| Submit your comments on this article |
| Fifth Column |
| The Disgrace and Fall of the American Elite Campus |
| 2024-05-20 |
| [Victor Davis Hanson] Anti-Israel/pro-Hamas campus protests have engulfed hundreds of college campuses. But the more coastal, blue-state, and supposedly elite the campus was, the more furious the violence that sometimes followed these demonstrations. Even rowdier and more vicious street analogs shut down key bridges, freeways, and religious services. Protestors often defaced hallowed American monuments, national cemeteries, and iconic buildings. Visa-holders were among the worst perpetrators, adding ingratitude to their criminality. The vast majority wore masks, not to protect from infection but to hide their identities. It is received wisdom, however, that those who wear masks do so for obvious reasons: so authorities cannot identify and punish those who commit crimes (e.g. the Klan, antifa, bank robbers, criminal gangs), or so that anonymity can help incite mob furor, given that participants feel that their vehemence increases once it cannot be traced. More mundanely, why don’t the students simply identify themselves, insist they want their "resistance" to be known, and then hope their arrests will be proof of their courage to galvanize like-minded people to join them? Why? One, because the students are sunshine and careerist revolutionaries. They see no inconsistency between shouting "Death to Israel," "Global Intifada," or "River to the Sea" one day and then the next, applying for a top spot at Goldman Sachs, a tony university, or a federal bureaucracy. Jacobin professors protest like it is 1793, but when politely arrested, they collapse into fetal positions and scream hysterically that consequences cannot follow their illegality, given they are privileged, superior intellects and moralists, with titles and degrees no less. Two, the protestors, deep down, know they are aligning with the murderers and rapists of October 7 and that their chants are Hitlerian. And so few wish for their performance-art antics to become part of their public personas. Demonstrators claimed they were peacefully acting on behalf of Palestine rather than virulently pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel. But their own bloodthirsty words proved the contrary—to the anguish of embarrassed campus administrators. The latter finally concluded that the overt venom was a bit too much and certainly injurious to their own administrative careers, campus fund-raising, and alumni support. Note that there was a long hiatus between the slaughter and hostage-taking of October 7 and the entry of the Israeli Defense Forces into Gaza to destroy Hamas. Nonetheless, campuses caught fire immediately after the slaughter. A professor at Cornell characterized the Hamas mass murders as "exhilarating." Efforts immediately followed to harass and embarrass Jewish students, not to protest the IDF in Gaza. ...Why did the patently illegal occupation of campus property spread? Why the escalation to medieval anti-Semitic threats to Jews and various takes on the "Final Solution?" One, throngs of poorly educated American students—many of them part of the diversity/equity/identity movement—saw Gaza as fuel for their Marxist-themed binary of oppressed versus oppressors. So they eagerly plugged Israel into the tired role of a white, interloping, neo-colonialist, and "settler" state—on the correct assumption that they had grown up with the assurance that smearing whites in racist fashion was not only tolerated but encouraged as a blow against white "privilege," "supremacy," or "rage." ...Two, the tip of the spear of campus unrest is from the Middle East. Such partisan foreign students and activists organize the rallies, often with planning and money provided by Palestinian front groups. They provide the keffiyeh props and the occasional Hezbollah and Hamas flags and logos. Student guests in the U.S. are not shy about siding with the Hamas eliminationist agenda. Indeed, their protests were not just anticipated by, but integral to, Hamas’ October 7 strategies. Hamas’ murderous plan was always to retreat back to Gaza with hostages, which, along with their own Gazan civilians, would ensure the killers could murder another day. So they were to descend into a $1 billion, Morlock-like tunnel complex—using thousands of Gazan civilians above in hospitals, schools, and mosques as collateral deaths to protect the terrorists beneath. Note the sick asymmetry: the entire strategy hinges on a humane Israel seeking to avoid killing civilian shields, a fact accepted by Hamas, which tries its best to sacrifice them. The resulting surety of collateral civilian damage could then be reduced to Israeli-induced "genocide." From there, useful idiotic American student unrest, along with Middle Eastern voters, would pressure American institutions and politicians to limit Israel’s options and responses. And, presto, Hamas would emerge from the rubble intact and ready to plan its next murder spree. ...A final note: clueless elite universities have scant idea of the enormous damage done to their reputations by the repulsive optics on their campuses—the eliminationist chants, the overt anti-Semitism, the passive-aggressive violence, the unapologetic solidarity with a venomous Hamas, the unconcern with American hostages, the disdain shown to middle-class cops, maintenance and janitorial workers tasked with cleaning up the elite students’ often pigsty-like encampments, vandalism, graffiti, and trash, and, above all, the sheer ignorance of supposedly brilliant students who appear to know nothing of even rudimentary history, geography, or current affairs. These infantile campuses have a rendezvous with adult accountability, both public and governmental. And they won’t like what is soon coming. To summarize: part of student body (the ones who end in bureaucracy & "education") - and all of the administration - are scum. Naturally, they ally with Hamas scum. At least as long as there are no adverse consequences. |
| Posted by:Grom the reflective |
| #9 ^ Our multi-nymed troll |
| Posted by: Frank G 2024-05-20 21:20 |
| #8 They were merely mean to whites as a general concept, Vortigern+Phert8938, mean and willing to destroy career prospects. For the Jews they brought out the cudgels and torches, and started beating people in the streets and libraries. And the riot police only showed up after they’d been doing so for half a year. But don’t let reality intrude into the happy, Jew-hating fantasy in your head, my dear. Sanity wouldn’t suit you at all. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2024-05-20 20:51 |
| #7 It was fine as long as they were anti white. Jews even helped. And as soon as they changed to Jews the riot police were out to put a stop to them. Weird, eh? |
| Posted by: Vortigern+Phert8938 2024-05-20 20:03 |
| #6 IMO there should be NO ed support of colleges and full support for trade schools reimbursed from the graduates income. |
| Posted by: irish rage boy 2024-05-20 11:02 |
| #5 The rot is everywhere. I think it's called "the march through the institutions." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2024-05-20 10:04 |
| #4 Leftist ideology creates mental illness. Carriage before the horses? |
| Posted by: Grom the reflective 2024-05-20 10:01 |
| #3 They fell into the pig swill long ago. Now they are advertising it. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2024-05-20 09:51 |
| #2 Leftist ideology creates mental illness. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2024-05-20 09:26 |
| #1 And not just American Top Tel Aviv University official: ‘Pity’ Netanyahu wasn’t on Iran president’s chopper |
| Posted by: Grom the reflective 2024-05-20 06:35 |