Apparently, it's ridiculous that police are letting people get away with free speech ...

O-Trap Chief Shenanigans Officer
18,909 posts 140 reps Joined Nov 2009
Wed, May 15, 2019 4:02 PM

Look, I'm not even anti-abortion, but this girl sums up so much of what I hate about what colleges have become (job mills).

And for however much blame you want to put on the millennial generation for this nonsense, it's important to remember that it's the previous generations ... mine included ... that built the proverbial machine that produces them.

As an aside, it's always nice when an officer reads the room and tries to make an arrest as force-less as possible.  Was nice to see him give her several chances to just take her backpack off instead of going all Billy Badass.


gut Senior Member
18,369 posts 114 reps Joined Nov 2009
Wed, May 15, 2019 4:45 PM

This is the convergence of "look at me" with "virtue-signaling" with "identity politics".  Can't wait to see what the next generation has in store!

Cop was exactly right - "ignore them and take away their power".  I think a lot of us were probably raised that way.  But with this generation it's that your personal space is your safe space, and that your wants and desires always outweigh that of those around you.

 

I assume you saw the video of the girl who took a few swings at a guy protesting abortion the other day.  I'm sorry, but assault/theft/intimidation of people you disagree with is NOT an expression of free speech.

like_that 1st Team All-PWN
29,228 posts 321 reps Joined Apr 2010
Wed, May 15, 2019 5:08 PM
posted by O-Trap

Look, I'm not even anti-abortion, but this girl sums up so much of what I hate about what colleges have become (job mills).

And for however much blame you want to put on the millennial generation for this nonsense, it's important to remember that it's the previous generations ... mine included ... that built the proverbial machine that produces them.

As an aside, it's always nice when an officer reads the room and tries to make an arrest as force-less as possible.  Was nice to see him give her several chances to just take her backpack off instead of going all Billy Badass.

I agree with most of you what said except the bolded.  I don't think this girl or people like her are a byproduct of colleges becoming "job mills."  She is more likely taking courses that have no real application to the real world (aka not a job mill type course), which has led to this type of behavior. 

O-Trap Chief Shenanigans Officer
18,909 posts 140 reps Joined Nov 2009
Wed, May 15, 2019 5:08 PM
posted by gut

This is the convergence of "look at me" with "virtue-signaling" with "identity politics".  Can't wait to see what the next generation has in store!

Cop was exactly right - "ignore them and take away their power".  I think a lot of us were probably raised that way.  But with this generation it's that your personal space is your safe space, and that your wants and desires always outweigh that of those around you.

Cop was absolutely right.  And it blows my mind that we've created an environment in which young people can reach cultural adulthood and have "learned" that:

  1. They have a justification for addressing a subjective topic as objective, calling an opposing view a lie without needing to articulate a defense for that position, and ...
  2. They have a reasonable expectation to go about their daily lives without having to hear things they disagree with.

And it just levels me to think that people who do this and get arrested are going to try to frame themselves on the same level as those who were arrested during the civil rights movement.

But we created this.  Whether it's been our help setting up the culture or directly raising the kids, we created the conditions and the environment that not only protected this coddled entitlement, but even reinforced it.
 

posted by gut

I assume you saw the video of the girl who took a few swings at a guy protesting abortion the other day.  I'm sorry, but assault/theft/intimidation of people you disagree with is NOT an expression of free speech.

Exactly.  Not only that, it is hopelessly ... absurdly ... ironic.  How is it that someone who opposes a pro-life position because they claim it infringes a woman's bodily autonomy could defend assaulting someone, thus violating their bodily autonomy?

But see?  This is the sort of critical thinking that used to be required in colleges, and it was an expected outcome that you learn to wield it if you attended university.  Now, all anyone seems to care about from a college student is whether or not their better equipped to get a job afterward.  You can be an emotionally stunted, mental moron who is skilled with a calculator and an Excel spreadsheet, and people will call you a collegiate success.

superman Senior Member
4,377 posts 71 reps Joined Nov 2009
Wed, May 15, 2019 5:16 PM

Yeah I was really impressed with the officer here.  He was gentle but firm.  He handled the situation perfectly.  

geeblock Member
1,123 posts 0 reps Joined May 2018
Wed, May 15, 2019 5:22 PM

I don’t think things are that much different I just think it’s our perception of them. College campuses have always been very progressive and radical whether you are talking anti war, civil rights or all kinds of things throughout the 60s and 70s. Before that you had old white people going around with signs protesting people with beards as hippies and communists ect.. I don’t see it as the end of the world or anything different than what has always been 

CenterBHSFan 333 - I'm only half evil
7,259 posts 50 reps Joined Nov 2009
Wed, May 15, 2019 5:42 PM

I agree with the premise that the Boomers and GenX'rs are the ones who created this mess. I know I've said this before but "The Coddling of the American Mind" goes into great detail about this with the studies and data to back it up; I highly recommend it!
While all generations think that the next generation is going to Hell in a hand basket, it is certainly true that this generation in question is the most entitled, coddled and overweening generation that we have had so far.

O-Trap Chief Shenanigans Officer
18,909 posts 140 reps Joined Nov 2009
Wed, May 15, 2019 6:13 PM
posted by like_that

I agree with most of you what said except the bolded.  I don't think this girl or people like her are a byproduct of colleges becoming "job mills."  She is more likely taking courses that have no real application to the real world (aka not a job mill type course), which has led to this type of behavior. 

My point isn't just that they've become job mills, but we still treat them like they're places of actual "higher learning."  Being "college educated" still carries this understanding that you're better equipped to speak on a variety of subjects in the public square.

But while we pretend that those coming out of them are such, the only focus of going to college has become to get a "good job."  We treat a four-year college like a trade school.  Now, she might be majoring in something that has little or no vocational application as well, which would just tell me she's not doing either one very well, but her attitude here aligns with plenty who do graduate with more vocationally-applicable degrees, which tells me it's more than just that she's majoring in something ridiculous.  It's that she's obviously not in college to learn how to hone her rhetorical skills or better shape her ability to use logic and reasoning ... the sorts of things that were effectively the point of colleges when they were founded in their modern iterations.

Whether someone is going to a four-year school to major in computer science, accounting, or interpretive unicorn dance theory, they're still apparently not engaging how to become a better-reasoning, sober-minded, critically thinking adult.  Four-year schools have become little more than trade schools for majors that don't offer trade school options, and they regularly put out drones: unable to think rationally, but damn, if they can't crunch numbers or work in STEM.
 

posted by geeblock

I don’t think things are that much different I just think it’s our perception of them. College campuses have always been very progressive and radical whether you are talking anti war, civil rights or all kinds of things throughout the 60s and 70s. Before that you had old white people going around with signs protesting people with beards as hippies and communists ect.. I don’t see it as the end of the world or anything different than what has always been 

The position is not the objection, though, and only going back 50 years will show more similarities than if we were to go back further, sure.  This isn't the sort of thing that happens within a single generation.

But progressiveness and/or radical defiance of socially normative positions isn't the problem.  As you've said, that's been the case for decades, as many social and moral reformers do come out of universities.  The problem is (a) the lack of willingness toward discourse, and (b) the lack of willingness to apply a well-reasoned, thoughtful logical framework in order to arrive at those conclusions.  The beauty of the anti-war and civil rights movements is that both had well-reasoned foundations, both on a practical level and on a conceptual level.  Unfortunately, that's not what's taking place here.

And just to be clear, this is happening in all major schools of thought or political "tribes."  I distinctly remember a college professor calling Barbara Bush a racist and saying she raised war criminals during the day or two after her death.  A Republican talking head of some sort (I don't recall if it was someone actually in office or just a pundit) replied, saying that her statement went "beyond" free speech, because it was disrespectful or distasteful or some such.  He appealed to an emotional response as a rebuttal to a fact claim.  Even if you don't have enough space to fully address it thoughtfully in the Twitterverse, an appeal to emotion is hardly a sensible justification for saying it goes beyond free speech.

 

Spock Senior Member
5,271 posts 9 reps Joined Jul 2013
Thu, May 16, 2019 1:40 PM
posted by gut

This is the convergence of "look at me" with "virtue-signaling" with "identity politics".  Can't wait to see what the next generation has in store!

Cop was exactly right - "ignore them and take away their power".  I think a lot of us were probably raised that way.  But with this generation it's that your personal space is your safe space, and that your wants and desires always outweigh that of those around you.

 

I assume you saw the video of the girl who took a few swings at a guy protesting abortion the other day.  I'm sorry, but assault/theft/intimidation of people you disagree with is NOT an expression of free speech.

This

O-Trap Chief Shenanigans Officer
18,909 posts 140 reps Joined Nov 2009
Thu, May 16, 2019 2:11 PM

What makes this all the more laughable is the fact that this is the exact same kind of person who would say, "Don't like abortions? Don't get one."

Apparently, that same rule isn't applied to, "Don't like what protestors say? Don't listen to them."

gut Senior Member
18,369 posts 114 reps Joined Nov 2009
Thu, May 16, 2019 2:25 PM
posted by O-Trap

What makes this all the more laughable is the fact that this is the exact same kind of person who would say, "Don't like abortions? Don't get one."

Apparently, that same rule isn't applied to, "Don't like what protestors say? Don't listen to them."

It's going to be fascinating to watch many of these people grow-up to realize how they were manipulated and lied to.  I'm not talking about this incident, but generally it's become an identity for these people.  And eventually they're going to realize it was a fraud....and they aren't going to be equipped to deal with that realization.

I swear I've seen Pelosi visibly shaken at times realizing their toxic rhetoric over the years has created radical true believers....I guess she didn't see this coming.  It's written all over her face - "I was just trying to win elections....but we've incubated this dangerous movement....what have I done?"  She tries to pretend it's "like 5 people in the party", but we all know it's a significant percent of millenials - and that's our country's future.

CenterBHSFan 333 - I'm only half evil
7,259 posts 50 reps Joined Nov 2009
Thu, May 16, 2019 3:21 PM

Well there is also a very real reason why cult leaders, ideologues, political leaders and credit card companies who love to target young people. They are easily led into passionate feelings of an idea. As for cc companies, they realize that young people often cannot differentiate between paying off interest and paying of principal. 
In short, younger people are often passionate and gullible/naive.

 

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