Social media can be a great thing. Information travels at warp speeds and anybody can be kept up to date about nearly any topic of their choice, which is cool. It’s also great for spreading hair-brained ideas and getting the impulsive and the clueless to run out of their homes and wander the streets over absolutely nothing.
Case in point, Ole Miss. Nothing like a having a few hundred (possibly inebriated) teenagers and young adults outside mulling around at midnight having a “This Sucks Festival” over something called Democracy.
Not that I’m against a good protest or lack spirit for what are my ideas of a “just and noble cause”, but it needs to have a purpose, a point, or something. Hell, I’m growing out a pitiful excuse of a mustache for Movenber, so obviously I’m not very picky about what it is.
Witnesses say about three dozen students were outside being disruptive, shouting racial slurs and generally being douche bags when police arrived to the scene. They ordered the students to return to their residence but ran into a little trouble.
Twitter was ablaze that the 30 person public pouting had now turned into a full-fledged riot.
Danger, civil unrest, violence, vandalism; that’s all it took to bring out hundreds of curious students to the scene. I can only imagine if the twitter feeds read “Thousands of pythons have taken over the Quad!” How many students would have ran out in their slippers to be swallowed whole by a giant reptile? Call me old fashioned, but I hear of any sort of danger… I go the other direction.
The night ended with two students being arrested, one Obama sign being set ablaze, and University President Dan Jones with the responsibility of trying to re-convince the public, “No-no, we’re not racist.”