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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34433 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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What is the net cost for the participants?

This is the fundamental question for all acts of protest, whether this one or the attempts to cancel the wizard game or whatever. Does the act of protest impose a net-negative cost on the protesters, or does it leave them net-positive? If the former, they will probably not do it again. If the later, they will keep doing it, and probably escalate, because they find it rewarding.

The proper response here is to find the students who organized this protest, and expel them. That would be the immediate result if right-wing students tried anything approaching this toward the left, and so it should be the response here. All the falsehoods we entertain about "unsafe environments" and "causing harm" apply in spades here, and if they were motivated by anything other than who/whom, everyone involved in this stunt would have the hammer dropped on them instantly.

Of course, this was a net-win for the students, no meaningful consequences will accrue, and the underlying problem will get worse.

Federal Judges DO have the ability to impose consequences. Namely by refusing to hire from Stanford... excepting active FedSoc members.

Not sure the protestors were ever counting on Federal Clerkships, however.

There will be lefty Federal Judges who hire them, or lefty advocacy orgs who hire them. There are billions of lefty dollars floating around for lefty causes. These students will see few or no negative consequences.

I'll take that bet.

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