A Sense of Doubt blog post #2312 - You are invited to DO A COUP

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2312 - You are invited to DO A COUP


Increasingly, people are losing their sense of humor. I want to say this is an epidemic JUST among Republicans, but it seems to have infected many Democrats, too.

But we have to LAUGH because this shit is getting more and more RIDICULOUS.

Before I explain, I want a moment to express how much I HATE binary thinking. There's a reason that OVER-SIMPLIFICATION is one of the most insidious logical fallacies.

This idea that there are two camps is just as stupid as some of the rhetoric being pandered.

But this is where we are. As it was EASIER, to promote the idea that biological sex and gender are the same so as to be able to market, simply, to boys associated with blue things and girls associated with pink things (even though prior to the 1950s, these color associations were reversed), it is easier to push Republicans and conservatives into a separate camp and Democrats and liberals into the other camp as if ALL Republicans believe the same things and ALL Democrats believe diametrically opposite things.

This kind of thinking is SO STUPID, AND it is going to lead to SOME KIND OF CIVIL WAR if we do not stop the trajectory now.

Because I would hope that not even FOX NEWSIES believe this BULLSHIT:

Tucker Carlson roasted for suggesting the FBI was behind the Capitol insurrection

‘Tucker is all performance. No art,” said tweet in response to claims that Media Matters For America called a ‘bizarre conspiracy theory’

So, we have to laugh. Because that's some ridiculous BULLSHIT, which is why I love THE WONKETTE. The site and its writers believe in laughter and in snark. THANK ECLIPSE FOR THE SNARKY HUMOR.

And so, today's WONKETTE shares such humor and snark based on a happening that WAS HILARIOUS.

Third year law student at Stanford distributed "fake" flyers on campus inviting people to "Do a Coup" sponsored (allegedly) by campus organizations.

THIS IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF SHIT I WOULD HAVE DONE!!!!

In fact, I did things like this. ALL THE TIME.

I fucking love it.

Thankfully, we have the Internet now, so this kind of brilliant comedy can be shared far and wide as can the outrage when Stanford tried to withhold this brilliant student comic and rebel's LAW DEGREE.

Happily, STANFORD LAW did the right thing in the end.

A Stanford student bashed the Federalist Society with a satirical flier. He nearly missed getting his diploma.

Stanford Law School drops threat to withhold law student's graduation diploma after he wrote satirical flier mocking Sen. Josh Hawley and Texas AG Ken Paxton for 'inciting the Capitol riot'

Stanford Law Eats Sh*t Protecting Rightwing FedSoc Jerkoffs From Hilarious Mean Guy

Jamie Lynn Crofts

June 03, 2021 03:05 PM

 

Oh look, the people who screech about "cAnCeL cUlTuRe!!1!" are trying to squash free speech they don't like again.

On January 25, Stanford Law 3L (that's "third year law student") Nicholas Wallace sent a fantastic email to the school's listserv, promoting a fake Federalist Society event on January 6 called "The Originalist Case for Inciting Insurrection," featuring Josh Hawley and Ken Paxton.

The students at Stanford's Federalist Society chapter responded by asking to speak to the manager. Rather than take the loss after Wallace's hilarious email, three of the Stanford FedSoc officers complained to the administration, claiming Wallace had "clearly impersonated the Stanford Federalist Society" and "defamed the student group, its officers, Senator Josh Hawley, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton." The students also said they, "as officers of the organization, feel that our individual reputations have been harmed," but I'm pretty sure that line was actually meant for Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, Ken Paxton, and all of the other far-Right loons who tried to stage a coup earlier this year.

Honestly, if the FedSoc letter to the administration had also been a parody of the Federalist Society, it would have been hilarious. Unfortunately, it was all too real — and almost prevented Wallace from graduating with the rest of his class. Apparently the law students in the Stanford Federalist Society didn't see what a self-indictment it was for them to point out that people might think an email saying things like, "Although widely believed to conflict in every way with the rule of law, violent insurrection can be an effective approach to upholding the principle of limited government" and "riot information will be emailed the morning of the event" was promoting a real FedSoc event.

This week, civil rights group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) got involved, sending a letter to Stanford about its fuckery. Stanford is a private school, so the First Amendment doesn't apply the way it would to, say UC Berkeley, but California law and Stanford's own policies do. In 1992, California passed the "Leonard Law," which requires secular private colleges to follow the same standards as public schools. (California is the only state with a law like this on the books.) Stanford's policies also say that students can't be disciplined for speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

Wallace's email is clearly protected speech, and it's shameful that it took anyone at Stanford Law more than 20 minutes to come to that conclusion. Parody and satire are protected speech and not defamatory, as courts keep telling Devin Nunes. But instead of stamping the whiny FedSoc letter "LOLNOPE, return to sender," Stanford decided, in the middle of finals, to make Wallace navigate the school's judicial process and to tell him that he wouldn't be graduating.

Thankfully, FIRE's letter and a piece at Slate stirred up a whole lot of rage at Stanford — and last night, the university capitulated, saying Wallace would graduate on time. After the announcement, Wallace sent out another listserv email, this time thanking his fellow students for their support and saying he hopes "to work with Stanford in the little time I have left to make sure that no other student is subjected to an abuse of process in this way again, and to develop better protections for students' freedom of expression," adding a post-script that this email was not satire.

Causing trouble on the listservs is part of going to law school in the 21st century, and Nicholas Wallace played his part masterfully. This former Northwestern Law listerv troll says A+ trolling abilities — and keep fighting for what's right. (And if this is all it takes to almost not graduate at Stanford Law, I wouldn't have lasted three weeks.)

[ The Email / FedSoc Letter / FIRE Letter / Slate ]

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2106.17 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2176 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.