Texas tenured professor fired for “inciting violence”

I mean we wouldn’t want anybody in a position of any prominence to advocate overthrowing the duly elected government of the United States, would we? The next thing you know we could have a mob marching on the Capitol.

A Texas State University professor was fired on Wednesday after he was accused of inciting violence in a video of him speaking at a socialism conference posted on social media.

In a video circulated on social media platform X, Thomas Alter, an associate history professor, can be seen talking during a Zoom meeting as part of the Revolutionary Socialism Conference, an online meeting organized by several socialist groups. During his talk, Alter explains how he feels socialists in the United States can organize an effective party, and criticizes the Democratic Party, the Democratic Socialists of America, China and anarchists for their methods of organization.

The video circulated on X cuts one portion of Alter’s speech in half, during which he criticized “insurrectional anarchists” for their method of protesting, urging organization into a party to better reach people. In the full speech posted on YouTube, he notes that some anarchists have faced jail time for their methods of protest, praising their efforts but questioning whether they can achieve their goals.

“While their actions are laudable, it should be asked, to what purpose do they serve?” Alter said during his speech, which is not included in the video posted on X. The second portion of his statement is included. “Without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven, mad organization in the history of the world — that of the United States?”

It would be nice if the person getting their tenure rights revoked with approximately zero due process didn’t sound like a parody of an idiot leftist, but there’s a Larger Point here, which is that Texas is full of fascistic morons:

Texas State University President Kelly Damphousse announced Alter was fired after the university was made aware of comments he made at the conference, which Damphousse said constituted “serious professional and personal misconduct.” Damphousse said in the statement the university thoroughly reviewed the video posted publicly for their assessment. Damphousse did not specify what comment Alter made that violated university policy.

“Conduct that advocates for inciting violence is directly contrary to the values of Texas State University,” Damphousse said. “I cannot and will not tolerate such behavior.”

Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall commended Alter’s firing in a post on X, and also said the university would not “tolerate conduct by any employee intended to incite violence.” McCall specifically pointed to Alter’s claim about overthrowing the United States as misconduct.

“Video recordings made public this week in which a Texas State University professor advocated for the overthrow of our government are inconsistent with our shared values and demonstrate egregious personal and professional misconduct,” McCall said in the statement.

President Kelly Damphousse talks like a particularly defective Large Language Model rather than an actual human being — “conduct that advocates for inciting violence,” as opposed to actually inciting violence, is not even putatively illegal — and Lord High Chancellor Brian McCall doesn’t sound like a rocket surgeon either.

If you want to get all legal about it, “inciting violence” is a very narrowly defined offense, in that it requires both an intent to produce imminent lawless action, and be likely to produce such action. Offering vague hypotheticals about political strategy at a Zoom conference attended by a handful of people doesn’t come with three parsecs of meeting that standard, but of course that’s not the point here. The point is to terrorize people into not saying anything that lunatics like Laura Loomer can post on social media, in order to whip the fascist mob into a censorious frenzy.

That the actual president of the United States actually was guilty on January 6, 2021 of inciting violence for the precise purpose of overthrowing the government seems . . . what is the word I’m looking for here?

Dark times ahead.