States
It always gets me when we've got a government in which both parties rubber stamp another $4B genocide re-armerment bill, and you've still got some chucklefucks logging on to say "We need to support Biden if we want to help Palestinians".
Like, fucking fine. He's marginally better on Net Neutrality and maternity leave and green energy and student debt relief.
But maybe lets not drag 40,000 Palestinian corpses into the room and say "They want you to vote for Joe Biden, too".
I don't want to vote for anyone, because I am not a US citizen, but if I were, yes, I would say vote for Biden regardless. Why? Because even as a non US citizen I know enough about Project 2025 and this is not the future I want to see for this world. One good thing about Biden is that he will leave office when he loses. Last time Trump lost you nearly got a coup d'etat. But yeah, my comment wasn't exactly about Biden vs Trump but more about the hopelessness of the current situation where it seems to get worse irrelevant of the direction you go.
ah... the Land of the Free
Protests are important, but I also encourage and hope that young people who care about the world become lawyers and politicians
Protests like these are often what politicians' lives are built on. These students will be seen on the right side of history, and to have the conviction to be jailed for it? That would get my vote.
Most importantly, I hope they don't sell out and become shameless capitalists like all the fucking hippies did.
Nah not all the hippies did that, we just don’t hear about them because it’s not them in power. But some of them are!
do you know lawyers and politicians? I've known a lot in my professional career.
They do not care about anyone but themselves.
Some lawyers in particular do, but they aren't the ones making tons of money.
Most politicians also care, but most are local.
If student unions can organize with worker unions for protests/strikes that seems like a possible way we'll get enough momentum going to think about a general strike for some long overdue reforms
If student unions can organize with worker unions
Christ, can you even imagine what the police would do in the middle of a strike wave?
Battle of Blair Mountain eat your fucking heart out.
Are there any records of universities cancelling graduations ceremonies and/or arresting students for their support of Israel and/or Zionism?
Maybe in Iran.
💀
Can someone explain for the unread what they are doing that caused someone to "break it up?"
I understand PROTESTING but were there justifying instances of damage, looting, violence?
Please, if you're just as uninformed as me don't comment. There's enough people just shouting shit these days.
Most of them in this article, all but one, were arrested for trespassing. The one was arrested for suspected assault with a deadly weapon.
As has been the practice with these protests. The campuses have suspended the protesting students, which allows them to be trespassed.
The reason is they are protesting for the “wrong” side in the eyes of the media machine.
As lethargic as I have become to the world and all the bullshit. For some reason this is the last straw for me. If people can’t see how the media works to sway us in certain ways and will just gas light us then I don’t know what to say, but I will be becoming more radical from this point on.
Why don't we all go join them? (Don't want to hear your excuses I'm not accusing anyone)
Maybe we can start something.
Would love a list of protests happening in campuses near me. Not sure how to find that info.
Because fuck this nearly century-old ethno-religious blood feud.
If peace-loving people on both sides got together and decided to institute a single government that upholds the rights of all, this would end tomorrow. But they don't. Because the reality is both sides would prefer to wallow in their anger and hate than actually solve the problem.
I'm not gonna waste my time protesting for Israelis to unilaterally impose their way on Palestinians, and I'm not gonna protest for Palestinians to unilaterally impose their way on Israelis. And no one is asking me to protest anything else. So there's no solution, it's all just a big waste of everyone's time.
Agree with you. Big waste of time.
I mean if everyone thinks like this nothing would ever get done and the more of us there are the faster something will come of it
I know several Jewish people who told me that they're going to vote for Trump and the Republicans because they're the only ones supporting them.
I know several who said they wont
I know several Jewish people who voted for Trump in 2016. People are willing to do all kinds of terrible, short-sighted things for flimsy justifications.
The really funny part is, it's not like Biden or the Democrats have even been supporting the protests (outside of a small handful like The Squad and Bernie, the latter of whom isn't even really a Democrat).
First they came for the trade unionists.
https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/
You skipped a couple.
At first, I thought this might be the University of South Carolina, and I was impressed as hell. For Southern California, though, I’m surprised that protesting isn't a graduation requirement.
Edit: Do people think I’m insulting student protesters? I’m not. They’re important, and it’s okay to make fun of friends.
Hey, you may not have noticed, but your bias is showing.
Please see edit above.
Probably should be protesting the terrorist organization of Hamas and not supporting them...
They are a cancer that needs to be removed in order for everyone to live in peace.
They are not supporting hamas. The US government is supporting the terrorist organization of the IDF. This is why they are protesting you dunce.
What organizations are supporting Hamas? I have yet to see anything of that sort.
Anything anti-Israel is
antisemiticpro-Hamas, didn't you get the memo?
Hamas isn't making mass graves of women and children at hospitals.
Protesters: Stop killing children!
You: wow I can't believe you support terrorism
The protests are not in support of Hamas. They are protesting against a continuing genocide taking place with the support of their own government. I, personally, believe that genocide is bad, no matter who commits it.
believe that genocide is bad,
Controversial stance
Does ignorance really bring bliss?
Until it brings a boot on their neck
So I'm sure you agree that anyone who has funded them in the past should also face charges?
Might want to do a little research on Benjamin Netanyahu...
You're trying to cure cancer with a machete.
If that worked it would still cost a million dollars for the machete and my insurance could only cover the first 96 cents.....after I yelled at them on the phone for three hours