As students return to college campuses across the United States, administrators are bracing for a resurgence in activism against the war in Gaza.
Or, hear me out, we could stop selling things that kill people to people who kill people.
In Texas, it’s actually illegal for a government entity to do business with a company that boycotts Israel. Calls for divestment at UT and other schools can’t legally be given any consideration because of our fucked-up state government.
Like: when I evaluate bids for the City, one of the sections I have to fill out by law relates to the bidder’s stance on the Israeli government. It’s insane.
Also from Texas, this has been driving me crazy for years. At least they are now against international law now. Cold comfort
That sounds like a blatant and extreme violation of the First Amendment.
Yes and no.
It’s technically a restriction on government, which makes it legally trickier despite being blatantly against the spirit of the first amendment.
“Rejecting the bid isn’t prosecution,” that’s some bullshit. Yeah it is against the spirit for sure.
It’s establishing a state minimum RFB. Just like requiring streets to be designed by PEs limits bidding option from those who are perfectly capable of the job from bidding because they lack the stamp.
So they’re being eliminated for not meeting qualifications, not for their speech. Furthermore, they’re usually eliminated from consideration by municipal, county, and school governments, who didn’t write the rule. So the body that wrote the rule (state) isn’t perecuting companies directly.
It creates difficulty in establishing standing to sue. It’s the state’s rule that limits the authority of the cities, so the anti-Israel companies have no standing to sue the state. But the cities also can’t sue the state because they can’t show damages caused by the discrimination since there’s a thousand other bidders who can do the job.
The assholes in the Texas legislature specialize in drafting discriminatory laws that are difficult to challenge in court.
…i do a lot of work with texas municipalities and universities and all their standard contracts include a section forbidding us or any of our subconsultants from boycotting israel…
Look. im from europe and even us havent figured that out(even in the not genocidal countries) but at least we dont send them money and weapons for FREE. At least our countries sell the weapons to genocidal countries.
Thats almost the entirety of the US GDP. We’re three weapons manufacturers in a trench coat pretending to be a government.
That means no support for Ukraine either.
While the comment that you are replying to does lack nuance, the intent is clear. There is obviously a difference between murder and self defense.
You can support with food, medicine, and infrastructure. If we believe in killing something so dearly, we can send our own people. Harder to be a war monger if your own ass is on the line.
Some of the biggest supporters of Ukraine are its neighbours in Europe. I think they have a good reason to believe that if Ukraine fell they’d be next.
Keep the kids from speaking out. Definitely a good look…
Revoking the right to question the war, that’s awesome. It’s cool to violate 1st Amendment rights when the good guys do it!
1st Amendment only applies to the government. Unless these university admins are also members of government and acting in their capacity as such, then as shitty a move as this is, it’s not actually a 1st Amendment violation.
Some of the universities mentioned in the article are public institutions. SCOTUS held in Healy v James that the 1st Amendment applies to public universities. So some of the actions could be considered 1st Amendment violations.
Fun fact, the 1st amendment also applies to any organization or persons receiving money from the government (without it just being through sales ofc)
“It’s not illegal so that makes it cool.”
I personally find the ides that if you want an eduction, which is required for modern living, you need to abandon your rights as a citizen. Mandatary and needed public goods shouldn’t strip you of your mandatory and needed rights.
Students have their rights stripped, especially as a child, because some Karens and Kevins didn’t want to be a member of the HOA, they wanted to be a school board member.
Bags searched and confiscated, protests shut down, students having harmless objects taken away out of a nebulous fear of “could maybe do somethig in the future”.
I wouldn’t say that’s the sentiment expressed when people remind others of the limitations of freedom of speech. More like it’s a reminder that knowing exactly where those boundaries lie because somethings aren’t the government’s job to mediate. Sometimes it’s our collective job to resist because nobody is coming to fix it for you.
Realistically rights like the freedom of speech and expression are notoriously weak by way of actual protection by a culture. Russia technically has freedom of speech on the books but you can still be hauled off to prison for spreading “LGBTQIA propaganda”. What actually protects those rights are the expectations and moreover the outrage of a culture’s people against these acts of censorship regardless of who is perpetuating it.
We’ve been violating the First Amendment for about as long as we’ve had it. Our other felon presidential candidate ran from jail after being imprisoned for speaking out about World War 1 (which is a lot cooler than what the current one did).
Eugene V. Debs should have won every time, I have yet to see a bad take he had. He was anti-racist, feminist, and wanted to increase the right to vote to all Americans.
Who are the good guys? University administration?
The people pretending to educate citizens, then denying the citizens educating each other.
The people pretending that war is good when Your Favorite Team does it.
The people that act like murder is actually a complex issue.
Because removing people’s ability to peacefully protest and demonstrate has gone so well in the past and not escalated to less peaceful activity. /s
the us isnt looking like a democracy
Never has been.
🔫 👨🚀well, fair.
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And a Democratic Republic is still a democracy.
I don’t get why people repeat this one, it’s like someone asking for you to pass the water, and you respond with, “it’s a pitcher of water”
I don’t get why people repeat this one
They want to get away with not acting like a democracy.
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A democratic republic is a representative democracy.
So this is the freedom of speech that the US prides itself on?
We love talking about giving everyone democracy. We just do it at the point of a gun. You’ll take our democracy and like it.
Now we’re pointing those guns internally more often.
You didn’t see the asterick did you?
signs cannot be displayed on university property without prior approval.
Fuck No
limits on the use of amplified sound
Fuck YES
The only thing that can stop an absolute mess on campuses is a cease fire that allows in food and medicine .
These rules are from hopeful admins this week
Associated Press - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
Information for Associated Press:
MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
Wikipedia about this sourceSearch topics on Ground.News
I know this source is garbage/useless because it rates the AP and The Verge exactly the same.
Anyone else thinking about Ukraine right now? I am.
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