the true evil lies with fascism and the *ssholes who put these institutions and people in the awkward position in the first place.
People reaction pressure and extortion in different ways. Some stand up for principle, others do what they feel they need to do to survive.
Standing up for principle is admirable, but often fruitless or even counterproductive. Most end up caving and just trying to survive.
The holocaust is full of stories of people standing up, caving, or finding uncomfortable compromises. Most of the time, the nazi machine was overwhelmingly strong and vicious, and anyone who stood up would only get themselves and the rest of their family killed. So most just tried to quietly comply and not stand out.
A few Jews were pressed into service of sorts, becoming effectively nazi collaborators within concentration camps. Some even sought such a role. On the one hand, this was evil in that they helped the nazis run the camps. On the other hand, they were in a position to occasionally save a life or two.
The reality is that standing up, for the most part, is only effective at certain specific strategic points. The Warsaw ghetto uprising became an early inspiration. But many other acts of defiance were met with a quick death and few left to tell the story.
It's easy for us in the cheap seats to pine for heroes to stand up. It's much harder to be that hero. What's needed is an organized response, and we still lack that infrastructure.
As to the present scenario, odds aren't great for a columbia university to recover what they gave up. Even if we have a democratic president next term, they'd still face many trump judges and a definantly trumpy Supreme Court. Even if we win the trifecta, a reparations law might be tough to pass or very limited, as many democrats may not have much sympathy for those who caved.
And the courts might kill any such executive order.
I think they're just doing what most do when they get extorted or sued. They settle and try to move on.
To be clear, I very much wish more institutions would give Donnie a big f.u., and I would much prefer a future democratic administration to make heroes whole before those who caved.
I find it frustrating and annoying that the biggest f.u. so far has been South Park. Those guys are not democrats and they're no fans of liberals. During this latest episode, cartman voiced what I'm sure parker and stone were feeling -- that Donnie's anti-woke campaign is taking all the fun out of bashing liberals, which was what they thought made them special. It seems the only reason they're bashing trump now is because now that's the fun contrarian thing to do, and they didn't disagree with donnie until he went "too far in the other direction".
Not exactly the heroic motivation I would hope for, though I'll take what I can get.
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