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Secretary of Defense
Since this is a really short article I'm going to quote it in its entirety:
I thought this article was interesting for three reasons:Goldman exec's Vt. talk nixed after protest threatBy DAVE GRAM, Associated Press – 1 day ago
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Goldman Sachs analyst who planned to talk to students at his University of Vermont alma mater about careers in the financial services industry has canceled his appearance after backers of the Occupy Wall Street movement threatened protests.
Business school dean Sanjay Sharma says Jeff Ares was scheduled to speak Friday but canceled the talk at the request of his employer, Goldman Sachs.
The cancellation came after Occupy Vermont activists posted Facebook messages urging supports to attend Ares' talk and "make our voices heard."
As one of the leading Wall Street banks, Goldman came under fire for generous executive compensation after getting a $10 billion bailout during the financial collapse. The Occupy Wall Street movement has railed against corporate greed.
A Goldman spokeswoman says the company has no comment.
1. The free speech infringement issue.
I read elsewhere that Harvey Silverglate, a Boston lawyer and chairman of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said by effectively pressuring Ares to cancel the talk, the activists involved were likely involved in "a conspiracy to restrict free speech." Now personally I think that argument is tenuous at best but all and still the issue is there.
Shouting people down is no way to conduct one's self.
2. The fact that protestors who are bitching about the high cost of college and the inavailability of degree-related jobs are deliberately fucking things up for folks who actually major in subjects that can get them good paying jobs.
I read elsewhere that Ares was going to be talking about his career at GS as well as diwscussing the internship opportunities that GS makes available to students and how to go about making one's self competitive in terms of securing an internship.
Fucking up opportunities for others who made good decisions simply because you made bad decisions is no way to conduct one's self.
3. The infringement on acedemic freedom.
This is what really astonishes me. These protestors (irrespective of the nature of the issue which currently brings them "together) wouldn't bat an eyebrow if this talk was going to be about some cutting edge new method of abortion, a glorification of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, an art exhibit which denigrated religious beliefs, or a great many other things that the majority of America would consider abhorent.
Scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts (including those that are inconvenient to external political groups or to authorities) without being targeted for repression.
But because it's about something which the majority of America currently feels is abhorent it's cool to try to kill it?
Now, I'm not part of the 1% but the longer these protests go on the less sympathy I have for anything that these protesters think is important. They're really behaving like wild animals.
I ♣ Ideologues!
Vice President
Only correct speech approved by the people after a showing of jazz-hands is allowed.
Secretary of Defense
I'd say that this thing has the makings of a tyrrany of the majority but the thing is this isn't even a movement of the majority.
All told less than .5% of Americans are involved in it.
It's turning into a tyrrany of the squeeky wheel.
I ♣ Ideologues!
Secretary of State
This is what democracy looks like. Why do you think the founders made us a republic?
Moderates are not republicans
Vice President
It's only a matter of time before they start guillotining each other.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Member
And look how well that's worked out.Originally Posted by thanatos144
When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why they are poor, they called me a Communist.
-Bishop Hélder Câmara
"I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization"
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Secretary of State
Great until we got infected by democracy pushed by progressives like Roosevelt and Wilson. Be great again if we repealed the 16 and 17 the amendment.
Moderates are not republicans
Secretary of Defense
While we're repealing I'd like to see us get right of XII and XIV too.
I ♣ Ideologues!
Secretary of Defense
Sounds to me like the guy from GS just got scared and ran just like the protesters wanted. It would have been easy to limit this event to students only. Every student has an ID, no ID no admittance. If some of the protesters did manage to get in then the campus police could have dealt with them. If the talk was really that important then something could have been worked out.
Secretary of Defense
I don't disagree with you at all.
Well, maybe a little bit. I don't think the guy got scared and backed out so much as I think GS got scared and pulled him out.
But either way, none of what you said speaks to any of the points I made which were that the ostensibly liberal protesters would have been infringing on free speech and acedemic freedom and shitting where they sleep, so to speak, in terms of disrupting an opportunity for folks who put a lot of time, effort, and money into a good college education getting an opportunity to have that effort translated into a good paying job.
100% agreed that the "the man" could have come down like a ton of bricks, and I'll even agree that "he" should have (if that's what you're alluding).
But that doesn't change the fact that the protesters were acting like a pack of radbid fucking animals or that they'd be bitching like a bunch of little girls with sand in their cooter if "the man" did make any effort to infringe on what they feel to be their right to free speech.
I ♣ Ideologues!
Secretary of State
Any one who runs scared of these retards deserve our scorn.
Moderates are not republicans
Secretary of Defense
The protesters exercised their freedom of speech by posting what they did. GS and the school could have continued with their program and taken precautions to try to keep the protesters out. If some of the protesters did get in and disrupt the program then the Police could have delt with them and charges submitted as the Law allows.
However GS backed down and none of this really took place. So we will never know how it would have gone.
Agree or Dis-aggree with the Tea Party or the OWS or any other group that may come up. They have the right
Last edited by wooyarn; 10-19-2011 at 03:03 PM.
Secretary of Defense
I was gonna say. Who cares if those retards protest?
Secretary of State
I love reading right-wingers projecting all their worst fears on this small, mostly well-behaved group of protesters.
"Oh Howie, they may break our best china!!! Those animals!!!" Ha!
The great majority of New Yorkers support them (67 to 23 percent), which makes all this rhetoric about how badly they're behaving more than a little suspect.
As for Goldman Sacks, they can suck an egg.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Member
I wouldn't be so quick to be dismissive. Often times the most drastic change occurs when you have large groups of angry and unemployed people.
That change isnt necessarily better, but it's drastic.
When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why they are poor, they called me a Communist.
-Bishop Hélder Câmara
"I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization"
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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