this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
903 points (97.1% liked)

Microblog Memes

5873 readers
3026 users here now

A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.

Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.

Rules:

  1. Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
  2. Be nice.
  3. No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
  4. Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.

Related communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] norimee@lemmy.world 191 points 2 months ago (2 children)

And to think that you guys pay to be there. Imagine loading yourself with massive student debt for a place that stocks up on weapons as if its at war with you.

They are right. I can't wrap my head around it.

[–] Omgarm@lemmy.world 62 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I am glad my biggest worries as a student were if I wasn't failing any classes and not how many weapons the university was buying to control the student body.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago

Hey Jones! If you fail one more test, I'll have you taken out the back and shot!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 131 points 2 months ago (11 children)

I'm an Indiana University alum and my dad was a professor there. During the protests there, they had a fucking sniper on the roof. The protests were in a park next to the student union which had been used for protests since the Vietnam War. I was there in middle school in a shanty that was protesting the 1990s Gulf War. Now the new semester has started and there's a chain link fence around the whole thing.

The president just got a raise.

Makes me fucking sick.

Here's the sniper:

I used to climb up to that roof where that sniper is with friends when I was in high school to smoke weed, so that was a trip to see.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 112 points 2 months ago (4 children)

European here. "Pepper munitions" aren't military weaponry as they're banned for use in war by the Chemical Weapons Convention. This all reads like riot control stuff. The only weird thing is that american universities have their own police departments.

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Private railroad companies also have their own police departments.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place 91 points 2 months ago (8 children)

How is a private entity allowed to buy military grade weaponry to use against their students?

Oh right... 'Merica. You guys have a problem with weapons, a problem no civilized country has. But then again, we're not talking about a civilized country but a capitalism ruled country.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There are plenty of capitalist countries where this sort of shit doesn't happen.

[–] ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place 41 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Because none of them are ruled by capitalism. Capitalism is their economic system, not their government system.

[–] synapse1278@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Because none of them are ruled by capitalism.

I with you were right...

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] HamsterRage@lemmy.ca 31 points 2 months ago

Don't say, "against their students", say, "against their customers". Which makes it sound even more ridiculous.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] cheddar@programming.dev 57 points 2 months ago

"to escalate its warfare on its students"

Yep, my mind doesn't understand this phrase at all.

[–] ManuLeMaboul@lemmy.world 54 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

The french gendarmerie recently received a new vehicle, it's a tank equipped with a machine gun and 40mm grenade launcher. They're deployed in our colony, Caledonia, to enforce an apartheid. They were also used against ecology protesters recently. Last year, a racist cop murdering a kip sparked revolts, anti-terorism units were deployed and shot kids with 12 gauge shotguns. It's not just america, the rich and powerful are at war with the people everywhere.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s not just america, the rich and powerful are at war with the people everywhere.

The timing is so weird to me. Like they've been amassing riches and power for decades...why did they decide to escalate the conflict now? Do they really believe that a revolution is coming or something? They are continually winning a bloodless propaganda battle to keep accumulating wealth and let everyone else starve, yet they keep escalating things. It's bizarre to behold.

[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago

The inequality is worse than it has been in over a century, people are living closer to the edge than ever, employers are taking the piss at this point, and climate change is beginning to sting. All this is to say that it's not just the workers feeling the pinch - it's the petite bourgeoisie too. That scares capital enough to arm themselves more, but not enough to start making concessions.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] rtxn@lemmy.world 46 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"American universities turn into concentration camps" was not on my bingo card for 2024.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone 32 points 2 months ago
[–] Zip2@feddit.uk 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Not American so not up to speed on what’s going on…

Are these students that are protesting doing it with tanks, machine guns, grenades, planes? Are they being at all non-peaceful? Has anyone been killed?

Aren’t they protesting about the arms supplied to Israel and being used against Gazans?

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You don't understand, they have signs. Signs. And they shout. Better buy some bear spray.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago

All paid by every increasing tuition

[–] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

RIP to all of the Freshmen.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

May the odds be ever in their favor

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 2 months ago

PR rules the world. Can’t allow free speech and protest if it might draw attention.

Better to show overwhelming military force on domestic college students at the first sign of protest. Keep it from spreading.

[–] cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

UC Merced annual training required only 7 rounds, while UC San Francisco used 7000 and UC Santa Barbara used 9000 🤔

Shoutout to UC Davis for having the only police department on the list who "did not use any military equipment during this timeframe".

For some reason the linked PDF varies from the screenshot in several ways, though most of the numbers are the same. (UC Riverside's number of rounds of .556-range ammunition used in training is 3000 in the screenshot but 6000 in the PDF now.)

I was curious how much this launcher costs:

screenshot of PDF linked by OP, saying Requests For Category 14 – Kinetic Energy Weapons and Munitions • UCLA is requesting to purchase (4) FN Herstal 303 launchers, (4) Pepper Ball VK-SBL, (3,000) FTC Pava Capsaicin Rounds, (100) Rounds of Def-Tec 40mm munitions (Model #6320) and (300) rounds of Def-Tec 40mm munitions (Model #6325).

... over here I see this glorified paintball gun is normally $2400 but currently on sale for just $1850.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] EgoNo4@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago

Fucking excuse me?

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

LRAD is some fucked up shit, btw. (Part of the large family of sonic weapons)

An LRAD can thus emit a targeted "beam" of sound at very high volume, up to 160 dB at one meter from the device. This is louder than standing behind a jet engine taking off, or a nearby gunshot.[2]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_acoustic_device

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

All protests should be armed protests.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What do you think you fire the 40mm munitions out of?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Guess campus protests require AR-15s now. If the cops don't like it they're free to cut the shit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Apprehensive_Crab@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Do we think part of why this is happening is because Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are in bed with academia

[–] Draghetta@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago

When the university buys an f35 we can talk about it, this is small arms.

load more comments
view more: next ›