It’s not something you need to bother with daily. Are there TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks that are interesting? Sure, but there will be drama with any such forum that prides itself in being an open forum for thinkers and activists to share their ideas. It’s primarily intra-liberal America antics, or it’s over some abstract nutty sentiment that this forum supports genocide in Gaza.
Bill Ackman has been invited to be a Ted Talks lecturer, leading to controversy among the organization's fellows. It’s only a few right now, but I’m sure more will follow. Besides being a billionaire hedge fund manager, Ackman is also a staunch supporter of Israel, which was bound to create problems. Three fellows could no longer be associated with TED, as it now supports genocide against the Palestinians. Can someone please tell these people to go touch grass (via NY Post):
Three members of the group behind the highbrow “TED Talks” lecture series resigned, claiming that the group took an anti-Palestinian stance for naming Bill Ackman as a 2024 main stage speaker.
Astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz, filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky and entrepreneur Ayah Bdeir co-signed a resignation letter on Wednesday, saying they are “no longer willing to be associated with an organization that platform and honors vocal supporters of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.”
Walkowicz, Taji Farouky and Bdeir pointed to Ackman specifically, saying he “has defended Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” citing X posts from Ackman, including one where he asked why people were criticizing Israel for dropping leaflets in Gaza suggesting Palestinians evacuate.
The notices, which displayed warnings in Arabic of Israel’s forthcoming attacks, were likened to those dropped amid the invasion in the north during the first phase of the war.
[…]
Walkowicz, Taji Farouky and Bdeir also bashed TED for not including any Palestinian speakers in the its 2024 lineup, which also includes drag icon RuPaul Charles, war journalist Anjan Sundaram and Zeynep Ton — a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the prestigious schools Ackman has been outspoken against since reporters of mounting on-campus antisemitism emerged.
“Even if there were [Palestinians in the lineup], this false sense of balance could not hide the fact that TED has chosen not only to align itself with enablers and supporters of genocide, but to amplify their racist propaganda,” the ex-fellows added.
“This is a shameful position to take, and one that we refuse to accept.”
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It’s simple why there are no Palestinians in the 2024 lineup: TED doesn’t want to enable or cater to terrorism. Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza; they’re not an apartheid state, and they’re a democracy, unlike the unbridled Islamofascist regime Hamas operated for 17 years in Gaza, a government that will soon meet its righteous end. No one cares about a group of people who overwhelmingly support Hamas and the barbaric October 7 attacks they carried out against Israel.
We know Palestinians hate Jewish people. We know they support Hamas. We know they wish to see Israel destroyed. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
These clowns resigned because they were angry no terrorists were invited.
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