Young Americans hoping to stay elite or join the elites, e.g., via attending an elite university, are forced into behaviors that would have seemed completely unnatural back in the 1970s. A 1970s public school was a cruel bully-filled environment compared to today’s placid “kindness is everything” schools. Teenagers were expected to be solipsistic and certainly not expected to pretend to be committed do-gooders. Today, by contrast, the teenager who hopes to gain admittance to a decent college must feign passion for a social justice cause, helping the “underserved”, etc. Nobody seems to notice that teenagers have enough of their own problems to focus on and that folks who genuinely want to invest time and money in charity tend to be old.
If the Americans who fought World War II were the “Greatest Generation” then surely today’s college students are the “Kindest Generation” and those who attend the most elite schools are the kindest of the kindest. How to explain, then, the enthusiasm for Israel-haterd/Jew-hatred among the kindest of the kind? Here’s a theory from a friend in the Boston area (she’s a 60ish Clinton/Obama Democrat who questions the full Biden/Harris religion):
My theory is that they’re force-fed so much “kindness” that they’re desperate to be mean to someone — and, in reason #100 for antisemitism over the centuries, campus ideology and TikTok gave them the excuse…
I think that she’s on to something. Ivy League (“Queers for Palestine League”) schools demand thousands of young humans every year who are as kind as the kindest Buddhist philosopher. The U.S. doesn’t contain a sufficient size population of ultra-kind 18-year-olds. Therefore, the people admitted to elite schools are mostly those who’ve been great liars and pretenders regarding their kindness levels. They need to take their masks off occasionally (so to speak; of course, the same folks have been very diligent indeed about wearing their COVID-19 masks; #FollowTheScience). They can’t hold an on-campus demonstration to decry crimes committed by undocumented migrants or by Black Americans. They can’t rally against Muslims being reluctant to celebrate the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community. What is left? The only acceptable outlets for rage (Two Minutes Hate) are (1) anti-Trump/anti-Republican gatherings, and (2) anti-Israel/anti-Jew gatherings (sometimes layered with a “we don’t hate Jews, only Zionists” gloss).
The idea has now trickled down to some non-elite schools…
Related:
Elite university anti-semitism is an offshoot of communist anti-semitism, which is a leftover relic of KGB anti-western plotting.
The leadership of the PLO were working for the KGB and the KGB were supporting them with propaganda. The marxists in academia are still running from that playbook.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/08/world/soviet-papers-palestinian-president-was-a-kgb-agent
https://www.adl.org/resources/article/contemporary-anti-zionisms-connections-soviet-propaganda
As to why the students are so readily lapping it up, maybe you have a point.
> Therefore, the people admitted to elite schools are mostly those who’ve been great liars and pretenders regarding their kindness levels. They need to take their masks off occasionally (so to speak; of course, the same folks have been very diligent indeed about wearing their COVID-19 masks; #FollowTheScience).
LOL! That is so funny!
I don’t buy the premise of the proposed theory that the current generation has been force-fed so much “kindness.” I imagine that 1970s (my father’s generation) kindness was of a different sort, of the realist’s (John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Bill Burr) type. A standard example comes to mind which Stephen Walt often quotes in reference to Israel: that a good friend would let you know when you are in a hole and you need to stop digging. These days, people would “support” you in digging the hole further — not out of malice, but because they don’t have the time, resources, or analytical bent to see the overall picture — that you’re in a hole. The 1970s generation might make a bit of fun of you but would tell you that you’re in a hole and need to stop digging.
Both are acts of kindness, but the former is of the 1970s sort, which might involve being a bit rude/cruel/less supportive or neutral, whereas the latter is the “you-do-you” type, which seems polite/kind/supportive or positive.
Phil, you and your continuing racist, anti-islamist posts are exhibit A for why Jew-hatred is so popular at elite universities. As the president of the elite university you attended, I’m ashamed to believe you are a member of our Peace-loving community, whose Ethos was so bravely articulated by Megha Vemuri just this week in her wonderful commencement speech. You and your sycophants’ continuing attack on Peace-loving Islamists and their supporters is exactly why MIT, Harvard and many other universities have dramatically reduced the numbers of Jews and Zionists on our campuses in recent decades. My Noble colleague Claudine Gay and her like-minded Peace-lovers at Harvard published a comprehensive report on “Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian Bias” in April that I found particularly refreshing. The findings there are terrifying, as anyone who has studied history will know. The pattern of violence, genocide and other atrocities by Jews and Zionists against these Peace-loving Islamists and Palestinians has recurred over and over going back thousands of years!
Our strategy is this: We will fight them over there so we do not have to face them in the United States of America. (Applause.)
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070828-2.html
Informal polling informs me that nobody likes the jews, especially other jews. A study of history informs me that nobody has liked the jews ever, especially other jews. There was a brief lull because like, literally, Hitler.
#jewfatigue
the good…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKcyTntW18w&list=OLAK5uy_mp_vl90bE7LR-RFT00tpHd9bCqVCDpQO4&index=11
the bad…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4MGhwnAqls&list=OLAK5uy_mp_vl90bE7LR-RFT00tpHd9bCqVCDpQO4&index=10
the ugly…
At least near LA, the Jews students hated everyone else. In Utah, the Mormons hated everyone else. The big question is how Greenspun ended up in the antisemitism capital of the world?
I think it has to do with intersectionality and the perverse Bush reaction to 9/11.
After 9/11, a wise reaction would have been to disengage with the Muslim world. But Bush opened the floodgates to Muslim immigration under the “Invade the World, Invite the World, In Hock to the World” strategy (Steve Sailer). I remember seeing city police cars parked at the local Islamic Center and hearing a Christian minister mention, approvingly, that American women were wearing headscarves to the grocery store so that the Muslim women would stand out less. I sort of get the idea of concern for retaliation against unrelated individuals, but I also think that it would have been a good time to think very critically about Islam.
But more importantly, in Gramscian Marxism / intersectionality, Muslims are in the “victim” class. Jews are successful, and are therefore considered “oppressors.” As expressed by Ted Kaczynski:
13. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), repellent (homosexuals) or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not mean to suggest that women, Indians, etc. ARE inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology.)
15. Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate America, they hate Western civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality. The reasons that leftists give for hating the West, etc. clearly do not correspond with their real motives. They SAY they hate the West because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric and so forth, but where these same faults appear in socialist countries or in primitive cultures, the leftist finds excuses for them, or at best he GRUDGINGLY admits that they exist; whereas he ENTHUSIASTICALLY points out (and often greatly exaggerates) these faults where they appear in Western civilization. Thus it is clear that these faults are not the leftist’s real motive for hating America and the West. He hates America and the West because they are strong and successful.
@FBargain, it is for the same reason how the left expresses hatred for wealthy individuals like Elon Musk, but that criticism is selective. There are plenty of ultra-wealthy figures on the left, yet they are celebrated rather than hated. So, I would argue that your logic may be flawed. On that note, can you name any ultra-rich individuals on the left who have contributed to society more than ultra-rich folks on the right?
Somewhat related: “Bill Gates says most of the $200 billion he’s pledged to donate will go to Africa” [1]. Of course, it is his money and he is free to do with it as he sees fit. But let’s be honest, Africa and many other poor regions have been receiving aid for decades, yet the poverty remains. Has it ever occurred to the left that maybe our *well-intentioned* actions are having the opposite effect?
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-gates-philanthropy-giving-pledge-200-billion-africa-gates-foundation/
Palestine is a cause of the woke culture. I think part of woke culture is the cancellation of anyone who doesn’t think like them. Sadly that culture is part of elite universities and is an example of cognitive failure. The point is how those supposed well educated students can be part of this. I think while this stupid attitude remains is fair to ask in what years somebody was in Harvard for example. Not a very good reference in the last years at least
Isn’t it just a matter of population increase? the US population goes up, but the number of elite schools flatlines a long time ago. Hence the need for more and more involved ways of deciding who goes to said elite schools (school scores would be useless, because of population expansion there are so many applicants that the number of applicants with the very top scores exceeds the number of places anyway).
“Population expands* and “elite schools enrollment numbers froze” (at founding levels from 18th century?) boolean statement evaluates to false.
Perplexed, I trust you will do some reading of Malthus before any further reply
Federico, I did read Maltus, when I was a teenager. I hope that you read historic admissions numbers to US colleges. If population expands and number of smart people increases, then pool of those who can teach at elite institutions increases too. If number of smart people not increases, there is no need in increase of admissions to elite institutions. I defined elite institution as one that historically achieved advanced status which never went down.
I don’t agree with the explanation given by your Bostonian friend. I think the students have fully assimilated Marxist theory and part of it is the narrative of Western imperialism and colonialism. Israel is seen as the colonialist and the Palestinians as the oppressed natives and rightful owners of the land. I don’t think they are anti-semits, i.e. hating Jews unconditionally. Do they hate leftist Jews, opposed to Netanyahu? Also, Jews în general are perceived to be well off, having better education and having professions such as lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs. So I suppose Marxists, who see everything in terms of class and interpret history as the conflict between classes, associate Jews with evil, greedy capitalists, who exploit the working class, the only class who is deserving because it is the only one creating value. I suppose Ivy league students, even if not Jewish, identify their families with this kind of socio-economic situation, so it should be a mix between guilt and rebellion against their fathers.
Your excellence, of course they hate leftist Jews opposed to Netanyahu. Leftist Jew opposed to Netanyahu is a definition of every non-STEM Jew in academia, some of them already pushed out academia. Ask them whether they hate Golda Meir, a leftist Israeli Jew, one time head of Socialist Internstional. I think they hate them more. Leftist Israeli politician Barah, former IDF commando and former IDF general, left politics after meeting with Obama. I think they like only self-hating Jews who can be defined as traitors in legal, not rhetorical, terms.