Humanity used to possess something called “reason.” We used to be able to assess a situation, apply our knowledge of good versus evil, and determine that, hey, maybe inflicting unspeakable cruelties on a religiously and racially marginalized group is bad.
Even a reasonable liberal, members of that ever-dwindling fraternity, could figure out that abducting children from parents, murdering infants and elderly, and raping women in broad daylight do not fit ESG or DEI standards.
But the days of moral logic are behind us.
Instead of drawing their own conclusions, much of humanity stares at screens waiting for someone with a fashionable brand to mull over air strikes and beheadings, form a half-baked opinion on violence, and then create a sharable Instagram post for which millions may nod along dumbly.
But even a dopey nod is not the most disappointing, out-of-touch American response to kidnapping, mass murder and rapes and utter destruction in the Holy Land.
The reaction from elite academia and Hollywood to the horrific events of last weekend is even more appalling.
Can you imagine if, say, 80 years ago, people refused to stand by their Jewish neighbors and friends in order to preserve their own comfortable existences? Can you imagine if the people of the 20th century were so easily convinced that the Jewish people deserved every bad thing that happens to them? What would have happened then?
Oh, wait….
The American celebrities, moguls, and professors of today fancy themselves the pinnacle of civilization, the final form of the evolved homo sapiens, the perfect intersection of civic engagement and social awareness.
But the reality is, humanity has evolved not at all from 1940s Europe.
The Ivy League institutions and their wannabe comrades have allowed pro-Palestinian groups to picket, protest and raise money on campus for years. While many are innocent cultural clubs for students to munch on Middle Eastern cuisine and learn how to write their names in Arabic, others encourage rhetoric of a “free Palestine”—i.e. a flattened Israel.
Now college administrations are realizing that whole “coexist” thing only works well on a bumper sticker. The world beyond the quad contains real-life hatred, and at some point, you need to pick a side.
Pro-Palestine groups and those in “solidarity” at Harvard did not get that which-side-are-you-on? memo. Thirty-four student organizations signed onto a letter blaming the “apartheid regime” for the events in Israel.
“We…hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Harvard President Claudine Gay had to choose which minority out-minoritied the other. She had to decide which American-academic smear is worse: “antisemite” or “Islamophobe?”
Gay dithered for days, finally putting out a meaningless on-the-one-hand-on-the-other hand statement. After taking flak from one of her predecessors, she decided she had to say… something.
“While our students have the right to speak for themselves,” Gay said, “no student group—not even 30 student groups—speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.”
Uh oh, thought our nation’s best and brightest social justice warriors. We said the wrong thing!
And then the Wall Street crowd started asking for the names of the student signers. They wanted to know who… not to hire. As one, all the formerly fearless cheerleaders for the butchers of Hamas made the same decision:
Abandon ship!
But it was too late for the snowflakes.
By Tuesday evening, the names of the Israeli-hating Harvards were plastered all over the Internet. But Google came to the rescue and removed these pages promptly by Wednesday morning.
That did not stop Accuracy in Media, an investigative journalism non-profit, from hiring a billboard truck to circle the campus Thursday displaying signers’ names and mug shots under the heading, “Harvard’s Leading Anti-Semites.”
It must be so confusing for the signers. They’ve been pampered and coddled their whole lives.
And now they’re getting some… pushback. Did all this reaction mean that they might not get to be the next executive vice president for DEI on Wall Street just because they did what everyone on MSNBC and CNN told them to do?
You mean, this suddenly isn’t another BLM movement? Don’t these damn Deplorables understand, that was a “mostly peaceful” massacre of 1300 Jews in southern Israel?
For the past decade, ignorant, amoral Westerners flirted with the idea that displaced violence, inflicted on the innocent, could somehow be justified. Notice how, even in eclipse and disgrace, leftist grifters like BLM continue to cheerlead for Hamas’ Nazi-like genocidal attacks.
Influencers, who usually toe whatever the Deep State party line is this week, are second-guessing themselves. The question, as always, is which side means the bigger payday for them. Even lipstick magnate Kylie Jenner, who has a Jewish niece and nephews, backtracked from her bare-minimum support for Israeli civilians.
Her half-sister Kim, known for her fierce support for victims of the Armenian genocide, shared a milquetoast response following news of beheaded Jewish babies and Holocaust survivors dragged through the streets.
Which millionaire wokesters can the baby wokesters turn to for answers now?
This moment requires the ability to apply basic history and basic ethics to real-life violence—and not the kind of “violence” where a conservative pundit calls a man in a dress a man or a sixth grader fails to post a black square on social media.
The reasonable human being, if you still know any, will have answers based in logic and morality. The Jewish people have suffered enough terror these past several thousand years. Israel promotes the ideas of the West. Israel is our ally. Violence against the innocent is always wrong.
This is very basic stuff, or should be.
But the price of education is human reason (and about a quarter million dollars), and the coddled kids can’t figure this one out on their own.