I just got this e-mail forwarded to me concerning an “event” scheduled for May 1st, 2007. I’ve removed identifying information:
Now, I don’t have an account on Facebook, so I can’t check the particulars of this event. The administrator of th e-mail list on which I received it, though, is quite reputable and connected with the University.
I don’t know which surprises me more, the fact that these idiots are doing this at all or that they’re evidently unaware of the similar stupid stunts along with the backlash at other universities fairly recently.
As I type this, it’s 5:41 am KST May 2nd, which is 1:41 am PDT May 1st. That means the “event” was supposed to commence at one hour and 41 minutes ago. Any Dopers there happen to notice any of this stupidity?
Republicans on various campuses have begun matching the “other side” in idiocy in recent years. They create an offensive event to try to make their political point. The more people protest, the more they get their message out.
The ones I have seen in the press:
Affirmative Action Bake Sales (cookies are priced based on race and gender)
Catch the Immigrant (I think the first was at Columbia last year)
I say this as an avowed enemy of the College Republicans, and their affiliated creepy orgs like Young Conservatives - but it’s a pretty slick strategy. They call up the most offensive event imaginable, whether it be “catch the immigrant” or “affirmative action bake sales,” then they cancel because of shrill, PC libruls. But they get a camera in their faces and can spout some idiocy.
They’re bastards but they only exist to rabble rouse, and then they’ll run for office.
Usually the idiocy they’ll spout will be something along the lines of they’re “being oppressed” and how they’re “the real victims” in this whole matter. Aside from that, this is a bit of a non-story. “College Republicans Act Like Assholes” is a headline that belongs in the same group as “Water is Wet” and “Sun Rises in the East”.
Is there any evidence that this event was carried out or even planned?
So far, I can find no mention of the event on any national or California or Davis news outlet. No mention that it occurred. No mention that it was planned or cancelled.
Do you happen to have a MEChA citation for this? The last time this got trotted out, it turned out to have been either taken from the earlier group, Aztlán, and has no relationship to MEChA or it was invented by some opponents of MEChA, I forget which.
I’m not sure that trying to show that current Republican collegians are only as stupid as a radical college group from over thirty years ago, when radicalism was in vogue, is much of a defense, in any event.
I note that there is only a vague reference to liberating “Aztlán” with no defition of what that means, no claims regarding the state being “occupied,” and no claim of any “physical liberation of our land.” The movement has long since backed off the claims of its predecessors and is now directed toward a more spiritual or metaphysical freedom:
I got that email too, but was out of town and unable to see if it actually took place.
Last time I remember them pulling a stunt like this to get cameras in their faces, it was “Republican Coming Out Day” or some such thing to make a mockery or LGBTIA awareness week. Was on the Daily Show I believe.
The College Republicans did that on my campus a while back, it was the kind of thing where about 15 people showed up for Catch the Immigrant, and more than 100 came out for the protest against the Catch the Immigrant event. From a student development perspective, I count it as a win for my side (my side is the side of not making an ass of yourself in public) so I’m a fairly strong advocate of not canceling this sort of thing when it comes up.
It would piss me off that an official university distribution list would send out anything relating to a political what-have-you. Just because you can email everyone affiliated with a school doesn’t mean you should.
From what I understand, they didn’t actually play, claiming there “wasn’t enough room on the Quad”, so they held up some signs and tried to ignore the fact that they were horribly outnumbered.
Well, it wouldn’t depend on the issue with me, I be pissed off if I got an email from my old school that wanted me to take action against puppy kicking.
I don’t know the nature of the list, and YRMV, of course. If I got an email every time there was some kind of dust up at my old school, I’d have a full inbox. And it’s a lot of responsibility to heap on one person to decide what issues merit notifying thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people.