Okay I misread the factor of states’ GDP as I scrambled to write this before the first pitch of the Phils game. You got me. My point was made in the sentence before which I just double checked is correct.

I did not say either of those things lol

Edit: dotcom said the ‘whole city / national media’ stuff. I said an 11-figure entity has a strong lock on everything that happens on their 10ish-block campus, including their employees. And that the children of literal billionaires and international statesmen and diplomats have a financial buffer between them and law enforcement that the children of Philadelphia do not. And I truly can’t believe any of that’s so controversial.

And I didn’t mean to imply Penn was paying for downvotes. I was deliberately insulting the members of this subreddit, like a Philadelphian.

You’re right. I already admitted that.

I see the light now. The real threat to me are the children. How could have I been so misguided?

Because I’m not allowed discuss details of cases involving students without risking future employment or my professional license. I gave examples of when I was a student - which I have no limitations on - yesterday and that comment got downvoted too.

You know what, I got mine. I have the fancy papers with the Penn emblems. I get invited to the to elitist dinners at the Union League and the exclusive cocktail hours at the Art Museum. I get asked to sit in rooms at city hall where policy is hammered out.

And I get to continue doing that because of the letters after my name and the institution that gave them to me. And I risk getting to continue to do that when I stand up for all the people I love and who love me who don’t have the fancy papers with the right combination of letters. And there’s certainly no reason to do that here.

They’re great. They’re all great. Go Penn. Evict the whole neighborhood. Back the Blue. Wawa’s right. Fuck them kids. Lock em up. Etc. Etc.

Penn has more money, in endowment - sitting there making more money, than the GDP of like 80 countries. They have more money at their disposable than more than 10x the GDP of almost every state.

They have a literally unimaginable amount of wealth AND INFLUENCE.

If kids are doing something that will hurt the university - or the donations to it - they use that influence to make it go away. Their interests are aligned.

If kids are doing something antithetical to Penn’s financial or reputational interest, the university will weaponize that money, power, and influence against them.

We don’t see the first piece. by design.

We do see the second piece. by design.

I am saying, watch how this entity operates over the next few days and weeks and months and it will give you a glimpse into how this operation works.

Do they stay on top of every single story all the time? No. Neither do most countries.

So either 1) the protest’s media narrative genuinely got the jump on them or more likely 2) they let the news cover these protests without any interference because it would eventually be in their best interest.

I genuinely don’t understand why so many people in this sub will cape so hard to protect institutions that will refuse to protect you.

Anyway this is what it looks like and you’re seeing it now because it’s in the university’s best interest.

“Hey if you work really hard and get really lucky you can get into a place like Penn and use that power to stand up for people like us”

does that

“No not like that!”

Hey remember literally yesterday I said that part of the reason the disruptive, chaotic, and criminal actions of Penn students rarely make the news is because the university uses part of their 20 billion dollar endowment as a PR mechanism to control the narrative and it got downvoted to hell?

Anyway this is what it looks like and you’re seeing it now because it’s in the university’s best interest.