Jezebel praises Sacramento State protesters for accomplishing nothing
May 10, 2024
It’s possible to tell what’s a good idea by seeing who supports it. Just as it’s possible to tell a bad idea by seeing who praises it. We can thus insist that Sacramento State University did something very silly, given that Jezebel is supporting it:
As of Wednesday morning, California State University Sacramento (CSUS)—one of the largest schools in the California State system—announced it would take a different approach and listen to its students’ demands for divestment from Israel.
Effectively, CSUS has given in to the activists. As we all know, once you give in to the activists then they’ll be back with further demands – they’ve seen that you will give in.
There is, however, a deeper level to this. CSUS has agreed to the following:
The university then pledged it would no longer have “direct investments in corporations and funds that profit from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights.”
The thing is, the university doesn’t really have any direct investments. Not direct investments in companies that might engage in those activities – it doesn’t, above some de minimis amount, have any direct investments. The endowment is, by US college standards (at $100 million) pretty much petty cash anyway. But more than that, it’s all either in cash or equivalents (page 15), or mutual and exchange traded funds – all of which are indirect investments in the underlying assets.
Giving into the antisemitic protesters is a bad idea. But what was actually agreed to changes absolutely nothing. So it’s a pretty cheap giving in so far. The students have achieved nothing, Jezebel is praising the students for having achieved nothing, all will continue exactly as it was before.
Which we do think is amusing. The protest that achieves nothing then declares victory. Perhaps we really do have a problem with colleges in the U.S. if this is the level of knowledge and intellect of those who attend them?