7 ms·

Antisemitism is just an excuse for these actions against universities, it's a pretext. Not a particularly believable one anyway, but that doesn't seem to matter

Antisemitism is just an excuse for these actions against universities, it's a pretext. Not a particularly believable one anyway, but that doesn't seem to matter. The Trump administration is punishing institutions that disagree with it, or that it dislikes for some reason.

sitkack 1y ago
MAGA is heavily antisemitic, you absolutely right that this is pretext. They would have picked something else, this is just the best one at the time.
- wiz21c 1y ago
  Considering US support to Israel, I wonder if MAGA is Trump or not...
  - sitkack 1y ago
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christian-zionism-israel-antisemitic-new-apostolic-reformation_n_667d6b73e4b017bda37be3e4 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christian-zionism-israel-anti...
    - hermitcrab 1y ago
      I've never really understood the relationship between the US and Israel. The US gives Israel pretty much whatever it wants and in return the US gets ... nothing? Israel even (deliberately?) attacked a US ship during the 6 day war, with little (if any) consequences: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident >While millions of American evangelical Christians have long been fervent supporters of the Jewish state because of End Times prophecies Is that the main reason for this incredibly one-sided relationship?
      - maleldil 1y ago
        The main reason is geopolitics. Israel is an ally in the Middle East, a key region to US foreign policy.
        hermitcrab 1y ago
        So is Saudi Arabia. The US doesn't have such a one-sided relationship with them, as far as I can see.
      - lupusreal 1y ago
        Those apocalyptic prophecies are a big part of it, yes. Many politicians are believers in those prophecies, and many more count on votes from those believers. There's also the whole "God's chosen people" stuff, and a lot of older people think Israel should be given a blank cheque due to WW2 stuff. And of course some of it comes from wealthy donors like Miriam Adelson, a desire to go overboard to distance themselves from the threat of being labelled an antisemite, a desire to paint themselves as more pro-Israel than the other party, etc.
        hermitcrab 1y ago
        It isn't much comfort that people who believe in apocalyptic prophecies have significant power in a country with a lot of nuclear weapons.
      - griffzhowl 1y ago
        There's also the effectiveness of the Israel lobby. Various pro-Israel organisations fund almost all members of congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Foreign_Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Fore...
- brookst 1y ago
  Yep, zero principles at play here. They would has as happily use “mistreatment of transgender people” as a pretext, despite championing such mistreatment. It’s all just words as magic spells to justify bad behavior. Semantic content and beliefs aren’t even part of the equation.
retinaros 1y ago
it is not an excuse. They are a well represented community in USA and students felt not safe/had different political stance which was enough to push gov to act. How is it different from for instance BLM era with governments, media and democrats punishing some institutions and people that didnt want to say their slogan, were having opposing idea or even just didnt went to publicly bend the knee, ending whole careers and sometimes even killing them without any reason beyond rage? Once again you guys built and used the same tools than Trump is now wielding. A few people that were against biden era politics were pointing this simple fact that by creating a precedent and believing that your cause was righter than the others you just helped your opponent to do the same
- ModernMech 1y ago
  What precedent? When did the Biden administration pull funding from universities to control speech it didn't approve of?
  - retinaros 1y ago
    democrats didn’t need as they controlled those institutions. they however did it to the police to punish them just like trump did to school. For education, It was their funding and they put in power the people that did the coercion, lied on their resume and instead of having the will to educate the students just pushed down their throats propaganda. if you were against BLM or even a bit vocal about the tactics and negative things they were doing your carrier / studies would have ended and violence was also physically ok. why do you think no major company care about it anymore? why diversity HR teams or Sustainability teams are getting disbanded? why do we have “sydney sweeney has good jeans” ads now while we had overweight models during biden Era? we are living through a different propaganda era that the market decided to follow like the previous one just to bank on it.
    - ModernMech 1y ago
      Democrats don't actually control those universities though. That's like saying Republicans control churches because churchgoers are more conservative on average. But we all know the Republican party isn't actually directing churches across the country, just as Democrats aren't directing universities. So I don't see what kind of precedent was set as far as use of executive power goes. You're saying because BLM happened (which was under Trump BTW), that gives Trump the right now to control speech at universities?
lupusreal 1y ago
I don't agree, because these actions are part of a bigger pattern of Republicans trying to find ways to ban criticism of Israel. Anti-BDS laws are very popular with the Republican party apparatus and politicians, as well as with older Republican voters.
insane_dreamer 1y ago
> Not a particularly believable one anyway, but that doesn't seem to matter it's well chosen because it's also one that requires no proof, since "anti-semitism" has long been the worst accusation one can make, and one that's very hard to refute without demonstrating unequivocal loyalty to Israel and its actions; it's basically a purity test

sitkack 1y ago

MAGA is heavily antisemitic, you absolutely right that this is pretext. They would have picked something else, this is just the best one at the time.

wiz21c 1y ago
Considering US support to Israel, I wonder if MAGA is Trump or not...
- sitkack 1y ago
  https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christian-zionism-israel-antisemitic-new-apostolic-reformation_n_667d6b73e4b017bda37be3e4 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christian-zionism-israel-anti...
  - hermitcrab 1y ago
    I've never really understood the relationship between the US and Israel. The US gives Israel pretty much whatever it wants and in return the US gets ... nothing? Israel even (deliberately?) attacked a US ship during the 6 day war, with little (if any) consequences: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident >While millions of American evangelical Christians have long been fervent supporters of the Jewish state because of End Times prophecies Is that the main reason for this incredibly one-sided relationship?
    - maleldil 1y ago
      The main reason is geopolitics. Israel is an ally in the Middle East, a key region to US foreign policy.
      - hermitcrab 1y ago
        So is Saudi Arabia. The US doesn't have such a one-sided relationship with them, as far as I can see.
    - lupusreal 1y ago
      Those apocalyptic prophecies are a big part of it, yes. Many politicians are believers in those prophecies, and many more count on votes from those believers. There's also the whole "God's chosen people" stuff, and a lot of older people think Israel should be given a blank cheque due to WW2 stuff. And of course some of it comes from wealthy donors like Miriam Adelson, a desire to go overboard to distance themselves from the threat of being labelled an antisemite, a desire to paint themselves as more pro-Israel than the other party, etc.
      - hermitcrab 1y ago
        It isn't much comfort that people who believe in apocalyptic prophecies have significant power in a country with a lot of nuclear weapons.
    - griffzhowl 1y ago
      There's also the effectiveness of the Israel lobby. Various pro-Israel organisations fund almost all members of congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Foreign_Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Fore...
brookst 1y ago
Yep, zero principles at play here. They would has as happily use “mistreatment of transgender people” as a pretext, despite championing such mistreatment. It’s all just words as magic spells to justify bad behavior. Semantic content and beliefs aren’t even part of the equation.

retinaros 1y ago

it is not an excuse. They are a well represented community in USA and students felt not safe/had different political stance which was enough to push gov to act. How is it different from for instance BLM era with governments, media and democrats punishing some institutions and people that didnt want to say their slogan, were having opposing idea or even just didnt went to publicly bend the knee, ending whole careers and sometimes even killing them without any reason beyond rage? Once again you guys built and used the same tools than Trump is now wielding. A few people that were against biden era politics were pointing this simple fact that by creating a precedent and believing that your cause was righter than the others you just helped your opponent to do the same

ModernMech 1y ago
What precedent? When did the Biden administration pull funding from universities to control speech it didn't approve of?
- retinaros 1y ago
  democrats didn’t need as they controlled those institutions. they however did it to the police to punish them just like trump did to school. For education, It was their funding and they put in power the people that did the coercion, lied on their resume and instead of having the will to educate the students just pushed down their throats propaganda. if you were against BLM or even a bit vocal about the tactics and negative things they were doing your carrier / studies would have ended and violence was also physically ok. why do you think no major company care about it anymore? why diversity HR teams or Sustainability teams are getting disbanded? why do we have “sydney sweeney has good jeans” ads now while we had overweight models during biden Era? we are living through a different propaganda era that the market decided to follow like the previous one just to bank on it.
  - ModernMech 1y ago
    Democrats don't actually control those universities though. That's like saying Republicans control churches because churchgoers are more conservative on average. But we all know the Republican party isn't actually directing churches across the country, just as Democrats aren't directing universities. So I don't see what kind of precedent was set as far as use of executive power goes. You're saying because BLM happened (which was under Trump BTW), that gives Trump the right now to control speech at universities?

lupusreal 1y ago

I don't agree, because these actions are part of a bigger pattern of Republicans trying to find ways to ban criticism of Israel. Anti-BDS laws are very popular with the Republican party apparatus and politicians, as well as with older Republican voters.

insane_dreamer 1y ago

> Not a particularly believable one anyway, but that doesn't seem to matter it's well chosen because it's also one that requires no proof, since "anti-semitism" has long been the worst accusation one can make, and one that's very hard to refute without demonstrating unequivocal loyalty to Israel and its actions; it's basically a purity test