A meeting of activists spreading debunked theories about the 2020 presidential election, vaccine misinformation, and conspiracy theories about supposed global “shadow government” will take place this holiday weekend in an unexpected place — the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The Nations in Action “Solutions and Strategy Summit” is scheduled to be held in the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, a midtown hotel run by the Georgia Tech Foundation, the university’s non-profit fundraising arm. Nations in Action, an organization founded by former Georgia lobbyist and Republican activist Maria Zack, bills the conference as an opportunity “to learn strategies and tactics to win America back.”
Even the local paper called you out on this on their front page. GaTech you are better than this.
Its a hotel, a public accomodation. I would prefer hotels do not have litmus tests for which groups they like and can rent their rooms. If the group is legal and has a right to assemble ( as this group does, regardless of how offensive their views are), they should be able to rent a hotel owned by the nonprofit arm of a state entity.
With all the political tension of late combined with GA lifting the concealed carry permit requirement, and all the GA connections to the political issues in the forefront, GA Tech is not the place to hold this meeting. The safety of students and staff is important.
This is important. I think we all agree we don’t want hotels refusing to rent rooms to people of certain races or sexual orientations.
For the same reason, we don’t want hotels to refuse rooms to people from certain political affiliations. The only exception I can think of is if a group is espousing an illegal activity.
From the article: “Bloom said conferences like Nations in Action are happening in states like Arizona and Michigan where the 2020 election results have been under constant assault by pro-Trump conspiracy buffs. Usually these meetings occur in lower-profile spaces. The fact that this conference is being held at the Georgia Tech Hotel gives it the “imprimatur of being legit,” she said.
“It will confuse people that it is endorsed by the university and what they are hearing is legitimate and scientific,” she said. “It makes Georgia Tech look like an accessory to spreading misinformation.”
Not that it matters, but I do not espouse the views of these conference participants. I am just very concerned about our country’s knee-jerk response to silence the things that they don’t agree with. That is what dictators do.
There’s a difference between renting hotel rooms to individuals, and hosting the event of an organization. I’m sure there are organizations that this GT conference center would turn down on principle. And if that’s the case, why isn’t this organization in that category?
Last response to you @DadSays : please read the linked/posted articles in full. This isn’t about “silencing” others, it about the optics and the suggestion that there are better places to hold such a meeting. The impact of the confrontational tone of your posts is in essence to “silence” others- ironic since your claim is that is what you dislike. Carry on. Here is a link to the full article. The front page commentary by the paper is posted above and readable if enlarged. Georgia Tech hotel hosting conference by election deniers
A public university should be the first to stand up for freedom of speech and assembly. If the college students there do not understand that, it is well past time they studied the Constitution
