Authors of controversial fliers come forward
From campus news editor Mark Abramson:
The seven students behind the offensive and satirical posters that caused a recent uproar on campus came forward Tuesday.
The group - dubbing themselves ‘Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness’ on the posters - said their goal was to point out the link between neo-conservatism and fascism. They also sought to raise attention for their objections to ‘Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,’ a series of events being hosted this month by the conservative student group Young America’s Foundation.
“(The publicity) is exactly what we wanted,” said grad student Adam Kokesh ‘08, who is part of the group and a former Non-Commissioned Officer in the U.S Marine Corp, in an interview with The Daily Colonial. “We’re very glad it got the response it did so that people become aware of what is coming to campus.”
Yet he added that he didn’t expect the poster to receive as much off campus publicity as it did.
“My only regret was that the fine print wasn’t bigger,” said Kokesh, referring to the post-script on the bottom of the poster identifying his group and pointing to a documentary that is critical of neo-conservatives. This element, fairly important in recognizing the work as a satire, was initially missed by many, presumably because of its small lettering.
As a response to YAF’s Awareness Week activities, including an event featuring author David Horowitz, Kokesh said his the group will plan counter events the same week.
Stay tuned to The Daily Colonial for more on this story…
I’m sure the fliers did have the hoped-for response. They slandered another group anonymously; and now the YAF is catching heat for the fliers (that they had nothing to do with) while dealing with the slander.
And the Administration has (so far at least) shown that slander is acceptable, but groups who are slandered need to make some efforts to remedy the situation (so the parties who are slandered now have to clean up the mess).
What more could you ask for? Slander someone, no punishment, no penalty, and the University will help you by presuming the slander is true, and giving more problems to the party you’ve slandered.
Well, I guess you could ask for a pony too; but that would seem greedy.
Did anyone ask if the counter-events would also be anonymous unopposed slander? Seeing as that was obviously their real goal (planned and achieved, regardless of their current statement) I have to wonder what comes next.
Do they try violence again? We’ve seen with the rushing the stage of the Minutemen at Colombia that violence against Conservatives is generally accepted behavior as well. Why stop at anonymous slander? everyone knows there won’t be any penalties for any attacks against conservatives; regardless of the illegalities, damage, or actions taken. Why stop at such a cowardly and weak attack as anonymous slander?
I think this incident can allow us far more insight into the makeup of our campus than most of us are willing to admit. I found the backlash to be funny, though a bit disturbing. Over a dozen student organizations condemn the poster, the UPD is asked to investigate it, and the President of the University feels the need to denounce it. Why? No one in there right mind could take the poster literally, yet that is what everybody did. They ignored the fact that it was clearly making fun of racists, in effect calling racists ignorant to facts.
What is motivating our administrators to call the cops over a politically motivated poster, and more importantly, why are student organizations bending over backwards to join the fight against a poster that appears racist only when looked at from the most unintellectual level possible? Are they so afraid of being called racist that they feel the need to immediately denounce anything that discusses racist sentiments, even if it’s underlying message is one of tolerance?
More important than what are administration or organizations are doing is what we are doing and learning in the process. There was an idea born in the 60’s that a college campus is suppose to support the free exchange of ideas. A “market place of ideas” is allowed to prosper and becomes self-regulating, with unfounded opinions and biases being overwhelmed by logical factual argument and discussion.
I think the fear of being racist have completely silenced all but a few opinions on anything relating to racist. Take the Jena 6 movement for example. I clearly saw the marches in support and heard the chants of “Free the Jena 6,” but never heard any actual discourse on the subject. We are in the political capital of the country and no one is bold enough to call into question the rule of law. Instead, everything surrounding the event was called up as evidence of an inherently racist society with racist legal and judicial practices. That is certainly not the case, and it hurts minorities to preach that point of view. There are elements of the Jena 6 story that are racist, but if no one is willing to dismantle and honestly discuss the issue and then argue as to what is or is not racist, there is no way to address the systematic problems short of a blind demand to overhaul society and government.
Let me give and example. There was criticism that those responsible for hanging the nooses in the tree were not prosecuted for federal hate crimes. The FBI sent an agent to investigate the issue, but the students responsible were underage, and therefore by law, could not be prosecuted unless they were affiliated with the KKK or some other hate organization (at least this is how I’ve come to understand it). It seems reasonable that someone underage might not fully understand their actions. I am sure there are great arguments for and against the law’s exclusion of minors, but if I cannot be free to criticize other’s opinions and call into question their motives without being labeled a racist or a bigot I have no desire engage in that conversation. Simply put, as a society, we cannot advance race relations unless we can freely discuss them.
The same depiction of Arabs in robes as menacing used by Kokesk and company to slander others, well it was all just seen as good fun by Kokesh not that long ago:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1910101/posts