In Reply to: Am I the only one who thinks the protestors posted by DaBruins on May 02, 2024 at 07:07:08
No.
Having said that, I'm not unsympathetic to the student protestors. I come from a family of labor leaders/organizers/activists, so I understand the power and importance of direct action for a cause. Protesting and activism is generally a "radical" act. One main goal of the protestors (beyond demands like divestment) was to draw attention and/or support to their cause by provoking the university to action. They accomplished that in the sense that the university and authorities responded, a spotlight was shined on them from around the globe, and the conversation was pushed further into the mainstream.
Naturally, at a certain point, the university had to take action. They exist to educate on the whole, not just churn out the next generation of activists, and that goal was clearly impeded by the encampment. Where the university erred was in failing to get the situation under control from the jump, entering into a good faith negotiation with the student protest leaders, while laying out ground rules for what is and isn't acceptable while the negotiations were ongoing (other schools did this and avoided the nonsense we saw the past two evenings).
So, outside of the handful of true anti-Semites among the protestors and the violent counter-protestors, I don't think there are "good guys" and "bad guys." It's just mostly well-meaning folks with competing priorities.