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Auburn University vs Richard Spencer

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I'm not sure what kind of reach this story has gotten but things have been wacky here in Auburn (Alabama) for a few days.

It all started when white supremacist and alt-right leader Richard Spencer announced he was coming to Auburn University to give a speech at Foy Student Union. Auburn apparently didn't invite him and had nothing to do with booking him. Spencer privately booked and paid for the event space. It's been rumored that the recently founded Auburn White Student Union tossed the official invite his way. http://thetab.com/us/auburn/2017/04/12/richard-spencer-auburn-1189

Naturally, there's been a ton of outrage. Auburn initially released a statement supporting Spencer's right to speak on campus: "We strongly deplore his views, which run counter to those of this institution. While his event isn’t affiliated with the university, Auburn supports the constitutional right to free speech. We encourage the campus community to respond to speech they find objectionable with their own views in civil discourse and to do so with respect and inclusion.”

This was met with even more unrest and university officials' inboxes were no doubt filled to the brim with both objectors and supporters. Eventually Auburn changed course and canceled the event, citing "information" they'd received that led them to believe that folks wouldn't be safe if the show were to go on. http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/04/auburn_cancels_speech_by_white.html

So it was over. OR SO WE THOUGHT. Spencer released a statement of his own, promising that Auburn would "rue the day" they canceled his event, and claims to be bringing his own posse of white supremacists to town to give a big speech/rally anyway. http://www.theplainsman.com/article/2017/04/richard-spencer-auburn-will-rue-the-day

So this is happening next week and Auburn social media has been INSANE all day. There are protests planned, peaceful events away from the action planned, no-doubt the White Student Union will be there in full force. It's getting ugly.

If this has already been discussed elsewhere I apologize. I searched back a bunch of pages for anything involving Auburn or Spencer and got nothing.

Oh, and for the record, I've been completely against the university hosting this guy (privately or not). Once you choose to become a bigot and advocate for ethnic cleansing you probably shouldn't be giving speeches at institutions of higher education.
 

Aurongel

Member
"White student union"

Like some shit you'd read from the Civil Rights chapter of a textbook. Christ that's pathetic.
 
Coz you know the university would welcome an extremist Muslim cleric to do a speech demonising the ignorant infidel state of America, no doubt!
 

Dali

Member
Is the number still 8foyfoy-foy2foyfoy?

Maybe I should call and ask wtf was up in the first place.
 
'YOU'LL RUE THIS DAY'

That's the kind of shit I say as a joke when someone steals my beer

This motherfucker's saying it and getting decked immediately after
 
Oh shit. I haven't heard a link of this here in Tuscaloosa which is surprising. Even UA doesn't have a white student union AFAIK. That's hilarious.
 

Sou Da

Member
What possible kinship could a white student union have?

They could have at least tried to be subtle and named it the "European Student Heritage Union" or some shit.
 

D i Z

Member
White Student Union. Spencer isn't the problem. You all need to clean house. Is this like not talking to bigoted relatives during family gatherings and blame the shit on the other guys?
 
Coz you know the university would welcome an extremist Muslim cleric to do a speech demonising the ignorant infidel state of America, no doubt!

This is the point the tone-deaf supporters don't quite get.

Spencer has the right to speak, sure. But the university didn't have to give him a platform. Good thing they backed out, but it looks like their initial support might have created mass chaos.

Punch him for me OP.

I've got some lunatic friends who are just enraged enough to try.
 
Universities don't invite this shitstain, it's the racist organizations that extend the invitations and if the uni is public they have no choice but to comply unless they have legitimate reason to believe it won't be safe.
 

Kthulhu

Member
Universities, here is a pro tip: don't give platforms to hate groups.

They never learn. I don't know why they do it, it only makes them look bad.

'YOU'LL RUE THIS DAY'

That's the kind of shit I say as a joke when someone steals my beer

This motherfucker's saying it and getting decked immediately after

I don't advocate for violence, but him getting punched in the face has become a meme at this point, and I do support memes.
 

painey

Member
I just don't get this. Let him speak, and don't go. Don't protest, don't advertise it through online "outrage", just let him spend his money and talk without giving him the satisfaction. I will never understand it.

At my college we would have these people come on campus with megaphones and say how everyone was going to hell and all these idiots would come out with counter protest signs, or shout at the guys and it just ended up drawing a big crowd. Let the crazies talk to the crazies, and don't fuel their audience by making it an event.
 
Can my band white genocide and the snow flakes play at the protest?

I'm still dying laughing at a White Student Union at a predominately White university in freaking Alabama. LMAO Isn't that redundant? How fragile do you have to be to start it or join? I guarantee it exists because there's a Black Student Union, and no inferior Negro shall have something that the superior White Man can't have.
 
I just don't get this. Let him speak, and don't go. Don't protest, don't advertise it through online "outrage", just let him spend his money and talk without giving him the satisfaction. I will never understand it.

At my college we would have these people come on campus with megaphones and say how everyone was going to hell and all these idiots would come out with counter protest signs, or shout at the guys and it just ended up drawing a big crowd. Let the crazies talk to the crazies, and don't fuel their audience by making it an event.

The problem there is that those crazies with megaphones aren't filling up university event centers. Milo came here last year and packed the house.
 

Dali

Member
I'm still dying laughing at a White Student Union at a predominately White university in freaking Alabama. LMAO Isn't that redundant? How fragile do you have to be to start it or join? I guarantee it exists because there's a Black Student Union, and no inferior Negro shall have something that the superior White Man can't have.
It's for the people that didn't want to go through the effort of joining a racist frat or sorority and don't identify as Republican so they wouldn't feel comfortable joining the AUCR.
 

Mechazawa

Member
Why even pussyfoot around as a "White Student Union" when you're just going straight to full blown racism and inviting a known white supremacist? The facade is immediately lifted when you do something like that.

Might as well call yourself the Nazi Student Union at that point for all the difference it makes.
 
I just don't get this. Let him speak, and don't go. Don't protest, don't advertise it through online "outrage", just let him spend his money and talk without giving him the satisfaction. I will never understand it.

At my college we would have these people come on campus with megaphones and say how everyone was going to hell and all these idiots would come out with counter protest signs, or shout at the guys and it just ended up drawing a big crowd. Let the crazies talk to the crazies, and don't fuel their audience by making it an event.
This is Alabama. Some of the folks down there have grandparents and great uncles who swung from a tree for trying to vote barely a generation ago and they're in no mood to listen to modern day reincarnations of the Klan. I can empathise with their desire to punch guys like Spencer in the head.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I just don't get this. Let him speak, and don't go. Don't protest, don't advertise it through online "outrage", just let him spend his money and talk without giving him the satisfaction. I will never understand it.

At my college we would have these people come on campus with megaphones and say how everyone was going to hell and all these idiots would come out with counter protest signs, or shout at the guys and it just ended up drawing a big crowd. Let the crazies talk to the crazies, and don't fuel their audience by making it an event.

Fuck that polite hat tip shit. These people have been allowed to have the loudest megaphone for years now and it got us to fucking Trump.

This is like telling the civil rights movement of the 60s they needed to just let these racist people talk and it'd all pass and don't give them the time of day. Some white moderate bullshit.

Take it to them. Bring the war and fury to them. Destroy their venue, raise a cacophony of such terror that they cannot speak a word off without being drowned out. Show the consequences of their speech. Let Richard Spencer know the hell he'll roil up at every place he goes, and let him fear to leave his house.

So goddamned tired of people telling us to just give these assholes who want to commit genocide and want to push the ideology of genocide a venue. I know our laws technically make it allowable, but that shit needs to change too. Until then, we shut. them. down.
 

Akainu

Member
I'm tired of this "we support the right of free speech" crap. Is his shit ass getting arrested for what he is saying? No? Then fuck him.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I'm tired of this "we support the right of free speech" crap. Is his shit ass getting arrested for what he is saying? No? Then fuck him.

Such a damn shame, because people used to understand some things were worth fighting for even if shit got ugly when you fought for it.

Shutting down the right of people who believe they need to commit genocide on black folk is one such thing worth fighting and shouting down until the bitter fucking end. I can't think of a more clear cut case of when extremism is warranted in answer.
 

TS-08

Member
I'm tired of this "we support the right of free speech" crap. Is his shit ass getting arrested for what he is saying? No? Then fuck him.

The first amendment doesn't just apply to arrests. And as a public university, the first amendment does apply to Auburn. That's not to say that if a challenge were to work its way to the courts that SCOTUS wouldn't make some ruling ultimately providing universities some leeway to deny some speakers like this. But people need to realize that public colleges and universities can't just make whatever rules they want related to speech.
 

Cyanity

Banned
I just don't get this. Let him speak, and don't go. Don't protest, don't advertise it through online "outrage", just let him spend his money and talk without giving him the satisfaction. I will never understand it.

At my college we would have these people come on campus with megaphones and say how everyone was going to hell and all these idiots would come out with counter protest signs, or shout at the guys and it just ended up drawing a big crowd. Let the crazies talk to the crazies, and don't fuel their audience by making it an event.

Or you could punch him in the face
 

Amir0x

Banned
The first amendment doesn't just apply to arrests. And as a public university, the first amendment does apply to Auburn. That's not to say that if a challenge were to work its way to the courts that SCOTUS wouldn't make some ruling ultimately providing universities some leeway to deny some speakers like this. But people need to realize that public colleges and universities can't just make whatever rules they want related to speech.

Legally, I'm sure it's allowable under current law. Some laws are wrong though, thus the hell that must be raised until the laws are fixed.
 
I just don't get this. Let him speak, and don't go. Don't protest, don't advertise it through online "outrage", just let him spend his money and talk without giving him the satisfaction. I will never understand it.

At my college we would have these people come on campus with megaphones and say how everyone was going to hell and all these idiots would come out with counter protest signs, or shout at the guys and it just ended up drawing a big crowd. Let the crazies talk to the crazies, and don't fuel their audience by making it an event.

lol fuck that
 

TS-08

Member
Legally, I'm sure it's allowable under current law. Some laws are wrong though, thus the hell that must be raised until the laws are fixed.

I doubt there's any specific law that makes him speaking at the university "allowable" other than the first amendment itself.
 
I don't know if people read the OP, but the university didn't invite him nor "give him a venue", as some are complaining about, he booked the space and paid for it, himself, and public universities are basically precluded from taking action against this kind of thing on grounds of speech due to all the public funding they receive. The only reason they were able to cancel it was the threat of violence breaking out.

You will quite literally have to revise the first amendment if you want to stop these speaking events from happening at all, and good luck with that considering plenty who despise these fucks would nevertgeless oppose you in such efforts (myself included). Considering the pathetic enrollment these white nationalist organizations have, I would suggest changing the Constitution, itself, to combat them is entirely unnecessary, but that's just me.
 
I don't know if people read the OP, but the university didn't invite him nor "give him a venue", as some are complaining about, he booked the space and paid for it, himself, and public universities are basically precluded from taking action against this kind of thing on grounds of speech due to all the public funding they receive. The only reason they were able to cancel it was the threat of violence breaking out.

You will quite literally have to revise the first amendment if you want to stop these speaking events from happening at all, and good luck with that considering plenty who despise these fucks would nevertgeless oppose you in such efforts (myself included).

Why would you oppose disallowing hate speech at higher education institutions?
 
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