In academia the other day. This is what we’ve seen little indications of - a social media post about race based spectrums of oppression here and there, which we easily dismiss as anecdotes indicative of nothing. Then we saw the explosion of anti-semitism as one of the immediate reactions, centered around college campuses, as soon as news hit of the Oct 7 atrocity. Israel hadn’t done anything yet when it started. Then progressive groups start expressing solidarity with…Hamas!?! LGBTQ students in solidarity with…Islamic fundamentalism? Osama Bin Ladin treatises against the west going viral?

Your question reminds me of a conversation with my very lefty nephew. He’s incensed by the simplistic responses against Israel, and recited to me this oppressor/oppressed dynamic he thinks causes it. 2 minutes later he’s denying “wokeness”, as we label it, is even a thing. It’s made up. Apparently, he thinks the simplistic, racial “oppressor/oppressed” dynamic sprung to life spontaneously on Oct 8.

It didn’t. We’ve seen this illiberalism on display on campuses for many years now, with student groups aggressively preventing objectionable speakers, and university admins endorsing that by canceling them. Repeatedly. I can’t even imagine universities doing that in my day. Every wackjob across the political spectrum could say whatever they wanted. Students didn’t throw shit at them. They mostly ignored them (maybe some crowd around religious nuts, but most of us just went about our days). I think the left’s unwillingness to understand this is why it’s now a big part of Schumer’s 5 alarm fire.

[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 12/07/2023 09:16AM]