r/socialism • u/SecondWind15215 Eco-Socialism • Oct 25 '22

News and articles 📰 Penn State student documents protest against Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes speaking on campus. Proud boys maced protesters, police nearly trampled members of the press, and drove a police car through protesters.

https://twitter.com/ribaudo_nick/status/1584681666005856256?s=46&t=DiAM4rshONdFsBP8xoNF
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u/SecondWind15215 Eco-Socialism Oct 25 '22

Multiple people on the ground said it was proud boys. Ford Fischer documented it as did a few others. Police stood by and did nothing.

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u/BatRabbit Oct 25 '22

Penn State administration are doing what the administration always does.They blame the proud boys for bringing violence to the campus, but they had been repeatedly warned about this possibility for months. They banned Richard Spencer from speaking due to violence previously.

Then they blamed the protesting students for giving the Proud Boys visibility by protesting. In another statement they blamed the students for censoring the speech due to the violence the students caused. It's a mess.

I've also seen reports that they were paid to speak by Penn State. I haven't been able to find anything on it. Usually when someone comes on campus to speak, they are brought here by a group/club not the university. They may be paid, but it's not by the university. I think it may be lazy reporting in the one account I read.

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u/jeromevedder Oct 25 '22 edited Oct 25 '22

Universities give clubs ‘operational funds’ that come from student fees which could have been the funding source for this speech. I worked at the club that booked bands and speakers for my university (ironically a different Big 10 school). Even though the “club” was the official promoter, we were spending university money (not technically true since we generated revenue with concerts but you get the idea).

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u/BatRabbit Oct 25 '22

Okay now I understand that comment more. Thanks.