Trinity’s Militant Movement Is Just Plain Mean

Samuel Taishoff ’22
Staff Writer

I’m sure that anyone reading this article is already familiar with the Churchill Club (a small group of students who wish to get together and study Western civilization and culture). However, many students are unaware of the hate group that has been founded in response to the club. This group appears to have sprung up sometime during the week of Apr. 7th to the 13th and refers to itself as the Militant Movement.

Their goal appears to be to socially exile, attack, and bully members of the Churchill Club and the Churchill Institute through venomous posters and hurtful rumors. I’d like to make it very clear that I strongly condemn all forms of hate. This is no exception. I believe this movement is one of the most vicious and ultimately cruel movements that this school has seen in a very long time.

I believe this for a variety of reasons, but the most pressing is their methods of attack. They hung posters with pictures of students and adults who are members of the club or institute with a caption saying “The new face of racism is just as ugly as the old.” To attack people in such a direct and shameless matter is utterly detestable, but they refuse to stop there.

They have made several other posters which include fake racist emails, attacks on western civilization, and even a few posters that seem to be asking for some sort of call to arms for a protest against the club. Many of these can be found simply by searching the “militant movement” on Instagram.

One of the first examples of the Militant Movement that I saw was a poster hanging outside my dorm at 4 am on Wednesday, Apr. 10th. The poster featured a doctored email with words that were taken out of context from an article by the Churchill Club. When I first saw it, I had to do several double takes and even had to ask some of my friends what it was about.

One of my friends directed me to the Trinity Young Democrat’s Instagram page which included a post with the Militant Movement hashtag in which the 3 leaders of the Young Democrats were featured. They had writing on their hands that read “We are the majority” and “Militant Student.” Their language implies a resistance to any ideology that differs from their own.

For anyone unaware, or too lazy to look it up, a “Militant” is defined as “a person who is combative and aggressive in support of a political or social cause, and typically favors extreme, violent, or confrontational methods.” While there is no proof that the Militant Movement at Trinity is pursuing acts of violence, this definition must be something that we keep in mind.

While it may be unclear as to who the mastermind is behind this hate group, their members are easily identifiable both on Instagram and on security footage around campus. While I am not making any calls to arms against them, I strongly encourage Trinity to put a stop to this. To let a hate group of this caliber run free at Trinity simply shows that the administration is too afraid to step in. I would like to commend Dean Joe however, for his email which calls for the end of the bullying and discrimination against members of the Churchill Club.

I personally hope that over the summer, everyone is able to just calm down and realize there is no harm that will come from having the Churchill Club on our campus. They are just a group of students who want to study a subject and be part of a larger group. Clubs at Trinity are very rarely able to do something that influences the direction of the school. Furthermore, I can say with a rather sound mind, that there is no chance Joanne Berger-Sweeney would let this campus become anything less than the amazingly diverse and intellectual community that currently exists.