I stand with Palestine, and the rare spaces our public can spend time and educate themselves. Genocide is depressing. Hurting books makes me sad.
Source: Portland State in midst of expensive, ‘marathon’ race to repair damaged library before fall classes begin
PS: we appreciate the smartass answers as well for much-needed comic relief
Well, you wouldn’t know it from the article, but the protestors had a specific goal: get the university to divest its investments in Intel due to their close ties to Israel. The threat of it being fucking expensive and disruptive if they don’t do that is one of many possible tactics they had available.
Whether or not that’s a good idea or an effective one is a completely different discussion, but they’re not doing it because they hate books. They’re doing it because the books cost a lot to replace and it’s very disruptive to business as usual.
If it makes you feel any better, in sections where current information changes rapidly (law, technology, medicine, etc) these books were destined to be discarded and destroyed within a few years anyway. Universities throw away or recycle a ton of books every year, often because literally nobody wants them.
It’s not what I would have chosen to do, but I also can’t really fault teenagers and young adults being a little over the top about an ongoing genocide that in their view their university is indirectly financially benefiting from.