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by sgentle 244 days ago
Careful not to fall into the "People's Democratic Republic" trap: the way something is described and its purported aims are not at all the same as its actual effects (and, often, not even its intended ones). Politics is, in many cases, the art of selling you a box of spoons with "forks" printed on the label.

Instead of asking "does this agreement sound nice?", ask what power it gives, to whom, and what might they want to do with it.

Some prompts to spark a cogent reasoning process:

> Signatories commit themselves to [...] transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas

What "institutional units" might this mean? How are they identified? Who identifies them? What is the threshold for belittling conservative ideas that might trigger the "transforming or abolishing" remedy?

> Universities shall be responsible for ensuring that they do not knowingly: (1) permit actions by the university, university employees, university students, or individuals external to the university community to delay or disrupt class instruction or disrupt libraries or other traditional study locations [...] signatories commit to using lawful force if necessary to prevent these violations

What do "actions by" "university students" to "delay or disrupt class instruction" refer to? What kinds of disruptive action might the people writing this document be so concerned about that they would ask universities to "commit to using lawful force" to prevent? What sort of scenario is being envisaged here?

> Institutions commit to defining and otherwise interpreting "male," "female," "woman," and "man" according to reproductive function and biological processes.

Doesn't it seem oddly specific to assert a definition like this? Why can't a university decide for itself? How does this assertion square with "maintaining a vibrant marketplace of ideas" and the "empirical assessment of a broad spectrum of viewpoints"? Why only this definition and no others?

I could go on, but hopefully you get the picture. It's an important skill to practice critically reading a document the same way you might critically audit code. Don't ask what it seems like it does, ask what it might allow someone to do.

1 comments

There was a wave of violent disruptions across many universities under the guise of protests.

"protestors" took over libraries, disrupted lectures, vandalized university property, used the power of the mob to intimidate students who disagreed.

The universities have rules against all of that but failed to stop it, leading to weeks long disruptions on campus.

There are videos of all that on the internet.

And you're playing dumb asking what actions do they mean. Those actions: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=university+prot...

Actions like setting fire to university, which apparently happened yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voqhFZZ9zyA

Actions like smashing windows by masked hooligans: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CH2kUU3h9j4

Actins like breaking cop's nose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyMssP-A09A

As to defining a "woman" as anything else than a woman: it's modern day flat earthism, not something a serious person should entertain.

Notably, the language in the compact does not limit legal intervention to those violent actions. It requires action against even peaceful protesting in a library, or even in a hallway or outdoor area (as a student I often studied in both of these places).

Further, your "setting fire to university" video is in South Africa; it hardly seems relevant here. Access to global news will always provide extremes. To me, it's important that actions we take serve the everyday reality rather than the rare occurrences that happen in a few places but are amplified by human attraction to violence and drama.

The second result in your YouTube search is a PBS mini-doc called "Why Do College Campuses Have So Many Protests?"

The questions I offered were prompts to engage critically with why this compact exists. Perhaps watching that video might help you find answers beyond "playing dumb".