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The State of (Cos)Play
Or maybe it’s LARPing (which term isn’t so easy to fit into a succinct and clever title).
In either case, it’s people with privilege (talking about actual, personal, individual privilege, such as students, whatever their background, who’ve been accepted into some of the most elite educational institutions in the world and who, as a result, have traditionally had their ticket punched for a lifetime of success) identifying with, and pretending that they are–in all equivalent respects to actual victims–actual victims.
Examples abound, and like Lewis Carroll’s oysters, they come “thick and fast” these days, but the most egregious of them to come recently has been the idiotic Johannah King-Slutsky:
Reporter grills Columbia student after she demands the university help feed protestors occupying Hamilton Hall:
"It seems like you're saying, 'we want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food'." pic.twitter.com/vNczSAM4T1
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 30, 2024
I don’t know who’s asking the questions here, but apparently he belongs to the very small fraternity, “Reporters With Balls.” (Emphasis mine):
R: Why should the university be obligated to provide food to people who’ve taken over a building?
S: Well, first of all we’re saying they’re obligated to provide food for students who’ve paid for a meal plan here.
R: But you mentioned that there was a request to allow food and water to be brought in unless I …
S: [Interrupts] To allow it to be brought in. Well I guess it’s ultimately a question of what community and obligation Columbia feels it has to its students. Umm. Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill, even if they disagree with you? If the answer is no, then, I mean, it’s crazy to say, because, I mean, we’re on an Ivy League campus, but this is like basic humanitarian aid we’re asking for, like, could people please have a glass of water?**
R: But [students] did put themselves very deliberately in that situation and in that position. So it seems like you’re sort of saying, ‘We want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food.’
The rest of the short snip shows Slutsky insisting that whatever group it is she’s representing merely wants to make sure that the University commits to not disrupting the flow of “humanitarian aid” into Hamilton Hall. Further questioning by the intrepid young man reveals the fact that there’s absolutely no evidence the university has done any such thing to this point.
So what we have here is an attempt by a PhD student in the English department at what was, once, one of the most elite universities on earth, to garner media attention by equating Columbia’s oppressor administration to that of Israel’s government, by pretending that the young–very healthy and very well fed–men and women pitching a fit and destroying property on a university campus are being denied HUMANITARIAN AID and are in just as imminent danger of starvation and dehydration as the unfortunate innocents in Gaza caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hamas. When–as is the case in Israel and Gaza, where hundreds of aid trucks are sent through to Gaza every day–no such thing is actually happening, and the devastation that’s being rained on Gazan civilians is entirely the fault of Hamas.
It almost (but not quite) makes me long for the days of the ISIS Brides. Or of the several other sad situations that spring to mind where deluded young Westerners who had been taught to hate their countries of origin at least buckled up and took off for climes unknown to live out their fantasies. Often, living out those fantasies had horrible consequences, and the remainder of those lives were–to quote someone those folks had probably never heard of– “nasty, brutish, and short.”
Perhaps something of a lesson was learned, because, somehow, that phenomenon doesn’t seem to be much of a thing anymore. And, at least in this case, the brave warriors of Hamas-adjacency prefer to stay Stateside. Don’t expect the “Queers for Gaza” flotilla to set sail for the Mediterranean Sea’s “Port of Gaza” anytime soon.
Still, these idiots really do think that their acting out, their posturing, their intransigence, and their baiting of those in authority makes them as oppressed as, and the equals of, the Gazans and therefore gives them the authority to speak in their names.
What morons.
Pray there’s a glimmer of hope. Even the Mayor of New York seems to have figured out that these sorts of demonstrations aren’t rising up organically or happening by accident.
You never know.
After all, on a day when Britain’s National Health Service declares that biological sex is an actual, non-negotiable fact, perhaps all things are possible.
**Bloody hell. Doesn’t Hamilton Hall have any bathrooms? Any water fountains? Or can these snowflakes only drink mountain water bottled in the Alps, or sparkling spring water from France? God help these loons when the organic matter actually does hit the rotating apparatus.
Published in General
Johanna, you really should have thought ahead and packed a few boxes of granola bars.
PhD student? Feh.
To quote the Bee…
So they are illegally trespassing and interfering with the business of the university and the education of other students who paid for the services offered by that university and they want them to deliver their meals to them or allow them to go to the dining hall for take-out. In the old days, serious protesters would go on hunger strikes. What a bunch of entitled little maroons.
Yep.
Although Slutsky may, on some level, be a true believer in her ideology, she is also a cunning careerist. I can easily see her leveraging this into a cushy slot as a political staffer, and ultimately politician, or onto the board of a well funded (and connected) non-profit.
Conservatives have been naive to think that “reality” would knock some sense into these people once they are out of school. Our nation’s corrupt plutocrats and bureaucrats will ensure that Slutsky and her ilk are well compensated and offered an express pass into the corridors of power.
This is not cosplay (or LARPing)…
…she’s simply building a resume.
Yes, she is, as you say, a “cunning” something.
For myself, I hope that she’s simply moved beyond the politically convenient. That might not be the case, but if it isn’t, I’m happy to leave it up to you.
Pelt them with tomatoes, vaudeville style.
Why don’t the universities just turn on their lawn irrigation systems, that’ll melt these snowflakes.
Manure sprayer. One capable of indirect fire.
Breaking news! Sadly, the fact that it is breaking news seems related to the farcical behavior of the most prominent protestors. I don’t think it’s an accident that the protestor at the mic was a woman, while it took a bunch of frat bros to rescue the flag at UNC.
Where did you get that picture of Skygack? Must have been a contest winner. The character was a comic-strip aalien who commented on human life, and IIRC was the creation of the cartoonist who drew the dyspeptic adventures of Everett True, back in the teens and 20s. The previous teens and 20s, of course.
I did a search on “cosplay” images, and it was the obvious choice. Mr. Skygack has his own Wikipedia page, and the picture’s on there. It’s captioned, and indicates that August Olsen from Monroe, WA, (who’s inside the costume) “copped” first prize at a masked ball. In 1912.
Was listening to a news report this morning that said that the “protestors” barricaded themselves inside by chaining and locking the doors, and then pushing things like “refrigerators” up against them. I think this was an administration building, so unlikely the appliances were full of science experiments. It sounds as though the building had kitchen facilities, and probably food, already inside.
The criminals at the UCLA encampment have issued a list of demands** following their run-in with a group of counter-protesters last night:
🤣🤣
Prior to the arrival of the “counter protestors” (unclear to me at this point exactly who they were or where they came from), the encampment had already been declared illegal by the university, which had issued a “stern warning” that the occupiers should leave and decrying “incidents in which protesters appeared to use metal gates and “human walls” to control access to campus walkways and entrances.” But nothing had been done to force them to leave.
**All the participants in the photo that accompanies the article appear to be running their own masked ball and competing this year’s “Skygack” cosplay. LOL.
She gets the award for arrogance, narcissism, and stupidity. Such an ugly combination.
Ms King is calling food and water “humanitarian aid”, which has a moral component. She wants Columbia employees to cater her tantrum. As a Columbia employee herself, would she serve “humanitarian aid ” to Jewish students who took over a campus building to protest US aid to Gaza?
Hope the aid she’s demanding is clearly labeled kosher.
I feel slightly sorry for anyone with a Columbia Degree. The value of that particular piece of sheepskin has been dropping by the day. Currently I think a Degree from Columbia makes someone a laughing stalk. I review resumes and handle screens all the time for new talent. Happy to get to circular file some immediately now.
Biden should build a pier to the front door so they can deliver the humanitarian aid without setting foot inside.
The delicious thing is that SHE IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
Nobody in Gaza starves unless they want to. Everyone has a place to go where there is food and water. You just have to walk away from the center of the action.
My parents both got PhDs from Columbia. My family went to Columbia (I was the black sheep who went elsewhere). When I was a kid, someone asked my sister if she was going to attend Columbia. She replied, incredulously, “you mean I have a choice?!“
Revolutionaries they were not. My childhood was narrated in part by my mother’s disgust at the student protests of the age.
My father is older now. He calls me daily to rant about whatever happened to Columbia. There is a close affinity, and a righteous sense of betrayal.
But it has always been thus. In my family lore, the IQ test was designed to keep Jews out of Columbia – because Jews obviously were not intelligent. That did not work out well for the head of admissions who, for one year, accepted applicants only by the numbers.
Your parents and sister are the ones I feel sorry for. It must hurt them to see this happen.
Insufficiently cynical
I think it’s more than that, in that there’s a pseudo-religious component to her lunacy. She–and quite a few others–have convinced themselves that the Live Action Role Playing protestors, in this case specifically those who’ve deliberately locked themselves in Hamilton Hall, have actually transubstantiated themselves into the body and blood of Gazan civilians, and really are in danger of dehydration and starvation due to the monstrous and illegitimate war that is being waged against them by Columbia University, and that they have no other alternative but to stay–oppressed–in place unto death. They are truly delusional. And a sad commentary on a generation that has to invent such existential threats and excitement because it’s never faced deprivation or serious challenge in real life.
She’s not actually an employee. She’s a student, and as such, is bound by the code of conduct laid out in the student handbook. But, to answer your question directly, I’m guessing, probably not.
LOL. The bunch at UCLA demanded food that included “vegan” and “gluten free” options, with “no packaged food,” “no coffee,” “no bagels,” “no bananas” and “no nuts.” (No comment on that last one, for which the suitable responses write themselves.)
Someone with a glimmering of awareness immediately tweeted that the “no bagels” stricture wasn’t anti-Semitic, but just thrown in there because they already had enough bagels.
I’m not sure, if these loons didn’t exist, if it would be possible to imagine them up. It is heartening to hear them cry and whine, feigning injury and faintness, when they are rounded up by police who have clearly been instructed–and so far have succeeded–in doing them no harm.
My generation gave up on activities such as are happening at Columbia and elsewhere when we were about 10-12 years of age, and discovered that there were consequences for childish antics.
I was going to guess it was Forrest Ackerman…
OK, it’s hard to parody these loons, but this is actually pretty good. (Language warning.)