Jeremy Hammond on protesters using "from the river to the sea" as a slogan

This reminds me of the whole "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" slogan that they've been chanting and the media keep hammering on how the U.S. Congress and House keep passing resolutions defining that as antisemitic.  Well, that's just so utterly stupid.  Not to say that there aren't people who chant that who [are] antisemitic, but most of these kids on college campuses who are chanting the slogan "from the river to the sea," they're not advocating the slaughter of Jews in Israel.  They're advocating a single-state solution in which all people have equal rights.  They're opposing the apartheid regime.  And that's what they mean when they say "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."  

The other thing that renders that accusation that that's "antisemitic" so stupid is that if you look at the charter of Likud, the party of current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they use essentially the same slogan saying "from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, there will be only Israeli sovereignty."  Evidently Hamas plagiarized from Likud.

~ Jeremy Hammond, "Scott Horton and I Explain How Israel Supported Hamas," Jeremy R. Hammond Blog, 8:40 mark, May 17, 2024

Scott Horton on calling leftist antiwar protesters antisemitic

There's this more important narrative that they [the mainstream media] needs to hammer home, which is that the only ones who oppose Israel oppose them for no good reason, only because of antisemitism... which is a ridiculous hoax.  Just on the face of it, you don't have to give leftist protesters that much credit.  I'm sure they're bad on a lot of things, but nobody thinks that they're racists, right?  That's the crisis of our age, it's that they're so anti-racist that they won't leave anyone alone just for going about their day, right?  But now, all of a sudden, they're the Nazis.  They're supposed to be to the right of the right wing in America now.  Who could buy that?  It just sounds so stupid.

~ Scott Horton, "Scott Horton and I Explain How Israel Supported Hamas," Jeremy R. Hammond Blog, 7:50 mark, May 17, 2024

Kevin Duffy on how baby boomers oppose the pro-Palestinian student protests

To have zero empathy for 2 million people in Gaza, two-thirds women and children, having their lives utterly destroyed over the past 6 months is appalling.  At least 1 in 70 Palestinians have died so far.  Let that sink in. 

I am ashamed of my generation.  This is the same generation that grew up with the Vietnam War and the heroic student protests, the same generation that saw the national guard sent in to Kent State where they killed four protesters (Neil Young's "Four Dead in Ohio"). I was 9 years old when that happened. 

Our generation witnessed the government and the establishment for what it was: a criminal organization wrecking lives halfway around the world as well as at home. Now we have BECOME the establishment. "Throw the protesters in jail! Turn on the water cannons!" All you Republicans out there, can't you see the Biden administration is SENDING MORE WEAPONS AND AID TO ISRAEL? This isn't about left vs. right, it's about us vs. the state.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook comment, May 9, 2024

Kent State - May 4, 1970

Connor O'Keeffe on pro-Palestinian student protests and cultural Marxism

The strategic ineptitude of these students can seem almost astounding until you remember what they are being taught at these schools.  Universities like Columbia have gone all in on identity politics and social justice.  A more accurate name would be trait-based collectivized justice.  The dominant historical narrative that permeates almost every department and class curriculum considers the world to mostly have been in balance until white, western Europeans decided to get rich by stealing and expropriating resources from the rest of the world.  Putting aside how economically and historically delusional that is, by framing history as a series of injustices committed by an entire identity group on other identity groups in their entirety, adherents conclude that justice can only be attained on a collective, group level. 

And so, when students see the horrific images and videos coming out of Gaza of mostly brown, mostly Muslim people being blown up, crushed, and starved by white-looking descendants of European immigrants, it seems to fit neatly into their learned worldview.  So even though, in this case, it leads most of them to the correct general conclusion, it shouldn’t be a surprise that an imprecise, historically flawed narrative leads to imprecise, strategically flawed activism.

~ Connor O'Keeffe, "What Campus Protesters and Their Critics Get Right and Wrong," Mises Wire, May 1, 2024

Norman Finkelstein on how many young Jews are opposing Israel's war on the people of Gaza

You look at what the evidence shows, not based on biased sources or naturally-biased sources, but on the available evidence.  And I tried to be a strict adherent of the two principles of truth and justice and that's where I landed.  And I think frankly that's where most of the world has landed and it's also, incidentally but not trivially, it's where a large part of the young Jewish population has landed.  If you go to the demonstrations now, the ones that have garnered the headlines, say the one in Grand Central Station, it was overwhelmingly Jewish.  It was all organized by Jewish organizations, young people mostly, but not entirely.  The Statue of Liberty demonstration: again, it was Jewish young people who organized the demonstration.  So this idea that it's somehow polarized ethnically is belied by the facts.

Now I will wholeheartedly admit that when I first started out we were a handful of people, Jews who opposed what Israel was doing.  But the spectrum has radically changed in recent years.  I'm just one among a large number, a sea of Jews who oppose what's going on, not because they're self-hating, not because they're indifferent to the faith of Israelis, but because the evidence is overwhelming.

You started out by saying you're not knowledgeable about the topic.  Fair enough.  There are 10,000 topics I'm not knowledgeable about and where you have much more knowledge, I'm quite certain of that.  But this is not a particularly complicated situation right now.  The Israeli government is openly, unabashedly, flagrantly, blatantly - it's declared a war of genocide on the people of Gaza.

~ Norman Finkelstein, "Israel vs. Palestine with Norman Finkelstein," 8:10 mark, November 17, 2023

Amnesty International on the killing of Palestinian demonstrators in the Great March of Return (2018)

According to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, since the start of the protests, over 150 Palestinians have been killed in the demonstrations.  At least 10,000 others have been injured, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists.  Of those injured, 5,814 were hit by live ammunition.  According to Israeli media, one soldier was moderately injured due to shrapnel from a grenade thrown by a Palestinian from inside Gaza and one Israeli soldier was killed by Palestinian sniper fire near the fence that separates Gaza and Israel outside of the context of the protests. 

Why are Palestinians demonstrating? 

This year has marked 11 years since Israel imposed a land, air and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip.  The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), among others, have characterized Israel’s closure policy as “collective punishment” and called for Israel to lift its closure.  Under Israel’s illegal blockade, movement of people and goods is severely restricted and the majority of exports and imports of raw materials have been banned.  Travel through the Erez Crossing, Gaza’s passenger crossing to Israel, the West Bank, and the outside world, is limited to what the Israeli military calls “exceptional humanitarian cases”, meaning mainly those with significant health issues and their companions, and prominent businesspeople.  Meanwhile, since 2013, Egypt has imposed tight restrictions on the Rafah crossing, keeping it closed most of this time. 

Over the last 11 years, civilians in the Gaza Strip, 70% of whom are registered refugees from areas that now constitute Israel, have suffered the devastating consequences of Israel’s illegal blockade in addition to three wars that have also taken a heavy toll on essential infrastructure and further debilitated Gaza’s health system and economy.  As a result, Gaza’s economy has sharply declined, leaving its population almost entirely dependent on international aid.  Gaza now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world at 44%.  Four years after the 2014 conflict, some 22,000 people remain internally displaced, and thousands suffer from significant health problems that require urgent medical treatment outside of the Gaza Strip.  However, Israel often denies or delays issuing permits to those seeking vital medical care outside Gaza, while hospitals inside the Strip lack adequate resources and face chronic shortages of fuel, electricity and medical supplies caused mainly by Israel’s illegal blockade. 

The protests were launched to demand the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees to their villages and towns in what is now Israel, and to call for an end to Israel’s blockade.  They culminated on 14 May, on the day of the US embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, when Palestinians commemorate the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands in 1948-9 during the conflict following the creation of the state of Israel.  On that day alone, Israeli forces killed 59 Palestinians, in a horrifying example of use of excessive force and live ammunition against protesters who did not pose an imminent threat to life.

The organizers of the “Great March of Return” have repeatedly stated that the protests are intended to be peaceful, and they have largely involved demonstrators protesting near the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from Israel. Despite this, the Israeli army reinforced its forces – deploying tanks, military vehicles and soldiers, including snipers, along the Gaza/Israel fence – and gave orders to shoot anyone within several hundred metres of the fence.

~ "Six Months On: Gaza's Great March of Return," Amnesty International, October 19, 2018

Climate protesters on why they disrupted the U.S. Open

There is no tennis on a dead planet.  There is no art on a dead planet, everything that we take for granted as our way of life will cease to exist.

~ Sayak Mukhopadhyay

I understand the discomfort that the audience felt.  But we can no longer feel comfortable at a time like this.  We need the wake up calls.  It's only a matter of time before things get much worse.  So I protested because I'm terrified.

~ Lindiwe Priscilla Krasin

"Climate Protesters Get Taste of Justice After Pulling Stunt at US Open," The Western Journal, September 9, 2023

Douglas Blair on the backlash against the green movement

It’s clear that moves by world governments to prostrate themselves on the altar of environmentalism are neither effective nor popular with their citizens. They might make Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg happy, but you’d think the country’s leaders would prefer one unhappy Swedish youth to a mob of angry citizens.

~ Douglas Blair, "Sri Lanka Collapses and Dutch Farmers Revolt. Blame ‘Green’ Policies.," The Daily Signal, July 15, 2022

Kevin Duffy on the battle of ideas

Ideas matter.  Progressivism, which began in the late 1800s, routed other ideologies in the 1900s. It's not even close. The Old Right died (including neutrality in foreign affairs).  Classical liberalism (aka limited government or more recently "libertarianism") was nearly snuffed out right after WWII, but a committed remnant remains and is making a comeback. 

We're on the losing side.  We're in the minority.  In a winner-take-all political system, we lose.  Our only weapon is our words.  Violence (as Wednesday's idiotic Capitol breach proved) will only backfire. 

The other side doesn't need to use reason. They have the numbers. And they know it. 

That's what we're up against.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, January 8, 2021

Capitol breach - January 6, 2021

Paul Gottried on the use of riots for political gain

Riots by what Tucker Carlson aptly characterized as the “Biden voters” did not happen by chance. The Democratic Party and the overwhelmingly Democratic media condoned and even incited these “peaceful protests,” and former Vice President Biden’s staff labored mightily to bail out apprehended perpetrators of violence in order to put them back onto the streets. This is standard operating procedure for political movements trying to seize power. After World War II, the Soviets arranged for mob violence in Hungary, Poland, and other countries they occupied as preparation for the imposition of a Communist dictatorship. This violence, authorities claimed, proved the need for a new order. 

The Nazi Brown Shirts wrought havoc in Weimar Germany that Hitler then insisted only his rule would end. While Brown Shirts battled with real Communists on the streets of German cities, our media have less credible street enemies. The best they can come up with is the mostly powerless, racially integrated Proud Boys, policemen who killed or wounded several black men with long criminal records, and President Trump’s indelicate phraseology. Apparently, these troublemakers, not the Democratic-friendly BLM and Antifa, were behind the mayhem and looting during the “Summer of Violence.”

~ Paul Gottried, "What an American One-Party System Would Really Look Like," American Greatness, October 25, 2020

AP Stylebook offers guidance on using the word "riot"

New guidance on AP Stylebook Online: 

Use care in deciding which term best applies: 

A riot is a wild or violent disturbance of the peace involving a group of people. The term riot suggests uncontrolled chaos and pandemonium. (1/5) 

Focusing on rioting and property destruction rather than underlying grievance has been used in the past to stigmatize broad swaths of people protesting against lynching, police brutality or for racial justice, going back to the urban uprisings of the 1960s. (2/5) 

Unrest is a vaguer, milder and less emotional term for a condition of angry discontent and protest verging on revolt. (3/5) 

Protest and demonstration refer to specific actions such as marches, sit-ins, rallies or other actions meant to register dissent. They can be legal or illegal, organized or spontaneous, peaceful or violent, and involve any number of people. (4/5) 

Revolt and uprising both suggest a broader political dimension or civil upheavals, a sustained period of protests or unrest against powerful groups or governing systems. (5/5)

~ AP Stylebook, tweet, October 1, 2020

Kevin Duffy on the first Trump-Biden debate

Trump had the civil society vote in his pocket thanks to 4 months of "mostly peaceful" BLM protests. He lost that in 90 minutes of not being able to shut his mouth. 

Biden was cognitively on the ropes many times, but Trump saved him by interrupting.

~ Kevin Duffy, tweet, September 29, 2020

Micah Curtis on Antifa

One of my biggest issues since the death of George Floyd and the beginning of the riots has been the complete and total lack of honesty when it comes to Antifa. This is not just a group of people that dislikes far-right politics. Their name stands for anti-fascist action, but it is intellectually dishonest to look at what they are doing and think this has anything to do with fighting fascism. Their goal is revolution, and it’s likely that if you were to ask them if they think that Pol Pot did anything wrong, their answer would be no.

~ Micah Curtis, "Antifa in Portland Vow To Kill Cops, Along With Their Families, Children & Friends," LewRockwell.com, September 28, 2020

Zachary Yost on the role of guilt-ridden rich kids in BLM protests

Hopefully, as social life slowly returns to normal and as the weather gets colder, the guilt-ridden rich kids will tire out from playacting as revolutionaries and return home. But until then, it seems that the rest of us will be forced to suffer as they work out their psychological problems through some window-smashing therapy.

~ Zachary Yost, "What's with the Rich Kid Revolutionaries?," Mises Wire, September 22, 2020

Harold Cameron on the killing of two protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin in self defense

He may not have known it, but Kyle Rittenhouse didn’t simply take on a few violent criminals with a cheap, ubiquitous rifle. He took on the entire system that enabled them. And — at least for one brief and inexplicable moment — he won. Rittenhouse may not a role model, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an American hero.

~ Harold Cameron, "Kyle Rittenhouse May Not Be a Role Model, But Is He Still an American Hero?," Revolver News, August 28, 2020

Kevin Duffy on the politicization of the NBA: "We're living in the Matrix"

The NBA has done irreparable damage to their brand.  Credibility takes a long time to build, but can be lost overnight.  What David Stern created, Adam Silver destroyed by toeing the official line.

The politicization of the NBA was predictable because the franchise enjoys a symbiotic relationship with government, including subsidies for lavish sports arenas.  These subsidies (payed by the taxpayer) go into the pockets of billionaire owners and millionaire players.  Welfare for the rich.

Instead of being grateful, they insult the very people who support them.  Worse, they insult our intelligence promoting a bogus cause.  (If anyone who worked for the NBA, TNT or ESPN condemned black communities for disproportionately high levels of fatherless families and violent crime, they'd be fired in a heartbeat.  "Action" always means extracting more money from the hapless taxpayer and never taking responsibility.)

The official narratives don't just stop at BLM.  If you're in a bubble, and everyone is testing negative for Covid and young and healthy, why the incessant mask-wearing?  Why is a young, attractive female reporter wearing a mask when she's practically the only person in the gym?  This is nothing more than cramming more of the official propaganda down our throats. It's not even subtle.

We're living in the Matrix.

~ Kevin Duffy, August 27, 2020

Vasko Kohlmayer on the BLM attacks on Christian symbols

The protestors themselves make their intentions clear as they barely attempt to hide their true motives. In many cases they do not bother to make even tenuous links between their faux cause of “anti-racism” and their attacks on Christianity. In fact, they are surprisingly brazen about their goals. By inscribing slogans such as “God is dead,” and “There is no God” and by drawing anarchist and pagan graffiti on the walls of Christian edifices, these “anti-racism” protesters could not be more clear about what they really want.

Just think about it: What do pagan symbols have to do with the struggle for “racial justice?” Have pagan cultures ever been known for their racial tolerance and equality? Have they ever been known to treat minorities with compassion and understanding? Anyone who knows anything about history knows that there has been little social justice in pagan cultures. As a rule, the way pagan societies treat their minorities is appalling. To express this truth in modern idiom, pagan cultures almost invariably discriminate – often brutally – on the basis of race, gender, national original, disability, sexual orientation and on the basis of whatever else that can make one different from the ruling elite in charge. The only societies that have treated minorities with understanding and compassion have been those arising from the Western civilizational stream. Western societies are the only ones in history in which minorities are given the full measure of human respect and equal rights. As far as we know, there have been no significant social justice movement in pagan societies. This should not surprise, since any would-be activists against oppression in non-Christian cultures usually come to a quick end.

~ Vasko Kohlmayer, "Loathing of the West: The Real Reason 'Anti-Racism' Protestors Desecrate Christian Churches," LewRockwell.com, August 25, 2020

Arson incident in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood

Jimmy Butler on political activism and the NBA

In a sense that we get to feel how we want to feel, and we get to express it in our way.  The way that the league, the players, the coaches, are kneeling in unity, and if you decide to stand in unity, it's what needs to be done.  Because the greater good, and the goal that we're trying to get across, it will be reached.  And I'm happy to see everybody in on it.

~ Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat forward, comment during a post-practice video call, July 31, 2020

Daniel Ajamian on the recent events and the cultural Marxism strategy

What I hear of college, and it also is true in business and government, are stories of various cultural indoctrinations – made ever-more intense given the pretext for these recent riots. Politically correct speech to include even compelled speech, cancel culture, self-flagellation, a fight for the gold medal in the oppression olympics. If you disagree with any of this, you are a fascist. To further cement this indoctrination, a requirement to take classes that tear down Western Civilization – even saying those two words in anything other than a scornful tone could be costly.

There is a purpose behind this, a strategy. Events that we have been living through recently are not spontaneous or random. This is not accidental. These events are the result of a political strategy designed to strip us of our liberty. It is an insidious strategy. It is also very effective.

~ Daniel Ajamian, "The Greatest Political Strategist in History," talk delivered at 2020 Mises University, July 18, 2020

Kevin Duffy on public protests

In the absence of a free society, how should we handle the problem of protests taking place on public property? I’m thinking there could be a few small, designated areas that require permission (away from traffic, stores, offices, homes, etc.). Otherwise, do your protesting on private property. Go rent a field somewhere and get the media to show up. This would eliminate all of the contention… and the violence… and the taxing of taxpayer-funded police services (which ought to be privatized anyway).

~ Kevin Duffy, Quora comment, July 17, 2020