It’s not a problem that students look at the madness of the world around them and try to come up with ways to make things better. The problem is when they get a little older and begin to shrug.
Only a small percentage of students know the score and continue the effort for a lifetime picking their battles. All the protests that I have been in from the 70s have had lots of people there for the excitement or to show off and then get bored and go for the money or as deemed by society, grow up.
Watch Democracy Now for the interviews with Mark Rudd —about his experiences as leader of the ‘68 protests at Columbia—and the British guy—I forget his name—who is writing a book about the same
Maybe not everyone; but possibly even those with wrongheaded ideas think they’re on the “right side.” Which is exactly the point at which we must question our thoughts.
I hear you. I am also astonished at the levels of vitriol, and not only with this issue. There seems to be an “us versus them” quasi-tribal mentality worldwide right now that is unnerving, disturbing, unhelpful: so many of us have lost, or have never developed, the abilities to think clearly and to empathize.
I have to go to my job, but I will be able to write more on this later. Thank you for your words!
Yes, David, and I'm convinced that, too, (somewhat like the WaPo article Shalom linked above) has been taught...or bought. Recently, and this may speak to a level of ignorance on my part, I came across a definition of the expression "divide and conquer" that had never before occurred to me, "divide and rule" its synonym. If the empowered few can keep the peasants focused on blaming each other, their positions are safe. I know this is not a new concept, but I think it is far more influential than news headlines would have us believe. And I'm not blaming media, at least not in so far as relates to the folks whose names are associated with the bylines and news broadcasts. When or if things devolve into civil war (as is already the case elsewhere), those who can will safely and swiftly leave the country while the rest of us poor idiots rip one another to shreds.
What this world needs is a healthy dose of nuance; unfortunately, nuance doesn’t sell. Can we just agree that you don’t kill children and start from there?
But what then to do when children are intentionally murdered, as they were on October 7th? What should be the appropriate response, as promises are made to murder more, on future October 7th's?
The question is what is there REALISTICALLY to be done? I would not agree to allow the murder of my children, my family, as you have suggested that you might be.
I'm a little surprised you're so flippant about the students taking a position on this issue since it aligns, at its core, with yours in being "strictly anti-death."
What the students are demanding, first and foremost, is that the government and institutions that represent them stop funding or otherwise enabling the mass killing of Palestinians.
You mention that students make snap decisions and change them a week later. Do you really think next week they'll decide that, actually, maybe it's a good thing that their government supports one side so unequivocally so as to enable what is plausibly genocide? Because "their emotional testicles have not yet descended"?
Even if the students are taking a stance on a issue beyond their comprehension – and who isn't? – at its core, it's about a simple imperative: Stop killing people in our name and with our money. There is nothing half-baked about it. Should the student-led opposition to the Vietnam War have been dismissed on similar grounds? What makes a group of 65-year-olds' opinions any more cogent?
And whose opinions are baked enough? All of the people who've studied the conflict over the course of their lifetime, I presume. I think you'll find that they align pretty closely with the students on this one.
I know this piece is primarily about the media exploitation of the student protests but that doesn't invalidate the essence of their position.
If you agree with the anti-death student protestors, as I do, and you agree that the war should be stopped, as I do, and you agree that this is all fucking madness, as I do, then you should be as angry as I am that their message has been utterly lost if not turned into "anti-Semitism!!!" by an irresponsible media that throws fuel on the fire of their youth for the sake of ad dollars. You should be fucking livid. Trust me, journalists know how easy it is to get a student to say something stupid - because they're half-baked, because their impulse control is under-developed. It's a trick. It's a tactic. It's easy. And so what started out as students asking to stop a war has become - BECAUSE of the adults getting involved - "Rising Anti-Semitism On America's Campuses!" And since it has, mind you, who's even talking about the fucking war anymore?
Ha - pretty sure you and I would have a laugh together, Christian. And as for your response below, I agree with their position, but not gonna lie - students are irritating as fuck. Not because they're students, but because of the characteristics of that age. If you've ever had dinner with a college student and didn't, at some point, think about burying your knife in their chest, well, you're a better man than I am.
I am livid about precisely that, and perhaps should have made it clear that I fully understand which problem you’re emphasizing here.
But I think a considerable part of your piece – you said you asked yourself, “Who gives a fuck what college kids think?” – comes across as dismissive of their position simply because they’re students.
I agree with this thought. There was a comment here about Ukraine (how come these kids weren’t/aren’t protesting for Ukraine) and other atrocities worldwide. My first reaction was that these kids world never go to class if they protested EVERY HORRIBLE THING going on in the world because let’s face it, the works writ large sucks (?). Secondly, do you imagine maybe the adults we’ve mentioned exacerbated things which gave rise to this particular protest theme?
What we’re missing here by comparing this protest to the ones that didn’t happen is pretending the kids don’t have a point. Whataboutism helps no one.
That depends on what "their point" is. If they want to work for an end to the killing, advocating for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages would be a noble, and achievable goal.
If their point is to "blame the Jews" (or the Jewish state), then whataboutism points that out very clearly.
> That depends on what "their point" is. If they want to work for an end to the killing, advocating for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages would be a noble, and achievable goal.
Maybe Hamas wants a more permanent solution to the full scope of the problems, despite the short term pain. In that light keeping the hostages seems like decent strategy.
I wish I could be in a bubble, Tamara, but alas that’s not possible anymore. I live under a rock, sure, but there’s wifi, so I’m screwed anyway.
I'm sorry you're seeing so much anti-Semitism. But I'd ask you to think – genuinely, without emotion - about how much you're experiencing and how much you're absorbing through social media, regular media, your phone and your laptop. Perhaps where you are in Canada things are worse than here in the US. Family in London tell me that indeed it's worse there. But the point is neither you nor I actually know, and that’s the issue. I live in a country where I can buy a gun pretty easily – I fucking wish I did know what was going on, so I could spend this Shabbos strapping up and buying bullets if I need to. But I see the same few instances replayed again and again on the news, or social media, and it just doesn’t add up. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of universities here where nothing at all has occurred. There are hundreds of protests that were thoroughly peaceful. None of them made the news. Drudge didn't link to a single one. Trust me, if it was Kristallnacht, the news would be showing it; what they are showing is the same assholes, again and again, useful media idiots.
Two quick examples: 1) the Free Press recently ran an article about schools indoctrinating students to be anti-Semitic (https://www.thefp.com/p/how-us-public-schools-teach-antisemitism). Read it and hide under your bed. But it quoted a Harris poll that I’m probably the only one who bothered to read – and by ANY MEASURE, that poll is fantastic news for Jews and humanity (harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HHP_Dec23_KeyResults.pdf). Most every question was answered the way you might hope; it was cause for fucking celebration. Read it, please. The FP writer found one demographic on one question and shouted Nazis. Why?
2) With all the shouting about anti-Semitism among the young, only one site that I could find reported on The Kennedy School of Politics (at the evil Harvard University) that showed of 2,000 young people polled, “majorities of young people are sympathetic to both Israelis and Palestinians.” And while the screens we stare at all day would make it seem that the youth of the world are doing nothing but taking sides on this, only 62% said they weren’t even watching the war very closely.
Most of these kids couldn’t find either the river or the sea that they are chanting about, so I don’t think that means a call for the destruction of Israel. And I'm sorry, but "saying nothing" doesn't equal anti-Semitism. Most of the people I know here "say nothing" when it comes to the Middle East because it's a fucking hellhole of a subject that the world is tired of hearing about. And so I think we, as Jews, have a responsibility to not be led down a path of hysteria, because if Kristallnacht comes again, no one will care. “There they go again.”
“Nah, these people have not expressed a call for peace.” Yes, they have. Overwhelmingly. I'm sorry, Tamara, but it's just not the case. Most of the signs I saw – and I saw a lot – were expressing horror at war and death. In reality, not on the news; I went to a pro-Israel march and a Pro-Palestinian march, and I saw no shouts for death to Jews, or death to Palestinians for that matter, at either. I saw a lot of concerned, heart-broken people.
Again, perhaps things are worse where you are. If someone has said or done something to you, call the police. I don’t say that lightly, and I truly am sorry you’re feeling so much fear. But it’s worth asking where it’s coming from.
I have lived in Canada, and in the USA. I have personally experienced Jew-hatred directed at me in both. I am also the son of Survivors. And I am hypersensitive to the events of the current situation. The current expressions of blase neutrality could no doubt have been heard in Germany, from German Jews, in the 1930's.
I'm sorry for your situation, William, but hypersensitivity, as well as being the child of survivors, would make one's perspective less objective, not more. It might even cause someone to draw tired parallels between present-day situations and Germany in the 1930's. I know and have known both survivors and their children, and they were often vociferously anti-war in any capacity - and understandably so.
"What the students are demanding, first and foremost, is that the government and institutions that represent them stop funding or otherwise enabling the mass killing of Palestinians."
But who then, to prevent the mass killing of Jews......again......and again?
Notice that neither the students nor their accomplices say one word about the Israelis who were murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped and who are still subject to rocket attacks and displacement. These protesters and their enablers only care about violence and death when it happens to some victims. Not others. Not the ones they don’t care about, or that they believe deserve it. They’re transparent frauds.
Where there are protests, they will always attract "protestitutes" and yes, I made that word up. Absolutely agree that at that age, college/uni, we all thought we knew EVERYTHING and were right about all of it. The issues are never as clear as we once thought they were. And then we grew up and realized that.
You may be half-baked but still have more clarity on what really matters. Their hearts are closer to the truth and more in sync with humanity than those with fully baked brains. I suppose that they are still rising.
Thank you so much for expressing all of this so clearly. I especially loved, “their emotional testicles have not yet descended.” As a psychologist, I will be looking for an opportunity to use that in conversation!
Amy, that was one of my favorite lines too. As I watch my now adult daughter and my late teenage nieces and nephews, I’m so grateful for their naivety and their youthful hope. there will be a time for their emotional testicles to descend and nuance to play into the way they see the world and our capacity to solve what else it. But the world needs, too, the audacity of belief that it is all solvable.
I’m sorry to have to say, Shalom, but I think this is a profound mis-reading of the wisdom and intention behind the college protests against Israel’s incipient ethnic cleansing. Perhaps (generously allowing for inevitable human fallibility), your attention has been misguided by mainstream ‘both sides’ presentation, mixed with a fair amount of outright (officially endorsed) lying.
Let’s look that the protesters main demand: they are seeking institutional divestiture from US arms suppliers providing the weapons the US is sending to Israel—weapons that have killed more than 35,000 civilians, one-third of which are children.
Perhaps others don’t, but I draw the line at an active willingness to continue to kill children, no matter the provocation, even the killing of children. Grey haired as I am, I stand in solidarity with the college students protesting this atrocity.
I do not think they are ‘half-baked’ at all, and if they are, then I think we should all be.
Generally, I appreciate your newsletter, but in this one, I think you shoot far wide of the mark.
Well hey, Pete, I gotta miss sometimes. It's only $5 for a subscription, and most of you assholes aren't even paying that much. According to you, I miss on this one because I'm not sufficiently pro-protests. According to William, responding to you below, I miss because I'm not sufficiently anti-protestor. My point, though, was that the media has done what it always does, which is to inflame and exploit a situation with no regard for the facts to such an extreme that we don't even know the facts -- so unless either you or William feels "The media in this case has responded with typical maturity, composure and dignity, and I am confident that the story I have been told is accurate," I think the debates you're looking for are better found at the NYT or Fox websites than here.
I simply commented that I thought you missed the mark on this one. (No need to call me an asshole over it, especially as I’m staying a paid subscriber — for a mere $5, which for some may be next to nothing, I know.)
If are curious about the media direction I think it good to look on this and other issues, you might see Some More News (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LrGlRax9AiY).
Which part do you consider "a flat lie"? The part that the IDF does not intentionally target Palestinian children, or any other civilians for tyhat matter? Or the part that Hamas (and the PA) intentionally target Israeli children and civilians?
Do you have any concrete evidence to support your absolute certainty against either one?
> Maya (/ˈmɑːjə/; Devanagari: माया, IAST: māyā), literally "illusion" or "magic",[1][2][3] has multiple meanings in Indian philosophies depending on the context. In later Vedic texts, māyā connotes a "magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem".
All you have to do is literally watch individual humans describe "reality", and it is obvious that it is an illusion. Well, provided one is adequately free of Maya themselves, of course....not a small task!
I grant that a large part of it is, as you say, maya.
But not all. Not by a long chalk.
There definitely souls out there who know full well the IDF is targeting children (along with other civilians), but who prefer to repeat the lie that they aren’t, anyway.
What concerns me the most are the people around my age (47) who can't or don't or won't think any more critically about the situation than the college students, and still see everything in stark black-and-white terms. And I mean EVERYTHING. I know these people. There are legions of them.
You're so right--love the idea of half-baked kids. Unfortunately for us, so many people stay that way, or dive deeper into inanity. I was talking to my daughter (who's a bit more than half-baked) last night, and she informed me that it makes her so angry when people can't see both sides of a situation, and are convinced that they're right. I feel so proud of her, and wish that more kids at these prestigious universities (supposedly our "best and brightest") were a bit less convinced that Hamas is a heroic organization. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and your always-brilliant brain.
Columbia has around 8,000 undergrads, a tiny fraction of those were involved. I'd imagine the percentages are even more paltry at other colleges. This is PT Barnum in a news van.
Was it PT Barnum 50 years ago, when students were protesting involvement in the Vet Nam war? Perhaps with more just cause when the lives of the half-baked brains were on the line, being used as canon fodder…How do you explain the faculty who got involved in this protest? Also half-baked? Or just wanting to be—literally—where the cool kids were? I agree with the commentator on ‘Democracy Now’ who suggested that this was/is a Class War that should be labelled a ‘Police Riot.’ The cops, billeted in their tiny vans at night, were expressing their ‘ressentiment’ at the class privilege of these rich kids.
Who are the protesters saying Hamas is heroic? I’m sure there are some, and some that are very much antisemitic, but I think (hope?) most are like me; I think Hamas is abhorrent AND think Israel is killing innocent Palestinians. These are not mutually exclusive.
There is no doubt that innocent Palestinian civilians are dying at Israel's hands. But do you believe that Israel is specifically and intention ally targeting those innocent civilians?
Thank you for these words, and insight. Our young people are doing exactly what they are meant to be doing, they are meant to believe that things can change, and the world can be better.
"...news is everywhere and yet there’s no way of knowing what’s actually taking place."
Exactly how I feel. I once spent a morning going back and forth between CNN's site and FOX News' site to see how each framed certain stories, as well as which ones they simply ignored. I'll never do that again. Too depressing.
The media calling out the other adults who exploited these students - its a start, perhaps soon they'll point the finger at themselves, too. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/student-campus-protests-veteran-activist-groups-17ccd094
It’s not a problem that students look at the madness of the world around them and try to come up with ways to make things better. The problem is when they get a little older and begin to shrug.
This
Totally. As we see.
Only a small percentage of students know the score and continue the effort for a lifetime picking their battles. All the protests that I have been in from the 70s have had lots of people there for the excitement or to show off and then get bored and go for the money or as deemed by society, grow up.
Watch Democracy Now for the interviews with Mark Rudd —about his experiences as leader of the ‘68 protests at Columbia—and the British guy—I forget his name—who is writing a book about the same
Maybe not everyone; but possibly even those with wrongheaded ideas think they’re on the “right side.” Which is exactly the point at which we must question our thoughts.
I hear you. I am also astonished at the levels of vitriol, and not only with this issue. There seems to be an “us versus them” quasi-tribal mentality worldwide right now that is unnerving, disturbing, unhelpful: so many of us have lost, or have never developed, the abilities to think clearly and to empathize.
I have to go to my job, but I will be able to write more on this later. Thank you for your words!
Yes, David, and I'm convinced that, too, (somewhat like the WaPo article Shalom linked above) has been taught...or bought. Recently, and this may speak to a level of ignorance on my part, I came across a definition of the expression "divide and conquer" that had never before occurred to me, "divide and rule" its synonym. If the empowered few can keep the peasants focused on blaming each other, their positions are safe. I know this is not a new concept, but I think it is far more influential than news headlines would have us believe. And I'm not blaming media, at least not in so far as relates to the folks whose names are associated with the bylines and news broadcasts. When or if things devolve into civil war (as is already the case elsewhere), those who can will safely and swiftly leave the country while the rest of us poor idiots rip one another to shreds.
What this world needs is a healthy dose of nuance; unfortunately, nuance doesn’t sell. Can we just agree that you don’t kill children and start from there?
You radical.
But what then to do when children are intentionally murdered, as they were on October 7th? What should be the appropriate response, as promises are made to murder more, on future October 7th's?
Certainly not killing more children.
(“But, do you condemn Hamas?”)
Well, it is clear what YOU would NOT do.
The question is what is there REALISTICALLY to be done? I would not agree to allow the murder of my children, my family, as you have suggested that you might be.
My action of choice is to mock those on both sides relentlessly for their dangerously delusional approach to reality.
This!
I'm a little surprised you're so flippant about the students taking a position on this issue since it aligns, at its core, with yours in being "strictly anti-death."
What the students are demanding, first and foremost, is that the government and institutions that represent them stop funding or otherwise enabling the mass killing of Palestinians.
You mention that students make snap decisions and change them a week later. Do you really think next week they'll decide that, actually, maybe it's a good thing that their government supports one side so unequivocally so as to enable what is plausibly genocide? Because "their emotional testicles have not yet descended"?
Even if the students are taking a stance on a issue beyond their comprehension – and who isn't? – at its core, it's about a simple imperative: Stop killing people in our name and with our money. There is nothing half-baked about it. Should the student-led opposition to the Vietnam War have been dismissed on similar grounds? What makes a group of 65-year-olds' opinions any more cogent?
And whose opinions are baked enough? All of the people who've studied the conflict over the course of their lifetime, I presume. I think you'll find that they align pretty closely with the students on this one.
I know this piece is primarily about the media exploitation of the student protests but that doesn't invalidate the essence of their position.
If you agree with the anti-death student protestors, as I do, and you agree that the war should be stopped, as I do, and you agree that this is all fucking madness, as I do, then you should be as angry as I am that their message has been utterly lost if not turned into "anti-Semitism!!!" by an irresponsible media that throws fuel on the fire of their youth for the sake of ad dollars. You should be fucking livid. Trust me, journalists know how easy it is to get a student to say something stupid - because they're half-baked, because their impulse control is under-developed. It's a trick. It's a tactic. It's easy. And so what started out as students asking to stop a war has become - BECAUSE of the adults getting involved - "Rising Anti-Semitism On America's Campuses!" And since it has, mind you, who's even talking about the fucking war anymore?
Also, I’m amazed how quickly you wrote such a coherent reply. Took me fucking ages to write all that up there.
Ha - pretty sure you and I would have a laugh together, Christian. And as for your response below, I agree with their position, but not gonna lie - students are irritating as fuck. Not because they're students, but because of the characteristics of that age. If you've ever had dinner with a college student and didn't, at some point, think about burying your knife in their chest, well, you're a better man than I am.
Agree on all fronts, especially the laugh. Thanks for taking the time to respond in your typically clear-eyed way.
Tamara, it was to me. If you're so certain I'm glib, deluded or gaslighting you, I suggest you go somewhere else.
I am livid about precisely that, and perhaps should have made it clear that I fully understand which problem you’re emphasizing here.
But I think a considerable part of your piece – you said you asked yourself, “Who gives a fuck what college kids think?” – comes across as dismissive of their position simply because they’re students.
I agree with this thought. There was a comment here about Ukraine (how come these kids weren’t/aren’t protesting for Ukraine) and other atrocities worldwide. My first reaction was that these kids world never go to class if they protested EVERY HORRIBLE THING going on in the world because let’s face it, the works writ large sucks (?). Secondly, do you imagine maybe the adults we’ve mentioned exacerbated things which gave rise to this particular protest theme?
What we’re missing here by comparing this protest to the ones that didn’t happen is pretending the kids don’t have a point. Whataboutism helps no one.
That depends on what "their point" is. If they want to work for an end to the killing, advocating for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages would be a noble, and achievable goal.
If their point is to "blame the Jews" (or the Jewish state), then whataboutism points that out very clearly.
> That depends on what "their point" is. If they want to work for an end to the killing, advocating for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages would be a noble, and achievable goal.
Maybe Hamas wants a more permanent solution to the full scope of the problems, despite the short term pain. In that light keeping the hostages seems like decent strategy.
I wish I could be in a bubble, Tamara, but alas that’s not possible anymore. I live under a rock, sure, but there’s wifi, so I’m screwed anyway.
I'm sorry you're seeing so much anti-Semitism. But I'd ask you to think – genuinely, without emotion - about how much you're experiencing and how much you're absorbing through social media, regular media, your phone and your laptop. Perhaps where you are in Canada things are worse than here in the US. Family in London tell me that indeed it's worse there. But the point is neither you nor I actually know, and that’s the issue. I live in a country where I can buy a gun pretty easily – I fucking wish I did know what was going on, so I could spend this Shabbos strapping up and buying bullets if I need to. But I see the same few instances replayed again and again on the news, or social media, and it just doesn’t add up. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of universities here where nothing at all has occurred. There are hundreds of protests that were thoroughly peaceful. None of them made the news. Drudge didn't link to a single one. Trust me, if it was Kristallnacht, the news would be showing it; what they are showing is the same assholes, again and again, useful media idiots.
Two quick examples: 1) the Free Press recently ran an article about schools indoctrinating students to be anti-Semitic (https://www.thefp.com/p/how-us-public-schools-teach-antisemitism). Read it and hide under your bed. But it quoted a Harris poll that I’m probably the only one who bothered to read – and by ANY MEASURE, that poll is fantastic news for Jews and humanity (harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HHP_Dec23_KeyResults.pdf). Most every question was answered the way you might hope; it was cause for fucking celebration. Read it, please. The FP writer found one demographic on one question and shouted Nazis. Why?
2) With all the shouting about anti-Semitism among the young, only one site that I could find reported on The Kennedy School of Politics (at the evil Harvard University) that showed of 2,000 young people polled, “majorities of young people are sympathetic to both Israelis and Palestinians.” And while the screens we stare at all day would make it seem that the youth of the world are doing nothing but taking sides on this, only 62% said they weren’t even watching the war very closely.
Most of these kids couldn’t find either the river or the sea that they are chanting about, so I don’t think that means a call for the destruction of Israel. And I'm sorry, but "saying nothing" doesn't equal anti-Semitism. Most of the people I know here "say nothing" when it comes to the Middle East because it's a fucking hellhole of a subject that the world is tired of hearing about. And so I think we, as Jews, have a responsibility to not be led down a path of hysteria, because if Kristallnacht comes again, no one will care. “There they go again.”
“Nah, these people have not expressed a call for peace.” Yes, they have. Overwhelmingly. I'm sorry, Tamara, but it's just not the case. Most of the signs I saw – and I saw a lot – were expressing horror at war and death. In reality, not on the news; I went to a pro-Israel march and a Pro-Palestinian march, and I saw no shouts for death to Jews, or death to Palestinians for that matter, at either. I saw a lot of concerned, heart-broken people.
Again, perhaps things are worse where you are. If someone has said or done something to you, call the police. I don’t say that lightly, and I truly am sorry you’re feeling so much fear. But it’s worth asking where it’s coming from.
I have lived in Canada, and in the USA. I have personally experienced Jew-hatred directed at me in both. I am also the son of Survivors. And I am hypersensitive to the events of the current situation. The current expressions of blase neutrality could no doubt have been heard in Germany, from German Jews, in the 1930's.
I'm sorry for your situation, William, but hypersensitivity, as well as being the child of survivors, would make one's perspective less objective, not more. It might even cause someone to draw tired parallels between present-day situations and Germany in the 1930's. I know and have known both survivors and their children, and they were often vociferously anti-war in any capacity - and understandably so.
“And watch not your screens,” said the Lord, “for surely you shall want to perish.”
"What the students are demanding, first and foremost, is that the government and institutions that represent them stop funding or otherwise enabling the mass killing of Palestinians."
But who then, to prevent the mass killing of Jews......again......and again?
Notice that neither the students nor their accomplices say one word about the Israelis who were murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped and who are still subject to rocket attacks and displacement. These protesters and their enablers only care about violence and death when it happens to some victims. Not others. Not the ones they don’t care about, or that they believe deserve it. They’re transparent frauds.
> Notice that neither the students nor their accomplices say one word
It isn't possible for you to know this.
> They’re transparent frauds.
You are a Naive Realist.
Jews could play a substantial role in stopping the "mass killing" of them.
Where there are protests, they will always attract "protestitutes" and yes, I made that word up. Absolutely agree that at that age, college/uni, we all thought we knew EVERYTHING and were right about all of it. The issues are never as clear as we once thought they were. And then we grew up and realized that.
Excellent comment. Am amazed at the improvement of intellilect and humanity here as opposed to X and other forums. I appreciate your insight.
You may be half-baked but still have more clarity on what really matters. Their hearts are closer to the truth and more in sync with humanity than those with fully baked brains. I suppose that they are still rising.
"Truth," and those that claim to know it scare me. Can you elaborate?
Thank you for sharing your attempt toward rhetorical diversion.
You know exactly what the comment was getting at, and so do we.
Thank you so much for expressing all of this so clearly. I especially loved, “their emotional testicles have not yet descended.” As a psychologist, I will be looking for an opportunity to use that in conversation!
Amy, that was one of my favorite lines too. As I watch my now adult daughter and my late teenage nieces and nephews, I’m so grateful for their naivety and their youthful hope. there will be a time for their emotional testicles to descend and nuance to play into the way they see the world and our capacity to solve what else it. But the world needs, too, the audacity of belief that it is all solvable.
*what ails it (must read before pressing post) 🤣
For the same reasons, military recruits are young. No use signing up those who question organizational ethics.
I’m sorry to have to say, Shalom, but I think this is a profound mis-reading of the wisdom and intention behind the college protests against Israel’s incipient ethnic cleansing. Perhaps (generously allowing for inevitable human fallibility), your attention has been misguided by mainstream ‘both sides’ presentation, mixed with a fair amount of outright (officially endorsed) lying.
Let’s look that the protesters main demand: they are seeking institutional divestiture from US arms suppliers providing the weapons the US is sending to Israel—weapons that have killed more than 35,000 civilians, one-third of which are children.
Perhaps others don’t, but I draw the line at an active willingness to continue to kill children, no matter the provocation, even the killing of children. Grey haired as I am, I stand in solidarity with the college students protesting this atrocity.
I do not think they are ‘half-baked’ at all, and if they are, then I think we should all be.
Generally, I appreciate your newsletter, but in this one, I think you shoot far wide of the mark.
URL Reference: https://shalomauslander.substack.com/p/yes-but-what-do-the-half-baked-think/
Well hey, Pete, I gotta miss sometimes. It's only $5 for a subscription, and most of you assholes aren't even paying that much. According to you, I miss on this one because I'm not sufficiently pro-protests. According to William, responding to you below, I miss because I'm not sufficiently anti-protestor. My point, though, was that the media has done what it always does, which is to inflame and exploit a situation with no regard for the facts to such an extreme that we don't even know the facts -- so unless either you or William feels "The media in this case has responded with typical maturity, composure and dignity, and I am confident that the story I have been told is accurate," I think the debates you're looking for are better found at the NYT or Fox websites than here.
Well, Shalom, I didn’t unsubscribe.
I simply commented that I thought you missed the mark on this one. (No need to call me an asshole over it, especially as I’m staying a paid subscriber — for a mere $5, which for some may be next to nothing, I know.)
If are curious about the media direction I think it good to look on this and other issues, you might see Some More News (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LrGlRax9AiY).
Oh, wait! Its by those dang youngs!
(https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/videos)
Thank you for this. I’m listening as Ai type
Well, I didn’t unsubscribe (a mere $5 or no). I commented that I thought you missed the mark in this one.
No need to call me an asshole over it. (Could that be just the slightest bit tetchy?)
If you want to look in on where I think the debate is best understood, you might look at Some More News (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LrGlRax9AiY).
Oh wait! Those dang youngs!
(https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/videos
Wasn't callling you an asshole, Peter, just a bit of levity. To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, we're all assholes here.
"I draw the line at an active willingness to continue to kill children, no matter the provocation, even the killing of children."
Even if they are your children? Really? Honestly? You would simply allow your children to be murdered....again and again....?
I would not kill children or enable the killing of children, even if my own children, who I love very much, were killed.
Children are not the ones responsible.
Palestinian children are not being targeted. (Israeli children were intentionally, brutally targeted raped and murdered.)
That is a flat lie. But go on. Keep it telling it to yourself. Maybe with enough repetition you’ll convince yourself and assuage your conscience.
Which part do you consider "a flat lie"? The part that the IDF does not intentionally target Palestinian children, or any other civilians for tyhat matter? Or the part that Hamas (and the PA) intentionally target Israeli children and civilians?
Do you have any concrete evidence to support your absolute certainty against either one?
I think you know, but I will answer anyway. It is a flat lie that the IDF does not target children (along with adult civilians as well).
But, as I said before, keep on telling yourself reassuring lies.
Also: do your own homework.
>> Palestinian children are not being targeted.
> That is a flat lie.
I don't think it is, I suspect at most it is an untruth.
Language and consciousness combined have a powerful "hypnotic" effect on people, in Hinduism the phenomenon is referred to as Maya:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(religion)
> Maya (/ˈmɑːjə/; Devanagari: माया, IAST: māyā), literally "illusion" or "magic",[1][2][3] has multiple meanings in Indian philosophies depending on the context. In later Vedic texts, māyā connotes a "magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem".
All you have to do is literally watch individual humans describe "reality", and it is obvious that it is an illusion. Well, provided one is adequately free of Maya themselves, of course....not a small task!
I grant that a large part of it is, as you say, maya.
But not all. Not by a long chalk.
There definitely souls out there who know full well the IDF is targeting children (along with other civilians), but who prefer to repeat the lie that they aren’t, anyway.
Firebrand optimist
I was optimistic about pessimism, but it hasn't worked out.
I know better, and I still stare into the FOX and CNN abyss.
I need to resume my regularly scheduled beatings and find my center again if morale is to improve.
What concerns me the most are the people around my age (47) who can't or don't or won't think any more critically about the situation than the college students, and still see everything in stark black-and-white terms. And I mean EVERYTHING. I know these people. There are legions of them.
Old fools are more troubling than young ones.
Completely agree.
You're so right--love the idea of half-baked kids. Unfortunately for us, so many people stay that way, or dive deeper into inanity. I was talking to my daughter (who's a bit more than half-baked) last night, and she informed me that it makes her so angry when people can't see both sides of a situation, and are convinced that they're right. I feel so proud of her, and wish that more kids at these prestigious universities (supposedly our "best and brightest") were a bit less convinced that Hamas is a heroic organization. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and your always-brilliant brain.
Columbia has around 8,000 undergrads, a tiny fraction of those were involved. I'd imagine the percentages are even more paltry at other colleges. This is PT Barnum in a news van.
Was it PT Barnum 50 years ago, when students were protesting involvement in the Vet Nam war? Perhaps with more just cause when the lives of the half-baked brains were on the line, being used as canon fodder…How do you explain the faculty who got involved in this protest? Also half-baked? Or just wanting to be—literally—where the cool kids were? I agree with the commentator on ‘Democracy Now’ who suggested that this was/is a Class War that should be labelled a ‘Police Riot.’ The cops, billeted in their tiny vans at night, were expressing their ‘ressentiment’ at the class privilege of these rich kids.
Who are the protesters saying Hamas is heroic? I’m sure there are some, and some that are very much antisemitic, but I think (hope?) most are like me; I think Hamas is abhorrent AND think Israel is killing innocent Palestinians. These are not mutually exclusive.
"think Israel is killing innocent Palestinians"
There is no doubt that innocent Palestinian civilians are dying at Israel's hands. But do you believe that Israel is specifically and intention ally targeting those innocent civilians?
Thank you for these words, and insight. Our young people are doing exactly what they are meant to be doing, they are meant to believe that things can change, and the world can be better.
"...news is everywhere and yet there’s no way of knowing what’s actually taking place."
Exactly how I feel. I once spent a morning going back and forth between CNN's site and FOX News' site to see how each framed certain stories, as well as which ones they simply ignored. I'll never do that again. Too depressing.
You said everything I have been feeling but haven’t expressed. Thank you.