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Students at NYU Anti-Israel Protest Haven’t the Faintest Idea What They are Doing-Extraordinary popular delusions -- and the madness of crowds
Frontpagemagazine ^ | May 7, 2024 | Hugh Fitzgerald

Posted on 05/07/2024 5:18:53 AM PDT by SJackson

🚨VIDEO: A REAL interview we had at NYU:

QUESTION: “Why are you protesting?”

PROTESTER #1: “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure there’s something about Israel [turns to other person] Why are we protesting?”

PROTESTER #2: “I wish I was more educated.”

PROTESTER #1: “I’m not either.” pic.twitter.com/8aB2ZoTCCk

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) April 24, 2024

Just as many have suspected, not all of those impassioned student protesters know what they are protesting. Some of them have just let slip, as they were being interviewed by journalists from the New York Post, that they haven’t the faintest idea what they are supposed to be opposing. Robert Spencer wrote about this briefly here, and more on this comical confusion can be found here: “Anti-Israel protesters at NYU admit they have no idea what they’re protesting: ‘I wish I was more educated,’” by Emily Crane, New York Post, April 25, 2024:

Two Columbia University students who rushed to join NYU’s violent anti-Israel rally are going viral after admitting they had no idea what the protest was about — and wished they were “more educated.”

The unidentified students rattled off their clueless rationale on the steps of the NYU campus in downtown Manhattan as a slew of NYPD cops clad in riot gear stood in the background, as seen in footage viewed more than 3 million times since being shared by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani late Wednesday.

“I think the main goal is just showing our support for Palestine and demanding that NYU stop … I honestly don’t know all of what NYU is doing,” one admitted when asked about the protest’s purpose.

“Support for Palestine”? Sounds innocuous, but what the chants are really calling for? “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free” means the eradication of the Jewish state, the expulsion or killing of all of its Jewish inhabitants, and the replacement of Israel by a twenty-third Arab state. Do these protesters understand the meaning of what they have been taught to mindlessly repeat? And what about the other chants, such as “End Genocide Now,” which falsely accuses Israel of the gravest of crimes? Do they even know what the word “genocide” means? And when these student protesters praise Hamas for its “resistance,” do they know that they are praising a terror group whose operatives on October 7 raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered 1,200 Israelis, and kidnapped another 260? When 3,000 Hamas members swooped into Israel in cars, on motorbikes, on paragliders, to engage in their orgy of killings, was that an act of “resistance”?

An unnamed Columbia University student gave her bizarre rationale when she was being interviewed on the steps of the NYU campus.

A slew of NYPD cops clad in riot gear stood in the background.

Asked if there was “something NYU is doing,” the student meekly replied: “I really don’t know, I’m pretty sure they are…”

Yes, of course. NYU must be doing “something” objectionable — that’s why there are students now objecting — but she “really doesn’t know” what it is. But if other people think there should be a protest on the NYU campus, she’s “pretty sure they are” doing it for a good reason. Hers not to reason why, hers but to scream and cry. And I suspect a great many other students now making life so unpleasant on campuses across America are equally clueless, and equally determined, despite their ignorance, to shout their slogans, flaunt their keffiyehs, and wave their Palestinian flags.

Those Columbia students, with their vague and bland little souls, just knew they should be joining the NYU students. That’s what protesters are supposed to do — support one another. They weren’t sure what exactly was the gravamen of the charges against the NYU administration, but were sure it must have been important: “something to do with Israel.” What, exactly? Oh, gosh, you know, we’re not exactly sure. But it is very important that we join the crowd to show just where we stand, even if we don’t quite know what it’s all about. Some one will let us know.

Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds.

Nothing more need be said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antiisrael; antisemitism; campusagitaors; domesticenemies; education; nyu; riotersnotprotesters
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1 posted on 05/07/2024 5:18:53 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d to be on or off, please FR mail me.
2 posted on 05/07/2024 5:23:32 AM PDT by SJackson (In a war of ideas it is people who get killed, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
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To: SJackson

Stupid and clueless

Perfect Democrat voters


3 posted on 05/07/2024 5:26:12 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SJackson

https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1783154103947862364

Oh my. I just watched it.

THIS is how “The View”, CNN and MSNBC stay on the air. /facepalm


4 posted on 05/07/2024 5:29:05 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SJackson

Not any brighter than I was at age 10; marching around the school for the teachers strike. We had no clue what the strike was about, had no clue what girls were about, so sex and the reason to protest were not in our minds. we just wanted to be cool. at age 10 .


5 posted on 05/07/2024 5:31:44 AM PDT by Ikeon (My only issues with stupid people are, they encouraged to talk and post stupid opinions.. )
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To: SJackson

SMH....They want their “ I was there “ merit badge”.


6 posted on 05/07/2024 5:33:21 AM PDT by Ikeon (My only issues with stupid people are, they encouraged to talk and post stupid opinions.. )
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To: SJackson

Sometime ago I saw a video on youtube where a man was asking people to sign a petition to eliminate woman’s suffrage. Most people would sign it but once in a while someone actually knew what it meant and would not sign it and started arguing with the man. So yes most people go along with the crowd. It starts in school with peer pressure and the really dumb ones just go along never questioning why. I’m sure that if enough people were jumping off a cliff they would also do it.


7 posted on 05/07/2024 5:35:32 AM PDT by George J. Jetso
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To: Ikeon

If you were in college at age 10 I’m impressed. But you make a good point. I presume you were marching at the behest of your parents or an influential adult. Many of the students are marching at the behest of their administrators/professors. Others just to be cool. Leaving out the half or so who are professional non student agitators.


8 posted on 05/07/2024 5:35:43 AM PDT by SJackson (In a war of ideas it is people who get killed, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
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To: Ikeon

Hey Johnny - what are you rebelling against?
Whadda ya got?

apologies to Marlon Brando.


9 posted on 05/07/2024 5:38:54 AM PDT by Palio di Siena (P01135809)
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To: SJackson

They’re brainwashed to certain words one of them is “Protest” just like The Manchurian Candidate ,LOL


10 posted on 05/07/2024 5:43:43 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: George J. Jetso

I once saw a petition on a college campus to ban dihydrogen monoxide..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d54IrOBC1S0


11 posted on 05/07/2024 5:47:59 AM PDT by GeorgiaDawg32
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To: butlerweave

They’re not brainwashed. You need a brain to be brainwashed.

Rather, they are indoctrinated


12 posted on 05/07/2024 5:49:23 AM PDT by SMARTY ("A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies." Tennyson)
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To: SJackson
“... the madness of crowds...”

I read a great book by Elias Cannetti “Crowds and Power”

It explains a great deal. That, among other things, people do and say things in a crowd that they would never say or do, individually.

Crowds can be manipulated and motivated (easily) by unprincipled and evil people. It reminds me of the expression, “Small dogs run in big packs’.

13 posted on 05/07/2024 5:55:57 AM PDT by SMARTY ("A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies." Tennyson)
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To: SMARTY

“It was Chain Lightning, it feels so good!”


14 posted on 05/07/2024 5:57:22 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Young, alienated, uneducated, disaffected misfits are easily led. They are (have always been) prey to selfish, dangerous maniacs of every description.

No scourge to mankind has EVER been without them


15 posted on 05/07/2024 6:08:07 AM PDT by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: George J. Jetso

“ eliminate woman’s suffrage.”

LoL

To be honest, I’d sign it too.


16 posted on 05/07/2024 6:49:12 AM PDT by Gary from Dayton (Army Vet 1986-1991)
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To: SJackson

What they are doing is obeying their masters.


17 posted on 05/07/2024 6:50:44 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: SJackson

Look at her eyes. She is not a child of reason.


18 posted on 05/07/2024 6:54:18 AM PDT by Captain Compassion (I'm just sayin')
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To: SJackson

Because she’s led around by her nose ring like a cow...


19 posted on 05/07/2024 6:57:35 AM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: SJackson

Some old guy gave me a $100 and a new Bluetooth headset.


20 posted on 05/07/2024 7:01:09 AM PDT by Leep (Leftardism strikes 1 in 5.)
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