If you've read Matt Taibbi's The Divide you might have taken time to consider that what the Bill of Rights proposes in theory is nothing like what the real world justice system in the USA disposes in actuality.
Many countries around the world where liberal rights doctrines are upheld by academics, activists and documents like constitution…
If you've read Matt Taibbi's The Divide you might have taken time to consider that what the Bill of Rights proposes in theory is nothing like what the real world justice system in the USA disposes in actuality.
Many countries around the world where liberal rights doctrines are upheld by academics, activists and documents like constitutions are in reality so far from liberalism as to be hilarious on a good day and utterly tragic on a bad.
The academics and activists and journalists that write as if these things matter in their respective countries are almost all on the USAID-NED tit or recipients of grants and awards from other liberal institutions.
This vast distance between theory and practice has not always been as salient in countries in the liberal-democratic west.
I agree. To bring up the famous phrase, sometimes attributed to Yogi Berra: "in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." But it's frightening to see so many people - including here, on Matt Taibbi's site - who seemingly don't give a shit about freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the right to criticize one's own government - let alone that of a foreign state. We're in a period right now merging the worst of McCarthyism with the worst of the post-9/11 years. Raging lunacy abounds, turning anger at uncontrolled immigration into an assault on people who do in fact hold some legal residency status, on the basis of their views of Israeli genocide. Of course there are the fervent Israel-Uber-Alles types, who have always had the desire to expel and or kill all the Palestinians, who now have the wind in their sails. It's a very short step to shutting down the ability of full citizens to debate and discuss anything related to Israel and US policy. Freedom of speech also implies the freedom to listen. I want to hear what someone like Mahmoud Khalil, whose family was driven out of Palestine by Zionist settlers, has to say!
Domestically citizens will soon not be able to criticize Israel or our Zionist politicians (and preachers). As the bipartisan support for illegal aliens (exploitable cheap labor) has shown, American citizens don't really rank above foreigners in the US. What the federal government does to foreigners (excepting deportation? Maybe jailing instead?) can be done to citizens as well.
Supporting BDS by citizens (boycotts long ruled legal by SCOTUS) is illegal in 35 states. At minimum you will lose jobs or contracts, maybe freezing assets is next?
Had this argument been made during the previous administration attempt to shut people up I’d give it more credence. This is just argue the most extreme measure as if it’s the next step
I don't see how that makes a difference. This sort of legislation was started during the Biden administration and it has gained more traction under Trump. I question the legislation whereby legitimate criticism is being made a criminal offense. That's fundamentally wrong.
I think though that Matt has attracted and is apparently managing to hold onto a lot of hard right authoritarians whose "free speech" support is and always has been contingent on that speech being that of themselves and their friends on the right.
This has exploded into stark relief all over social media-- the vast majority of "anti-woke" free speech voices are now howling for the exact opposite.
What he has to say, yes. Having his followers follow Jewish students or surround Jewish students or speaypaint dorms where Jewish students are living? No.
What happened on many campuses, where Jewish students on their way to class or the dorms were dogged by protesters is not mere protesting. Waking up, as a Jew, to find a "from the river to the sea,," spraypainted on my dorm...would be scary. Not unlike finding swastikas painted on a house.
The protests went well beyond chanting on a designated day at a designated location.
Speech, assembly, and criticism are absolutely ok. Blocking Jewish students from attending classes or from walking across campus is not protected speech. Vandalism is not protected speech, etc.
Honest question: where were Jewish students, specifically, prevented from attending class, on the basis of being Jewish? There were/are many, many Jewish students protesting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. What is being protested is the POLICY. The policy of Likud, by the way, as stated in its founding manifesto, is that Jews must control everything from the sea to the river! And the Likud dominated regime is implementing that in horrendously violent fashion. So for some Jewish students in the U.S. to cry crocodile tears, claiming fear and harm because someone holds a sign or sprays the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is the epitome of snowflakedon. Drop the perpetual victim pose, and face up to what is being done, purportedly in your name.
It happened on a number of campuses. Not only student reports of being physically blocked, but caught on video. I believe 50 or 60 campuses are being investigated. Hopefully everything will come out in a report. Some schools have already made reports and concluded that protesters' behavior went beyond speech and that they failed their students. Columbia and UCLA are just two cases.
I keep finding that commenters just want to ignore the reality that some protests went beyond speech. It is not a "victim pose" but real.
Were Jewish students blocked because they were Jewish? Or were protesters blocking access to certain buildings on campus, as has happened numerous times in the past (anti-Vietnam War protests, sit-ins during the Civil Rights movement, etc), to all? A significant portion of the anti-genocide protesters are Jewish themselves.
Yes. They were being blocked because they were Jewish. I suppose some were asked for their opinion before being blocked. Asking a Jewish student to endorse the "anti-genocide" protests before letting them pass is like asking a Black student to endorse Jim Crow before allowing them to get to class.
The Viet Nam protests on campuses did some of the same things that the the current protesters have done. That doesn't give them a free pass to do the same. The Civil Rights sit-ins were peaceful but, shamefully, they were violently attacked.
This is sadly a damn bloody war like many others. This is not a genocide by the accepted definition and experiences of actual genocide. Just because many more Palestinians are dying than Israelis does not make it a genocide.
I'm not being snarky here: where, exactly were Jewish students blocked, because they were Jewish? I ask, because protesters against Israel's actions and policies are generally extremely careful to NOT go after people or organizations based on ethnic or religious characterization. It is the Israel supporters and lobbyists who deliberately try to conflate opposition to Israeli policy with anti-Jewishness. This should be immediately laughed out of court, as so many of those protesting the genocide are themselves Jewish.
And yes, it most definitely qualifies as a genocide. The United Nations defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children to another group. This definition is codified in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel is slaughtering Palestinians by the tens of thousands, destroying their homes, lands, hospitals, schools, water treatment and sewage treatment facilities, preventing food and medicine from entering the territory, having trained snipers shooting children in the head (attested to by European and US doctors who were working in Gaza), rendering life impossible for the population. The trickiest part of genocide charges is usually the "intent" point, but in this case Israeli government and military officials are so open about it, it's ridiculous to claim otherwise. This is a war, by Israel (and the US) ON the Palestinian people. The intent is clear: leave, or die.
You just described every war. The "intent" of this war "is clear:" release the hostages that you took including the bodies of those you killed, remove the terrorist group Hamas so there are no more rockets, terrorist attacks, and tunnels, and peacefully accept Israel as your neighbor.
You might find this interesting: the Telegraph reported that "3,400 individuals listed as killed in earlier updates released by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health in August and October 2024 no longer appear in the March 2025 report. Among those missing from the latest list are 1,080 children." These are deletions from Hamas' own records. Hamas counts have been inflated in every past war.
Almost half of the deaths are combatants. When this is the case, it does not qualify as genocide.
As far as Jewish students being blocked, it's true, but you will have to wait for the reports from the investigations before you will accept this to be true.
No. This is not "every war." This is Israel seeking to displace or kill the entire Palestinian population. Just in the last few days, we've seen the report of Israel murdering 15 medical aid workers, some with their hands tied, buried in a mass grave. Israel then bulldozed over the ambulances.
These are just the latest war crimes committed by this very sick state. There's no point in discussing this any further: what's happening in Gaza is seen the world over, openly stated by Israeli military and political officials. The real death count is now in the hundreds of thousands: the administrative apparatus to identify and count the dead has been destroyed by Israel, which is why the "official" count has barely moved in months, while Gaza is bombed to smithereens. The medical facilities and hospitals have been destroyed by Israel. I'm sorry, but at this point, people who are trying to minimize the slaughter committed by Israel (and the US) are no better than Holocaust deniers. You'll dismiss anything coming from the Palestinians, while giving full credence to the Goebbels-level lying of the Israelis, despite all the visual evidence.
And seriously, "You'll dismiss anything coming from the Israelis, while giving full credence to the...lying of the Palestinians."
Hamas lies. Violence and conquering, as Muhammad did, is the primary approach of Hamas.
The killing of the paramedics and rescue workers is disgusting. Israel will punish those who committed the crime. I can only hope that they had reason to believe that the men were combatants using ambulances as cover. This has been the case in the past. It sounds as though there was a coverup. That is bad.
But it all comes down to: why won't Hamas give back the hostages, put down its arms, and abandon their tunnels. Is this really worth all the death and destruction? Remember, Hamas has pledged to repeat Oct. 7 over and over again.
The great news is that the Gazans are starting to challenge Hamas. This should make you happy, as it does me, because when Hamas is gone and the hostage situation is over, there will be a stop to the war.
If you've read Matt Taibbi's The Divide you might have taken time to consider that what the Bill of Rights proposes in theory is nothing like what the real world justice system in the USA disposes in actuality.
Many countries around the world where liberal rights doctrines are upheld by academics, activists and documents like constitutions are in reality so far from liberalism as to be hilarious on a good day and utterly tragic on a bad.
The academics and activists and journalists that write as if these things matter in their respective countries are almost all on the USAID-NED tit or recipients of grants and awards from other liberal institutions.
This vast distance between theory and practice has not always been as salient in countries in the liberal-democratic west.
It is becoming more so every day.
I agree. To bring up the famous phrase, sometimes attributed to Yogi Berra: "in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." But it's frightening to see so many people - including here, on Matt Taibbi's site - who seemingly don't give a shit about freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the right to criticize one's own government - let alone that of a foreign state. We're in a period right now merging the worst of McCarthyism with the worst of the post-9/11 years. Raging lunacy abounds, turning anger at uncontrolled immigration into an assault on people who do in fact hold some legal residency status, on the basis of their views of Israeli genocide. Of course there are the fervent Israel-Uber-Alles types, who have always had the desire to expel and or kill all the Palestinians, who now have the wind in their sails. It's a very short step to shutting down the ability of full citizens to debate and discuss anything related to Israel and US policy. Freedom of speech also implies the freedom to listen. I want to hear what someone like Mahmoud Khalil, whose family was driven out of Palestine by Zionist settlers, has to say!
Domestically citizens will soon not be able to criticize Israel or our Zionist politicians (and preachers). As the bipartisan support for illegal aliens (exploitable cheap labor) has shown, American citizens don't really rank above foreigners in the US. What the federal government does to foreigners (excepting deportation? Maybe jailing instead?) can be done to citizens as well.
Supporting BDS by citizens (boycotts long ruled legal by SCOTUS) is illegal in 35 states. At minimum you will lose jobs or contracts, maybe freezing assets is next?
Drama queen
Big time!
Why do you say that? Perhaps he has a legitimate argument to make.
Will then he should make it instead of being hysterical
He did and there was nothing hysterical in his argument.
Had this argument been made during the previous administration attempt to shut people up I’d give it more credence. This is just argue the most extreme measure as if it’s the next step
I don't see how that makes a difference. This sort of legislation was started during the Biden administration and it has gained more traction under Trump. I question the legislation whereby legitimate criticism is being made a criminal offense. That's fundamentally wrong.
100%.
I think though that Matt has attracted and is apparently managing to hold onto a lot of hard right authoritarians whose "free speech" support is and always has been contingent on that speech being that of themselves and their friends on the right.
This has exploded into stark relief all over social media-- the vast majority of "anti-woke" free speech voices are now howling for the exact opposite.
You are projecting. There are far more left and hard left totalitarians in and amongst the crowd. You may just be one of them.
What he has to say, yes. Having his followers follow Jewish students or surround Jewish students or speaypaint dorms where Jewish students are living? No.
Sorry for typos. Lol
What happened on many campuses, where Jewish students on their way to class or the dorms were dogged by protesters is not mere protesting. Waking up, as a Jew, to find a "from the river to the sea,," spraypainted on my dorm...would be scary. Not unlike finding swastikas painted on a house.
The protests went well beyond chanting on a designated day at a designated location.
Speech, assembly, and criticism are absolutely ok. Blocking Jewish students from attending classes or from walking across campus is not protected speech. Vandalism is not protected speech, etc.
Honest question: where were Jewish students, specifically, prevented from attending class, on the basis of being Jewish? There were/are many, many Jewish students protesting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. What is being protested is the POLICY. The policy of Likud, by the way, as stated in its founding manifesto, is that Jews must control everything from the sea to the river! And the Likud dominated regime is implementing that in horrendously violent fashion. So for some Jewish students in the U.S. to cry crocodile tears, claiming fear and harm because someone holds a sign or sprays the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is the epitome of snowflakedon. Drop the perpetual victim pose, and face up to what is being done, purportedly in your name.
It happened on a number of campuses. Not only student reports of being physically blocked, but caught on video. I believe 50 or 60 campuses are being investigated. Hopefully everything will come out in a report. Some schools have already made reports and concluded that protesters' behavior went beyond speech and that they failed their students. Columbia and UCLA are just two cases.
I keep finding that commenters just want to ignore the reality that some protests went beyond speech. It is not a "victim pose" but real.
Were Jewish students blocked because they were Jewish? Or were protesters blocking access to certain buildings on campus, as has happened numerous times in the past (anti-Vietnam War protests, sit-ins during the Civil Rights movement, etc), to all? A significant portion of the anti-genocide protesters are Jewish themselves.
Yes. They were being blocked because they were Jewish. I suppose some were asked for their opinion before being blocked. Asking a Jewish student to endorse the "anti-genocide" protests before letting them pass is like asking a Black student to endorse Jim Crow before allowing them to get to class.
The Viet Nam protests on campuses did some of the same things that the the current protesters have done. That doesn't give them a free pass to do the same. The Civil Rights sit-ins were peaceful but, shamefully, they were violently attacked.
This is sadly a damn bloody war like many others. This is not a genocide by the accepted definition and experiences of actual genocide. Just because many more Palestinians are dying than Israelis does not make it a genocide.
I'm not being snarky here: where, exactly were Jewish students blocked, because they were Jewish? I ask, because protesters against Israel's actions and policies are generally extremely careful to NOT go after people or organizations based on ethnic or religious characterization. It is the Israel supporters and lobbyists who deliberately try to conflate opposition to Israeli policy with anti-Jewishness. This should be immediately laughed out of court, as so many of those protesting the genocide are themselves Jewish.
And yes, it most definitely qualifies as a genocide. The United Nations defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children to another group. This definition is codified in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel is slaughtering Palestinians by the tens of thousands, destroying their homes, lands, hospitals, schools, water treatment and sewage treatment facilities, preventing food and medicine from entering the territory, having trained snipers shooting children in the head (attested to by European and US doctors who were working in Gaza), rendering life impossible for the population. The trickiest part of genocide charges is usually the "intent" point, but in this case Israeli government and military officials are so open about it, it's ridiculous to claim otherwise. This is a war, by Israel (and the US) ON the Palestinian people. The intent is clear: leave, or die.
You just described every war. The "intent" of this war "is clear:" release the hostages that you took including the bodies of those you killed, remove the terrorist group Hamas so there are no more rockets, terrorist attacks, and tunnels, and peacefully accept Israel as your neighbor.
You might find this interesting: the Telegraph reported that "3,400 individuals listed as killed in earlier updates released by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health in August and October 2024 no longer appear in the March 2025 report. Among those missing from the latest list are 1,080 children." These are deletions from Hamas' own records. Hamas counts have been inflated in every past war.
Almost half of the deaths are combatants. When this is the case, it does not qualify as genocide.
As far as Jewish students being blocked, it's true, but you will have to wait for the reports from the investigations before you will accept this to be true.
No. This is not "every war." This is Israel seeking to displace or kill the entire Palestinian population. Just in the last few days, we've seen the report of Israel murdering 15 medical aid workers, some with their hands tied, buried in a mass grave. Israel then bulldozed over the ambulances.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/31/israel-killed-15-palestinian-paramedics-and-rescue-workers-one-by-one-says-un
These are just the latest war crimes committed by this very sick state. There's no point in discussing this any further: what's happening in Gaza is seen the world over, openly stated by Israeli military and political officials. The real death count is now in the hundreds of thousands: the administrative apparatus to identify and count the dead has been destroyed by Israel, which is why the "official" count has barely moved in months, while Gaza is bombed to smithereens. The medical facilities and hospitals have been destroyed by Israel. I'm sorry, but at this point, people who are trying to minimize the slaughter committed by Israel (and the US) are no better than Holocaust deniers. You'll dismiss anything coming from the Palestinians, while giving full credence to the Goebbels-level lying of the Israelis, despite all the visual evidence.
And seriously, "You'll dismiss anything coming from the Israelis, while giving full credence to the...lying of the Palestinians."
Hamas lies. Violence and conquering, as Muhammad did, is the primary approach of Hamas.
The killing of the paramedics and rescue workers is disgusting. Israel will punish those who committed the crime. I can only hope that they had reason to believe that the men were combatants using ambulances as cover. This has been the case in the past. It sounds as though there was a coverup. That is bad.
But it all comes down to: why won't Hamas give back the hostages, put down its arms, and abandon their tunnels. Is this really worth all the death and destruction? Remember, Hamas has pledged to repeat Oct. 7 over and over again.
The great news is that the Gazans are starting to challenge Hamas. This should make you happy, as it does me, because when Hamas is gone and the hostage situation is over, there will be a stop to the war.