cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15286303
GOP introduces bill that would send anyone convicted of unlawful activity on a campus since Oct. 7th, 2023 to Gaza.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15286301
“A group of Republican lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday which would send “any person convicted of unlawful activity” at a college or university, to do community service in Gaza for six months.”
“Strangely, the bill appears to refer to any “unlawful activity on the campus of an institution of higher education beginning on and after October 7, 2023” but does not specifically mention the ongoing student protests, rendering it stupidly broad.”
"Ogles spoke with Fox News about the bill, saying that, “If you support a terrorist organization, and you participate in unlawful activity on campuses, you should get a taste of your own medicine. I am going to bet that these pro-Hamas supporters wouldn’t last a day, but let’s give them the opportunity.”
For the reasons you listed, among many even more fundamental ones, the would never pass, and if it did, it’s unenforceable.
It’s not to fire up the conservative base. It’s to fire you up.
It’s just bait to shape their strawman “screeching liberal” archetype. They want pictures of blue haired college LGBTQ folks frothing at the mouth, chanting “death to Republicans”
That’s all the Republicans do. It’s all they’ve done for 40 years. They’re never FOR anything they’re just AGAINST the ENEMY. Sometimes they get one dropped into their laps like on 9/11. Sometimes they gotta make their own. Communists. Immigrants.
At this point, they’re even happy to create their own out of queer college liberals. They were NEVER EVER going to vote R anyway. They know they can stir a REE out of them with legislation like this and then use the response as fodder for “America used to be strong and now it’s full of soyboy cucks.”
The arrogance of the Democrats is that they think Republican politicians are just stupid. Some are, but like if they’re so dumb, why haven’t the Dems been able to get more than 8 years? If your opponent is borderline mentally impaired, but you’re neck in neck in what is absolutely a competition of wits, what HARD reality are you failing to accept?
You want to know how to defuse the strategy? Don’t take the bait. It’d be one thing if it was in any way real. It isn’t. Don’t take the clickbait. Don’t feed the trolls. Don’t let someone take a picture of anyone with blue hair having a meltdown.
Yeah everyone should just let Republican lawmakers do whatever they want, no matter how outrageous, without discussing or complaining. Because that totally doesn’t normalize their outrageous behavior.
You believe this legislation is being put forward with the intention for it to be codified into law?
Yes. They spent years fighting Roe V. Wade with inane bullshit until one stuck. They fought student loan relief, immigration changes, and healthcare reform. Republicans in America have clearly demonstrated that they are dogs chasing after cars, and when they catch them they don’t care or realize what the consequences are. We need to stop excusing their behavior as if they’re “making a statement” or “posturing”. They tell us what they want to do, we say “nah, they don’t mean it”, and then it happens
Roe v. Wade is a supreme Court ruling, not a law. And what happened was the supreme court changed. This isn’t comparable at all.
Again, this isn’t real, at all. For like 100 reasons.
Get mad at the real ones, there are certainly enough REAL ones to get mad at that deserve yours (and everyone’s) attention. This is noise. A smoke screen. It’s bait.
No (only because as you mentioned it’s not going to fly at the current time. They absolutely would if they could). That does not mean I think ignoring it is less harmful than calling it out.
My human, you have to know that they submitted this bill knowing full well it hasn’t got any chance of being taken seriously on the floor. There’s only one reason a lawmaker would even draft a bill like this, and that one reason is to get attention. A shiny bauble to distract us all. Any stage magician can tell you that magic is all about misdirection. If I’ve got you staring at the card in my left hand, you don’t notice the deck in my right hand. So, the thing you should be doing, is asking what they’ve got hidden up their sleeve.
Repeating something does not make it more correct
They’ve never needed pictures before, and they don’t need pictures now. Hell, even the iconic meme picture is taken from a video of a woman speaking normally - they just used an unflattering frame to discredit her. This isn’t a ploy to get a photo op of the left being mad, it’s another small push of the republican boundaries. Enough “joke” bills about overbearing punishments for minor offenses made by people their party doesn’t like, and they’ll be primed enough to fully support the real thing. We’re already there for a large portion of the republican base.
Republicans have a massive robust propaganda machine that flat out lies to their voters and they don’t question it. Obviously democrats have a ton of problems but the way you are framing that is disgustingly dishonest.
Are you saying that the reason the Dems aren’t trouncing the Republicans at every turn is because they won’t flat out lie to their voters?
And, if so, do you feel that the Dems have been honest about Gaza, and the way they have characterized the campus protests?
I’m not saying “both parties are equally bad”, I’m just saying that many of the justifications that Dems give for why the “mentality inferior Republicans” regularly beat them are really more of soothing stories than well-considered fact.
My whole thesis is that they’re not stupid. They’re dangerous. There IS method behind the madness, and this fairy tale we tell ourselves that they’re stupid is harmful to Democratic chances, because if they’re “just stupid” then you don’t see the plan and methodology… And if you can’t see the plan and methodology then you can’t develop an effective response to it.
So, I’m telling you what it is, and asking you to just think critically about things for even 1 second after you hear them and instead of throwing up your hands and wailing, ask basic questions like “why? Who is the audience? What response do they expect, and from who? How does that further their cause?” This particular example is easy-mode.