Dear everyone who stopped caring,
Remember how much we’ve been reading about Pacifica Forum for the last month (partly my fault)? I have a pop quiz for you, just to see if you were paying attention.

QUESTION:
PACIFICA FORUM IS…:
A)     A Neo-Nazi Group
B)      Responsible for vandalizing LGBTQA
C)      A Free Speech Group
D)     Against feminism, homosexuality, and ethnic equality.
E)      A White Supremacist Group
F)      Responsible for the anti-Semitic note
G)     Loving, respectful, intelligent people
H)     All of the above

ANSWER KEY:
A)     If you answered (A), you get an F. They’re not Nazis, or so they claim, but they talk about Nazism sometimes. Some members could possibly be Fascist, though probably not… but Fascism doesn’t inherently come with racism, sexism and bigotry (as illustrated by Imperial Japan). So, if you’re the protester whose been holding up that “smash fascism” sign, you get an F-.
B)      If you answered (B), you get an F. Until someone’s arrested, nobody’s responsible for vandalizing LGBTQA. When someone is arrested, they (the person) will be responsible for vandalizing LGBTQA. Kind of self explanatory.
C)      If you answered (C), you get a D. Just high enough to not have to take the test ever again. Because, in truth, every group that ever talks about anything is a free speech group. Do they exist solely for the empowerment of the First Amendment? Doubtful, considering it doesn’t really need to be empowered. So if you answered (C), you kind of cheated. But at least you have deductive reasoning.
D)     If you answered (D), you get an F. Some people in Pacifica may hate lots of stuff, some may even speak about it, or be intolerant about it, but that doesn’t mean the group represents those ideals, it means some people in the group do. Kind of self explanatory. Again.
E)      If you answered (E), you get an F. Same answer as (D).
F)      If you answered (F), you get an F. Same answer as (B).
G)     If you answered (G), you don’t just get an F, you get a WTF.
H)     If you answered (H), you don’t even get a grade because you’ve been kicked out.

So, what is the answer? You’re going to laugh. I promise.

I’ve attended several Pacifica meetings now to observe. I’ve watched idiotic protesters wave signs, ring phones, cry about things that they don’t actually understand. I’ve watched idiotic Forum speakers talk about things that would be humorous to credit with validity, pathetic concepts that no thoughtful person would ever think to give assembly for. The answer, dear campus, is that Pacifica Forum is a conspiracy theory group. Yeah, maybe not all of them believe the conspiracies, maybe some of them (hopefully the ex-Professors) know more about subjective truths and just are open to housing extremist concepts. But the fact remains that these concepts are discussed. They talk about concepts that are so inherently dumb (like that MLK was a Commie, of Jews killed 66 million people in Russia—very common conspiracy theories) that it’s nothing short of funny. The group is not malicious. The group is not dangerous. The group is not trying to hurt anybody, intentionally. The group is not trying to be hateful, intentionally. It’s just that… they’re dumb. Dumb for believing conspiracy theory, or dumb for providing it a venue. Either way.

But for the love of Mary, stop protesting a bunch of conspiracy theorists. Stop giving them attention; stop validating the fact that their theories are even worth opposing. They’re not going to go away, they will continue to use their free speech and further outlandish ideas. Why can’t we all just ignore them and let them piddle away onto the backburner where they belong? Why can’t the protest just leave them alone and let them be stupid in isolation? WHY HAVE YOU EXPOSED THE REST OF US TO STUPIDITY THAT WE NEVER WANTED TO HEAR ABOUT?!

Right now the protest is conspiring about just as much bologna as the Forum by arguing with them. They have provided foul behavior and misinformation just the same. The protest has come no closer to kicking Pacifica off campus then they were on day one, so why does it continue? The actions of both of these groups are so utterly demoralizing to our faith in human-kind that it’s making us sane people lump both Pacifica members and the protest members together into a collective group that we just call “the dummies.”

And if all of “the dummies” don’t shut up about all of this pretty soon, I’m going to have to start a protest against them.

Tomorrow: Protest Pop Quiz!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 5:17 pm by Evan Patrick Thomas and is filed under Campus, Free Speech, Pacifica Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.