• davel@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    How is that relevant? Political dissidents like Omali Yeshitela and journalists like Assange have also been persecuted before, but why point it out?

    Honestly it sounds like you may be trying to make excuses for these attacks on student protestors by claiming that they’re an inevitable force of nature. That it’s always been this way and always will be. Nothing to see here, move along. Hopefully that’s not what you’re trying to do.

    And no, the state is not persecuting students for thinking, it’s persecuting them for the same reason it’s persecuting Yeshitela and Assange: for expressing things it would rather not have expressed.

    • MewtwoLikesMemes@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      How is that relevant?

      It’s relevant because it seemed like you were saying that students being prosecuted for protests and other things was a recent phenomenon. I was merely saying that’s not the case.

      Honestly it sounds like you may be trying to make excuses for these attacks on student protestors by claiming that they’re an inevitable force of nature. That it’s always been this way and always will be. Nothing to see here, move along. Hopefully that’s not what you’re trying to do.

      Not at all. I’m not making excuses for either party. I was merely under the impression that you were saying prosecution of students was a relatively modern phenomenon, and was stating it was not.

      And no, the state is not persecuting students for thinking, it’s persecuting them for the same reason it’s persecuting Yeshitela and Assange: for expressing things it would rather not have expressed.

      Both are true, honestly. Universities have often been hotbeds of alternative viewpoints, and these are largely caused by said universities naturally having cultures of free intellectual thought. Establishments throughout history have generally not liked the resulting alternative viewpoints and thus have prosecuted them. For one reason or another, for good or ill. I’m making no judgement here one way or the other.; I’m merely making a statement.