About the recent Berkeley protest:
Kerry and I watched a live broadcast of it from some reporters standing in the midst of the protesters. It was a legit news channel though I forget which one. We heard the helicopters circling overhead, as our little house is only about a mile away from the Berkeley campus.
( We were both more amused than anything... )
( We were both more amused than anything... )
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The middle - the group which matters, despite what the hard right and hard left want to believe - won't be won over with that. Despite a major fuck up, he'll win again, unless the left moves on to a better strategy.
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I agree that it's pretty likely these same protestors would protest the arrival of The Donald. But I wouldn't say it's a given - beyond examination - that a protest of Milo Yiannopoulos is equivalent to a protest of The Donald.
Nevertheless, The Donald weighed in by blaming the university, and threatening to deny them government funds for - what? - for not violently beating down a protest held by their own student body? Let's assume not, since asking for that would be a serious and textbook first amendment violation and appalling abuse of power. What does he want instead? He wants the university to demand that its own students protest non-violently upon risk of expulsion? Well that would make sense except the agitators who turned the protest violent were not students. So what the actual fuck was Trump's point with that statement ( ... )
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I think Trumps withholding funds tweet has more to do with the Mayor encouraging the riot, along with the stand down order to police.
The first amendment protects speech, not vandalism - there is a difference.
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Find me the quote where the mayor "encouraged the riot".
The stand-down order was a very wise move, by a police force who are more experienced in this sort of crowd-control than most city-wide law enforcement in this country. It saved money and very possibly lives as well. Who are you to judge it?
The first amendment protects free speech. I agree. It does not protect vandalism. I agree. All of the peaceful protestors who were there for hours before the vandals arrived - they agree too. Why do you insist on declaring these groups to be the same?
I understand that it's a convenient way to dismiss what the first group stands for. But why would you want to do that?
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Encouraged may be a stretch, but if you go by the timing of it - hard to deny he did anything to make the situation better.
Right or wrong, the groups will all be lumped together.
Results get more attention than intentions. Find someone, anyone at all - who isn't all for Trump or all against Trump - they'll tell you he came out of this looking better than his opponents.
As for Milo, you do realize that 100% of his popularity, his platform, and all the attention and sympathy that come with it, can be credited to those who hate him? He was a nobody, with no power, no influence at all - and the left has made him relevant.
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It's true that, the more negative press we give them, the more they are able to recruit believers. But it takes a certain type of person, to take on all that negative press and categorically dismiss it, leaving their own ideas utterly unchanged - or even strengthened. It's informative - it tells you their intentions. Trump and Milo and other rage-baiters are not seeking unity or truth, they are seeking attention, and if you can't hack it as an artist, and you're too timid to conquer a frontier, and you're too lazy to accomplish a great work, the easiest way to get attention is to espouse the extreme end of a nuanced view and publicly excoriate the opposite side ( ... )
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Any plan that protestors make ahead of time to distinguish themselves from invaders - clothing, makeup, passwords, etc - is quite likely to be intercepted by people who are not fully with the program - whether they intend to act violently just because they're dicks, or because their goal is sabotage. Nevertheless these groups do make it very clear in their planning stages that they intend a non-violent protest, and attempt to educate each other about how to keep it non-violent as it's happening. That's a part of the process and it goes all the way back to the 60's and MLK's "self-purification" steps ( ... )
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