When it comes to your average, rabid, and radical college student, it is not just their myopia and politics that should frighten you. Their manifestos are unworkable, reactionary, and immature. That, in and of itself, is not surprising. What is frightening about this generation is that its radical leftists either were never taught the basic tenets of civilized behavior or have seen fit to jettison them entirely. Like a demographic of degenerate addicts, these people believe the ends justify the means, and nothing is off the table when it comes to accomplishing their ends. But unlike addicts, these people never have a moment when they are overcome by their euphoria and become calm until the buzz wears off and the cravings return. Behind the mask of any given student chanting "from the river to the sea" is a rictus of hate and rage and a person whose appetite for destruction is becoming increasingly difficult to keep in check. Behind that face is a mind warped beyond recognition. It is a mind that believes that words are violence and silence is violence. But actual violence is perfectly acceptable if it is directed at the right people. War is peace. Ignorance is strength.
And no one is safe.
Paul Nicholson heads up the Educational Opportunity and Merit Access programs at SUNY Purchase. Nicholson is a SUNY alum and is also Jewish. On Tuesday, a student attacked him. Nicholson's offense? He displayed an Israeli flag in his office. He was not hanging it from his office window or waving it at a demonstration. He was displaying it in his office. The operative idea here is "in his office."
According to National Review, an acquaintance of Nicholson, who is also a fellow administrator, said the student "took issue" with the flag. This led to an altercation in which the student attacked Nicholson. The student was arrested. Nicholson, who was uninjured, was told by campus police to go home and "shake it off." Shake it off? The man is assaulted for nothing more than having a flag in his office, and he just needed to go home and shake it off?
The same administrator told National Review that there had been a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside her office a few weeks ago. She said there were the usual chants, and flags were waved. But things ended peacefully. Nevertheless, she said that she had an escape route planned if the demonstration turned violent. She told the outlet, “I cannot think of another time that this sort of thing happened on a global level like this with an international conflict. I mean, maybe around 9/11, people actually did the opposite; they kind of came together.”
The anti-Semitism is frightening. "Never again" is now Tuesday's news. And it has been that way since October 7. But this is also the same demographic that thinks violence is the answer to pretty much everything. These same students would burn down a building or hit someone over the head in the name of whatever they were raging against on any given day. It isn't just that their ideas are bad — they are. It isn't just that their immaturity has continued long after the last vestiges of puberty — it has. It is also the fact that they have cast off any and all guardrails and a sense of decency. In the attacker's mind, it was perfectly acceptable to assault a man because he did not like the flag displayed in an office.
Related: The Sociopathic Generation
I know I have mentioned "The Island of Dr. Moreau" before, but I can't help thinking it would serve as a primer for 21st-century America. Yes, the story is a warning by H.G. Wells about the dangers of tinkering with the building blocks of life and reckless research. That, in and of itself, should serve as a caution to the gender industry, but that is a whole other column. What is worth noting is that at the end of the story, the beast men ultimately decide to revert to their feral ways. They want to abandon abstract thought for instinct, to go about on four legs, hunt and eat their fellow creatures, and reject any semblance of civilization. The American university system is not raising up thinkers, researchers, or even activists. It is rearing up monsters.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member