Probably like many of you, I’ve been listening and watching as fascist and misguided youths’ protests spread across the US—misguided because they think support of the terrorist organization Hamas is a noble cause; fascist because terrorism is just an extreme manifestation of fascism.
There are common threads tying all these campus protests together: They’re the antithesis of liberalism! Liberal and progressive thought above all preaches the overarching principle that a person’s rights end when they infringe on the rights of others. That’s why your freedom of speech cannot justify the social crime of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater when there is none. It’s also why a young person’s right to express support for Hamas (something that makes those violent murderers and rapists happy, happy, happy, by the way—they’ve said so!) cannot be allowed if their protest interferes with the rights of some other students—for example, their right to attend classes without feeling threatened, or their right to participate in a graduation ceremony.
Of course, these protests are also wrong in the moral sense, as I’ve argued in my previous post: Hamas is a terrorist organization! No rational, civilized, and moral person should support these murdering thugs, but morality hasn’t been a major human concern since prehistoric times. Let’s move on to the private vs. public property question:
Liberalism also asserts that individuals have the right to own and protect private property from individuals who would damage or destroy what is owned. That’s exactly what’s occurring! While it makes no difference if it’s private or public property (the latter is just property owned by all the people), across the US from USC to NYU and Columbia, CUNY is the only public institution I know that’s reeling from these protests; all the rest are private institutions. Public institutions usually don’t invest elsewhere (but they receive federal funding); private ones often do so in order to maintain funding levels for endowments they use for financial aid. (Alumni also make donations; some of them are Jewish. It would be more than ironic if a student protestor in support of Hamas was receiving an education using Jewish donations!)
Both types of institutions provide financial aid to help students (many of whom are those protesting!). These protestors have zero rights to demand that institutions divest, especially private ones! And that’s the word they use, demand. They have no right to demand anything. And there’s no longer any appreciation for the opportunity they have to educate themselves. Talk about not looking a gift horse in the mouth! (Now there’s both a liberal and moral principle!)
Of course, as human tools of Hamas (or should I say “subhuman” as they ape the terrorists?), these protestors are fascists, not liberals or progressives. Liberals and progressives are tolerant and respect other persons’ rights. The protestors are simply pawns doing exactly what the terrorist organization Hamas wants them to do. Hamas has already applauded their actions, a damning indictment. I suspect that a large percentage of these immature fools have no idea who John Stuart Mill is. Their main aim is to disrupt. They admit to that. They must disrupt, they say, because no one will listen to them otherwise. Well, duh! Do they think we’ll pay more attention to them with their disruptions? How stupid can they be? They don’t deserve a college education!
Fascism is the product of extreme views that represent the opposite of liberal and progressive attitudes. It should never exist in a democracy, let alone on a college campus. The federal government should act now. Don’t make local cops bear the burden of managing these crazy people and their illegal protests. These protestors have gone too far, much farther than freedom of speech allows. Send in the National Guards to the college campuses to restore order and save liberal democracy!