Campus Protests Redux and the Media Failure

(Rewritten to tone down this post).

The campus protests about the Israel-Hamas war are slowly dissipating but their impact is still very much with us although what those implications actually are or will be is to be determined.  Many, many people are annoyed by these protests and annoyed at how our media failed to deal with many points.  Here are a few of the issues.

1. It is possible to do protests without making other people feel unsafe.  See for example the women's marches of the last decade.  

2. Many people attend the University in order to get an education.  They do not have infinite time to screw around and to be intimidated.  The role of the President and the Trustees is to see that people get their education.

3. I dont recall ever seeing a contract that says a student can determine the investment policy of these institutions.  Furthermore there are people associated with the University, including other students who do not agree with the opinions of these protesters.  

4. Many campuses have been unsafe for Jews for a long time.  This issue is well known to the administration(s) and they have declined to do anything about it.  I think its funny that all the noise about "safe spaces" turns out to be hypocritical bullshit.

5. I have no desire to have this country's foreign policy determined by these people.  I do relate to the protester's frustration with our foreign policy elites.  

6. From what they say, I have no reason to think that the protesters know enough about the history here or what they are protesting.  Or maybe they do know enough about what is going on and have made some choices that I do not agree with.

7. There are slogans that are code words for killing Jews, and when the media repeats them they need to make that clear. 

8. Failure to understand and use words like "genocide" is offensive.

9. I personally have been prevented from expressing my opinion on this topic and been removed from social events on the possibility that I would express these opinions.   What about my freedom of speech?  Oh I guess that doesn't matter.

Palestinian Flag

Genocide in Ukraine

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There doesnt seem to be any doubt that some sort of ethnic cleansing is going on in Ukraine.  Maybe it will be necessary for the United Nations and/or NATO to take action.  Europe did not stop the genocide against the Jews and others, nor is it totally clear that they could have done much in the 1938-1945 period.  But that was then and this is now and we have options today we did not have then.  No one wants war with Russia but ultimately you have to make a stand and there has been ample provocation.  Is this the start of WW 3 or 4? I think it might be.  Again, what are your principles, what do you really stand for?   

 

By the way, the ISW, quoted below, has demonstrated that they are a reliable source of information.  All of their analysis is based on open source intelligence.  They are not using any secret intelligence.  

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 26, 2023

Apr 26, 2023 - Press ISW

Russia appears to be continuing a deliberate depopulation campaign in occupied areas of Ukraine in order to facilitate the repopulation of Ukrainian territories with Russians. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar stated on April 26 that Russia is trying to change the ethnic composition of Ukraine by actively conducting a large-scale resettlement of people mainly from poorer and remote regions of Russia into Ukraine. Malyar noted that the most intensive efforts are ongoing in occupied Luhansk Oblast and remarked that Russia is also deporting Ukrainians and forcibly resettling them in Russia. ISW previously reported on specific instances of Russian authorities overseeing the depopulation and repopulation of areas of occupied Ukraine, particularly in occupied Kherson Oblast over the course of 2022. Ukrainian sources remarked in October 2022 that Russian authorities in then-occupied parts of Kherson Oblast deported large groups of Ukrainian residents to Russia under the guise of humanitarian evacuations and then repopulated their homes with Russian soldiers. Russia may hope to import Russians to fill depopulated areas of Ukraine in order to further integrate occupied areas into Russian socially, administratively, politically, and economically, thereby complicating conditions for the reintegration of these territories into Ukraine. ISW has previously assessed that such depopulation and repopulation campaigns may amount to a deliberate ethnic cleansing effort and apparent violation of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

When is a Nazi a Nazi?

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When is a Nazi a Nazi?  Do you have to wait until they kill 6 million innocent people?  Or is it sufficient for them to kill as many of their scapegoat ethnic and other group(s) from "shithole" countries as they can get their hands on?

Was Adolf Hitler a Nazi before the extermination camps?  Of course he was.  For those who say he was not, you are just excusing your moral laziness.  You should not have to wait for all the murders to happen before you should be willing to stand up and oppose them.

You can send me all the holocaust porn you want, and it doesnt change a thing.  Your sophistry does not excuse you from failing to oppose these murders.  You are complicit with their crimes.

Pocohontas and the Lesson of History

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Tom Sito on Facebook posted the following on the history of the Pocohontas story (which became of course a very nice Disney movie).

I made the following reply, which I sincerely believe:

If the Native Americans had killed every European as soon as they came off the boat (from a distance, preferably) and burned the bodies but studied the weapons and other technology, then maybe, just maybe, they would not have been the victims of the genocide that they were. Maybe not, also. Hard to say. But it couldn't have been worse, it seems to me.

Well, live and learn.