I don’t want to be a boring old fart who constantly bitches about the younger generation. So I’ll just relate the facts.

The neoliberal administrator is giving a big talk today. He announces a tuition hike, and major additional cuts in personnel, course offerings, and every single service we offer. Really brutal stuff. The union leaders, the faculty respond trying to explain why this is a terrible idea.

Then a student gets up to speak. Given that I’m a naive, sweet summer child with retardation-level ingenuity, I thought she’d say, “Excuse me but why should I pay more in tuition to get less in return?” Our students don’t come from wealth. They don’t even come from solid middle class. They all work, they all carry college loan debt. So you’d think they should care about tuition hikes.

Well, ha ha.

The student says, “I don’t mind paying more in tuition but not if I keep being exposed to hate crimes on campus.”

Which hate crime has this young, white, female student experienced on our campus?

The visit by a local preacher who usually shows up around Easter to talk about Jesus in front of the library.

This is the first time the neoliberal administrator is giving a talk since last June, and this absolute tool is wasting the very limited Q&A time to bleat about the bloody preacher. I mean, you know? Obviously, the administrator seized on the subject of this atrocious hate crime with glee because he doesn’t want to answer real questions. Now his argument that students don’t mind austerity has proof.

And I’m thinking, you know what? I already have every degree I wanted. I have zero debt. My family has an excellent income. My kid is guaranteed free college tuition anywhere in the state. And a good college fund for out of state schooling. I’m sitting pretty by any measure. Why should I care about these people when they don’t care about themselves?

I got up and left. Let them boil in outrage over the preacher as they get robbed. I received a big translation order, so I’m going to go work on that, make more money. It’s impossible to keep caring for people who are so deluded.

Russians release videos of atrocities they commit at strategic moments. The atrocities are a daily occurrence but the release of the videos is always timed.

Here’s what explains the explosion in torture and beheading videos right now:

The Russian offensive that started in November failed. It failed so badly that even domestically it can’t be sold as anything but a mega defeat. The only person on the planet who still believes this offensive can be turned around is Tucker Carlson.

Now Ukraine is preparing a counteroffensive. Russians are terrified of it. All they talk about on their propaganda TV is this counteroffensive. So they engage in psychological warfare to sap Ukrainians’ psychological resources by releasing these videos. Ukrainians get angry, they feel devastated, and leek energy.

There’s a lesson in this. People who want to take away something important from us always try to sap our energy first. They do outrageous things, we react angrily, and then they are in a stronger position to go after what they really want.