▼

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Students at NYU Anti-Israel Protest Haven’t the Faintest Idea What They are Doing - Hugh Fitzgerald

 

by Hugh Fitzgerald

Extraordinary popular delusions -- and the madness of crowds.

 


[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]

 

Just as many have suspected, not all of those impassioned student protesters know what they are protesting. Some of them have just let slip, as they were being interviewed by journalists from the New York Post, that they haven’t the faintest idea what they are supposed to be opposing. Robert Spencer wrote about this briefly here, and more on this comical confusion can be found here: “Anti-Israel protesters at NYU admit they have no idea what they’re protesting: ‘I wish I was more educated,’” by Emily Crane, New York Post, April 25, 2024:

Two Columbia University students who rushed to join NYU’s violent anti-Israel rally are going viral after admitting they had no idea what the protest was about — and wished they were “more educated.”

The unidentified students rattled off their clueless rationale on the steps of the NYU campus in downtown Manhattan as a slew of NYPD cops clad in riot gear stood in the background, as seen in footage viewed more than 3 million times since being shared by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani late Wednesday.

“I think the main goal is just showing our support for Palestine and demanding that NYU stop … I honestly don’t know all of what NYU is doing,” one admitted when asked about the protest’s purpose.

“Support for Palestine”? Sounds innocuous, but what the chants are really calling for? “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free” means the eradication of the Jewish state, the expulsion or killing of all of its Jewish inhabitants, and the replacement of Israel by a twenty-third Arab state. Do these protesters understand the meaning of what they have been taught to mindlessly repeat? And what about the other chants, such as “End Genocide Now,” which falsely accuses Israel of the gravest of crimes? Do they even know what the word “genocide” means? And when these student protesters praise Hamas for its “resistance,” do they know that they are praising a terror group whose operatives on October 7 raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered 1,200 Israelis, and kidnapped another 260? When 3,000 Hamas members swooped into Israel in cars, on motorbikes, on paragliders, to engage in their orgy of killings, was that an act of “resistance”?

An unnamed Columbia University student gave her bizarre rationale when she was being interviewed on the steps of the NYU campus.

A slew of NYPD cops clad in riot gear stood in the background.

Asked if there was “something NYU is doing,” the student meekly replied: “I really don’t know, I’m pretty sure they are…”

Yes, of course. NYU must be doing “something” objectionable — that’s why there are students now objecting — but she “really doesn’t know” what it is. But if other people think there should be a protest on the NYU campus, she’s “pretty sure they are” doing it for a good reason. Hers not to reason why, hers but to scream and cry. And I suspect a great many other students now making life so unpleasant on campuses across America are equally clueless, and equally determined, despite their ignorance, to shout their slogans, flaunt their keffiyehs, and wave their Palestinian flags.

Those Columbia students, with their vague and bland little souls, just knew they should be joining the NYU students. That’s what protesters are supposed to do — support one another. They weren’t sure what exactly was the gravamen of the charges against the NYU administration, but were sure it must have been important: “something to do with Israel.” What, exactly? Oh, gosh, you know, we’re not exactly sure. But it is very important that we join the crowd to show just where we stand, even if we don’t quite know what it’s all about. Some one will let us know.

Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds.

Nothing more need be said.

 

Hugh Fitzgerald

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/students-at-nyu-anti-israel-protest-havent-the-faintest-idea-what-they-are-doing/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
at

No comments:

Post a Comment