LOL, “Organizers did everything they could to make it not political,” he said. “It’s too bad because it’s just the flag—it’s not about politics.” - let's see, the fund itself was started by a Republican lobbyist and operative, contributed towards in big sums from a few large donors like Bill Ackman (who has "come out" as a Trump supporte…
LOL, “Organizers did everything they could to make it not political,” he said. “It’s too bad because it’s just the flag—it’s not about politics.” - let's see, the fund itself was started by a Republican lobbyist and operative, contributed towards in big sums from a few large donors like Bill Ackman (who has "come out" as a Trump supporter, shocker!) which is how it raised a crazy sum of a Half Million dollars for... a party... promoted by Donald Trump, the current Republican 2024 nominee, and apparently featuring VIP attendees like Texas Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw... could this be any more "political", let alone "Republican"?
The fact that out of 7000 invites distributed less than 1000 showed up *is* the story, and having read the NY Times piece that Olivia snarks at that actually covered some of the other various reasons for not attending from those who even participated in the original counter-protest, it was a combination of reasons: yes the obvious partisan political nature of it discussed here - that by attending one is endorsing Trump and the Republican Party, and by extension, their organizations if they were members of that probably wanted to avoid exactly that kind of politicking, that the organizers were very much making "the flag" a Republican enterprise... but there were also objections from some of the actual participants in the original counter-protest and member organizations that felt the party and its promoters were missing some of the larger points of the counter-protest and sidelined the Jewish aspect of it in favor of a "rah rah USA" take, or a "Left Versus Right" take, and others thought the notion of a party that cost, again, Half A Million Dollars was funds that could have been much better spent on various charities, some even suggested on a Gaza relief fund (which may conflict with the views assumed by those involved in the counter-protest about the conflict itself, versus the protests)... and maybe some of this was just a "miss" with youth culture, a party featuring Lee Greenwood (who is a Trump rally mainstay with mostly Boomer aged crowds and is probably not on the top list of a Gen Z crowd draw), along with what sounds like an exclusively country lineup otherwise may not have attracted a bigger crowd of "The Yoots", even with free beer, was there sort of an assumption that "frat bros", including Jewish ones, are heavily into country music and culture? And then Hooters waitresses... yeah, no offense, but this did seem to be a party put on by, and primarily for, former now middle aged frat "bros" wanting to re-live their "keg rager" days under the guise of a "patriotic" cause, in which the kids were mostly supposed to be the scenery for, and probably gave off a pretty ripe vibe of "Hey Fellow Kids!" meme-ishness.
I'm sure it was still a good time for those who attended, but yeah, the real story is why a "free rager" that cast a 7000 invite wide net wound up with less than 1000, and didn't even capture all of those who participated in the original protest, and how this might be sort of a window on the Republican/conservative "project" with Gen Z/youth might actually be going, outside of the window dressing of Trump doing podcasts with gamers and TikToks etc. From my experience, Gen Z is even when they can take some "left wing" and "right wing" viewpoints on various issues, or "code" left or right, their allegiance and support of both political parties is still pretty weak, so trying to turn a singular counter-protest move into a heavily coded partisan political event probably turned out exactly like anyone could have told the big check writers that it would have turned out like, a kind of embarrassing dud.
You’re reading too much into something that has simple, obvious answers. The bands aren’t popular and it was on Labor Day. People usually have other plans with friends or family. Not being political simply meant no speeches about…politics.
Three years ago, a party with a hint of a right-leaning theme in Chapel Hill would have probably attracted more counter-protesters than attendees and any student associated with it would've been committing social suicide. The fact that nearly a thousand people, many of them UNC students, would be willing to humanize Republicans portends an extraordinary shift in the balance of power on campus. The fact that free thinking kids can step out of the echo chamber means the house of cards is collapsing. The progressive psychosis in academia is loosing its grip.
yeah i don't know about that, despite all the attention given to protesting against right leaning/conservative events on campuses, they have occurred and had support on campus from groups that have more conservative/right leaning student members, I mean College Republicans have had a campus presence for a while now? Frat parties have been throwing in your face "non-PC" themed parties for decades, with the "outrage" almost planned as part of the event. I think there's probably a lot of over-estimation of the social power and numbers of hyper-progressive students on campus and their sphere of influence. Of course that varies per campus but I think Chapel Hill is probably a large enough campus that there's quite bit of student viewpoint diversity represented, including political and culture wars apathy.
I agree it will be healthier to have more tolerance for viewpoint diversity on campuses broadly speaking, but I'm not sure I agree that hasn't been happening either, and I'm not sure this "party" was a symptom of a "broadening" of campus viewpoint tolerance - free beer is free beer after all. And given that organizers select invited students from groups that would be more likely to have conservative students and got about a ~10% response speaks to perhaps other issues students may have had regarding the event - which has been at least partially explained here, it's not so much "eww Republicans" but wariness of a "party" that seemed political in its setup.
That's a lot of contortions, smarti, to convince yourself that there's been viewpoint diversity on campus all along. Those violent protests that occurred nearly every time a speaker who was slightly right of extreme left attempted to speak on campus are just false memories, I suppose. As for UNC campus, we were there for a campus visit two years ago and it was bubbling with wokeness. Not as bad as NC State which was a monument to trendy Leftism. As Trump has become more popular among Gen Z boys, progressive hegemony on campus has begun to show cracks and the concert in Chapel Hill is a meaningful fissure.
Not really, I'm just debating the degree and prevalance of such things, or that right wing/conservative thought has been completely displaced and suppressed on most campuses. I think the picture is much more nuanced than we get from various media sources, many of which have a certain agenda themselves when it comes to presenting these issues on campus. That said, I definitely don't disagree that there are more recent problems with ideological/epistemic closure happening on many campuses, particularly around the Israel/Gaza issue, I think it's actually probably more of an issue now than it was a few years ago, actually - while still not representing the majority of what happens on campus, or representative of the majority of students on those campuses where these well publicized events are occurring. "Bubbling with wokeness" - again, these are large campuses with lots going on, not sure how you can make such a broad assessment based on a single visit, but OK I'm sure campuses, as they've always more or less have been, are more "left" than the parents of college students would prefer them to be!
I think Trump's popularity with Gen Z men and boys is largely happening with non-college educated men, although I'm sure there's a contingent of support within higher education with males, as there have always been College Republicans, as I've stated.
"Hi, I'm Caitlyn, I'll be your tour guide today. My pronouns are..." Listen to the bubbles. NC State in particular made sure that everyone who checked in for the campus tour checked in with an obese, trans African-American. Is THAT enough bubbles for you?
Nobody said that "right wing/conservative thought has been completely displaced" on college campus but there is abundant evidence that it's not welcome and is often the object of violent protests when it tries to be heard. Do I really have to assemble a list of cancelled conservative events for you? How about a list of events that were shut down by a mob after they began? How about a list of speakers who had to be escorted off campus for their own safety after trying to give a speech and being overwhelmed? Goodness gracious, buddy. Why would you cling to a notion so easily disproved?
Anyway, I should have conceded earlier that the event organizers did indeed miscalculate. Had they not turned it into a Republican campaign event, they would undoubtedly have had a lot fewer leftover hot wings. The fact that they DID turn it into a Republican campaign event and still got 1000 people through the gate represents to me a seismic shift in the amount of conservatism that is tolerated on college campuses. In spite of these encouraging developments, I wouldn't book Douglas Murray for a Q&A on campus just yet.
LOL, “Organizers did everything they could to make it not political,” he said. “It’s too bad because it’s just the flag—it’s not about politics.” - let's see, the fund itself was started by a Republican lobbyist and operative, contributed towards in big sums from a few large donors like Bill Ackman (who has "come out" as a Trump supporter, shocker!) which is how it raised a crazy sum of a Half Million dollars for... a party... promoted by Donald Trump, the current Republican 2024 nominee, and apparently featuring VIP attendees like Texas Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw... could this be any more "political", let alone "Republican"?
The fact that out of 7000 invites distributed less than 1000 showed up *is* the story, and having read the NY Times piece that Olivia snarks at that actually covered some of the other various reasons for not attending from those who even participated in the original counter-protest, it was a combination of reasons: yes the obvious partisan political nature of it discussed here - that by attending one is endorsing Trump and the Republican Party, and by extension, their organizations if they were members of that probably wanted to avoid exactly that kind of politicking, that the organizers were very much making "the flag" a Republican enterprise... but there were also objections from some of the actual participants in the original counter-protest and member organizations that felt the party and its promoters were missing some of the larger points of the counter-protest and sidelined the Jewish aspect of it in favor of a "rah rah USA" take, or a "Left Versus Right" take, and others thought the notion of a party that cost, again, Half A Million Dollars was funds that could have been much better spent on various charities, some even suggested on a Gaza relief fund (which may conflict with the views assumed by those involved in the counter-protest about the conflict itself, versus the protests)... and maybe some of this was just a "miss" with youth culture, a party featuring Lee Greenwood (who is a Trump rally mainstay with mostly Boomer aged crowds and is probably not on the top list of a Gen Z crowd draw), along with what sounds like an exclusively country lineup otherwise may not have attracted a bigger crowd of "The Yoots", even with free beer, was there sort of an assumption that "frat bros", including Jewish ones, are heavily into country music and culture? And then Hooters waitresses... yeah, no offense, but this did seem to be a party put on by, and primarily for, former now middle aged frat "bros" wanting to re-live their "keg rager" days under the guise of a "patriotic" cause, in which the kids were mostly supposed to be the scenery for, and probably gave off a pretty ripe vibe of "Hey Fellow Kids!" meme-ishness.
I'm sure it was still a good time for those who attended, but yeah, the real story is why a "free rager" that cast a 7000 invite wide net wound up with less than 1000, and didn't even capture all of those who participated in the original protest, and how this might be sort of a window on the Republican/conservative "project" with Gen Z/youth might actually be going, outside of the window dressing of Trump doing podcasts with gamers and TikToks etc. From my experience, Gen Z is even when they can take some "left wing" and "right wing" viewpoints on various issues, or "code" left or right, their allegiance and support of both political parties is still pretty weak, so trying to turn a singular counter-protest move into a heavily coded partisan political event probably turned out exactly like anyone could have told the big check writers that it would have turned out like, a kind of embarrassing dud.
You’re reading too much into something that has simple, obvious answers. The bands aren’t popular and it was on Labor Day. People usually have other plans with friends or family. Not being political simply meant no speeches about…politics.
Three years ago, a party with a hint of a right-leaning theme in Chapel Hill would have probably attracted more counter-protesters than attendees and any student associated with it would've been committing social suicide. The fact that nearly a thousand people, many of them UNC students, would be willing to humanize Republicans portends an extraordinary shift in the balance of power on campus. The fact that free thinking kids can step out of the echo chamber means the house of cards is collapsing. The progressive psychosis in academia is loosing its grip.
Agreed
yeah i don't know about that, despite all the attention given to protesting against right leaning/conservative events on campuses, they have occurred and had support on campus from groups that have more conservative/right leaning student members, I mean College Republicans have had a campus presence for a while now? Frat parties have been throwing in your face "non-PC" themed parties for decades, with the "outrage" almost planned as part of the event. I think there's probably a lot of over-estimation of the social power and numbers of hyper-progressive students on campus and their sphere of influence. Of course that varies per campus but I think Chapel Hill is probably a large enough campus that there's quite bit of student viewpoint diversity represented, including political and culture wars apathy.
I agree it will be healthier to have more tolerance for viewpoint diversity on campuses broadly speaking, but I'm not sure I agree that hasn't been happening either, and I'm not sure this "party" was a symptom of a "broadening" of campus viewpoint tolerance - free beer is free beer after all. And given that organizers select invited students from groups that would be more likely to have conservative students and got about a ~10% response speaks to perhaps other issues students may have had regarding the event - which has been at least partially explained here, it's not so much "eww Republicans" but wariness of a "party" that seemed political in its setup.
That's a lot of contortions, smarti, to convince yourself that there's been viewpoint diversity on campus all along. Those violent protests that occurred nearly every time a speaker who was slightly right of extreme left attempted to speak on campus are just false memories, I suppose. As for UNC campus, we were there for a campus visit two years ago and it was bubbling with wokeness. Not as bad as NC State which was a monument to trendy Leftism. As Trump has become more popular among Gen Z boys, progressive hegemony on campus has begun to show cracks and the concert in Chapel Hill is a meaningful fissure.
Not really, I'm just debating the degree and prevalance of such things, or that right wing/conservative thought has been completely displaced and suppressed on most campuses. I think the picture is much more nuanced than we get from various media sources, many of which have a certain agenda themselves when it comes to presenting these issues on campus. That said, I definitely don't disagree that there are more recent problems with ideological/epistemic closure happening on many campuses, particularly around the Israel/Gaza issue, I think it's actually probably more of an issue now than it was a few years ago, actually - while still not representing the majority of what happens on campus, or representative of the majority of students on those campuses where these well publicized events are occurring. "Bubbling with wokeness" - again, these are large campuses with lots going on, not sure how you can make such a broad assessment based on a single visit, but OK I'm sure campuses, as they've always more or less have been, are more "left" than the parents of college students would prefer them to be!
I think Trump's popularity with Gen Z men and boys is largely happening with non-college educated men, although I'm sure there's a contingent of support within higher education with males, as there have always been College Republicans, as I've stated.
"Hi, I'm Caitlyn, I'll be your tour guide today. My pronouns are..." Listen to the bubbles. NC State in particular made sure that everyone who checked in for the campus tour checked in with an obese, trans African-American. Is THAT enough bubbles for you?
Nobody said that "right wing/conservative thought has been completely displaced" on college campus but there is abundant evidence that it's not welcome and is often the object of violent protests when it tries to be heard. Do I really have to assemble a list of cancelled conservative events for you? How about a list of events that were shut down by a mob after they began? How about a list of speakers who had to be escorted off campus for their own safety after trying to give a speech and being overwhelmed? Goodness gracious, buddy. Why would you cling to a notion so easily disproved?
Anyway, I should have conceded earlier that the event organizers did indeed miscalculate. Had they not turned it into a Republican campaign event, they would undoubtedly have had a lot fewer leftover hot wings. The fact that they DID turn it into a Republican campaign event and still got 1000 people through the gate represents to me a seismic shift in the amount of conservatism that is tolerated on college campuses. In spite of these encouraging developments, I wouldn't book Douglas Murray for a Q&A on campus just yet.