Call me cynical (college students)

[PDenton]

Call me cynical but I just don't see how student protests do much of anything. Nobody cares what students think.

Another thing that gets me about college students- they only protest things that are important to them directly. They also protest some of the most trivial crap imagineable. I can't describe some of the stuff the local college students have protested, because it is so forgettable. They SHOULD bring back the draft, most of these deadbeats would have something real to whine about for a change.

Hey, out in non-bachelor's-degree America people have real issues that we are facing every day. We may not have our arms titty twisted and we may not be zapped with a tazer but we are being ground down by a crumbling society and morally/financially bankrupt government and realizing that, for those of us with half a brain, the American dream is fading away. I just can't emphathize all that much with some loud mouthed, trustfund college kid who pushed his way to the front of the line to ask some lame questions that have already been answered a dozen times before.

Flame on... or not.

[radiclib]

1. In other words

they're no different from students in the '60s.
Methinks you're a tad harsh.

[PDenton]

3. OK, here's one example I can remember

There are lots of protests on the local campus by neo-peaceniks over the fact the government gives grants for lasers and robotics. They think it is bad, supporting the Iraq war, etc. I just told my college-attending brother to ask these dudes if they are OK with soldiers being killed by IED's because they don't have the robots to disarm them.

More trivial crap they protest, though, is purely campus related administrative stuff. Not enough free this or that, etc. Personally I could care less but it just seems really silly.

Hurricane Katrina - no protests. 2004 elections... no protests... so I can only guess most college students only protest when it interests them.

[EFerrari]

4. We got the UC Regents to divest their holdings in South Africa

when God was young. That wasn't trivial cr@p. :)

[Kelly Rupert]

6. So how are those students personally affected by military grants for robotics?

Wouldn't the Iraq war be something that they don't have any personal stake in, but yet still protest? And what's your point? That students should do more protesting of things that don't affect them at all? That people should protest things that don't interest them? That people should stop protesting things that interest them?

Where are you going with this?

[BOSSHOG]

2. No Flame Here

the only "protest" I ever got heavily involved in was, as a student at the University of Arkansas in the mid 70's, we took on corporate interests who wanted to tear down Ole Main and replace it with a parking lot. Ole Main is the original building on campus and is just as beautiful today (30 years after attempts to tear it down). The most beautiful building on the planet through the eyes and in the hearts of Arkansas Grads. We certainly did protest something that was important to us directly.

I agree the draft (with zip, zero, nada deferments) should come back if only to suck the testicles of chickenhawks way up into their gut.

The tasered kid may have had a message but as an old speech teacher told us, if you speak so loudly, no one will be able to hear a word you say.

[unpossibles]

5. I look at it the opposite way

I include myself in this, but college students have the most time, and apparently the most passion, to protest. In other countries, it is not just the students, but the populace who protests, which is maybe why things sometimes get done. Here, people complain about everything, but do they actually put their feet to the pavement? Rarely.

And frankly, as someone who busted his ass to put himself through college working full time (and then some, usually), to be lumped in as a trustafarian is insulting. I worked full time, took classes full time and protested a number of issues. Not every student is a deadbeat, and frankly the disdain people have for college/education is appalling to me. "Nobody cares what students think" is typically prejudiced. Sure, some are lazy, and some are deadbeats, and some are trust fund kids, but what about those that aren't?

Are you willing to alienate potential allies because some kids make you feel guilty about not doing anything yourself? Is that really the issue here? Are you out protesting about anything?

Sure, they protest things that affect them directly. Who doesn't? Do you protest anything which doesn't affect you? Honestly?

[PDenton]

7. I don't think protesting really works anymore

Not with a corporate controlled media. You just get tuned out in favor of Britney's latest meltdown.

I wish I knew what worked. But I'm sure protesting doesn't.

[Zodiak]

8. Then why look to the students to protest for you?

If protesting does no good, why implore them to waste their energy on what you think is important? It won't so anything anyways.

Just tell 'em to go back to class just like Americans go to work....and do nothing about what is grinding them down.

[unpossibles]

9. I agree the media works its magic, BUT

the media are more greedy than evil - they will respond to consumers who threaten their ad revenues. Also, it's harder to ignore if there were more than just students doing the protesting.

There's more than one way to protest something.

[Virginia Dare]

10. Here's an example of an honest to goodness protest..

and one which the MSM didn't pick up, yeah, call me cynical too, but I think these students were actually protesting, not trying to get their mug all over the news.

http://www.nbc4.com/news/11516096/detail.html

[PDenton]

11. I admire Karl Rove

People who get emotionally nuts about him, don't get it. It's just a job that he gets payed to do. Sure he'd sell his mother into white slavery for a couple of bucks, but he was also very good at what he did. What do we have, James Carville? I think that's half our problem right there.

[Quantess]

12. Karl Rove was good at his job?

Yeah, just look at all that great advice he gave Bush.:silly: :wtf:

[Virginia Dare]

13. Well, that makes one of us...n/t

[EFerrari]

14. Karl Rove is a criminal. n/t

[newportdadde]

15. Protests don't seem to mean much no matter who does them.

TPTB are just going to ignore them and the media isn't going to report them. Personally I think 10 people driving out and blocking an interstate as protest would go leaps and bound farther then 10k marching down a street.

[BreweryYardRat]

16. Yeah, but do that and the cops will probably shoot you.

If they don't, other drivers will, because you've stopped up their route to work.

Or maybe Florida's just making me cynical.

[Odin2005]

17. Because the MSM will just ignore us.

And because we have to work at McJobs to make ends meet and thus have no time.

What my generation IS doing is revolutionizing the media and politics via the Internet (which is why the DLC is so deathly afraid of the Netroots).

[H2O Man]

18. "I just don't see" n/t