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Angus Johnston @studentactivism
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
I'm in the @Chronicle with a piece on why students who took down Silent Sam performed a service to their university, and why UNC should treat it as one. chronicle.com/article/UNC-s-…
If you'd told me when I was an undergrad that the Chronicle of Higher Education would one day run an essay I'd written about why an act of campus political vandalism was a good thing that shouldn't be punished, I wouldn't have believed you.
(I'm not a hundred percent sure I'd have believed you if you'd told me that a week ago.)
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Louis CK tries to book a set. Club owner says yes, then reads up in detail on what he did, reaches out to friends and a CK victim for advice, and cancels the gig. jezebel.com/the-owner-of-o…
And yes, the club owner is a woman.
One thing about this story: It doesn't surprise me at all that she didn't know the specifics of the allegations when CK reached out. Not everyone follows the details of stories like this, even in their own industry.
Read 10 tweets
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A weird tack for a guy whose whole pitch is his elder-statesman avuncularity to take. "I don't want to run, but all the kids in the race are crap, so here I am" is the opposite of the tone I'd have expected him to set.
Just a reminder that his instincts for primary-race messaging have never been any good, I guess.
"We have a great, deep field, and I'm honored to be running alongside this crew. Whichever of us wins the nomination would be a far better president than Trump, and if it's not me, I'll be working night and day to be sure they get to prove it" is Biden's natural lane right now.
Read 3 tweets
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One more thing on youth voting: There are a lot of folks in my mentions saying kids aren’t cognitively developed enough to vote. But it’s not clear to me what that means.
At 12, the typical kid is more than able to meet baseline standards for voting—understanding what an election is, learning about candidates, managing the act of voting.
When we bar kids from making choices they’re not mature enough to make, it’s generally because we’re worried that they’ll do harm to themselves or others if allowed to choose.
Read 5 tweets

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On this day in 1970, Black UNC students declared "Black Monday" after cops rushed a striking workers' picket line & arrested UNC Black Student Movement leader Jack McClain. This was 1yr after BSM's support for a UNC cafeteria worker strike which ended in wage increase & union.
Later, UNC fired one of the leaders of the food service strike, a Black worker named Elizabeth Brooks. "She felt they were firing her now because they knew that if she was fired in the fall there would be a chance for another strike." (from @unc_bsm Black Ink)
Black Monday was a call from the UNC Black Student Movement for Black students from across the state to come to UNC to support the striking UNC food service workers. "On the eve of their coming, the strike was settled." #UNC #StrikeDownSam
Read 4 tweets
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So, this tweet sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole, which ended with me being even more pissed off at UNC than I was initially.
The mobile force isn't mentioned in the main report, but it is one of the more concrete proposals mentioned in the appendices. And if you thought the main report was infuriating, just wait until we're done with this. I'll link the appendices below.
bot.unc.edu/files/2018/12/…
The relevant appendices here are A-1 and A-2, which discuss the findings of the "public safety panel." First, let's look at the member of this panel. The middle 3 seem to be normal cops, so I'll focus on Chris Swecker and Edward Reeder.
Read 18 tweets
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I want to talk about this article by @theorygurl on Avital Ronell. It's the best thing I've seen in a long while on academic culture. It's also a powerful internal critique of contemporary left intellectualism. I'm part of both of those subcultures. chronicle.com/article/I-Work…
"When it comes to the American academy, I trust raw, red rumor over public statements any day of the week," writes @theorygurl. Sadly, I agree. Academe, like most powerful institutions, is overstuffed with those so adept at dissembling that they mistake lies for nuance.
Again, I shld acknowledge that though I have no graduate training, I'm an academic - & glad to be one in many ways. But my complicity in a culture of dishonesty - one that does more damage to the left ideals so many of us espouse than do their clumsy rightwing critics - galls me.
Read 10 tweets
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It is increasingly obvious that a good chunk of our last year at NYU is going to be taken up by this case—it’s in the air at Washington Square & on everyone’s mind as campus comes back to life. @KathaPollitt’s @thenation column has a few gems...thenation.com/article/power-…
@KathaPollitt @thenation First, this: That academics thought they were above leaking—people who make our livings reading documents and who usually hail the likes of Chelsea Manning!—speaks to a feeling of exceptionalism not unlike Hollywood & Harvey Weinstein & the US govt protecting violent secrets
@KathaPollitt @thenation But @KathaPollitt *really* nails things here: sexual harassment is the terrain—perhaps the only terrain practically speaking—which imperfectly becomes a tool to redress cruel power imbalances between advisors and advisees.
Read 14 tweets
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I have seen many comments from those who applaud the removal of #silentsam, but oppose the means by which it was removed. So here is a non-comprehensive list of efforts #silencesam activists have taken historically & today. All met w silence or hostility by #unc administration
1/ First some history--from what we know direct action against #silentsam began in 1968 in response to MLK's assassination (pic courtesy of @uncarchives), although calls for its removal came earlier (for ex, @dailytarheel published an op ed in March 1965, exhibits.lib.unc.edu/exhibits/show/…)
2/ Since 1968, protests around the statue ebbed and waned. However, in the recent past (at least since 2014) neo-confederates/white supremacists have used #silentsam as a rallying point. So, some of the 1st actions by contemporary #silencesam activists have been counter-protests
Read 24 tweets
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1. I’ve been thinking about the claim in last week’s Pacific Standard piece that Evergreen student protesters have “struggled to get their stories out”.
archive.is/RrBom
2. This thread is a follow up to a fact checking thread I started last Thursday & finished on Saturday. It’s going to be really long. Will put it on Thread Reader after I’m done.
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1007431…
3. Although I find the protesters’ narrative myopic, misleading, often hyperbolic, & sometimes outright false (based on my close study of the Evergreen meltdown & private conversations w/ Greeners), I thought I’d pull together a list of media appearances.
Read 74 tweets

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