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Liberal, not Leftist's avatar

I wonder to what extent autism spectrum disorders underlie the behaviors of the campus protesters. Like Greta Thunberg's relentless and at times senseless positions, they are fed by an insatiable urge to hyperfocus on a target with an anti-social bent. I certainly see this with the activism in Seattle over the last 10 years. The internet helps these people communicate and organize easily and they seem to have massive time on their hands as well to organize, stack meetings, print propaganda, buy costumes, etc. It's just a hunch about the connection to autism spectrum disorders, but my anecdotal experience supports the theory. It's already proven that people with autism spectrum disorders are more susceptible to radicalization. Maybe this is more of that.

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PSW's avatar

The protests of the 60s and early 70s in response to the Vietnam War went from merely protesting the government's position on the war to eventually vilifying the soldiers who were sent there by the government, many of whom were minority or lower socioeconomic groups. To me, this is unacceptable.

Much in the way that the current protests went from protesting the Israeli government's ( I feel correct) response to a heinous terrorist attack, to attacking Jews in general, and attacking not just our government's position (whatever that is, I'm still not sure) to attacking our very country.

I see several things in all this. I think many of these protesters are upper class kids who need a "cause" to rally around and really have no idea about the history of Israel and the Middle East. There are others who are likely of Middle East/Palestinian origin who are protesting on behalf of their fellow people. I also believe there are some entities pulling the strings on many of these protests and that they are not necessarily "grass roots".

For those who wish to protest peacefully with signs and rallies and stay out of the way of students attending classes and do not harass students who may be Jewish or support Israel, then have at it.

Destroying property, disrupting classes and student attendance, and making violent threats are unacceptable. And double standards should be avoided. How long would it take a rally by the Proud Boys or some White Supremacy group to be shut down by the campus administration.

Much like the BLM protests which I also believe were influenced by outside sources, the right to protest peacefully despite one's disagreement with the protestors should be honored. However, once those protests devolve into violence and destruction, they need to be immediately terminated and arrests made.

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