5 Comments
May 7Liked by Laura McKenna

I enjoyed the essay but I thought the comparison with Israeli and Ukrainian children was odd. There was international support for Israel and very strong support from the U.S. after Oct 7, what else could protests have possibly asked for? The US doesn’t support Hamas. Similar for Ukraine - though that’s an interesting point more recently with how Republicans have turned - mass protests in support of more help would IMO be a very good idea. But the U.S. really is not doing all it could to stop Israel’s actions against civilians. Not even close.

I also think the idea that students don’t realize how repressive Palestina society is, is unsupported by any citations and seems to come from an inability to imagine someone can be really upset at how someone who hates them is treated. But look, a majority of Palestinians would and do absolutely hate me and I would not be at all safe in any future Palestine… and I still think it’s unacceptable to starve their children. Not even to save my life would I be willing to do it or agree with it. Personally it does keep me from declaring myself pro Palestinian but I am fully against famine and other people’s comfort with various words vary. And yes some of the students are pro Hamas but it’s definitely a minority.

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I think we're all against famine and raping young people at music concerts and throwing grenades into bomb shelters where babies are hiding. War sucks. A hundred percent. Even if a minority of students are pro-Hamas, it's still really bad. Hamas wants to kill every Jewish person in Israel, and doesn't care if they put children in hospitals next to bombs.

I love that people care about starving children and famine and all that. But I want them to care consistently. And I don't want them to support Hamas.

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May 6Liked by Laura McKenna

I’m borderline annoyed with the ongoing protests, mostly because they are not constructive - the generation looking at most boomer models with a jaundiced eye seems not to be questioning this model all.

But then I remind myself that the reporting is so superficial that I may not really know what’s going on. There is a great piece in the Atlantic about how the media are reporting on the protests without asking specifically what they’re protesting.

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Right. And are thing being blown out of control? My kid was at Rutgers last week and didn't see any of the protests. It wasn't a big deal there, but the media said it was. Shrug.

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May 8·edited May 8Liked by Laura McKenna

The media do like to sensationalize things. They need to sell newspapers/subscriptions.

Anecdote: When I was involved in some WTO protests back in the late 90s my job was to fax press releases about what our group was representing to all the major news outlets. Those same media outlets kept publishing “We don’t know why these protesters are here.” I wanted to scream.

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