When “Context” Becomes an Excuse
[guest post by Dana]
It’s insightful to hear from three university presidents who faced hard questioning from Rep. Elise Stefanik, while testifying on Capitol Hill before the House Education committee:
The presidents of @Harvard, @MIT, and @Penn were all asked the following question under oath at today’s congressional hearing on antisemitism:
Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?
The… pic.twitter.com/eVlPCHMcVZ
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 5, 2023
Clearly, these are disturbing, evasive, and frustrating responses. Jonathan Haidt is spot-on in his observations:
“What offends me is that since 2015, universities have been so quick to punish “microaggressions,” including statements intended to be kind, if even one person from a favored group took offense. The presidents are now saying: “Jews are not a favored group, so offending or threatening Jews is not so bad. For Jews, it all depends on context.” We might call this double standard “institutional anti-semitsim.”
I also think it’s important to hear from Jewish college students themselves about what they face on a daily basis post-Oct. 7. The first student attends New York University, the second student attends the University of Pennsylvania:
Jewish college students are telling Congress today about the unrestrained #antisemitism sweeping their campuses. I was particularly moved by Bella Ingber, a junior at @nyuniversity. Shame on NYU and other schools for their stunning failure to protect Jewish students. pic.twitter.com/obWCeQxqL0
— Trisha Posner (@trishaposner) December 5, 2023
"On October 7th, Israel was attacked. Since October 7th, American Jews have been under attack."
Do yourselves a favor and watch this jaw-dropping speech. With students like this, the future of our people is bright.pic.twitter.com/2Yzi0eFIF7
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) December 5, 2023
And in this third video, a student from MIT speaks about the immense challenges she and other Jewish students now face on their campus:
"This is the same climate of antisemitism that has led to the massacre of Jews throughout the centuries. This is not just harassment. This is our lives on the line." @MIT student Talia Khan highlights the rise of antisemitism at MIT. pic.twitter.com/zXb03xodXb
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) December 5, 2023
This post-Oct. 7 world has become increasingly dangerous for Jewish individuals. Whether in Europe or the United States, anti-Semitism is living and breathing in the streets, and communities and institutions, without shame or fear of reprisal. It is bold, intimidating, and its ugly twisted face is on its way to blending in with the crowds. Crowds that either find the message agreeable or look the other way in avoidance and in an effort to remain safe. I have always puzzled over how everyday citizens could have remained silent in the spreading fires of Jew-hatred before WWII broke out. But now seeing its slow rise to a ‘front and center’ position in American society in 2023, I get it. From the Holocaust Encyclopedia:
Ordinary people behaved in a variety of ways during the Holocaust. Motives ranged from pressures to conform and defer to authorities, to opportunism and greed, to hatred. In many places, the persecution of Jews occurred against a backdrop of centuries of antisemitism. In Germany, many individuals who were not zealous Nazis nonetheless participated in varying degrees in the persecution and murder of Jews and other victims. Following German occupation, countless people in other countries also cooperated in the persecution of Jews.
Everywhere, there were witnesses on the sidelines who cheered on the active participants in persecution and violence.
Most, however, remained silent.
–Dana
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Elise Stefanik is not that bright and is bad at questioning. If a university president can’t answer “yes” to the question “does a call for genocide of Jewish people violate your university’s code of conduct?” then the next questions would include things like this:
Does a call for genocide of Palestinians violate your university’s code of conduct?
Does a call for genocide of black people violate your university’s code of conduct?
What context would bring within your code of conduct a call for genocide of black people?
If students formed a KKK club and called for the genocide of black people would that violate your code of conduct?
Etc.
Just dopily getting OUTRAGED is not effective.
That said, the initial question was a good one, and these people are now on their heels.
Amazing how the threat of consequences for yesterday’s disgraceful display has focused minds. Almost like these highly abstracted justifications for luxury bigotries aren’t actually predicated on any durable principle. https://t.co/lDEdamCMQ0
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) December 7, 2023
Good.
Just infuriating.
Dana (932d71) — 12/6/2023 @ 12:46 pmI also wish they had brought up to the presidents, the significance of students having to be warned not to wear anything on campus that identifies them as Jewish.
Dana (932d71) — 12/6/2023 @ 12:48 pmCan we now start talking about either doing hostile take overs of these institutions, ala, Chris Rufo/DeSantis in Florida? Either that, or burn those institutions to the grounds and salt the earth?
Remember, this is “new”.
A survivor of the Parkland massacre had his Harvard acceptance letter rescinded because it was found on a private forum he used the “n” word when he was 14.
whembly (5f7596) — 12/6/2023 @ 12:58 pmMeant to type “this isn’t new” in post 3.
whembly (5f7596) — 12/6/2023 @ 12:59 pmWhich is more likely to cause problems in Santa Monica? Wearing a yarmulke, or putting a TRUMP bumper sticker on your BMW.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/6/2023 @ 1:56 pmMaybe we can arm the students so they can have gun battles on campus like las vegas happening now. Forgot to mention the 3 palestinian-american students shot for being muslims unless they don’t matter.
asset (d66c9e) — 12/6/2023 @ 2:11 pmLet’s not forget that it was also Rep. Jayapal (Socialist-Seattle) who stated that she wouldn’t condemn Hamas for their mass-murder and mass-rape of civilian Jews because of “context”.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 12/6/2023 @ 2:53 pmA few thoughts from Prof. Eugene Volokh:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 12/6/2023 @ 3:29 pmI don’t have to hire someone who thinks that “Hitler was right” and the first amendment has nothing to do with who I hire. If there is some law that prevents me from firing someone for similar speech, well I guess I will just have to be more selective in who I hire.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/6/2023 @ 4:39 pmMeanwhile, Democrats refuse to send aid to Ukraine if it means they will have to stop letting in mass numbers of “refugees.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/6/2023 @ 4:41 pmRip–
I’d be more inclined to agree with Volokh if the same schools didn’t discipline students for misgendering or microaggressions.
Professor Volokh is a libertarian and tends to project his principles into an unprincipled world. Like “turning the other cheek”, it’s unlikely to be reciprocated.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/6/2023 @ 4:46 pmI am more interested in his (and FIRE‘s) legal analysis, such as there is no “advocacy of genocide” or “hate speech” exceptions to the First Amendment.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 12/6/2023 @ 4:56 pm@10 after 2016 whites voting for trump democrat party needed to overwhelm them with immgrants and especially their children born here. How else can AOC become president? @11 I have problem with microaggressions too!
asset (eddd0a) — 12/6/2023 @ 6:14 pmMaybe we can arm the students so they can have gun battles on campus like las vegas happening now. Forgot to mention the 3 palestinian-american students shot for being muslims unless they don’t matter.
Maybe you haven’t heard, but they arrested a guy for the crime and are charging him with attempted murder. What exactly has happened to the pro-Hamas a-holes who have harassed Jews?
JVW (1ad43e) — 12/6/2023 @ 6:33 pmUPDATE BY PATTERICO: Elise Stefanik is not that bright and is bad at questioning. If a university president can’t answer “yes” to the question “does a call for genocide of Jewish people violate your university’s code of conduct?” then the next questions would include things like this:
Does a call for genocide of Palestinians violate your university’s code of conduct?
Does a call for genocide of black people violate your university’s code of conduct?
What context would bring within your code of conduct a call for genocide of black people?
If students formed a KKK club and called for the genocide of black people would that violate your code of conduct?
Etc.
Just dopily getting OUTRAGED is not effective.
That said, the initial question was a good one, and these people are now on their heels.
https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/1732558201013653903
Good.
Patterico (001e64) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:01 pmThat said, the initial question was a good one, and these people are now on their heels.
Wow, she completely botched the question and embarrassed herself and her university, but nowhere in her two-minute video apologia is a phrase along the lines of “I’m sorry that I didn’t respond more forcefully.” Our higher education institutions are being run by absolute mediocrities.
JVW (1ad43e) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:24 pmHarvard’s President is also on her back heels trying to salvage some dignity from her dismal performance yesterday. Here’s her full statement on the Harvard Twitter account:
But of course she couldn’t formulate that response until she left the Congressional hearing room and had a chance to sit down with the crisis response team.
JVW (1ad43e) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:27 pmHere’s MIT’s Sally Kornbluth doing damage control:
Insipid, yes. And spoiler alert: the “remarkable letter” really isn’t. But I guess that at least some folks at MIT are trying to muddle through this somehow.
JVW (1ad43e) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:34 pmI am more interested in his (and FIRE‘s) legal analysis, such as there is no “advocacy of genocide” or “hate speech” exceptions to the First Amendment.
Don’t hold them to your standards — they won’t care. Hold them to their OWN standards.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:43 pm@12 ‘I am more interested in his (and FIRE‘s) legal analysis, such as there is no “advocacy of genocide” or “hate speech” exceptions to the First Amendment.’
The First Amendment has nothing to do with campus policies at private universities. University presidents are hiding behind the Constitution and you’re buying it. The former Obama official who berated a hot dog vendor in NYC was arrested and charged with harassment and a hate crime, and that was in a public square not private property. I didn’t notice many objections then, actually none.
MIT had clear rules about protests and refused to enforce them specifically to protect the pro-Hamas violators.
lloyd (aec117) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:44 pmBut of course she couldn’t formulate that response until she left the Congressional hearing room and had a chance to sit down with the crisis response team.
And a focus group or two.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:44 pmOpen Letter
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:47 pm@14 you equate harassment with shooting and attempted murder?
asset (eddd0a) — 12/6/2023 @ 7:59 pmThere is a consistency problem here. We don’t hear all the fretting over “context” when the threatening language is launched against a more preferred minority on campus.
The challenge in all of this is how best to accommodate pro-palestinian supporters while protecting jewish students. Rallying at a park is a bit different than taking over a wing of a building where other students must traverse or attend class at.
The administrators looked bad because they didn’t seem to empathize at all with the jewish students….inferring that once people start getting beat up, then they’ll jump into action. It’s not a satisfying response for families paying a lot of money to have their 18 or 19 year old attend that institution….and not feel safe.
AJ_Liberty (09ce66) — 12/6/2023 @ 8:15 pm@14 you equate harassment with shooting and attempted murder?
Oh, harassment is ok when it’s Arab and Muslim radicals aided and abetted by the woke mob facing off against “privileged” Jewish students, so long as it doesn’t devolve into gun play? You’d make a great university administrator, asset.
JVW (1ad43e) — 12/6/2023 @ 8:42 pmI’m on the side of the Jewish students at MIT, but one thing about claims regarding the whole takeover of Lobby 7 by the pro-Hamas brigade bothers me:
If this is referring to the students blocking egress in Lobby 7, which is the only context for which I have heard these claims, then I don’t buy it. In point of fact, Lobby 7 is simply a main entrance into a building which then provides access to a whole bunch of other academic buildings, but it is hardly the only way to get to various classrooms. In fact, even if Lobby 7 is being blockaded, there are any number of ways to access your classroom using other entrances. That’s not to say that I support those pro-Hamas jerks occupying the space — I wish MIT had suspended them even if it had meant that some of the students would have their visas revoked and be sent home (actions have consequences, and the Biden Administration would have found a way to bail them out anyway) — but I don’t see how this could have kept any willing student from attending class.
JVW (1ad43e) — 12/6/2023 @ 8:51 pmLets take the black woman president harvard. Harvard we need a punching bag and being black they wont punch hard would you like the job? Answer Yes I can obfuscate with the best of them and not offend congress, donors, faculty or students. You give the job to some old white male lefty ready to retire and he tells them what he thinks of them like telling congresswoman stefanik look you represent western NY not skunk creek mississippi and then tells the chairman of the committee what do you want fascist remember this isn’t a klan meeting!
asset (eddd0a) — 12/6/2023 @ 8:54 pm@25 I said no such thing I did not say harassment was ok. I don’t think shooting and attempted murder is the same as harassment and neither does the law.
asset (eddd0a) — 12/6/2023 @ 9:02 pmHow about asking this question?
Does a call for genocide of white people violate your university’s code of conduct?
DN (c86baf) — 12/6/2023 @ 9:20 pmI just found a great video from an MIT student who also spoke today, and have added it to the post.
Dana (932d71) — 12/6/2023 @ 10:22 pmIf a private university has a code of conduct, students can sue (and have done so) to enforce it.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 12/7/2023 @ 8:31 amThen there is this:
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/7/2023 @ 5:00 pmPenn Donor Threatens to Rescind $100 Million Donation Unless President Is Ousted
Does a call for genocide of white people violate your university’s code of conduct?
Why make up something when the facts at hand provide enough of an issue?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/7/2023 @ 5:02 pmLets take the black woman president harvard.
You played the entire Black deck there.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/7/2023 @ 5:03 pmIf this is referring to the students blocking egress in Lobby 7, which is the only context for which I have heard these claims, then I don’t buy it. In point of fact, Lobby 7 is simply a main entrance into a building which then provides access to a whole bunch of other academic buildings, but it is hardly the only way to get to various classrooms.
So, if they can sneak in the back door, it’s all OK? Just use the Jew Door?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/7/2023 @ 5:05 pmThe University Presidents were embarrassingly unprepared for Stefanik’s predictable question, but their appeal to nuance wasn’t wrong. I was too lazy to tease it out, so I didn’t comment, but now Ken White has done the work for me.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 12/7/2023 @ 7:09 pm@36, I think Ken White misses the point: it’s about hypocrisy, not just the ambiguity of the 1st amendment, which all of us dupes would concede. Are Jewish students being harrassed and threatened? Are the universities doing anything about it? If an LGBTQ group was experiencing similar harrassment, would these administrators be laboring on about context? I’m not persuaded that the answer is “yes”.
It makes me wonder: how does Harvard rank empirically on protecting free speech? FIRE doesn’t tend to rank them high. I would go back to my original comment. Both sides on these campuses deserve some accommodation. I would hate to diminish the concerns of the Jewish students given that anti-semitic crimes are on the uptick across the country. I also don’t want to silence Pro-Palestinian voices that are reasonably complaining about disproportionality, justice, and collective punishment. White makes the valid point that Intifada is not the same as genocide. Though intifada has been used to describe intense and violent terrorism. Not exactly a conforting distinction in my estimation.
Emotions are high. The schools should be looking to constructively channel those emotions. I didn’t get the sense that they viewed this as urgent. I’m not exactly a safe-zone protective-bubble sort of guy. University should be about pluralism and becoming more open to other viewpoints. But it should also set boundaries. If I’m shipping $50k over there, I don’t want my kid being harrassed for being a Jew. The administrators should have conveyed greater empathy and more consistency.
AJ_Liberty (da62ba) — 12/7/2023 @ 8:08 pm@36 Someone who smears Stefanik with Great Replacement Theory isn’t displaying the sort of nuance he’s expecting from others. It’s certainly possible to overthink a straightforward question. If the question was instead “Is it acceptable to kidnap, rape, torture and murder women and children?” we’ve already seen there are no lack of individuals who would rather argue context and nuance rather than simply answer the question. Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to say “f*ck nuance.”
lloyd (108f87) — 12/7/2023 @ 8:29 pmThen safe zones bad! Now safe zones good. That was then this is now!
asset (15016e) — 12/7/2023 @ 9:00 pm@37. I don’t think Ken declining to address the hypocrisy misses the point. The moral, policy, and legal implications of Stefanik’s question are one issue. The hypocritical way college administrators have handled it when the players are different is another. Declining to import the latter into the former merely avoids a partisan whatabout. Elite colleges have been disgustingly hypocritical. Preach it. Just give it its own lane. Don’t use it to run over a separate, important question that’s complicated enough on its own.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 12/7/2023 @ 11:13 pmWhen I was growing up liberals would say “we” when talking to conservatives and they would answer you and me don’t make “we” commie! Now conservatives say “we” and liberals say you and me don’t make “we” nazi! Liberals don’t want to breath the same air that conservatives breath! The horrors of the hamas attack have put liberal establishment democrats on the defensive like the three collage presidents who had to obfuscate instead of telling the republican congresswoman what they really believe. Anti-semitism on collage campuses fueled by the slaughter of palestinian women and children by Israel is not going away. Oct.7 atrocities by hamas are being negated by the horrors taking place to women and children in Gaza. This is a battle of hearts and minds like they use to say about vietnam, central america, Iraq and afganistan. The rabid Israel/netanyahu supporters are losing the battle of influence with their over the top rhetoric claiming anyone who supports a ceasefire is a hamas supporter. Addressing anti-semitism on campuses is long overdue even if many who demand safe spaces for jewish student are the discredited ones who demanded no safe spaces for black/brown students. This is a political war of attrition as well as a military one. we will see who wins it in the end. I hope for Israel’s sake they get more thoughtful supporters.
asset (15016e) — 12/8/2023 @ 1:05 amThey are run by traitors trying to destroy our nation by poisoning the minds of the young.
And they are succeeding.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 12/8/2023 @ 4:40 amHeh, heh, heh!
Say what you want about election-denying, Trump-sucking, political opportunists from Northern Appalachia, Stefanik knows how to pick her low-hanging fruit.
You see, “school people” (that’s like “theater people” but they work in schools) are not accustomed to honest debate.
What they are accustomed to is imposing their own facts on young, vulnerable persons over whom they have near absolute authority.
Faced with with a questioner even more intellectually dishonest than themselves and magnitudes more practiced in peddling bullsh!t, they were like babes in the woods. Left with egg on their face, a thumb up their ass, and a big grin to pass the time of day with.
nk (a641c0) — 12/8/2023 @ 5:12 amTrump accuses ‘liberal Jews’ of voting to ‘destroy America and Israel’ in Rosh Hashanah message
The post on Trump’s Truth Social account came on the weekend of the Jewish New Year.
Nuance?
nk (a641c0) — 12/8/2023 @ 5:34 am@43: What a great line from The Wild Bunch
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/8/2023 @ 7:38 amPerhaps he should have saved that for Yom Kippur, with all the atoning he wants them to do.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/8/2023 @ 7:40 amThis comment at The Dispatch resonated with me:
I get that Popehat wants to treat this as a 1A question (though he acknowledges that private institutions like MIT aren’t bound by it). Now I do agree that Stefanik’s rigid “yes” or “no” trap would seemingly rope in speech that is objectively not threatening….his example of students talking in a dorm room. Even a loaded term like genocide doesn’t always create a hostile environment. However, in the context of on-campus protests and taking over buildings to start delivering from-the-river-to-the-sea chants…perhaps there might be some consensus.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 12/8/2023 @ 8:30 am“From the river to the sea” chants would also be protected speech. Both public and private universities can be held accountable under anti-discrimination laws, which is why universities like Columbia, UC Berkeley, NYU, and UPenn are being sued by their students.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 12/8/2023 @ 8:48 amSlogans are protected speech, just like when white supremacists chant “Jews will not replace us.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 12/8/2023 @ 8:56 amCongress can get around the First Amendment issue by passing a law banning antisemitic speech and removing the federal courts ability to hear legal challenges under its authority in Article III, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution:
Footnotes omitted.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 12/8/2023 @ 9:13 am“Congress can get around the First Amendment issue”
There is no 1A issue here, as has been pointed out numerous times.
lloyd (c5e7b9) — 12/8/2023 @ 9:23 amDays later, after facing calls to resign, Claudine Gay finds her voice:
‘I am sorry. Words matter. When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret.’
Even DEI hires can feel the heat.
lloyd (c5e7b9) — 12/8/2023 @ 9:33 amAdmission is completely discretionary.
But expelling or suspending or disciplining students is a due process issue or has been made one, and the Harvard president’s only correct answer about their rules was that calling for the genocide against Jews did not, by itself, violate any written policy against bullying or harassment.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 12/8/2023 @ 10:19 amI get that Popehat wants to treat this as a 1A question
Foolish integrity.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/8/2023 @ 10:53 amAdmission is completely discretionary.
But expelling or suspending or disciplining students is a due process issue
Registering for the coming term is not wholly a right.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/8/2023 @ 10:54 amcalling for the genocide against Jews did not, by itself, violate any written policy against bullying or harassment.
This is the problem with lists — they always exclude something far worse than anything on the list.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/8/2023 @ 10:56 amEven DEI hires can feel the heat.
That’s a non-apology apology, such as “I regret that my words hurt you” which is different than “I regret that I was an asshat.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/8/2023 @ 10:58 am“Slogans are protected speech, just like when white supremacists chant “Jews will not replace us.””
You don’t get to take over buildings to deliver them.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 12/8/2023 @ 12:55 pmDN (c86baf) — 12/6/2023 @ 9:20 pm
If the people complaining about that bknow what buttons to push, but you have to be an insider to know that,
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 12/8/2023 @ 12:58 pmShe apologized for not adding to her words:
By the way I think it is terribly wrong to say that.
That’s one of three things that can be said
The others are that there can be a subtext of threat, and that there may be other kinds of intimidation going on which could be given more strength by the pro-Palestine demonstrations,
Also it should be said hat their slogans come close to advocating genocide – Elise Stefanik skipped the intermediate interpretive step – and the one that goes “globalize the intifada” literally does because the intifada consisted of random killings of Jews and people with them,,
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 12/8/2023 @ 1:05 pmThere is for public universities. And I am speaking of general ban on antisemitic speech, not just at universities.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 12/8/2023 @ 1:15 pm@42 when both sides consider the other sides traitors it usually doesn’t end well. Their is to much money in collages in the wrong places like publish or parish instead of teaching. We need lean hungry wolves teaching the kids like in the lower grades.
asset (425c6f) — 12/8/2023 @ 1:28 pm“And I am speaking of general ban on antisemitic speech, not just at universities.”
You are the only one bringing that up. It’s irrelevant.
lloyd (c5e7b9) — 12/8/2023 @ 1:31 pmToning down anti-semitism is a good thing ;but like a pendulum it will swing to far as going after first amendment here. Dennis prager used to complain about being censored on campuses. Censor anti-semites by getting around 1 amendment how about we then censor fascists, racists, sexists and enemies of the people next. The re-education camps are going to get filled in a hurry!
asset (425c6f) — 12/8/2023 @ 1:49 pmNo it’s not irrelevant-I’m pointing out that Congress could criminalize and punish antisemitic speech if it wanted to and avoid any Constitutional issues. Then these who express antisemitism would face something more than just being expelled.
Rip Murdock (5ad73d) — 12/8/2023 @ 3:00 pmSo, you believe that Congress can white-out the 1st Amendment if it so chooses, simply by passing a law that says the courts can’t butt in?
I’d bet against the court going along with that in a case that involved core civil rights.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 12/8/2023 @ 4:44 pmProf. Volokh is correct about the First Amendment. The Supreme Court on down will protect the right of speakers and writers to communicate even noxious and hateful ideas, so long as the communications are not likely to incite “imminent lawless action.” Remember, of course, the First Amendment protects against government action, not against the actions of private citizens and entities.
That standard is appropriate as a limit upon government power to regulate or prohibit speech.
The college presidents were stuck, however, because their private schools have created speech codes and the like, and they have barred speakers based solely upon the unpopularity of the speech’s likely content, and they have punished people for saying the wrong thing to someone who claimed then to be offended or harassed.
I suspect the presidents knew if they said the calls for genocide violated their private schools’ codes, then they’d face push back not only from the people who advocate genocide but also from others who would argue that Leftist haters have been allowed to speak without the presidents saying a word.
The presidents thus tried to retreat to a First Amendment standard that they and their fellow ideologues do not actually agree with and do not want to uphold in favor of people with whom they strongly disagree. That’s why the presidents looked and spoke so awkwardly.
Worse, of course, was the presidents’ seeming not to grasp the enormity of having huge demonstrations on their campuses by people seeking genocide. And their not acknowledging that Jewish students would in fact feel afraid as a result of large crowds calling for their deaths.
Underlying all this is Wokeism, which has considered Jewish people the “oppressors” who need to be penalized and dismantled. The presidents likely feared backlash, even cancellation, coming from their fellow Wokeists, if the presidents stood up in favor of “oppressors” like Jews.
Richard S. (84e42f) — 12/9/2023 @ 1:57 pm