Right wing authoritarianism isn’t subtle.
edit:
added context:
Here is what Ben is replying to:
Pro-Palestinian protesters a part of a group called “𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧,” vandalized a historic painting of Arthur James Balfour at Trinity College Cambridge in England.
Arthur Balfour wrote the Balfour Declaration of 1917 when he was serving as the British Foreign Minister. The letter expressed Britain’s support for a Jewish Homeland in what is now Israel.
Direct link(should work for a bit): https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1766117900644151296/vid/avc1/720x1280/pQDXaeuPY2vYbJdX.mp4?tag=14
Tired of writing this, the hand wringing over university property being compared to ~30k lives and ~600k starving people has to stop.
This painting is not some culturally important piece of art. It’s a little over 100 years old (literally painted the same year my Granddad was born), hanging in a university, of a man that was responsible for massacres in Ireland (Mitchelstown Massacre) which got him the name “Bloody Balfour”, openly said that black people should be treated worse than white people, and was a known anti-semite that brought about the Aliens Act of 1905 to try and keep Jewish people out of Britain & Ireland.
Imagine a group of Princeton students cutting up a minor painting of Jefferson Davies hanging in their halls and you get roughly the same amount of “cultural loss”.
I agree with ya, but it’s Jefferson Davis
Ahh whoops! Though I don’t feel that bad about misremembering his name 😂
Lol, valid
Damn I thought it was Davies too.
It seems to be more about the entitlement of the people representing the movement than about the art itself from what I’m seeing.
There’s clearly a major issue that needs attention, destroying a painting that’s kinda sorta related does nothing but make you look stupid and distract from the actual issues at hand as we’re seeing here. We’re talking about a painting and not about the failing hostage negotiations or the aid that desperately needs to flow…
This vandal should absolutely face criminal repercussions for this though imo. Doesn’t matter what side of the issue you’re on, what this person did was illegal and there needs to be consequences for breaking the laws of the land.
I mean, heavily related and glorifying (by being in one of the most prestigious universities in the world).
I don’t know my own mind on this. First, respecting the law of the land is not always good (see: the Holocaust and slavery) and societal justice and moral rightness aren’t the same thing. Second, they did something they believe in and should absolutely be prepared to face societal justice. That doesn’t mean I would pass a sentence myself…it’s a hard one and luckily I have no power or sway in what happens to them because I’d be deliberating with myself for hours haha
Wait, did damaging this painting really bring back the dead and save all those people in Gaza? That’s amazing, why isn’t that the lead story in the news everywhere?
It allowed a group of people tainted by association to stop being tainted by association. It created international news coverage. It highlighted dissatisfaction at one of the leading “politician” schools in the world.
Not a bad trade for a painting that isn’t even one of the ones highlighted on the dudes Wikipedia pagee.
That sounds a lot different and more nuanced than weighing the painting against the entire suffering of the Palestinian people.
I don’t particularly care about this painting, and I hope this ends up doing something positive. But I worry that it is dangerous to celebrate violence just because we like the cause.
Literally was my first line. The thing that got my goat was the comments lamenting the painting and saying they were now less sympathetic to Palestinians because a thing they had never heard of or seen before was destroyed in protest of that person’s legacy.
I find it very disingenuous to compare vandalism to violence. When a house is burning, what’s the advice people give? Leave everything behind: things can be replaced, people can’t. This painting is digitised. It’s a minor painting. There are dozens of others. Comparing its vandalism to the violence the Palestinian people are facing is what prompted me to say “nothing of value has been lost”.