Around 200 Stanford students walk out as Google CEO takes stage

JumpCrisscross•about 3 hours ago

This is an effective form of protest. It causes someone who is clearly courting public affection to see they won't get it. It doesn't interrupt the speech for others who want to hear. But it's also not going to be missed by anyone at the assembly. Moreover, it communicates to the administration–who are also courting donations and prestige–that this gets more difficult when there is a massive gap on an issue students care about between them and leadership.

My only gripe is the lack of a clear ask. But perfect is the enemy of good.

SpicyLemonZest•about 2 hours ago

As the article mentions, this is the third consecutive year that students have led a walkout for the same cause. I don’t think anyone’s obligated to sit in on a speech they’d prefer to skip, but it’s not clear that there’s anything being accomplished here other than a new tradition that pro-Palestine students leave commencement early. They’re not making any new demands because the administration flatly refused the 2024 ones.

JumpCrisscross•about 2 hours ago

> it’s not clear that there’s anything being accomplished here other than a new tradition that pro-Palestine students leave commencement early

It keeps it in the news cycle. Though it was genuinely unclear to me if this was mostly a pro-Palestine thing or folks pissy about AI and the Epstein class’s public corruption.

asdfasgasdgasdg•about 3 hours ago

Is it? I have to assume that Pichai was informed beforehand that there would be a walkout. Around 10% if the class walking out is not that big of a deal, especially considering that ten percent was probably not likely to seek gainful employment with Pichai’s companies anyway.

Economically, the BDS movement is making demands of so many companies that there’s hardly a large firm or other organization in the country they don’t have a problem with. But if you are saying you’re going to boycott everyone, it means you’re not really boycotting anyone.

EA-3167•about 3 hours ago

That assumes that the real purpose of these movements is to achieve their stated goals, rather than as a social activity for people of a certain mindset. If you look at it more like a church outing it makes a lot more sense, albeit the church is really messed up.

JumpCrisscross•about 3 hours ago

They’re expressing a broad slice of gripes to a powerful person. The point isn’t to get a win. It’s to embarrass them. Make them uncomfortable. So that they then ask how to prevent that in the future.

nubinetwork•about 5 hours ago

Dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48533756

w29UiIm2Xz•about 3 hours ago

The upper middle class' opinions and reflections on business seem to be shifting in this environment. It seems less mutually beneficial than it used to be.

cowanon77•about 3 hours ago

A lot of upper middle class people recognize that AI is a direct assault on their livelihood. The very jobs that AI threatens to disrupt are the bread and butter of the upper middle class.

JumpCrisscross•about 3 hours ago

"The median family income of a student from Stanford is $167,500" [1]. Not poor. But not trust-fund rich.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobilit...:

mixmastamyk•about 2 hours ago

What percent getting financial aid?

BizarroLand•about 2 hours ago

A good majority of those will be from 2 income families, so each making about $40/hr, fairly normal in any middle class suburb near a metropolitan area.

rvnx•about 3 hours ago

Considering the price of Stanford, this is more bourgeoisie than middle class

JumpCrisscross•about 3 hours ago

> this is more bourgeoisie than middle class

The bourgeoisie are literally the middle class [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie

rvnx•about 3 hours ago

> The bourgeoisie are a social class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_class#Bourg...

There is even a funny article here: https://danielmiessler.com/blog/a-bourgeoisie-primer

There is more here: https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/hilk3e/trying...

So, if you want to play it safe, you can say, "it's the upper middle class that own the businesses and factories"

I'll give it to you

orochimaaru•about 3 hours ago

What I was about to say. I’m pretty sure most of the students walking out have a trust fund way more than what I have as savings.

josefritzishere•about 2 hours ago

Google has been doing a lot of evil lately.

Around 200 Stanford students walk out as Google CEO takes stage

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