1938, American-Style
Let us call a spade a spade. The recent protests at the University of California Berkley, Columbia University, and several other prominent bastions of postmodern liberalism are not anti-Israel. They are anti-Jew. Wherever these demonstrations have occurred, Jewish students who play no role in the war in Gaza and may not even support how Israel is conducting the war have been the target of hateful slogans and threats. Some of the protestors’ chants strongly imply the world would be a better place if all Jews were eliminated. The last time this level of hate directed at Jews occurred was some eight-five years ago. You may have heard it culminated in the most horrific attempt at ethnic cleansing in human history.
It is outrageous that university administrators have allowed these demonstrations to get off the ground. Said administrators know they will take place in advance and should take whatever measures are necessary to shut them down before they begin. Furthermore, any student who participates in one of these vile protests should be expelled and subject to criminal prosecution. We’re talking hate speech, folks, the very sort of hate speech that preceded the Holocaust.
If my child was a student at Berkley, Columbia, or any other university where these despicable demonstrations have been held, and I discovered he had participated, I would immediately cut off all financial support. I’d stop payments on an automobile and an apartment. I’d cancel all his credit cards. I’d leave him high and dry, without so much as a warning. Then I’d inform him that for the money tap to be turned back on, he must write a letter of apology – pre-approved by me – to all Jewish students on his campus, publish it in the school newspaper and post one hundred copies on campus bulletin boards, telephone poles, etc. and other places where lots of fellow students will see them. I’d make it perfectly and painfully clear that hate for Jews will not be tolerated and will result in significant consequences. If he refused to do any of the above, I would immediately emancipate him. Bada-bing, bada-boom!
If you were to ask either of my kids, “Would your dad really do that?” they would surely answer, “Oh yeah. He’d do that and sleep well.”
I am a tried-and-true constitutional conservative, but I was once a lefty. My wife and I led the march against the Vietnam War on our college campus. We participated in the November 15, 1969, March on Washington. I wrote a weekly column for the Western Illinois University student newspaper in which I championed various socialist causes. I voted for George McGovern, who would have been, I’m sure, the worst president in history. I voted for Jimmy Carter, who WAS the worst (until now). I voted for Walter Mondale. Then I woke up to reality, courtesy of some friends who patiently and lovingly explained the error of my ways.
My point is, I know what neo-liberalism is all about. Primarily, it’s about destroying things. Every once in a while, in the course of destroying things, neo-liberals happen to destroy something that actually needs destroying, but they mostly destroy, or try to, things we need (but in some cases might be overdue for some tweaking), even some things we don’t know we need until we don’t have them any longer.
Post-1960s liberals have a penchant for going on moral crusades, the problem being that their sense of what is and isn’t moral is largely off the wall. Furthermore, the thinking of liberals is driven by emotion. In their minds, they FEEL; therefore, they are correct. When you combine a false sense of moral superiority with hyperactive emotionality, you end up with fanaticism of the sort we’re seeing at today’s elite liberal enclaves.
One of postmodern liberalism’s strategies is to project its moral and ethical sicknesses onto its opponents; thus, they accuse conservatives of intolerance, bigotry, and hatred. The good news is that as I did around 1992, more and more liberals are waking up to the truth. Unfortunately, the truth often comes at a cost to those who least deserve it.
Copyright 2024, John K. Rosemond
It’s fitting that these demonstrations are happening at Columbia- the location of the introduction of postmodernist thought in America via the Frankfurt School in Germany. Most of these protesters don’t even know what or why they’re protesting. Their alleged education has destroyed their ability to think critically- hence, the whole concept of “critical theory” is a joke, it should be called “non-critical dogmatic nonsense.” I guess for 90k a year at an Ivy League school, that’s all you get if you’re not on the STEM side of the University.
Play stupid games —win stupid prizes. There are likely a few people this morning regretting their use of non-critical thinking because now they’ve been thrown out of the university at graduation time.
And so life goes.
My parents would also have cut off all funding if I participated in such a demonstration.
Last weekend I attended graduation ceremonies at a Big 10 university. As I drove around the campus I was expecting to see groups of protestors, but really didn’t. The only ones I saw were about 15 protesters (I can’t swear they were actual students) outside the arena where the graduation ceremonies were held. They carried signs and were chanting, but nobody was paying any attention to them, just walking on by. Perhaps the very obvious police presence at the event helped keep them from throwing a bigger tantrum. I asked a couple of students if there even was an encampment or protest of any sort and they shrugged and said, “Yeah, it’s over there somewhere. There is some vacant land behind those dorms the university said they could use so they can have their little protest but nobody can see them.”