This isn’t fascism. These people will get a slap on the wrist and be sent home in a day or two. Under fascism these people would never be heard from again.
I’m certainly not defending the silencing of protest. It’s just that all fascism is authoritarian, but not all authoritarianism is fascist. Fascism has a specific definition and it’s a whole other degree of bad.
Fair enough. It is being used more colloquially in this case, you’re right. I retract the accusation of fascism and substitute “an unjust authoritarian crackdown on the right to freedom of speech and expression, undermining the very tenets of democratic society. A national embarrassment.”
would you be able to link to a page that helps describe fascism as you say: that relies on severity of consequence?
asking because whilst i agree that fascism is specific - and this doesn’t cover it - im not sure that degree of severity is part of the definition and that could be a dangerous precedent to set because the other parts of fascism about control and quashing dissent enable the severe consequences once they are present
Suppression of protest would fall under #4 “Disagreement is Treason”. Under fascism it is not enough to silence opposition. They must be treated as enemies of the state and be eradicated.
It was at a private college campus and the dean suspended all the students protesting and requested to have NYPD come remove them. In other words, the property caretaker was being a dick and had them removed from the premises.
They’re literally trespassing… And btw, that’s part of their intention. If it was legal for them to do this, they would probably find something Else to do that was illegal but not excessive(as in, not trying to do felonies not misdemeanors). Why do I say that? Because that’s how you get your message out. If these same people were all sitting out in some random alleyway, or at one of their houses, where the police couldn’t arrest them, the media wouldn’t really care and nobody would hear about their message really.
So no, being arrested for breaking the law isn’t fascism and it’s ridiculous to say that. What they’re doing is great as they’re breaking the law, attracting attention to the Palestine issue, while also not hurting people, nor getting felonies or starting fights with police. This is going well and according to plan.
Most other prisoners of the early camps were soon set free again—not because of outside intervention, but because the authorities felt that a brief period of shock and awe was normally enough to force opponents into compliance. As a result, there was a rapid turnover in 1933, with the places of released prisoners quickly filled with new ones.
The duration of detention was unpredictable. Prisoners who expected to regain their freedom after a few days were mostly disappointed, but it was rare for them to remain inside for a year or more. Longer spells were served in the bigger, more permanent camps, but even in a large camp like Oranienburg, around two‐thirds of all prisoners stayed for less than three months.^244^
The result was a constant stream of former prisoners back into German society, and it was these men and women who would become the most important sources of private knowledge about the early camps.
This is fascism-lite. Just because people aren’t disappeared doesn’t mean it’s not in the same category. And the only way we can hope to stop from getting to “actual” fascism is by resisting shit like this.
I don’t disagree that silencing protest is bad. It’s just not fascism. Fascists kill dissenters.
Treating protestors like this is the norm (though it always must be fought). It’s how they were treated during Occupy Wall Street. It’s how they were treated during Vietnam and the civil rights fight. Authoritarianism can come from both the left and the right. Fascism is always from the right.
Fascism doesn’t come in detended stages, it’s tiny increments where the state seizes more power and restricts rights gradually until suddenly you notice that people are disappearing and everyones primary emotion is fear
So ACAB, and we are a country with stupidly low quality of freedom despite the morons who just think guns=freedom, and fuck this was a BS move.
However, the Constitution states only that the government will not pass laws that interfere with freedom of assembly. Courts have decided that this includes protests, picketing, labor strikes, etc.
Courts have also concluded that this doesn’t mean you can assemble wherever you want, namely on private property. These students were essentially just trespassed by the university. Can’t really blame the policeor government for this one, unless you want to lean more extreme that they should be saying “fuck off, we disagree”. But I’d rather have a system where the police follow the law because I don’t trust any of them to make any good decisions on their own morals.
The chief even came out with a statement that was a dig at the university president that he only observed peaceful protest, not the bullshit she was claiming.
Just had explosive interaction w/ @Columbia’s heightened security coming onto campus. They followed me to my office & then lied, saying I didn’t scan my ID for entry (I did) & I pushed an officer (I didn’t). An ugly scene followed. They did this to me, a tenured, full professor.
And not a single one of the articles OP posted refer to these as anti-genocide protests.
Every media outlet who keeps framing this as students supporting Palestine or opposing Israel is burying the lede, that these students wouldn’t be supporting or opposing anything if there wasn’t a fucking genocide.
Thats why after years of tiktok bans being non starters the shit suddenly happened in like a week - its the only platform they can’t bully into censoring any mention of genocide.
People should really start linking images directly, or at least link to screenshots of that site instead of linking directly to it. I can’t view this, and I won’t bother if it’s on that site.
I’m a Columbia alum. Thank you op for continuing to bring this story and similar ones from all over the country to Lemmy. Hats off to The Spec for still covering the situation on campus. Shefik somehow hasn’t tried shutting them down just yet.
I’m still shocked to think NYPD was actually brought into South Lawn. Even there police chief said everyone was peaceful and they were only there because the president called them in.
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