American universities have long been hotbeds of leftist activism and indoctrination, but too often in recent years, the inmates have gained control of their asylums. In an age of left-wing institutional capture, the academy has been largely conquered by the most radical and illiberal elements of one ideological tribe. The results have been alarming, and prestige-eroding for many of our institutions of higher learning. This phenomenon has devastated free speech, free thought, and critical thinking. Barking hyenas declare themselves "harmed" or made "unsafe" by any number of events or sentiments deemed offensive to their chronically offended, ever-evolving dogma, and their delicate, capricious sensibilities. Words are conflated with violence. Silence is also pronounced a form of violence.
Terrified of the monster they've created or indulged, university administrators prostrate themselves before the mob, responding to their every whim. It's an abusive power dynamic that benefits no one beyond the clique of grievance-addled 'victims' who wield said power ruthlessly and myopically. When the supposed adults in charge defend the principle of free speech -- if they do so at all -- it's often wrapped in apologetic language and assurances of tribal agreement and solidarity. When national or even global controversies arise, these institutions stand ready, almost on hair-trigger alert, to signal their virtue to their students, faculty and alumni. In many cases, these pronouncements are issued as if dissenters within their 'communities' (a buzzword that is not remotely inclusive, in practice) are either unwelcome or nonexistent.
Just a few days ago, approximately 1,000-1,200 innocent human beings in Israel were massacred by jihadist Hamas terrorists, backed by the authoritarian, retrograde Iranian regime. Children were slaughtered. Women were raped and killed. Babies were decapitated. Hostages were taken. More than a dozen Americans are among the dead. Even more Americans are among the hostages. It was an unholy atrocity visited upon a minority population because of the victims' identity. The spectacle was barbaric beyond words. And yet, the ever-buzzing PR machines across a swath of elite academic institutions fell strikingly and conspicuously quiet. There was suddenly no virtue to be signaled. No 'social justice' to uphold. No victims to mourn. No evil to denounce. Nothing. Silence equates to violence or complicity, we're told -- but In the face of this shocking violence, many have sat in haunting silence.
Meanwhile, large numbers of those who typically treat 'problematic' words as violence are busy justifying, defending, or even celebrating literal, wide-scale, blood-soaked, deadly violence. Their sick, morally-inverted words flood into the void created by profound institutional cowardice. Jewish members of these 'communities' recoil, realizing that as their ethno-religious brothers and sisters are butchered in large numbers, an astonishing number of their schoolmates not only won't denounce the destruction; they will excuse or revel in it. Ideologues who announce a lack of "safety" at every turn are, in fact, eager to make Jews feel acutely, immediately, literally unsafe. These Jews aren't wondering if someone sitting in class with them might disagree on big issues, reject their identity, or question their dignity. They're wondering if someone in sitting class with them would like to see them dead because they are Jewish -- or perhaps would even kill them directly, if "resistance" or "decolonization" required it. The universities that pump out endless formal statements on everything under the sun are abruptly at all loss for words. Any words. And into that vacuum pours abject, venomous hate. A partially-curated sample:
This one might be the worst I’ve seen so far. Students for Justice in Palestine at @UVA says Hamas brutality makes them “hopeful for the future of Palestine.”
— Zach Kessel (@zach_kessel) October 10, 2023
The indiscriminate murder of Jews is “a step towards a free Palestine,” they say. pic.twitter.com/KKCT1cnWxa
George Washington University Students for Justice in Palestine weigh in on the devastation in Israel: "WE WILL BE CAGED NO LONGER."
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 10, 2023
These are DC college students. pic.twitter.com/uwVINQgaQ6
The psychos are one-upping eachother on the evil scale. This statement calls the slaughter of women & children “legitimate resistance,” congratulates the “martyrs” & urges more “decolonization.” Imagine being a Jewish — or even just a pro-civilization — student at @swarthmore: https://t.co/zExVLeQkQH
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 10, 2023
Look at what my Jewish students on campus have to deal with. Those paraglides were used to murder 300 Jewish young people. Only the Jews have to put up with this shit. pic.twitter.com/Uczc9rVW49
— ChayaLeah (@SaysCL) October 9, 2023
Students at @Columbia have signed a statement somehow even worse than the @Harvard one. pic.twitter.com/nwz2JPa2wL
— Zach Kessel (@zach_kessel) October 9, 2023
This is the final crack in my broken heart - a joint statement from @Harvard students. I could be sitting in class with these students, watching children brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped and their mutated bodies torn apart by a jeering crowd - and hear why it’s justified. pic.twitter.com/UTi60Y2omJ
— Yael Bar tur (@yaelbt) October 8, 2023
At Harvard, and elsewhere, the blowback and recriminations are now underway. That school, and others, are belatedly trotting out some sort of comment, having been shamed into it. The craven tolerance or outright celebration of evil documented above reflects what we've also seen at "anti-Zionist," "Free Palestine" rallies across the Western world. A stunning number of Hamas sympathizers or cheerleaders watched hundreds of innocent Jews get murdered in cold blood, and reacted by rushing into the streets to overtly applaud the bloodbath and chant against the Jews. Many don't even bother to pretend it's about the Israeli government or the right-wing Prime Minister. It's about the Jews. That's because anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, and apologies or support for Hamas are apologies or support for genocide. Take Hamas' explicitly genocidal word for it, as well as the word for their primary state sponsor:
"The day of your slaughter, extermination and annihilation is clear until near..."
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 10, 2023
"We will totally exterminate you. We will not leave a single one of you alive."
Hamas, in its own words.
pic.twitter.com/agLWPFilLe
SICK: Iran state media published a cartoon to celebrate Hamas killing 1000 Israelis. This is the government that the Biden Administration bankrolled with billions of dollars. https://t.co/mxC0np6ukz
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) October 9, 2023
One of the most vile statements I've seen from any student group at an American university was published at my alma mater, Northwestern. I called out the NU administration, noting their eagerness to make public institutional comments on all manner of issues. As of this writing, like so many of their "elite" academic brethren, they've said nothing -- leaving their Jewish community members frightened and twisting in the wind:
To the leadership of my beloved alma mater, @NorthwesternU: I’ve received notes from multiple current students and alumni expressing deeply alarm over the administration’s conspicuous silence about last weekend’s slaughter of Israelis by Hamas terrorists. We all recall that NU… https://t.co/rFRIySJFzG pic.twitter.com/xdFwu834bx
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 10, 2023
To the leadership of my beloved alma mater, I’ve received notes from multiple current students and alumni expressing deeply alarm over the administration’s conspicuous silence about last weekend’s slaughter of Israelis by Hamas terrorists. We all recall that NU brass issues official statements on a wide variety of issues. The new president recently condemned a SCOTUS decision with which he disagreed. The university has formally weighed in on social justice, DEI, Ukraine, police-involved shootings, LGBT issues, US immigration, January 6th and beyond. Just click and scroll: https://northwestern.edu/leadership-notes/… Jewish students are now seeing the genocidal murders of fellow Jews justified or even celebrated, including by some members of the NU community. As noted, the school is willing and eager to weigh in on all manner of national and global controversies. Why on earth has it sat silent for days on this atrocity?
Many are drawing an inescapable, disturbing conclusion:
I actually think universities should not be in the business of issuing these kinds of statements.
— Yascha Mounk (@Yascha_Mounk) October 10, 2023
But since they do issue statements about all kinds of events all of the time, it sends a very clear message if they then happen to fall silent when the victims are Jews.
It's rank anti-Semitism, coupled with a craven fear of crossing the "progressive" "intersectionality" zealots. People like this, and this. These schools routinely endure insane struggle sessions, bouts of self-flagellation, and rounds of pitched drama over the prospect of center-right people coming to speak words on campus. Here we have entire groups of students effectively endorsing ethnic cleansing, and many of the institutional responses are mealy-mouthed or missing entirely. This silence isn't "violence," but it's deeply revealing, clarifying and disgraceful. These universities are surrendering whatever perceived moral authority they might think they maintain. It's gone, and at this rate, "prestige" credentials will become anti-credentials in many quarters. Amid a roiling sea of ludicrous, performative wokeness within these institutions, some community members are newly, truly wide awake.
I'll leave you a few rhetorical questions. Are our universities teaching young people how to think logically and critically? Is our 'news' media reliably and responsibly informing our population? Just look at this monumental failure:
% who say Hamas is deliberately striking Israeli civilian areas
— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) October 9, 2023
U.S. adults: 53%
18-29: 32%
30-44: 44%
45-64: 62%
65+: 76%https://t.co/ytkHldGTaK pic.twitter.com/jwOHYQ5VVg
Hamas is proudly boasting about, and posting videos of, their intentional slaughter of women and children. Barely half of our country knows or will admit that this is happening. A huge majority of young Americans either say it's not happening, or have no clue. Dangerous ignorance. To these fools: Educate yourselves. And if you're going to continue denying, rationalizing or even supporting what's happened, do society a favor and identify yourself, publicly and by name, as you defend this and this (extreme content warning):
French journalist at major outlet confirms the beheading of babies at a kibutz in Israel at the hands of Hamas, saying she has seen images of the atrocities and has cross-checked them, and her colleagues saw the bodies as well.
— Alicia Smith (@Alicia_Smith19) October 10, 2023
Horrific https://t.co/SLcSASDpHE
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