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Katrina Gulliver's avatar

I've got sympathy for the students who just happened to be members of a group when the group's leaders signed that letter. I'm sure they didn't run it by the membership. And looking through the list of original signatories you've got everything from "Students for Palestine" (which you expect) to the local chapter of the Tiddlywinks club.

Perhaps I relate because I'm a member of a number of professional groups that since 2016 have been churning out "statements" in response to everything under the sun and I've never been informed (let alone consulted) until it goes up on the website.

The ones I have zero sympathy for are the ones who showed up to the pro Hamas rallies. Like the one in NY with the guy on the mic joking about terrorists attacking "hipsters" at a dance party. While the crowd laughed.

They laughed at women being raped and murdered. Fuck em.

As for the NYU students ripping down fliers about the Israeli hostages...honestly not sure where I land on that. Is it "free speech" or vandalism? Is it "hate speech"?

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TheOtherKC's avatar

I'll admit it: on a visceral level, even after reading this and acknowledging its good points. I still feel basically no pity or sympathy for the Harvard students. That probably doesn't reflect well on me. To my stupid ape-brain, they're just not part of my tribe.

That all said... a dedication to free speech and against (for lack of better term) "cancel culture" isn't worth a damn thing unless it's extended to people for whom one cannot muster a visceral sense of sympathy, and must instead rely upon one's abstract principles for guidance. So I'm glad HistoryBoomer wrote this to remind me of that.

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