https://web.archive.org/web/20240424140643/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/opinion/columbia-protests-israel.html

  • yuli [she/her]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I thought about what would have happened if protesters were instead chanting anti-Black slogans, or even something like “D.E.I. has got to die,” to the same “Sound Off” tune that “From the river to the sea” has been adapted to.

    when you make an analogy, the analogy is supposed to hold. protesting against genocide is not the same as yelling sieg heil, actually.

    Why do so many people think that weekslong campus protests against not just the war in Gaza but Israel’s very existence are nevertheless permissible?

    because the zionist entity shouldn’t exist.

    Yes, there can be a fine line between questioning Israel’s right to exist and questioning Jewish people’s right to exist. And yes, some of the rhetoric amid the protests crosses it.

    such as? the actions of israel have definitely legitimized antisemitism but let’s not pretend it is in any way characteristic of the protests.

    However, the relentless assault of this current protest — daily, loud, louder, into the night and using ever-angrier rhetoric — is beyond what any people should be expected to bear up under, regardless of their whiteness, privilege or power.

    israel’s bombing — daily, loud, louder, into the night and using ever-angrier rhetoric — is beyond what any people should be expected to bear under, you whiny fuck.

    Today’s protesters don’t hate Israel’s government any more than yesterday’s hated South Africa’s. But they have pursued their goals with a markedly different tenor — in part because of the single-mindedness of antiracist academic culture and in part because of the influence of iPhones and social media, which inherently encourage a more heightened degree of performance. It is part of the warp and woof of today’s protests that they are being recorded from many angles for the world to see. One speaks up.

    gen z iphone tiktok trend bad

    a large number of protesters, including those in the fucking cover image are wearing masks, protesters don’t have their phones out like they’re at a taylor swift concert. idiot

    • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I thought about what would have happened if protesters were instead chanting anti-Black slogans, or even something like “D.E.I. has got to die,” to the same “Sound Off” tune that “From the river to the sea” has been adapted to.

      Whenever I see this 'substitute x for y' idiocy I just immediately know that the person spewing it has nothing valuable to add to any discourse.

    • Chump [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Ah, but consider the following: Protesting against genocide and protesting for genocide are both protests, and therefore equivalent!