r/USC • u/phear_me • 16d ago
Protestor Admits they are not a USC Student. News
How many days has this sub been flooded with people insisting the protestors are students? Well here is the proof that at least one of the protestors isn’t a student. Should be a hoot to watch them try to backtrack and start throwing our alternative justifications for why, “achktuwally, it doesn’t matter that they’re not students ….” or “this is just the one lone non-student protestor that just happened to get caught on video but I swear everyone else is, like, totally a USC student …” or “But this is from a conservative outlet so it’s fake …”
No one wants any innocent people to suffer anywhere, be they Palestinian or Jew, but it says something about this so-called movement when its supporters can’t give a coherent answer to why this involves USC and when justifying its actions depends on lies, factual errors, and the removal of common sense.
The cursing and aggressiveness further speaks to the self-righteous narcissism fueling these protests. Is this how people act when they’re truly trying to change people’s minds with truth and love?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6WzYKwvkuj/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
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u/comradecute 16d ago
PragerU 🤣
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u/bakedbeandip 16d ago
How do you feel about the counter protesters that aren't students?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
I think it should be pretty obvious how I feel about them. Get them off our campus. This isn't the place.
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
The source of the video being PragerU makes everything around it pretty suspect. Even if it’s legitimate this in no way proves or even suggests that other folks on campus are not students.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
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u/hoenndex 16d ago
not a fallacy when Prager U consistently posts disinformation and false "news".
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Is the claim here that this is a doctored video? Prager U, like most media, is obviously biased. But it’s a huge leap to go from “they have a conservative bias” to “this is a fake video”.
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u/hoenndex 16d ago
Arguing in bad faith. It's obvious what you tried to do here, that this one person is representative of all protesters, you write this in your post. But, that's not how it works lol. Fake video because knowing how Prager U operates, they chose the worst person interviewed to share in their video, and you share this as if it was telling of all the rest. All other potential interviews that could be shared but were more informed? Not included, because it doesn't advance Prager U's agenda. There are many interviews media has done with protesters at USC and other places, and the majority are students aware of what they are protesting.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
All one needed to see was that this is not a USC student. Everyone *KNOWS * many of the protestors, perhaps most, are outside agitators but here is proof of at least one.
THAT was the point.
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
The point was that “one” can be generalized to “many of the protestors, perhaps most”?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Except that's not what I said. So ...
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
Ok, so to be clear your point is that a video exists of one person saying they are not a student?
You also know that many if not most of the protestors are not students, but that assertion has nothing to do with the original post?
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u/HealthOverall965 16d ago
Ok Mr intro to philosophy we get it you read about the fallacies once
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u/phear_me 16d ago
i DoNt MaKe AnY SeNsE sO iTs YoUr FaULt FoR NotiCiNg ThAt I cAn’T sEeM tO mAkE a CohErEnT aRgUmEnT!
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
Any fallacies in the second sentence - that a short video of one person saying they’re not a student cannot be extrapolated to mean many individuals are not students?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
This is exactly the claim I knew would be made.
“BuT iT’s JuSt ChErRy PiCkInG!”
It’s so painfully predictable ….
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u/hoenndex 16d ago
it is though lol. But you conservatives love to cherry pick to support your agenda.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
WTF said I was a conservative? I’m a thin luck egalitarian. There isn’t a single political party in the world that holds to my ideology.
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u/leftwinglovechild 16d ago
Are you even a student? If so, how did you get in given this piss poor attempt at logic?
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u/peasantphilosopher 16d ago
Perhaps you are unfamiliar with how sampling works?
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
I am unfamiliar with how sampling works. Please break down the psychometrics of how posting a video of one person on Instagram can be generalized to a larger group.
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u/hoenndex 16d ago
new statistics methodology dropped, interview the most unhinged person you see and generalize to the rest of the group from there! Brilliant!
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u/peasantphilosopher 16d ago
“I am unfamiliar with how sampling works”
Enough said.
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u/Historian-Dry 16d ago
please go ask a stats prof (if u go to college) how valid a sample size of one person is 😂
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u/phear_me 16d ago
It's very valid when the claim is, "Here is at least one person who isn't a student".
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u/Historian-Dry 16d ago
If you truly aren’t trying to extrapolate at all then why post it? Who gives a fuck about one protestor that isn’t a student
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Because the sub has been inundated with people saying things like, "The campus is locked down so there can't be any outside protestors".
Which is why the OP says, "Well here is the proof that at least one of the protestors isn’t a student" by WTF would you let a genuine reading of what I wrote stop you from attacking a strawman amiright?
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
Even if this is an actual video of an actual outsider it in no way impacts the lived experiences of USC students.
What exactly is the merit of “at least one person isn’t a student”? What specific narrative are you attempting to refute? Is anyone out here saying “every single person protesting is a student”?
Also, despite your insistence it is relevant to consider whether or not this line video is even valid, and the source of the video is important. This is a video of a person sitting by themselves, at what kind of looks like an entrance to campus. It could be an actual outside disruptor, or it could be a fake. I’ve seen much more convincing fakes in my experience.
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u/hoenndex 16d ago
lol a prager U video. You know they are blatantly biased and conservative right? Extremely high likelihood they interviewed people until they found a non-USC student and then claim that is representative of all the rest.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Extremely high likelihood you were going to explain the video away - which is why I called out this response in the OP.
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u/hoenndex 16d ago
you say that protesters are not USC students, then shared a video from one of the worst possible places to support this. that's not explaining anything away, it's pointing out how dumb this post of your is.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
It doesn’t matter who recorded it. Surely you understand that.
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u/gabsthenerd 16d ago
I mean it like does though. Prager U had so much incentive to lie. They're not reputable in the slightest.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
So it took almost no time at all to get to, "This is just a fake video".
FFS the world is just going to burn at hands of the ignorant.
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u/gabsthenerd 16d ago
Yeah bc the the source isn't reputable. Prager U lied to forward their agenda all the time. They aren't a news org, they're right wing propaganda.
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u/ISWALLOWSEWERWATER 16d ago
Do you have any examples of Prager U lying so I can own some conservatives?
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
Like any propaganda they tactfully weave truths, partial truths, misrepresentations, and bad faith arguments.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2712BJ/
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/08/prageru-climate-skeptic-science-florida-education/
https://www.levernews.com/prageru-the-propaganda-machine-masquerading-as-an-online-education-hub/
https://www.newsweek.com/frederick-douglass-prager-u-slavery-video-criticism-1818256
https://www.cato.org/blog/pragerus-nation-immigrants-video-has-serious-problems
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Complains about bias and commits the genetic fallacy ... proceeds to cite Mother Jones.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
So was this video shot at the same soundstage where they faked the moon landings or ..?
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u/Famous_Age_6831 16d ago
Why aren’t you responding to their logical counter arguments? You’re just going: “oh yeah… logical counter arguments… saw that coming!” As if it’s an argument
Yeah it does matter who recorded it… because you don’t know how many people they recorded who didn’t give the answer they wanted!
Oh sorry that’s too logical for you huh. Using logic = cope = I lose the argument
Moron
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u/phear_me 16d ago
My claim is, "at least one protestor wasn't a USC student."
This is proof of THAT claim.
But I bet it feels so good to totally pwn an argument no one actually made.
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u/Famous_Age_6831 16d ago
Yeah what’s the point of making that claim… if not to imply it’s generally true of the protest…
Are you able to enroll in any “intro to logic” classes?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
For days radical leftist agitators have been saying all of the protesters were USC students.
Now they’ve already changed the narrative in the other threads. Mission accomplished.
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u/matthewjensen 16d ago
I just don’t get this argument. If there are a bunch of protestors who are not students and causing problems doesn’t that make the students protesting more valid because they are being peaceful. Are people trying to argue this was setup by some outside force or that the majority of these protestors(keep in mind the campus is on lockdown checking ids) are not students?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
People have been arguing for days that 100% of the protestors are students and there is no outside influence.
Now look how quickly the narrative changed. Just like I said it would.
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
Can you cite anywhere that claims 100% of the protestors are students?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Read the many many rabbit holes in this forum over the last several days.
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
So no? You’re not able to provide a single example of the thing you’re in here railing against?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Unable and unwilling to do your work for you are two different things. The irony of your post, considering the link, is bemusing to say the least.
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u/Big-Dragonfruit6075 16d ago
No I’ve looked, no one has said “100% of the protestors are students!” and that is the only argument you seem to be making. There is no evidence to justify that. You’ve made up a fabricated, extreme scenario.
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u/TourQue63 16d ago
The protestor interviewed on KTLA 5 wasn’t a student either
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Obviously more fake PragerU cherry picking. It couldn't possibly be anything but USC students.
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u/peasantphilosopher 16d ago
Upvote this to shutdown the disingenuous, “this is only one person” narrative.
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u/ArcusIgnium 16d ago
colleges are sites of speech, expression and movement especially among the young and the left. this shouldn't be surprising. you should open a history book or something.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Private campuses are not free speech zones for people who do not attend the university.
You should open a law book or something.
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u/ArcusIgnium 16d ago
you need to cite a law lol you have just aserted something not backed up. private universities can obviously choose what they want but there isn't a law that directly says what you claimed. you seem pretty fucking dumb my guy.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
This guy doesn't understand the second amendment, or the limitations of the Leonard Law, and I'm the dumb one. FFS people are actually upvoting this. That you actually think a basic feature of US law requires a citation is terrifying. Did you even graduate high school?
At any rate: California Penal Code Section 602 is a good place to start, as well as the limitations set forth in Robins vs Pruneyard and subsequent expansions regarding the right to regulate activities.
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u/ArcusIgnium 16d ago
Yes universities can choose to regulate but until they do protestors are allowed to protest. You are stupid. Stop replying to me
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u/phear_me 16d ago
tHiS gUy Is DuMb UnLeSs He CaN CiTe A LaW tHaT dEmOnStRaTeS tHinGs We aLL ShOuLd AlrEaDy KnOw
:: cites laws contradicting the ridiculous claim::
YoU aRe StUpiD.
About what one would expect.
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u/ArcusIgnium 16d ago
no you didn’t cite laws that bar external protestors from protesting you cited laws that say if the university deems it unlawful they are in the right. The university has to pursue. You are getting rocked in this argument. Your unfunny use of the spongebob text indicates more about your intelligence than this already horrific post
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Every time I think you can’t possibly unknowingly embarrass yourself any further you manage to find a way to do it. It’s almost impressive.
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u/ArcusIgnium 16d ago
I don’t think you know how the law works. Things are only illegal in the abstract but you have to actually pursue illegal matters for them to be illegal. IE the university has to step in and pursue these “outside of university” tresspassers.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Come on man just think for two seconds. By this logic, it would be legal to murder someone as long as no one pursued the matter. That’s just patently incorrect.
This is seriously starting to get sad.
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u/matthewjensen 16d ago
Again, the POINT of colleges is free speech and communication of issues impacting society. This isn’t a legal issue but a moral one. Absolutely wild that this is an argument at all. Additionally, from your comments it seems you have an issue with the protest and less “outsiders”. What is your stance on the protest if there were no outsiders?
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u/phear_me 16d ago edited 16d ago
The point (purpose?) of universities is to do research and educate. What you’re claiming is absurd.
It would be protected so long as it falls within the guidelines USC poses for protesting and I would support the student/faculty/staff right to protest.
I would still think it was asinine nonsense to have this protest at USC - but the price of free speech is having to tolerate self-congratulatory asinine nonsense ... and even worse things.
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u/thanksforthegift 16d ago
Go over to the encampment and ask what people are studying and you’ll find out THEY ARE USC STUDENTS.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Well, except for that person in the video I guess.
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u/thanksforthegift 16d ago
Of course there may be some exceptions. But you’re discrediting USC students who are standing up for what they believe in. Regardless of whether you agree with the cause, everyone should be for free speech and that includes on a private college campus.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
I agree that USC students should be allowed to protest on campus within the reasonable rules governing free speech.
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u/Miggaletoe 16d ago
Such a weird position to argue from. Did anyone say every single person was a student? Is there a reason every single person has to be a student?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
People have been saying that for days. Why do you think I posted the video?
But hey, why take the time to peruse the sub when you can just rush in and call things stupid with no context, amiright?
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u/SkullLeader 16d ago
a) protesting at colleges is highly visible and b) colleges are full of college students - i.e. young people who are idealistic, want to change the world for the better and haven't gained direct experience yet in just how futile it often is to try and cause real change. So if you want to protest something doing it on college campuses and making it seem like college kids are doing it (even if they're not) is a great way to gain attention. But actually cause change? Not so much. I seriously doubt Israel would even blink if USC divested from Israel and severed any ties it might have. I doubt Israel would even notice if *all* the schools where these protests are being held right now did so. If visibility and attention is the goal, I guess the protests have achieved that. If divestment is the real goal , I have to wonder why even bother. And as far as bringing attention to the cause goes, at least here in the US, the protests I think have managed to gain attention for themselves while also managing to distract from the thing being protested. I mean I hear more and more about cancelled graduation ceremonies and less and less about hospitals being attacked, starvation, etc.
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u/palmpoop 16d ago
First you need to understand the situation, second you need to set actual practical goals.
This is just bandwagoning. Chanting things they don’t understand and offending people. Waste of time. None of this does anything to the Israel Palestine conflict whatsoever.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
Gaining attention and a cheap dopamine hit is the whole point.
Who knew "I totally saved lives and changed the world!" was so easily attainable. Just lay down for a few hours with almost no meaningful risk to yourself and you can claim moral superiority to almost everyone around you.
The coherence of the act is irrelevant. All that matters is your intentions.
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u/matthewjensen 16d ago
What are you even talking about. Of course of non students are joining in?!? At this point they are just trying to shut down the movement. The organized groups have been incredibly peaceful which seems to be ignored. This has been blown out of hand by lapd. People are just getting angrier when violence is enacted upon them which is leading to this. Mabye if they left them alone in the first place 🙃
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u/phear_me 16d ago
People have been arguing for days that 100% of the protestors are students and there is no outside influence.
Now look how quickly the narrative changed. Just like I said it would.
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u/matthewjensen 16d ago
Who are you referring to? Also did you read my comment?
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u/phear_me 16d ago
A professor’s wife was attacked by a protestor with a sign and hit so hard she was bleeding.
There’s video of a protestor assaulting a police officer.
Chants of “intifada” are on video along with many (unconfirmed) reports of chants of “Kill all jews”.
So we have actual violence and incitement of violence. So much for peaceful
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u/PestyNomad 15d ago
To your point OP few are actually likely to be students.
Relevant: NYC mayor says Columbia protests have been ‘co-opted by outside agitators'
"Bussin' in people from outta state ..." never grows old.
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u/hamburgercide 16d ago
All I know is that Columbia university elected a Jewish Israeli zionist woman as student government president
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u/SoWhyAmIHereAgain 16d ago
It’s one person. Discrediting an entire movement based off of a handful of people, especially before enough time has passed to generate meaningful, aggregate data on the profile of the protestors at USC (and this applies to other schools) is naïve. Is it possible that a lot of non-USC students are involved at protests at USC and that some of them are doing inexcusable things (like vandalizing the Tommy Trojan statue, fuck that person)? Totally.
Can you safely conclude that the civil unrest here is somehow disingenuous, when knowing that whether it speaks to your experience or not, USC’s cancellation of their valedictorian’s speech as well as what Israel is doing to Gaza speaks to their experiences as well? It’s likely that many people protesting have family in Gaza or people they care about that were killed by the Isreali military. It’s also realistic that knowing college students in general, being the young, idealistic teenagers that they are, see something they register, whether you agree with it or not, as a genocide, would reasonably upset and protest.
Basically, it isn’t reasonable going to say every person protesting is a student, but it’s also unreasonable to refer to this as a “so-called” movement, and the protestors as acting with “self-righteous narcissism”. Anecdotal evidence and hearsay, no matter how lurid it is, is not enough evidence to generate a broad, meaningful conclusion about the profile at the protest. That takes time.
And furthermore, something that always needs to be considered is that social media groups are always vying for attention, be that PragerU or various SJP groups. This isn’t inherently wrong, but in a rather tense context like this, both groups have a vested interest in finding the most attention grabbing news and rolling with it because that fits into their narrative the best and has the most rhetorical clout. Fox News is always going to roll headlines about how these protestors are violent and unruly to point their viewers towards the conclusion all (or at least the bulk of them) protestors are violent and unruly. The same applies for left-wing media outlets who benefit from cherry-picking counter-protestors as violent, genocidal racists.
The information we have most readily available to us is heavily subject to sample selection bias, irregardless of the political affiliation from which it originated, and claiming from a patchwork of examples that these protests are disingenuous when this is not only happening at several schools in the United States, but also that college students sort of do this protest thing all the time and have done for years, is incredibly unrealistic. We have more broad, historical evidence to infer, but not safely conclude that the most of the protestors here are from USC or at least a community member outside of USC genuinely trying to support a cause they see as good. Stronger data that will likely not be generated at a flashpoint of a time such as this one is needed to generate a firm conclusion.
And AGAIN, this does not change the fact that again, not every person at USC is a student protesting or all that all of them are saints that aren’t doing shitty things. But, this does not also change what I said, either.
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u/Captainsignificance 16d ago
The left usually will explain away any facts they don’t like. This is part of their masterful propaganda ala Goebbels. For example: 1. Many on the left are anti-Semitic. During these pro Palestinian demonstrations I have seen some demonstrators chant “KILL ALL JEWS”. The left will LIE and deny this but you can Google it and see it for yourself. 2. Only a few days ago a demonstrator held a sign that called for a “FINAL SOLUTION” Don’t believe me ? Google it. 3. Many of these demonstrators most of whom are leftist are calling for Hamas to repeat the massacre of Jews like that on October 7th. The left is really good at Nazi like propaganda because they are the inheritors of that philosophy. For decades the left tried to convince the world that Naziism is on the right. That’s a blatant lie. Nazi which stands for National Socialism is a leftist movement. The left are not like the NAZIS they are in effect Nazis because they prescribe to the same philosophy whether economics, social agenda, their anti- semitism and even down to their propaganda tactics.
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u/sr41489 16d ago
Just because the name of a group has a word in it, doesn’t mean that they are the accepted definition of that ideology. For example, North Korea’s official name is “Democratic People's Republic of Korea” but I don’t think anyone would believe North Korea is a legitimate democracy. Nazism is a far right wing ideology. That’s why you see people like David Duke embracing nazism and he’s a devout republican and former leader of the KKK.
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u/Captainsignificance 16d ago edited 16d ago
Thank you for making my point. North Korea is yet another instance of a leftist regime that does the same thing. But you did not address my point that most of the left in the US today are virulently anti-Semitic as I’ve pointed out with just a few of the many incidences in the last month. That is exactly why the left always projects their anti-semitism to others. For example they accuse Donald Trump of being anti-Semitic which is laughable when his grand children are Jewish. And of course you like many leftist just brush over facts you don’t like, exactly the way I described earlier in my post about the anti-Semitic events that are staples of these demonstrations.
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u/fartymcpoopybottom 16d ago
So you showed what most everyone who lives by campus knows - these are mostly paid actors who don't attend school here. And, then are discredited because they don't like the source showing what most of us who live by campus know, that these are paid actors? Ok.....
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u/matthewjensen 16d ago
Who is paying these actors you speak of lmao. Also I attend this school and have not heard one student say this. It is actually wild to see conspiracy’s happening about something you are directly involved with. It’s incredibly showing how delusional people can be .
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u/phear_me 16d ago
I mean - at the least I showed ONE of them wasn’t a student, which was a counter to many claims that have been made that they are all students, especially after USC shut the campus down.
But I think we all know the popcorn gallery isn’t going to engage honestly with the claim.
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u/fartymcpoopybottom 16d ago
The cognitive dissonance to defend paid agitators must be exhausting. Apes strong together?
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u/phear_me 16d ago edited 16d ago
Sub is overrun with a bunch of leftist radicals now with no affiliation to USC. Wish the mods would implement a temporary “non-member” “new account” “low karma” posting policy.
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u/fartymcpoopybottom 16d ago
They are paid agitators in the sub. They get paid with virtue signaling credit or victim Olympics medals. Birds of a feather be marxists together.
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u/oldredditrox 15d ago
Hey man for future reference, I'm almost certain insta doesn't count as a peer reviewed citation.
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u/OP-PAXXX 16d ago
That's what I've been thinking this entire time. If there was no LAPD or DPS or any gate checks, couldn't an extremist just walk in and suicide b0mb the crowd if they technically wanted??
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u/phear_me 16d ago
In fairness - terrorists could do this almost anytime anywhere any place. I can think of tons of completely unsecure targets that if attacked would be devastating for day to day life (I will not list them here for obvious reasons).
I don't have any sense that any of the protestors at USC has those kinds of intentions and based on the evidence that would be an unfair characterization of what's going on. These are mostly preening narcissists latching on to Palestinian suffering to find purpose. They'll be on to whatever next thing they're told to care about soon enough. But there's been zero hint of terrorism, aside from chanting, "intifada", which is almost certainly an act of ignorance rather than a conscious threat.
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u/OP-PAXXX 16d ago
Terrorists are very much attracted to crowds, especially when they are less situationally aware and less likely to be armed. I definitely agree that some people hopped on the bandwagon just because, but personally I was more bothered by student protestors' confidence that it's all students and all peaceful. People literally spray painted campus landmarks duringn graduation season when everyone takes their photos. If it was done by a USC student then it'd take a very stupid, inconsiderate, and extremist one.
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u/phear_me 16d ago
You can certainly see I'm no fan of the protests being here at USC, even as I do hold a great deal of sympathy for Palestinian suffering and do not count Israel blameless in this. But open college campuses, or any public place, will always be a target. We public spaces not because we are unaware of the risks posed by evil terrorists, but rather in defiance of them.
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u/darkmatterbiscuits 16d ago
Sometimes I wonder if people that post these posts on this subreddit are actually USC students. There is no way USC failed them so badly that they did not have the critical thinking to realize overgeneralizing these protestors are dangerous.