+3 votes
137 views
in Miscellaneous ♑ by

I began following Evergreen College when Other Tink posted her question about colleges...http://www.ihavesolved.com/35847/what-passes-for-college-in-some-places

White supremacists are always a concern in Washington State, and now are reacting to the student liberals. According to one Evergreen faculty, as quoted in THE DAILY OLYMPIAN, ‘Our colleagues of color are now getting death threats on a regular basis,’ and 'white supremacists posters and graffiti were widely posted on campus and death threats were made that shut down the school.' 

http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/education/article155791834.html

This article also reports that lawmakers are considering withdrawal of public funds to the college.

Even though Washington always votes liberal because of the populous Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia corridor, geographically much of the state is ultra-conservative. 

Here is my own personal solution; I simply stay out of their way, I lie low. Even if I truly believed I was the object of racial discrimination, I would never have spoken out like the students did...I would just hunker down and get my education...those naïve students did not realize what they were opening up.

Anyone have another idea?

2 Answers

+3 votes
by
"...reacting to the student liberals"?  Should we really refer to students who disrupted classes, verbally abused and physically threatened others as liberals?  I would call them radicals.

And I would say Bret Weinstein is a progressive liberal who experienced first hand his movement gone mad, and he rightly (no pun intended) didn't like it.
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And as for the threat with the .44 Magnum, I hope it is being vigorously investigated, to include the possibility that it was phoned in by the left-wing radicals themselves, to take off some of the heat they were getting from the bad publicity they brought on themselves.
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Oh, Other Tink...I had not thought of Georges Danton for a very long time...unfortunately perhaps a very real parallel.

I will tell you, however, regarding the ultra-conservative right here ...you almost have to grow up here to understand. When I left for Seattle in 1964 and encountered a more liberal way of life, I thought it was so wonderful...and I still carry a liberal bias, even though I have learned liberals also can be radical.

* * *

Here is just one example, this just happened a few months ago...my neighbor, who has lived in Washington for 30 years but in larger cities - not in the rural areas where we are now. 

Her daughter was threatened by a man in a pickup, a rack of rifles over his rear window. The daughter's offense? It was a rainy, stormy twilight on a winding back road, and the daughter was driving five miles under the speed limit....which had irritated the man.

I explained to my neighbor and her daughter...there is no reasoning, it is just very oppressive...you must always be very careful...don't argue or contradict, don't irritate them.

* * *

So I myself always assume BOTH sides are radical, my question was more about finding ways to co-exist, to keep those extremes from triggering each other.

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@ Virginia,

I was going to tell you about a liberal Democrat local state senator who made threats against a woman in a road rage incident some years ago, but this morning I heard about something much more serious. A Sanders supporter shot up a congressional charity baseball game practice, after he made sure his targets were Republicans. The shooter, one James Hodgkinson, was shot dead after he inflicted multiple injuries with a semi-automatic rifle.

image

This picture was carried by NBC and ABC a few minutes ago, but then mysteriously disappeared. I had to go to Fox to find it again. :ermm:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/congressional-baseball-game-carries-long-tradition-raises-money-charity-n772261

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Interesting link, Other Tink...

I do tend to think of conservative extremists as the more radical and dangerous...the bombing in Oklahoma City, skinheads, David Duke endorsing Donald Trump (with a tardy disownment from The Donald), survivalists with arsenals of automatic weapons...

But perhaps I need to re-think even that. I know more about the conservatives because there are LOTS of radical, extremist, ultraconservatives here in rural Washington State.

Here in logging country, for example, it has happened that Earth First radicals (liberal) drive metal spikes into timber stands, knowing that when power saws hit those hidden spikes, the injuries can be fatal.

It's really clear the radical extremism is not formed along party lines...and I am not even sure it helps for them to "get together" for a beer and "talk it out." Too often, it seems to happen that no one is listening...

* * *

I mentioned the road rage incident because here in rural Washington, the Second Amendment can mean "my constitutional right to blow your face off if you do the wrong thing." I have seen too much, and even though I was raised with guns and love them, I gave up all my own beautiful guns around 1990 and now I am for gun control. And indeed, my friend's daughter...as the man was careening past her, he had his window down with one of his guns pointed into her face.

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@ Virginia,

I think you are right about extreme radicals; there is no reasoning with them. They have much the same mindset as nazis and communists, and it is well-known from history that they only understood superior force, much to the sorry detriment of humankind.

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O'Tink, I worried a little bit...that my Q may have sounded like I was defending the liberal extremists...not so, I think you know...perhaps an apology is in order, the quandaries of digital communication...

...my concern being that when one extreme flares, it mobilizes the other extreme, both of them unwholesome...the nutso liberals "started it" here, now how to buy us out of a potential Gavrilo Princeps-style tipping point situation...and ideally prevent such situations in the future, giving us time to evolve safely...

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@ Virginia,

Oh, please don't worry, I knew you weren't defending the extremists at Evergreen.

*hugs*

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:silly:  :sideways:  :happy:

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:) :) :)

+3 votes
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There is no direct answer to such problems, as individual cases differ from each other, and extremism incites to violence and violent reactions. Education depends too much on the budgets and funds granted by authorities, parties, religious, "economic" or secular interests, the surroundings, mentalities, and local or federal politics and trends. Scandals can harm or even destroy renowned institutions, their lead and their teachers, which might incite the decision makers of these institutions to "walk on egg shells" ...

Also in education, it is a struggle between the small and the great ones, and if, in certain cases, students might better focus on discretion, learning and "staying out of trouble", but there is, unfortunately, no real safety, as even exemplary students may be attacked - quite randomly - and prevention ought to start from the very first "symptoms" with open discussions and/or therapeutic "confrontations" and/or role plays between the conflicting parties under the close supervision of neutral experts and teachers, before disputes get out of control. Sadly enough, that is rarely the case, all the more, if politics and religions or doctrines are involved ...

Furthermore, certain associations, fraternities, clubs, etc. might have certain influences.

And the police is often called too late and gets, of course, the blame, if their officers intervene vigorously against extremist rioters, whatever their side.

And violent groups should not be admitted to the university.


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Marianne, you have mentioned some very helpful possibilities. I am asking myself why those were not done sooner, maybe even before all these problems erupted as they have. 

Tragically we humankind do not seem to understand ourselves very well, maybe not all that much progress since the time of the French Revolution, as Tink brings in above.

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