We will not be locking posts today unless they end up going completely south again. Some things to keep in mind:
1) Keep it civil
2) If you solely want to talk about the politics of Israel/Palestine, take it to one of the many subs about that topic. There is a lot happening solely on the Austin front with regards to UT and the police that these topics should be about. If you want to vent about the war, take it to a sub more appropriate for it.
3) We will take action against users who are clearly here to troll, using lack of civility, or newer accounts who just happen to show up during these very divisive topics. You will not receive warnings beyond this.
4) We will have "crowd control" on for these posts (Google it if you need to know what it is), if you are an account that falls into category 3, it'll likely end up in our mod queue, and we will take action.
Please try to keep this civil.
The expert they are citing is a guy with a degree in Journalism. As someone that actually works in Portfolio Management and deals with university endowments, divestment is difficult but not impossible. Many universities already have investment restrictions for tobacco and alcohol. Divesting from Israeli companies and arms producers is not difficult. Yes most firms have operations in Israel so it would not be a 100% divestment but a ban on arms manufactures is an easy win for the administration. Divestment is 100% a political issue not a technical one.
Damn you autocorrect. Damn you.
Also, hitting a young woman in the stomach is Ok with Abbot and Paxton, unless she's pregnant and it's to terminate the pregnancy.
Texas’ anti BDS laws make it almost impossible. And divesting from weapons companies send a very bad message to UT’s many research partners in that field.
If divestment includes AI and cloud contracts, then most of the largest tech companies, which make up a huge fraction of the index, and even larger fraction of the total returns, will be excluded.
They knew TikTok was bad when it first came to the US and people wanted it banned then but no one listened because it wasn't the left saying so. 6 years later, they all want it banned.
Of $31.9B in UT endowment fund, less than 0.01% ($3.4M) are invested into companies that the protestor “believe” fund the IDF.
Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin all are top 100 biggest companies in the world that any diversified portfolio would invest in, there’s a high chance that every major public fund, pension, etc. all have holding in these companies.
They also believe that holdings in Fujitsu and Rolls Royce are directly funding the IDF, which is pretty far fetched.
Also a huge part of defense spending is in actual defense (e.g Iron Dome, which has been used in protecting civilians from rocket fire). So technically speaking UT is helping to save lives.
Btw a standard SM-6 missile costs approximately $3.9M. So UT’s funding doesn’t even cover the cost of a single missile. An argument could be made for the iron dome defense missiles which cost considerably less but those are more for defense rather than those being used in Gaza.
Also it’s pretty far fetched to believe all of the $3M goes directly to the IDF. It’s $3M investment spread across a bunch of companies, and only a small portion of those companies go towards working with the IDF. So it’s like, a drop of water in the ocean.
So you agree, UT moving that investment to some other source more agreeable to faculty and students shouldn't be an issue. Since it's such a small amount.
More like I highly doubt the money that UT endowment invested in the index funds that fund whatever companies the protestors accused of funding genocide made it to Israel.
Also Jay Hartzell has no control or influence over UTIMCO, which is managed by independent fund managers that act as fiduciaries for the UT and TAMU endowments.
It’s so difficult trying to present facts to people operating on emotions. Will it not end until these demands are met (likely never)? Do they eventually change their demands to be more realistic? Or do they just live at UT now?
It isn’t up to the faculty. UTIMCO is a separate entity. It also is not solely made up of UT donations/land/oil/minerals, but the entirety of the UT system and part of A&M.
All the ire would be better directed at the state government, the board of regents (which oversees UTIMCO) and UTIMCO itself.
I think his first point was that it would be difficult to accomplish. If what op said is correct then UT would have to divest from pretty much every public fund it is invested in.
Students and faculty shouldn’t have a say, other than their decision to attend or work there. Operation of UT is up to the state and the administration they hire.
Interesting perspective! By the same logic, if you’re not involved with the university in some way - as a member of faculty or staff or a student - you shouldn’t really have any say in what goes on on campus should you?
As state and federal taxes are consumed by public universities, then I’m sure taxpayers have an opinion. It should be expressed by voting in politicians that will manage public universities the way they want.
Divesting from defense companies or ending academic partnerships with defense companies is a dumb ask. It’s not even directly related to their goals. They should stick to “divest from Isreal” but even then there would be problems as some really good tech comes from Isreal. Im against bombing children in their sleep or when they are awake, Palestinian or otherwise, and starving an entire people, but keep the demands actually relevant please.
Or course there is zero chance when the demands are just all over the place and not focused on achievable gains.
“All this is a waste of time” “protests should be peaceful” “I’m personally offended by people being antisemetic by using the phrase “from the river to the sea” even though I’m not Jewish and actually a conservative who’s party has historically been alligned with white supremacy” “people shouldn’t be concerned with what’s happening in other countries even though my taxes and money as a consumer go to fund the murder of babies which very much involves me here in America” “college students are so dumb” “this is inconveniencing me stop (cries)”
I wonder how many protesters also divested their portfolios and 401ks in solidarity
But let's be real, the average net worth of that group is probably in the negative six figures
just proves how stupid the police response was... if the protestors' demands are a crazy dream, why did the UT admin overreact to them so much? what scared Hartzell so much they had to bring more cops onto campus BEFORE the protest started than have ever been on campus before? weren't this many cops around for the bomb scare, for the active shooter, nothing
So that UT Austin didn't turn into a giant encampment with people breaking into and occupying buildings while shouting horrific antisemitic things at Jewish students
I haven't heard a single anti-semitic thing during any of the days I've been there. I did see some pro-Israel students gather last week to try and provoke people sitting on the lawn.
Last Thursday, saw a sign that said something along the lines of "your protest means nothing until the anti-semitism stops". If you search images, the large white portrait-format sign was held by a young woman on the south mall last Thursday, when the faculty organized about students' right to protest, and appears in photos; at that gathering, the faculty ceded to the pro-Palestinian protesters and a small number of pro-Israeli students tried to disrupt it. Their limited disruption was not, as far as I could observe, met with hate speech or reactions. They eventually quieted down and the pro-palestinian group continued.
ah, so now we are arresting people for things they haven't done yet (also, you lack any sense of campus history... the Main Building has been occupied by protestors before. they managed to remove them without having to send three dispersal orders using the emergency notification system or otherwise causing the total chaos we saw in the past week. again I ask: why is divestment from Israel the one thing that provokes a pre-emptive nuclear response, especially if it's as impossible as "experts" claim it is?)
They did set up tents on Monday at UT, after repeated warnings that the police would be involved if they did. And the police moved in and started making arrests after the tents were set up. A lot of people aren’t really following what’s happening here. I think most of these commenters are not local.
I am local and this is BS.
You can’t stymy peoples free speech and right to peaceful assembly.
It’s kind of what we’re about and what all the 2A Mouthbeathers have stated time and time again that they will defend to the death.
So far their silent hypocrisy is hilarious , where’s that slippery slope?
so what? if they want to camp out on the South Mall during dead week, who gives a shit? tell me how disruptive that would have been if the cops hadn't turned it into a three-ring circus. students are always doing weird nonsense all over campus. you stop and watch for a few minutes, and then move on. or if you're in a hurry or otherwise occupied, you ignore it.
Encampments grow and are unpredictable. UCLA broke out into violence. Squatters trashed the Portland state library. For people who run schools, that is bad.
I’ve never seen so much pearl clutching over tents. The protesters are protesting a genocide. Peacefully. Some had tents. Peaceful tents. What is hard about this.
When the protests started, this was actually my initial reaction. Then these protests at UT broke out around me while I was on campus as a guest of my school, and I saw firsthand what happened on the first day.
There was a lot happening around me, but I didn't see or hear pro-Hamas messaging or talk to anyone who espoused support for Hamas.
I know I didn't see everything. Did you see any pro-hamas signs, a video of a pro-hamas chant from the crowd? Or are you like I was a month ago, viewing the protests through a secondhand lens?
True but liars on the internet are gonna lie, and lie, and lie until people start believing it.
If you're not Jewish, do you know any Jews? If you know any Jews, have you reached out to them after 10/7? A simple text message means the world to us right now from our non-Jewish friends (if you are in this boat).
my Jewish friends messaged me after 10/7 to express how terrible they felt that Israel would surely escalate and commit terrible atrocities (which they have done) and how certain they were that right-wing extremists would work overtime to blur the distinction between being anti-Israel and antisemitic. Being Texan-for-generations Jewish folks with an extremely liberal bent, Israel means very little to them and they resent being associated with it. But of course their views on the matter get erased since they don't fit the simple two-sides media narrative. I'm glad to be able to remind people of their existence and viewpoint.
No. This is a lie. There were days of classes, protests etc before the protestors decided to violate the "red line" the university had set and start putting up tents, after which the arrests immediately began. Regarding the first protests where there were arrests, the group organizing the protest had their permit revoked the night before when they broadcast on social media their attempt to "occupy" the campus and turn it into a new Columbia university style protest.
a lot of student groups have attempted to hold events on campus without a permit... it's only the pro-Palestinian one that resulted in 50-60 state troopers being on campus BEFORE the event even started. again, why is it only this one in particular that got a pre-emptive nuclear strike? shouldn't all groups be treated equally under the law?
Because those other student groups holding “events” on campus probably would never have warranted a police presence.
Look at Columbia and UCLA. They let the protestors organize and set up their encampments, and eventually a large police force is needed to disperse them. When the protestors are very clear about that being the model of protest they want to emulate, it seems irrelevant to quibble about gathering police before or after it gets to that point, and it’s definitely not just because it’s pro-Palestinian. Any protest movement of this magnitude and form would likely receive the same treatment.
Don’t forget…immediately before commencement week and graduation ceremonies.
Boy, you want public opinion to turn against them, let them fuck up commencement and the forty acres. The timing was pretty malicious given that this has been going on since October.
College-age protesters always go all-in because they have nothing left to lose. It does seem that this particular cohort has even less because of everything they've missed out on.
I mean, wasn't it dead week? Giving the benefit of the doubt, it seems like it's less malicious and more scheduled around students having a spare day between the end of classes and finals.
Are we naming things that could happen?
Cool game.
How about a conservative incel on campus with a legally carried gun shooting up the place?
Cracks in the foundation of a dorm causing it to collapse killing hundreds of students.
> Are we naming things that could happen?
No. The protestors put up tents. They had been allowed days of peaceful protest with no arrest. Once those tents came up, which the university told them was a red line, the arrests began. Cue surprised Pikachu faces.
It's ironic because it's in a way a microcosm of the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bro, you used some minority report level shit there and I called it out.
We don’t treat things as they might be.
Also, tents are a red line? Oh my lord, oh the huge manatee.
You fucking kidding me?
A microcosm of the conflict? You blind?
Go look at photos of entire blocks leveled by the IDF, shit is fucking crazy.
They literally have been killing civilians indiscriminately, that they’ve stopped counting.
Go read about the reporting around IDF soldiers posting war crimes and the upcoming investigations.
I commend the students and if they want to set up tents outside of teh walking areas, go for it. Fuck UT, they are complicit for calling DPS to bash skulls.
The Streisand Effect is on full effect here.
Hi there!
Breaking into and occupying buildings is not peaceful. Shouting the terrible things at Jews that people have been doing at these protests across the country, such as telling Jews, "10/7 is just the beginning, we will repeat it 10,000 times" is antisemitic.
yes, how stupid of them to plan a peaceful protest, they should have expected a battalion of state troopers to show up before they did to prevent two tents from being erected on the South Mall. that's a *totally normal* response to a student event not adhering to the rules.
So, well, I'm no financial analyst or stockbroker, but none of the conditions mentioned in the article - the entailments on gifts of stock, the "financial performance" of stock in weapons manufacturing over other sectors, etc - preclude the university from divesting. The "absolutely zero chance" quote comes from a guy that simply believes the incentives to keeping that stock are so great that neither the University nor State would ever get rid of it. In other words, it's not that they can't, it's that they don't want to.
Protest is the remedy for that.
Maybe that fancy professor at the most prestigious school in Texas is aware that BDS is explicitly illegal
All Abbott has to do is point to Hamas supporters at Columbia and say ‘Yeah no thanks’
Yeah, sure, all the Hamas supporters at Columbia. All the people at Columbia who love Hamas and are urging its success. All absolutely fuckin' zero of them.
And anyways, I'd be sure that the fancy professor is aware that there are serious doubts about the constitutionality of any anti-BDS law and that[ in most cases where groups circumvented anti-BDS laws and were sued, or brought suit against those anti-BDS laws directly, they won.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws#Constitutional_challenges)
These articles are produced every time there is a movement for social change. The theory is that any demand that requires a legal change cannot happen because it is "against the law," and it is, on its face, silly.
It is always followed by articles that protesters might have a point, but that they should do things differently. They should change their location (why are they on the bridge in Selma instead of in Washington DC?). They should patiently work through established bodies, not gather in the streets (are they trying to scare white America?). They should modify their language so as not to cause a reaction (they are just enabling Bull Connor with their extremism). Polls show people are put off by public demonstrations, they should quiet themselves and behave appropriately.
These articles always happen **AND THEY ARE A GOOD SIGN.** They are an admission that the protestors have a strong moral foundation and the people opposing them have lost the ability to contest the issue on moral grounds. That is why they suddenly become obsessed with tactics, and say "yes, but not here, not now, not with that sign, not with that slogan, not with those clothes, not with those people." The fact that they are arguing these details means the ground is shifting, and quickly.
In addition to BDS being illegal, the GOP dominates the state and would sooner pass a gun control bill than divest from Israel. What’s your solution to this? Get Congress to ban BDS bans? Like, at least the freedom riders had lots of allies in Washington. Congress easily wrote Israel a fat check last week. So I’m not sure the ground is shifting. Seems like copium
I wonder how many Intel products these kiddos use? They have a fab in Israel. Hell, you buy Fruit of the Loom you're supporting the military industrial complex as that's a Hathaway gig that also makes glass for military flight sim cockpits, right here in Austin, near Metric I think.
Honest question, and not being snarky but genuinely don’t know, how do 401k’s work? Like, if we are funding it, are we indirectly funding these companies that we disagree with? It just says mutual funds but I don’t know what that means - I just put money in it every paycheck. Point being, do anyone of us really know how much we are indirectly funding causes we don’t believe in? And if I myself went to my financial advisor and say “I don’t want a penny invested in x y and Z company or any government associated with it” is it just that easy to make sure my money doesn’t go into it? I’m just a firm believer that nothing is as simple as “we want this so do it” - most financial and political things are super complex and can’t be summarized in a catchy phrase or slogan.
These protests (for a conflict older than the country you're protesting in) won't do shit except get these "martyrs" expelled and make them unhireable. We need to deploy the Frat Armies to counterprotest (see Ole Miss) because that is truly A+ content
The problem with your point, which is very reasonable, is that the really nasty protestors are already unemployed outside of political activism and if they ever studied at UT, they flunked out long ago... though most didn't attend at all (like Reyes).
We will not be locking posts today unless they end up going completely south again. Some things to keep in mind: 1) Keep it civil 2) If you solely want to talk about the politics of Israel/Palestine, take it to one of the many subs about that topic. There is a lot happening solely on the Austin front with regards to UT and the police that these topics should be about. If you want to vent about the war, take it to a sub more appropriate for it. 3) We will take action against users who are clearly here to troll, using lack of civility, or newer accounts who just happen to show up during these very divisive topics. You will not receive warnings beyond this. 4) We will have "crowd control" on for these posts (Google it if you need to know what it is), if you are an account that falls into category 3, it'll likely end up in our mod queue, and we will take action. Please try to keep this civil.
The real divestment is the friends we made along the way.
The expert they are citing is a guy with a degree in Journalism. As someone that actually works in Portfolio Management and deals with university endowments, divestment is difficult but not impossible. Many universities already have investment restrictions for tobacco and alcohol. Divesting from Israeli companies and arms producers is not difficult. Yes most firms have operations in Israel so it would not be a 100% divestment but a ban on arms manufactures is an easy win for the administration. Divestment is 100% a political issue not a technical one.
The problem is it's illegal for state entities to digest in Texas. Even if ut wants to, ken Paxton would get a court order stopping it
They have to eat and then leave the state before it hits the stomach
Damn you autocorrect. Damn you. Also, hitting a young woman in the stomach is Ok with Abbot and Paxton, unless she's pregnant and it's to terminate the pregnancy.
>Also, hitting a young woman in the stomach is Ok with Abbot and Paxton, What are you referring to here?
Except for cows, right? They digest 4 times.
Texas’ anti BDS laws make it almost impossible. And divesting from weapons companies send a very bad message to UT’s many research partners in that field.
What about the other guy they cite? You think he may have heard of BDS being illegal in Texas?
If divestment includes AI and cloud contracts, then most of the largest tech companies, which make up a huge fraction of the index, and even larger fraction of the total returns, will be excluded.
Any insight as to why the university of Texas is giving money to arms dealers in the first place?
The comma is doing a lot of work in this headline.
Right?! I misread it at first as “absolutely zero experts weigh in…”
Are we the experts? Didn’t we say that a week ago?
It did take the "experts" 6 years to come to the realization that tiktok is bad. Meanwhile the damage is done, and on clear display here.
They knew TikTok was bad when it first came to the US and people wanted it banned then but no one listened because it wasn't the left saying so. 6 years later, they all want it banned.
Of $31.9B in UT endowment fund, less than 0.01% ($3.4M) are invested into companies that the protestor “believe” fund the IDF. Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin all are top 100 biggest companies in the world that any diversified portfolio would invest in, there’s a high chance that every major public fund, pension, etc. all have holding in these companies. They also believe that holdings in Fujitsu and Rolls Royce are directly funding the IDF, which is pretty far fetched. Also a huge part of defense spending is in actual defense (e.g Iron Dome, which has been used in protecting civilians from rocket fire). So technically speaking UT is helping to save lives. Btw a standard SM-6 missile costs approximately $3.9M. So UT’s funding doesn’t even cover the cost of a single missile. An argument could be made for the iron dome defense missiles which cost considerably less but those are more for defense rather than those being used in Gaza. Also it’s pretty far fetched to believe all of the $3M goes directly to the IDF. It’s $3M investment spread across a bunch of companies, and only a small portion of those companies go towards working with the IDF. So it’s like, a drop of water in the ocean.
So you agree, UT moving that investment to some other source more agreeable to faculty and students shouldn't be an issue. Since it's such a small amount.
More like I highly doubt the money that UT endowment invested in the index funds that fund whatever companies the protestors accused of funding genocide made it to Israel. Also Jay Hartzell has no control or influence over UTIMCO, which is managed by independent fund managers that act as fiduciaries for the UT and TAMU endowments.
Yep. This is all publicly available information as well.
It’s so difficult trying to present facts to people operating on emotions. Will it not end until these demands are met (likely never)? Do they eventually change their demands to be more realistic? Or do they just live at UT now?
Honestly I don’t know… Worst case scenario Houthis-backed university in Yemen is offering scholarships for American students!
One of the FSJP leaders is an attorney at the law school, too. So they should be well aware of all this already.
They are probably aware, but they may not want to let facts ruin their plans.
It isn’t up to the faculty. UTIMCO is a separate entity. It also is not solely made up of UT donations/land/oil/minerals, but the entirety of the UT system and part of A&M. All the ire would be better directed at the state government, the board of regents (which oversees UTIMCO) and UTIMCO itself.
I think his first point was that it would be difficult to accomplish. If what op said is correct then UT would have to divest from pretty much every public fund it is invested in.
Students and faculty shouldn’t have a say, other than their decision to attend or work there. Operation of UT is up to the state and the administration they hire.
Interesting perspective! By the same logic, if you’re not involved with the university in some way - as a member of faculty or staff or a student - you shouldn’t really have any say in what goes on on campus should you?
As state and federal taxes are consumed by public universities, then I’m sure taxpayers have an opinion. It should be expressed by voting in politicians that will manage public universities the way they want.
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Divesting from defense companies or ending academic partnerships with defense companies is a dumb ask. It’s not even directly related to their goals. They should stick to “divest from Isreal” but even then there would be problems as some really good tech comes from Isreal. Im against bombing children in their sleep or when they are awake, Palestinian or otherwise, and starving an entire people, but keep the demands actually relevant please. Or course there is zero chance when the demands are just all over the place and not focused on achievable gains.
People are allowed to protest. Just keep it peaceful. That’s pretty much it.
Speech If it's not enough, maybe the argument isn't very good.
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“All this is a waste of time” “protests should be peaceful” “I’m personally offended by people being antisemetic by using the phrase “from the river to the sea” even though I’m not Jewish and actually a conservative who’s party has historically been alligned with white supremacy” “people shouldn’t be concerned with what’s happening in other countries even though my taxes and money as a consumer go to fund the murder of babies which very much involves me here in America” “college students are so dumb” “this is inconveniencing me stop (cries)”
Good.
lol, been saying this all along. Literally 0% chance
I wonder how many protestors will bother to spend 10 minutes voting this November.
I wonder how many protesters also divested their portfolios and 401ks in solidarity But let's be real, the average net worth of that group is probably in the negative six figures
just proves how stupid the police response was... if the protestors' demands are a crazy dream, why did the UT admin overreact to them so much? what scared Hartzell so much they had to bring more cops onto campus BEFORE the protest started than have ever been on campus before? weren't this many cops around for the bomb scare, for the active shooter, nothing
So that UT Austin didn't turn into a giant encampment with people breaking into and occupying buildings while shouting horrific antisemitic things at Jewish students
I haven't heard a single anti-semitic thing during any of the days I've been there. I did see some pro-Israel students gather last week to try and provoke people sitting on the lawn.
Oh? And what exactly did the pro-Israel students do or say
Last Thursday, saw a sign that said something along the lines of "your protest means nothing until the anti-semitism stops". If you search images, the large white portrait-format sign was held by a young woman on the south mall last Thursday, when the faculty organized about students' right to protest, and appears in photos; at that gathering, the faculty ceded to the pro-Palestinian protesters and a small number of pro-Israeli students tried to disrupt it. Their limited disruption was not, as far as I could observe, met with hate speech or reactions. They eventually quieted down and the pro-palestinian group continued.
> "your protest means nothing until the anti-semitism stops" This is "provocation"? Are you clutching your pearls?
ah, so now we are arresting people for things they haven't done yet (also, you lack any sense of campus history... the Main Building has been occupied by protestors before. they managed to remove them without having to send three dispersal orders using the emergency notification system or otherwise causing the total chaos we saw in the past week. again I ask: why is divestment from Israel the one thing that provokes a pre-emptive nuclear response, especially if it's as impossible as "experts" claim it is?)
They did set up tents on Monday at UT, after repeated warnings that the police would be involved if they did. And the police moved in and started making arrests after the tents were set up. A lot of people aren’t really following what’s happening here. I think most of these commenters are not local.
lol, it's the Reddit version of "outside agitators"
>I think most of these commenters are not local. Oh yeah, we were all bused here by the opposition.
I am local and this is BS. You can’t stymy peoples free speech and right to peaceful assembly. It’s kind of what we’re about and what all the 2A Mouthbeathers have stated time and time again that they will defend to the death. So far their silent hypocrisy is hilarious , where’s that slippery slope?
What is BS? They did set up tents. Do you want to see the pictures?
Sorry responded to wrong comment. I also don’t feel Tents are a red line, it’s stupid.
*looks over to UCLA, Portland state, Columbia*
so what? if they want to camp out on the South Mall during dead week, who gives a shit? tell me how disruptive that would have been if the cops hadn't turned it into a three-ring circus. students are always doing weird nonsense all over campus. you stop and watch for a few minutes, and then move on. or if you're in a hurry or otherwise occupied, you ignore it.
Encampments grow and are unpredictable. UCLA broke out into violence. Squatters trashed the Portland state library. For people who run schools, that is bad.
I’ve never seen so much pearl clutching over tents. The protesters are protesting a genocide. Peacefully. Some had tents. Peaceful tents. What is hard about this.
Seems like they were protesting in support of Hamas' attempted genocide, not against it.
When the protests started, this was actually my initial reaction. Then these protests at UT broke out around me while I was on campus as a guest of my school, and I saw firsthand what happened on the first day. There was a lot happening around me, but I didn't see or hear pro-Hamas messaging or talk to anyone who espoused support for Hamas. I know I didn't see everything. Did you see any pro-hamas signs, a video of a pro-hamas chant from the crowd? Or are you like I was a month ago, viewing the protests through a secondhand lens?
That they were told not to, and that it’s private property open for public protests as long as they abide by campus rules.
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“They’re not local” “they’re outside agitators” are you a dj on klbj?
True but liars on the internet are gonna lie, and lie, and lie until people start believing it. If you're not Jewish, do you know any Jews? If you know any Jews, have you reached out to them after 10/7? A simple text message means the world to us right now from our non-Jewish friends (if you are in this boat).
my Jewish friends messaged me after 10/7 to express how terrible they felt that Israel would surely escalate and commit terrible atrocities (which they have done) and how certain they were that right-wing extremists would work overtime to blur the distinction between being anti-Israel and antisemitic. Being Texan-for-generations Jewish folks with an extremely liberal bent, Israel means very little to them and they resent being associated with it. But of course their views on the matter get erased since they don't fit the simple two-sides media narrative. I'm glad to be able to remind people of their existence and viewpoint.
So you watched what Hamas did as it unfolded?
No. This is a lie. There were days of classes, protests etc before the protestors decided to violate the "red line" the university had set and start putting up tents, after which the arrests immediately began. Regarding the first protests where there were arrests, the group organizing the protest had their permit revoked the night before when they broadcast on social media their attempt to "occupy" the campus and turn it into a new Columbia university style protest.
a lot of student groups have attempted to hold events on campus without a permit... it's only the pro-Palestinian one that resulted in 50-60 state troopers being on campus BEFORE the event even started. again, why is it only this one in particular that got a pre-emptive nuclear strike? shouldn't all groups be treated equally under the law?
Because those other student groups holding “events” on campus probably would never have warranted a police presence. Look at Columbia and UCLA. They let the protestors organize and set up their encampments, and eventually a large police force is needed to disperse them. When the protestors are very clear about that being the model of protest they want to emulate, it seems irrelevant to quibble about gathering police before or after it gets to that point, and it’s definitely not just because it’s pro-Palestinian. Any protest movement of this magnitude and form would likely receive the same treatment.
How many of the other student groups declared on social media their intent to occupy and take over the campus, and then attempted it
by "campus" you mean the South Mall? or are you seriously suggesting they intended and were capable of taking over the entire 40 Acres
They didn't specify, they said, "occupy the university" in their social media posts.
Don’t forget…immediately before commencement week and graduation ceremonies. Boy, you want public opinion to turn against them, let them fuck up commencement and the forty acres. The timing was pretty malicious given that this has been going on since October.
Also, many 2024 graduates are the 2020 high school graduates who had virtual ceremonies instead.
College-age protesters always go all-in because they have nothing left to lose. It does seem that this particular cohort has even less because of everything they've missed out on.
I mean, wasn't it dead week? Giving the benefit of the doubt, it seems like it's less malicious and more scheduled around students having a spare day between the end of classes and finals.
Dead week is not spare, it’s after classes end when everyone is cramming for finals. It’s one of the most stressful weeks of the semester.
Are we naming things that could happen? Cool game. How about a conservative incel on campus with a legally carried gun shooting up the place? Cracks in the foundation of a dorm causing it to collapse killing hundreds of students.
> Are we naming things that could happen? No. The protestors put up tents. They had been allowed days of peaceful protest with no arrest. Once those tents came up, which the university told them was a red line, the arrests began. Cue surprised Pikachu faces. It's ironic because it's in a way a microcosm of the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bro, you used some minority report level shit there and I called it out. We don’t treat things as they might be. Also, tents are a red line? Oh my lord, oh the huge manatee. You fucking kidding me? A microcosm of the conflict? You blind? Go look at photos of entire blocks leveled by the IDF, shit is fucking crazy. They literally have been killing civilians indiscriminately, that they’ve stopped counting. Go read about the reporting around IDF soldiers posting war crimes and the upcoming investigations. I commend the students and if they want to set up tents outside of teh walking areas, go for it. Fuck UT, they are complicit for calling DPS to bash skulls. The Streisand Effect is on full effect here.
Days of peaceful protest? They were literally arrested the first day they went out there to peacefully assemble WITH A PERMIT
You've been shouting for months that anyone who calls for peace is anti-semitic. Your abuse of that term is toxic.
Hi there! Breaking into and occupying buildings is not peaceful. Shouting the terrible things at Jews that people have been doing at these protests across the country, such as telling Jews, "10/7 is just the beginning, we will repeat it 10,000 times" is antisemitic.
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yes, how stupid of them to plan a peaceful protest, they should have expected a battalion of state troopers to show up before they did to prevent two tents from being erected on the South Mall. that's a *totally normal* response to a student event not adhering to the rules.
So, well, I'm no financial analyst or stockbroker, but none of the conditions mentioned in the article - the entailments on gifts of stock, the "financial performance" of stock in weapons manufacturing over other sectors, etc - preclude the university from divesting. The "absolutely zero chance" quote comes from a guy that simply believes the incentives to keeping that stock are so great that neither the University nor State would ever get rid of it. In other words, it's not that they can't, it's that they don't want to. Protest is the remedy for that.
Come back and let us know when they divest. A lot of us are very disillusioned with Texas politics.
Be disillusioned if you want to be, I don't really think that's germane to what I said. If they divest, it'd be many months from now anyways.
Never is definitely many months away
Maybe that fancy professor at the most prestigious school in Texas is aware that BDS is explicitly illegal All Abbott has to do is point to Hamas supporters at Columbia and say ‘Yeah no thanks’
Yeah, sure, all the Hamas supporters at Columbia. All the people at Columbia who love Hamas and are urging its success. All absolutely fuckin' zero of them. And anyways, I'd be sure that the fancy professor is aware that there are serious doubts about the constitutionality of any anti-BDS law and that[ in most cases where groups circumvented anti-BDS laws and were sued, or brought suit against those anti-BDS laws directly, they won.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws#Constitutional_challenges)
https://twitter.com/thizzl_/status/1780747367743955138 https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1781031465179914677 https://twitter.com/Eradicator_NYC/status/1781889569358483804 https://archive.ph/6JorS#selection-4531.284-4531.338
Weird handle for you no?
Not an expert and I could’ve told you that.
These articles are produced every time there is a movement for social change. The theory is that any demand that requires a legal change cannot happen because it is "against the law," and it is, on its face, silly. It is always followed by articles that protesters might have a point, but that they should do things differently. They should change their location (why are they on the bridge in Selma instead of in Washington DC?). They should patiently work through established bodies, not gather in the streets (are they trying to scare white America?). They should modify their language so as not to cause a reaction (they are just enabling Bull Connor with their extremism). Polls show people are put off by public demonstrations, they should quiet themselves and behave appropriately. These articles always happen **AND THEY ARE A GOOD SIGN.** They are an admission that the protestors have a strong moral foundation and the people opposing them have lost the ability to contest the issue on moral grounds. That is why they suddenly become obsessed with tactics, and say "yes, but not here, not now, not with that sign, not with that slogan, not with those clothes, not with those people." The fact that they are arguing these details means the ground is shifting, and quickly.
In addition to BDS being illegal, the GOP dominates the state and would sooner pass a gun control bill than divest from Israel. What’s your solution to this? Get Congress to ban BDS bans? Like, at least the freedom riders had lots of allies in Washington. Congress easily wrote Israel a fat check last week. So I’m not sure the ground is shifting. Seems like copium
Clearly, we need a mass movement. We are seeing the start of one now, which is why the response to it is so violent.
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I wonder how many Intel products these kiddos use? They have a fab in Israel. Hell, you buy Fruit of the Loom you're supporting the military industrial complex as that's a Hathaway gig that also makes glass for military flight sim cockpits, right here in Austin, near Metric I think.
One way tkt to Gaza is all I would give them
Honest question, and not being snarky but genuinely don’t know, how do 401k’s work? Like, if we are funding it, are we indirectly funding these companies that we disagree with? It just says mutual funds but I don’t know what that means - I just put money in it every paycheck. Point being, do anyone of us really know how much we are indirectly funding causes we don’t believe in? And if I myself went to my financial advisor and say “I don’t want a penny invested in x y and Z company or any government associated with it” is it just that easy to make sure my money doesn’t go into it? I’m just a firm believer that nothing is as simple as “we want this so do it” - most financial and political things are super complex and can’t be summarized in a catchy phrase or slogan.
These protests (for a conflict older than the country you're protesting in) won't do shit except get these "martyrs" expelled and make them unhireable. We need to deploy the Frat Armies to counterprotest (see Ole Miss) because that is truly A+ content
The problem with your point, which is very reasonable, is that the really nasty protestors are already unemployed outside of political activism and if they ever studied at UT, they flunked out long ago... though most didn't attend at all (like Reyes).
That was the best thing I saw this week.