Should we be worried about these crosstabs, or is this a classic example of young people being complete morons on political issues?
It's nothing new: young people have been stupid for generations. It's a cyclical thing, but young people being "dumb" on the issues never ventured into genocidal territory. It was usually about taxes; young folks were "soak the rich" types, or they went off about gun control or abortion. It was never about whether Israel should be destroyed and all Jews should die.
A new Harvard/Harris poll showed an astounding amount of young people think that Hamas should take over the Jewish state, hence the pervasive "from the river to the sea" chants. It's a call for genocide, and the kids are all about it (via National Review):
Perhaps the most disturbing is that 58% of that age group acknowledge the fact that Hamas would like to commit genocide against Jews, but still 51% want Israel to be ended and the landed to be handed to Hamas. pic.twitter.com/FXI4IpMI3b
— AG (@AGHamilton29) December 16, 2023
It’s hard to look at these polls and not come to some rather terrifying conclusions
— 🔰Chief Georgist Shill 🔰 (@BlueRepublik) December 16, 2023
Gen Z is amazingly chill about the genocide of Jews - while still admitting they view it as a genocide! https://t.co/uOWoNEQTKP pic.twitter.com/uv9hSqLR2n
In the new Harvard/Harris poll, 67% of respondents aged 18-24 agree that "Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors."
— Will Saletan (wsaletan on Threads) (@saletan) December 16, 2023
Consistent with other polls that have found relatively high anti-Jewish sentiment among young American adults. https://t.co/0BcG0Y1xlu pic.twitter.com/BZR67JydYh
Roughly half of young Americans say Israel should be “ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians” amid the ongoing war despite continuing support for the Jewish state among older Americans, according to a new poll.
While 51 percent of 18–24-year-olds in the U.S. want Israel to lose to Hamas, that sentiment decreases significantly among the higher age brackets in the monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll. Thirty-one percent of 25–34-year-olds, 24 percent of 35–44-year-olds, 15 percent of 45–54-year-olds, 13 percent of 55–64-year-olds, and only 4 percent of Americans aged 65 and older say Israel should be wiped out.
In comparison, an overall 81 percent of Americans support Israel over Hamas. However, support between the two sides is split evenly among the 18–24 age bracket.
Although the slight majority of respondents in that age group support the genocide of Jews, 58 percent of respondents aged 18–24 say Hamas should be removed from running Gaza. The same group further displayed contradicting views, with 66 percent saying Hamas’s October 7 attack was genocidal and 60 percent answering that Israel’s campaign in Gaza also constitutes genocide.
Additionally, 32 percent of young Americans want Israel and Palestine to be recognized in a two-state solution and 17 percent think Arab states should absorb the Palestinians displaced by the conflict. Overall, a two-state solution was the preferred answer to that question, with 60 percent of all respondents favoring it.
It makes sense why Harvard's Claudine Gay gave an obtuse answer before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding whether chants for Jewish genocide constitute harassment and violations of the university's code of conduct. Her workplace is brimming with the enemy: fascists with an Islamic face. Bill Maher had an excellent commentary about why these kids are stupid: this isn't a special case of displacement or new. Germans were forced out of Poland and Russia after World War II for reasons you could guess. Jews have been booted from almost every Arab country in existence.
All wars end with negotiation, but it's hard to negotiate when the other side's bargaining position is "you all die and disappear." pic.twitter.com/x72h9Zlqjy
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) December 16, 2023
The Arabs were also colonizers, with the stand-up comic noting why there's a sword on the national flag of Saudi Arabia: the first Muslim empire that was established after the death of Mohammed was larger than Rome. History is violent, filled with similar tales of what the international community would rightfully deem ethnic cleansing. Civilizations crumbling, along with stories of war and mass death and destruction, fill our textbooks. Get over it.
This Gaza war has exposed what we have known for a long time, which is that this isn't about land. It's about hating Jews. Palestinians rejected multiple land offers because they wanted to destroy Israel. The two-state solution is dead; October 7 should cancel those talks forever because Palestinians, while not all members of Hamas, sure seem to support their agenda items, like wanting to murder all the Jews.
For Gen Z, they're down with that. How could this happen? Well, another poll showing that nearly 20 percent of young people think the Holocaust was a myth might be one of the root problems.