<p>Oh, you can spare me the condescending tone! I do not need psychic intuition to form an opinion about those who were sprayed. I look at their actions. Only an idiot would decide to refuse to move when being told to do so by policemen who are shaking spray cans or wielding batons. Only an idiot would think that looking at down at their navel would make the "danger " go away. </p>
<p>The reality is that those people are deliberately seeking martyrdom by violating ordinances or direct rules. They ONLY pretend to exercise their rights to protest and assemble. They are much better avenues to express dissent in an organized and intelligent process. Of course, that seems to be quite a hurdle for those who prefer to sit on a sidewalk. I could even show sympathy and support for students … if there were a message or a cause. Is this more than protesting for the sake of protesting? Rebels without a cause? </p>
<p>Obviously, there will always be people who have a soft spot for the type of protests that give our country a black-eye of ridicule around the world. People who think that the behavior by some in Wisconsin a few months ago was reasonable. People who shed a tear of nostalgia when remembering the bearded hippies and flower children of the last sixties. </p>
<p>yes, most students are just trying to get to class, the library, etc. and finish out the quarter strong. i support the campus police in this case.</p>
<p>Yes, because it is much more reasonable to carry an Obama is Hitler sign while displaying your gun at a political rally. Or to boo uninsured sick people.</p>
<h1>21 xiggi - right, the rest of the world would respect us much more if we were rioting like they are doing in the Middle East. At least the US has the police action that is similar.</h1>
<p>“They are much better avenues to express dissent in an organized and intelligent process.”</p>
<p>What are the better ways to stop the rich from stealing from the middle class? Writing about it online?</p>
<p>If you were to analyze your last post, you might find that you express a disdain for extreme positions. There are no real differences between extreme positions; they are equally distasteful and … ineffective.</p>
<p>Is it really that hard to understand that one can find civil disobedience equally repulsive from both sides of abject extremism?</p>
<p>No, I express a disdain for people who carry Obama is Hitler signs while displaying their guns at political rallies and booing uninsured sick people.</p>
<p>“i support the campus police in this case.” calimami</p>
<p>The campus police are spraying a foot away from the protesters DIRECTLY INTO THEIR FACES. Protesters sitting peacefully and not moving and unarmed. Nobody is being blocked - people are able to get by - except the police are probably scaring them away.</p>
<p>Well, if you are only able to show disdain for extreme acts you disagree with, that does not mean that others cannot see the negativity of extreme acts from all sides.</p>
<p>Xiggi, when I type your name it auto corrects to coffins.</p>
<p>And what you just said is cool. Peace.</p>
<p>Edit* I don’t care if you think what I say is relevant or not. But fwiw, I was responding to your comment about how unreasonable the Wisconsin protests were.</p>
<p>Similar accusations were made about abolitionists, suffragettes, Civil Rights, Anti-Vietnam War protests, and practically every protest whose aims were even perceived as threatening to the prevailing social order. </p>
<p>One interesting then among all those protests was that none of them were carried out in an “organized, intelligent” process as defined by those who believed in the conventional norms and the establishment of their respective times. </p>
<p>More importantly…if you think about it…if protesters did try to comply with those standards…those who believe in conventional norms would go along with the establishment to complain that it isn’t enough…and thus render the protest ineffective in even getting its message heard. Most recent example of that was the anti-war protests during the initial phases of the most recent Iraq war in 2003-4. Dissent in wake of 9/11 and the intimidation by the right was such that the protests I’ve seen in the news and on the streets were timid. Even many activists were being intimidated into passivity. </p>
<p>The few dissenting actions I’ve noticed were remotely daring in those years was the Dixie Chicks denouncing W and consequently paying a heavy price in terms of being boycotted and even threatened. It was more courageous considering they were in a genre(Country) where there is some domination by political conservatives. </p>
<p>While I like Green Day and their release of “American Idiot” was also one of the few open dissents against W’s administration/foreign policies while they were still popular, they had an easier time as their genre(pop-punk) tends to be dominated by anti-authoritarians.</p>
<p>I grew up “middle class” and had two extremely hard working parents. I have busted my butt in adult hood and built an extremely strong and successful business. Lived under my means, saved, saved, and saved somemore. Paid cash for everything I own, have no debt and I pay my taxes. I didn’t steal from anyone. But the people that sit in parks across the country are stealing from our whole country buy sucking the life blood out of public services all in the name of protest. “So guess what…let’s go after the people who actually contribute to the tax roles that pay for this nonsense because you know…they stole from us to begin with”. I call bull$hit.</p>