Israel–United States relations and associated politics

[hepcat]

I’m with you, brother. I thought that Kids in the Hall skit was funny too.

[Victoria Raverna]

Republicans have joined Anti-Defamation League Director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in calling for the National Guard to disrupt pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses:



More protests:

[Zarathud]

College socialists gonna be social.

Hundreds of students is nothing. Chicago’s United Center holds 20,000 for a concert. Lollapalooza will host more than 100,000.

[Victoria Raverna]

Supporting Palestinians = hate speech?

[ImLawBoy]

Different topic: they had a rep from the Columbia University student protests on NPR this morning. She was asked repeatedly about the reports of antisemitic chants at the protests. She would only respond “I’m not here to talk about that.”. I got the sense that Jewish students are in actual danger from these people at that school.

Everything I've read is that the antisemitic stuff and potential violence is happening outside of the student protests at Columbia, and that the student protests include Jewish students and had a seder for Passover. That's part of the tricky nature of this - the student protests are relatively innocuous (as most student protests are), but they seem to be drawing outside elements that are more problematic. It's hard to hold the students responsible for the actions of the outsiders, but the outsiders are there because of the students.

[hepcat]

Well, that's good to know. The NPR interviewee probably just didn't understand how her attempts to change the subject repeatedly could come across as tacit approval of such behavior.

[LawBeefaroni]

The protests are being used by Nazi and other antisemitic actors to rile up anti-Jewish sentiment.

These naive college kids protesting (for all the right reasons, mind you) are used as cover by white nationalists and others bent on sowng chaos.

Fortunately, it doesn't always work out for them:

https://dailymontanan.com/2023/10/24/pr ... e-weekend/

Outside the Missoula County Courthouse, a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Saturday turned tense after a crew of white supremacists arrived.

A shouting match started across an intersection between the two groups, with police in between, lasting for about 35 minutes before one man from the hate group was arrested and pro-Palestinian demonstrators denounced the group. The pro-Palestinian side then left, concerned for their safety.

[Grifman]

We’re protesting . . . something.

[Kurth]

I'm a Columbia Professor: The Protests on My Campus are Not Justice.

Social media discussion has been claiming that the protests are peaceful. They are, some of the time. It varies by location and day; generally what goes on within the campus gates is somewhat less strident than what happens just outside them. But relatively constant are the drumbeats. People will differ on how peaceful that sound can ever be, just as they will differ on the nature of antisemitism. What I do know is that even the most peaceful of protests would be treated as outrages if they were interpreted as, say, anti-Black, even if the message were coded, as in a bunch of people quietly holding up MAGA signs or wearing T-shirts saying “All lives matter.”

And besides, calling all this peaceful stretches the use of the word rather implausibly. It’s an odd kind of peace when a local rabbi urges Jewish students to go home as soon as possible, when an Israeli Arab activist is roughed up on Broadway, when the angry chanting becomes so constant that you almost start not to hear it and it starts to feel normal to see posters and clothing portraying members of Hamas as heroes. The other night I watched a dad coming from the protest with his little girl, giving a good hard few final snaps on the drum he was carrying, nodding at her in crisp salute, percussing his perspective into her little mind. This is not peaceful.

I understand that the protesters and their fellow travelers feel that all of this is the proper response, social justice on the march. They have been told that righteousness means placing the battle against whiteness and its power front and center, contesting the abuse of power by any means necessary. And I think the war on Gaza is no longer constructive or even coherent.

However, the issues are complex, in ways that this uncompromising brand of power battling is ill suited to address. Legitimate questions remain about the definition of genocide, about the extent of a nation’s right to defend itself and about the justice of partition (which has not historically been limited to Palestine). There is a reason many consider the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the most morally challenging in the modern world.

I thought this was a really good piece from someone at ground zero in these protests. Interesting and nuanced perspectives, something in short supply these days from all sides.

[Holman]

We’re protesting . . . something.

They're not stupid like the clip implies.

Students calling for divestment from university ties with certain companies (and this is the core of the protesters' demands) goes back to similar 1980s calls for university divestment from corporate engagement with Apartheid South Africa. Those protests actually worked, and they had a global effect. That's the model.

That a college student doesn't know the exact nature of the university's corporate ties to Israel in unsurprising. It's not like these are something the U puts in the newsletter. But they do exist, and if the connections were nonexistent or irrelevant then the university could easily announce that fact and put the whole issue to bed.

These students don't know the exact nature of the corporate ties they want dissolved. Guess what? You and I don't either, and I'd wager that we can't discuss them any more comprehensively than these kids reject them.

What they know is that what we all see going on in Gaza is atrocious, and they're acting against it in the one location where they might have direct influence.

[El Guapo]

We’re protesting . . . something.

They're not stupid like the clip implies.

Students calling for divestment from university ties with certain companies (and this is the core of the protesters' demands) goes back to similar 1980s calls for university divestment from corporate engagement with Apartheid South Africa. Those protests actually worked, and they had a global effect. That's the model.

That a college student doesn't know the exact nature of the university's corporate ties to Israel in unsurprising. It's not like these are something the U puts in the newsletter. But they do exist, and if the connections were nonexistent or irrelevant then the university could easily announce that fact and put the whole issue to bed.

These students don't know the exact nature of the corporate ties they want dissolved. Guess what? You and I don't either, and I'd wager that we can't discuss them any more effectively than these kids reject them.

What they know is that what we all see going on in Gaza is atrocious, and they're acting against it in the one location where they might have direct influence.

More to the point, you could put something together like this for almost any protest and almost any cause. Every group and cause has its share of idiots.

[El Guapo]

On the protests, not totally sure what to make of it altogether. CNN has a good, objective article on the situation at Columbia. This stuff is concerning:

Underscoring concerns about student safety, Rabbi Elie Buechler, a rabbi associated with Columbia University’s Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, confirmed to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that he sent a WhatsApp message to a group of about 300 mostly Orthodox Jewish students “strongly” recommending they return home and remain there.

In his message, Buechler wrote that recent events at the university “have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety.”

“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved,” the message reads.

...

Chabad, a Jewish organization the University, said on Facebook they’ve hired additional security to protect students during Passover. They said they were “horrified by what we witnessed last night on and near Columbia’s campus,” but still planned to host Passover celebrations on campus.

The rabbi sent the message after videos circulated showing a man outside the university saying, “Never forget the seventh of October,” and “that will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times!”

On the one hand, my impression is that the protests are mostly peaceful. On the other, a number of Jewish groups and students at Columbia clearly do not feel safe, since some are telling Jews to stay home and others are hiring more security to protect Jewish students. Like...those are bad signs. Maybe they're overreacting, but...at the very least many do not feel safe.

Part of this is tied to the nature and specific goals of the movements organizing the protests.

The main national umbrella group for campus pro-Palestinian protests is Students for Justice in Palestine.
SJP takes a violent eliminationist stance towards Israel. In the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks, it issued a celebratory statement instructing its affiliates that all Jewish Israelis are legitimate targets:

Liberation is not an abstract concept. It is not a moment circumscribed to a revolutionary past as itis often characterized. Rather, liberating colonized land is a real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary. In essence, decolonization is a call to action, a commitment to the restoration of Indigenous sovereignty. It calls upon us to engage in meaningful actions that go beyond symbolism and rhetoric. Resistance comes in all forms — armed struggle, general strikes, and popular demonstrations. All of it is legitimate, and all of it is necessary.

SJP likewise directed its members to join the struggle directly: “This is a moment of mobilization for all Palestinians. We must act as part of this movement. All of our eff orts continue the work and resistance of Palestinians on the ground.”

When you consider this kind of violent rhetoric in the context of slogans like “Globalize the Intifada,” especially when you consider the lack of authentic Israeli military targets outside of Israel, then the pattern of harassment and violence that follows from this propaganda is inevitable.

A second group that has helped organize the demonstrations at Columbia is called Within OurLifetime. Like SJP,
WOL takes an uncompromising eliminationist stance toward Israel, even calling for “the abolition of zionism.” If you suspect it would be difficult to exterminate an idea peacefully, you are correct. WOL, like SJP, endorses all violent attacks on Israeli Jews: “We defend the right of Palestinians as colonized people to resist the zionist occupation by any means necessary.”

More pertinently, WOL “rejects all collaboration and dialogue with zionist organizations” as “normalization,” which is to say it believes people anywhere in the world who wish to see a Jewish state survive in any form should not be permitted to live normal lives. If there is a theoretical distinction between this doctrine and direct advocacy of systematic harassment of mainstream Jewish people and organizations, it is paper thin.

So I can see both the argument that the protests are mostly peaceful (I imagine that they are) and at the same time why Jewish students on campus may nonetheless not feel especially safe. Like one might imagine the reaction to large scale, mostly peaceful "all lives matter" protests.

[Isgrimnur]

Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety

So, just like any other day?

[El Guapo]

Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety

So, just like any other day?

Well, no, not really. Obviously no security force can guarantee any individual student's safety all the time. Specifically saying that they cannot guarantee *Jewish* students' safety is, you know, unusual.

[Isgrimnur]

Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety

So, just like any other day?

Well, no, not really. Obviously no security force can guarantee any individual student's safety all the time. Specifically saying that they cannot guarantee *Jewish* students' safety is, you know, unusual.

If it were the security force saying it, I'd agree with you. But it's a rabbi saying it.

[El Guapo]

Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety

So, just like any other day?

Well, no, not really. Obviously no security force can guarantee any individual student's safety all the time. Specifically saying that they cannot guarantee *Jewish* students' safety is, you know, unusual.

If it were the security force saying it, I'd agree with you. But it's a rabbi saying it.

But again, presumably that Rabbi's not in the habit of saying that every say. So again, not just like any other day.

I don't mean to say that this rabbi is the authority on the safety of Jewish students on campus. Maybe he's worried unnecessarily. But he's a Jewish leader on campus, and it's a data point on how the Jewish community is feeling.

[Grifman]

We’re protesting . . . something.

They're not stupid like the clip implies.

Students calling for divestment from university ties with certain companies (and this is the core of the protesters' demands) goes back to similar 1980s calls for university divestment from corporate engagement with Apartheid South Africa. Those protests actually worked, and they had a global effect. That's the model.

That a college student doesn't know the exact nature of the university's corporate ties to Israel in unsurprising. It's not like these are something the U puts in the newsletter. But they do exist, and if the connections were nonexistent or irrelevant then the university could easily announce that fact and put the whole issue to bed.

These students don't know the exact nature of the corporate ties they want dissolved. Guess what? You and I don't either, and I'd wager that we can't discuss them any more comprehensively than these kids reject them.

What they know is that what we all see going on in Gaza is atrocious, and they're acting against it in the one location where they might have direct influence.

Your commentary would be relevant if they had even just mentioned disinvestment, but stated they didn’t know the exact details, but they didn’t. They clearly admitted that they didn’t really know what NYU had to do with Israel, or why they were protesting NYU. No one mentioned disinvestment.

[Holman]

Your commentary would be relevant if they had even just mentioned disinvestment, but stated they didn’t know the exact details, but they didn’t. They clearly admitted that they didn’t really know what NYU had to do with Israel, or why they were protesting NYU. No one mentioned disinvestment.

They're aware that their university (of which they are a part and to which they pay tuition) is doing something that supports the current Israeli government. They want their university (of which they are a part and to which they pay tuition) to stop doing that, because they believe or hope that this will put pressure on the Israeli government to stop harming innocent civilians.

Tell me what more you need to hear from them for their protest to be legitimate.

[Kraken]

A few days ago there was a pro-Palestinian demonstration at our local town hall, which is not a hotbed of political activism. I'm not sure there's been a protest there in the 35 years I've lived here. I considered walking down there -- it's only half a mile, and I had some free time -- but decided that the line between being pro-Palestine and antisemitic is too thin, and not one I want to approach. I'm both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel, and anti-Netanyahu and anti-Hamas, but that's going to get lost in a chant.

[Blackhawk]

Re: the video.

This was two students out of hundreds. It's like when a show goes and asks a question of several hundred people on some topic, then edits it down to the five dumbest responses, and implies that those few represent the whole. For all we know the people in that video are there to support a friend, and aren't even part of the actual group. Or maybe the protests are full of idiots.

Or maybe they're not.

That video is meaningless either way.

[Kurth]

Re: the video.

This was two students out of hundreds. It's like when a show goes and asks a question of several hundred people on some topic, then edits it down to the five dumbest responses, and implies that those few represent the whole. For all we know the people in that video are there to support a friend, and aren't even part of the actual group. Or maybe the protests are full of idiots.

Or maybe they're not.

That video is meaningless either way.

Can’t wait to see this defense rolled out for the next viral video of stupid MAGATs at a stupid Trump rally being stupid.

[Kraken]

Re: the video.

This was two students out of hundreds. It's like when a show goes and asks a question of several hundred people on some topic, then edits it down to the five dumbest responses, and implies that those few represent the whole. For all we know the people in that video are there to support a friend, and aren't even part of the actual group. Or maybe the protests are full of idiots.

Or maybe they're not.

That video is meaningless either way.

Can’t wait to see this defense rolled out for the next viral video of stupid MAGATs at a stupid Trump rally being stupid.

I suspect it would be hard to make a video of people with nuanced intelligent comments at a trump rally.

[Blackhawk]

Re: the video.

This was two students out of hundreds. It's like when a show goes and asks a question of several hundred people on some topic, then edits it down to the five dumbest responses, and implies that those few represent the whole. For all we know the people in that video are there to support a friend, and aren't even part of the actual group. Or maybe the protests are full of idiots.

Or maybe they're not.

That video is meaningless either way.

Can’t wait to see this defense rolled out for the next viral video of stupid MAGATs at a stupid Trump rally being stupid.

Why the accusations? I absolutely do pull out this argument for those videos. Bad information is bad information, regardless of whether I enjoy what it implies. When I start accepting happy lies over painful truths, it'll be a good sign that I've lost what sanity I have left.

[gbasden]

Re: the video.

This was two students out of hundreds. It's like when a show goes and asks a question of several hundred people on some topic, then edits it down to the five dumbest responses, and implies that those few represent the whole. For all we know the people in that video are there to support a friend, and aren't even part of the actual group. Or maybe the protests are full of idiots.

Or maybe they're not.

That video is meaningless either way.

Can’t wait to see this defense rolled out for the next viral video of stupid MAGATs at a stupid Trump rally being stupid.

Why the accusations? I absolutely do pull out this argument for those videos. Bad information is bad information, regardless of whether I enjoy what it implies. When I start accepting happy lies over painful truths, it'll be a good sign that I've lost what sanity I have left.

Folks on here actually make that argument a lot, whether it's MAGAts saying insipid shit or man on the street interviews for late night shows.

[Blackhawk]

There are plenty of actual issues and positions we can take a stand against without having to twist the truth to find something objectionable. Lies are lies.

[Kurth]

There are plenty of actual issues and positions we can take a stand against without having to twist the truth to find something objectionable. Lies are lies.

Well said, and sorry for the accusation. It was a knee jerk response. I know you’ve taken that position consistently.

[El Guapo]

I will also say that the question of (essentially) whether Columbia has the obligation to shut down protests in large part because they make many of its Jewish students feel unsafe (or have predictable second-order effects that make many Jewish students feel unsafe) is a complicated one. Another approach might be to allow the protests to proceed but come down hard on any students that cross a line with any Jewish students even once. Or work out some sort of self-policing agreement with protest leaders on instances of antisemitism, or the like. I don't imagine that it's an easy situation.

[GreenGoo]

More to the point, you could put something together like this for almost any protest and almost any cause. Every group and cause has its share of idiots.

I mean, you don't need to be a psychologist to understand the ulterior motive and message. People who go to college are dumber than you are, just as you always suspected. Here's only slightly altered, out of context footage. Keep up the good fight against the libtards!

Free Tibet! Or something.

[GreenGoo]

Why the accusations? I absolutely do pull out this argument for those videos.

Same, although it manifests as refusing to watch medias touch and other left propaganda channels because if the lack of perspective or fact reporting. Stop telling me how to feel about what I'm seeing, you Nazi era propagandists. That goes for everyone with an agenda that isn't about informing their audience.

[Isgrimnur]

UT-Austin students hold pro-Palestinian protest; at least 50 arrested

More than 50 people were arrested at a peaceful, pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday at the University of Texas hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a registered student group and a chapter of the national Students for Justice in Palestine, which held the rally to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

The Palestine Solidarity Committee planned the protest in solidarity with students across the U.S. who have been demanding their universities to divest from Israeli businesses and for the federal government to stop backing Israel's military as more than 30,000 people have died in Gaza amid the ongoing Mideast conflict.
...
The protest had quieted shortly after 6 p.m., more than six hours after it began. Police pushed the protesters away from the UT campus toward Guadalupe Street, but a crowd of protesters returned to the campus's South Lawn and remained there as of 7:45 p.m.
...
Around 5:20 p.m., the university issued a dispersal order asking everyone to leave the campus South Mall area "immediately."

"UT Austin does not tolerate disruptions of campus activities or operations like we have seen at other campuses," the UT Division of Student Affairs said in a statement before the protest. "This is an important time in our semester with students finishing classes and studying for finals and we will act first and foremost to allow those critical functions to proceed without interruption."

So, twenty minutes after daytime classes ended? Seems legit.

[Pyperkub]

I'm a Columbia Professor: The Protests on My Campus are Not Justice.

Social media discussion has been claiming that the protests are peaceful. They are, some of the time. It varies by location and day; generally what goes on within the campus gates is somewhat less strident than what happens just outside them. But relatively constant are the drumbeats. People will differ on how peaceful that sound can ever be, just as they will differ on the nature of antisemitism. What I do know is that even the most peaceful of protests would be treated as outrages if they were interpreted as, say, anti-Black, even if the message were coded, as in a bunch of people quietly holding up MAGA signs or wearing T-shirts saying “All lives matter.”

And besides, calling all this peaceful stretches the use of the word rather implausibly. It’s an odd kind of peace when a local rabbi urges Jewish students to go home as soon as possible, when an Israeli Arab activist is roughed up on Broadway, when the angry chanting becomes so constant that you almost start not to hear it and it starts to feel normal to see posters and clothing portraying members of Hamas as heroes. The other night I watched a dad coming from the protest with his little girl, giving a good hard few final snaps on the drum he was carrying, nodding at her in crisp salute, percussing his perspective into her little mind. This is not peaceful.

I understand that the protesters and their fellow travelers feel that all of this is the proper response, social justice on the march. They have been told that righteousness means placing the battle against whiteness and its power front and center, contesting the abuse of power by any means necessary. And I think the war on Gaza is no longer constructive or even coherent.

However, the issues are complex, in ways that this uncompromising brand of power battling is ill suited to address. Legitimate questions remain about the definition of genocide, about the extent of a nation’s right to defend itself and about the justice of partition (which has not historically been limited to Palestine). There is a reason many consider the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the most morally challenging in the modern world.

I thought this was a really good piece from someone at ground zero in these protests. Interesting and nuanced perspectives, something in short supply these days from all sides.

It seemed ok from what I could read for free. I also found this op-ed by the Columbia Student Paper good (from last week):

The administration has failed to genuinely engage with its students, faculty, and staff as we—the Columbia community—are forced to watch our beloved University slowly unravel into a space of distrust, suppression, and fear. Only one day after her hearing, Shafik has proven to her students yet again the administration’s commitment to silencing and marginalizing its own student body.

Shafik’s authorization of the New York Police Department to enter campus and forcibly remove peaceful protesters spotlights the emptiness and duplicity of the promises she made to Congress and the Columbia community...

...When the NYPD Strategic Response Group—which the New York Civil Liberties Union has repeatedly characterized as “notoriously violent”—is welcomed onto campus with open arms, it is Shafik who “disrupts campus life” and infringes on her supposedly paramount principle of safety. How can students, especially those of color, feel safe when their campus is flooded by a police force infested with systemic racism and armed with riot gear? Clearly, “care and compassion” are not being extended equally to everyone.

Even Shafik’s commitment to a qualified form of freedom of speech is insincere. A nonviolent protest employing rhetoric that has “historically meant different things to different people” is not making anyone unsafe—feeling uncomfortable is not the same as being unsafe. Lastly, Shafik’s proclaimed belief in the enlightening power of education similarly holds no weight. With teach-ins organized by protesters being repeatedly targeted by the administration, it is apparent that Shafik holds a narrow vision for education, only approving of it when it furthers the ideologies the administration agrees with and supports. This characterization of education is fundamentally at odds with both Shafik’s principles and Columbia’s core mission at large.

Summing up:

he administration has ignored our countless pleas to engage meaningfully with students, opting instead to continue down a path of surveillance, oppression, and authoritarian policies. Columbia should encourage free discourse on campus, not censor marginalized voices under the guise of “safety” and protection. Shafik could attend student meetings and make concrete commitments to protect their safety. She could invigorate the anti-doxxing resource group rather than let its ineffectuality further divide students and administration. Many of these initiatives have fallen flat because they appear to be focused on creating defenses to congressional questioning rather than genuinely attempting to reconcile a broken community.

More from yesterday.

[Grifman]

More to the point, you could put something together like this for almost any protest and almost any cause. Every group and cause has its share of idiots.

Sure, and I’ll mock stupid liberals as well as stupid MAGA’s. Do you post this same comment after posts mocking MAGA’s?

[Grifman]

They're aware that their university (of which they are a part and to which they pay tuition) is doing something that supports the current Israeli government.

I don’t see any evidence that they know anything. They seem to be assuming there is something wrong because everyone is protesting, but they don’t seem to have any specific knowledge. If I was going to protest, I’d certainly want to why I am going to all this trouble, but maybe that’s just me.

Tell me what more you need to hear from them for their protest to be legitimate.

Tell me where I ever said their protest was not legitimate. I’m just mocking people who protest without having any idea about what they are protesting.

[LawBeefaroni]

Well, college-age kids are drinking a lot less. Maybe these schools should host nickel beer nights or something.

Idle, sober hands...

[Blackhawk]

Why the accusations? I absolutely do pull out this argument for those videos.

Same, although it manifests as refusing to watch medias touch and other left propaganda channels because if the lack of perspective or fact reporting. Stop telling me how to feel about what I'm seeing, you Nazi era propagandists. That goes for everyone with an agenda that isn't about informing their audience.

It's also why drive-by videos, where someone just posts a video with no context or commentary, gets ignored. Sturgeons Law: "90% of everything is crap." Applied to the internet, that becomes, "99% of everything is crap." If you blind post videos, you're telling us to not only spend the time watching it, but to research the source, then analyze the video to find out if it's more of the kind of manipulative, dishonest crap that started this discussion. Personally, I don't have the time to vet every video that gets posted here. If you want eyes on your lazy 'commentary', you get to tell us why we should watch your video, why we should trust it.

After all, we have plenty of time to scroll on past it.

[Blackhawk]

Well, college-age kids are drinking a lot less. Maybe these schools should host nickel beer nights or something.

Idle, sober hands...

From my (limited) experience, they're much more in tune with the realities of the world than previous generations. They see social issues, environmental issues, health issues, and security issues more for what they are than through some rose-colored idealism filter.

They're still kids. They're still going to go overboard on responses (or are adults just too jaded?), and they're still going to miss the target a lot due to inexperience, but they're not as clueless as we were. We're not seeing the protests of the 60s making a comeback, we're seeing something new.

[Isgrimnur]

UT-Austin students hold pro-Palestinian protest; at least 50 arrested

Charges dismissed against 46 arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin

Charges have been dismissed against 46 people arrested at a protest Wednesday on UT Austin's campus, Travis County Attorney Delia Garza said.

"Legal concerns were raised by defense counsel, we reviewed each case individually and agreed there were deficiencies in the probable cause affidavits," she told KUT in a text. "The Court affirmed and ordered the release of the individuals."

Nearly 60 people were arrested for allegedly trespassing during the pro-Palestinian demonstration. Garza said her office would continue to review cases to determine whether prosecution "is factually and legally appropriate."

[Holman]

Tell me where I ever said their protest was not legitimate. I’m just mocking people who protest without having any idea about what they are protesting.

Honestly, if that video is the worst thing that anti-Woke crusader Richard Hanania can find to highlight, I'd say the kids are all right.

[El Guapo]

More to the point, you could put something together like this for almost any protest and almost any cause. Every group and cause has its share of idiots.

Sure, and I’ll mock stupid liberals as well as stupid MAGA’s. Do you post this same comment after posts mocking MAGA’s?

I would. The issue is not with mocking them - if the post is "these protesters that they interviewed are dumb" then sure. It's the inference from a couple dumb protestors to "this protest movement in general is dumb / ill-informed" is where things go off the rails. That's true of any video like this (though I guess if they included enough people at some point you'd approach a sample size, but then the video would be an hour+ and wouldn't be as funny).

[Unagi]

Honestly, she started off with her honest answer which was that she was "there to show her support for Palestine". And then she trails off and admits she doesn't know specifics re: NYU.

For christ's sake, she asks her friend if she knows - who immediately admits without a split-second hesitation: "I wish I was more educated". Is this something you've ever heard in a MAGA video?


This is the age when kids turn into adults, form their voices & opinions and figure things out. I give her quite a bit more room to flounder with direction and describe or even know what drives her - - than I do some hell-bent laser-focused old fuck head that we see talking crap in MAGA videos.

So, yeah, I didn't find it on par with the MAGA like videos it's being compared to. FWIW.