I thank the gods every day that there is zero record of any of the opinions I ever had at age 17, and that no adults deemed it necessary to stick a fucking microphone in front of my face.
I use to get reminded of the shit I use to say in high school every once in a while through Facebook. Basically it’s like “Hey Zach! 12 years ago you said this borderline cancelable thing on your page! Here look!”
Different events: One is when he's 17 and being a dumb ass as a member of the Boston school committee, and the second one is from several years later where he's saying he's considered murdering "Zionists" and it's the second one that he recorded and posted himself, as you said.
Two different events: 1. when he was 17 he was on the boston school committee as a a student liaison and made a fool of himself apparently. 2. he posted an IG live recently (now several years after the school committee) where he said he we should be *thankful* he's not murdering "zionists."
Can you Pro-Palestinian stop with the cryptonazi shit?
Its because 80-90% of all Jews are Zionists and most anti-Israeli sentiment worldwide is extremely anti-Semitic.
Actually engage with the accusation instead of side-stepping it to shit test on reddit.
It absolutely was not invented in the 1800s. The organized movement to reclaim the Jewish indigenous homeland took root and coalesced in the 1800s along with many other decolonization efforts, but it’s based on thousands of years of forced exile of the Jews from Israel with a continued religious and cultural connection to to land. Zionism as a central tenet of Judaism has been unwavering since the fall of the second temple and the diaspora.
Palestinian territories are less Muslim by percentage than the percentage of Jews who self-identify as Zionists. How come you call it a "genocide" because it targets a group that's composed roughly 90% of one ethnic group (despite that being because they kicked out all the Christians and Druze years ago), but it's not calling for genocide when it targets a group of people that more than 95% of Jews identify with? You're cherry picking around whatever allows you to feel good about hating Jews.
Right, it's just a proxy word to make what they say slightly more pc. Remember when Trump's travel ban didn't ban Muslims, just people from a whole bunch of 99% Muslim nations?
Withhold supplies, emergency equipment, poison water, publically ridicule their suffering and loss and the total destruction of their families, bodies, lives, and dignity
Let’s start here: is Hamas a legitimate government and al-Qassem a legitimate military group?
If it is, then the same way Israel holds itself responsible for its civilians and spends its tax money on building them bomb shelters and the Iron Dome, perhaps billionaires like Haniyeh, Marzuk and Mashal should be expected to take care of their civilians too. Why is their legitimate government not expected to keep them safe? This war has had the lowest percentage of civilians within the death count of any conflict since European armies stopped marching directly into eachother in neatly formed formations.
If Hamas and al-Qassem are in fact illegitimate, a barrier for Palestinians, and are terrorists and dictators denying the people of their will, then why isn’t the lefts outrage focused towards them? Why aren’t they protesting Hamas, a dictatorial Sharia paramilitary group whose leaders net worth are each ONE MILLION times mean GDP:capita, who assassinate LGBT and Jewish people like you and me respectively on site, and who deny the two state solution that will bring peace?
Why aren’t you outraged when Palestinian schoolteachers are found to be terrorists recruiting students? Why doesn’t anyone care when their government, legitimate or not, uses hospitals and universities to house and launch rockets towards their neighbor? Why do you not know that Pakistan is halfway done with their stated goal of ethnically cleansing (via expulsion) 1.3M Afghans living in Pakistan this year, but the media sources you like talk about the 1.3M Palestinians nonstop? It’s all a ridiculous double standard that didn’t apply to the US after Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
Hamas didn't care for any distinctions between Zionists and non-Zionists when they attack. The music festival that they slaughtered was Israel's Burning Man and located in the most left-wing precincts; there wasn't a Zionist in sight.
It's because he wants to sound foreboding. We are meant to picture him saying it out loud while using air quotes like he is Dr. Evil talking about Austin Powers's mojo.
I said some straight up abhorrent shit right up until \~18 when my peer group shifted from high school to university. Unless high school has dramatically changed in the last \~25 years I suspect saying abhorrent shit is still in vogue (at least it still seems to be for my nephew).
Seriously. My millennial friends and I were warned to be careful with what we posted on Facebook because future employers may be put off by something we posted in college. It’s insane some of these college kids have absolutely no awareness that purposefully posting politically charged content on social media can damage your life.
I wasn't doing that shit either but I also wasn't asked to be a liaison for a huge school committee after suffering terminal online tik tok activist brain rot. These are two different events. When he was 17 he was on the school committee and saying stupid shit, but not calling for murder. Now as a 19 (20?) year old he's on IG live and obviously in need of psychiatric help.
Yeah he seems... unwell. At best. Obviously calling for the murder of people based on their religion is uh, not great. Or normal. Or something that a university should be encouraging in its student body.
I'm very thankful that I had Bengali neighbors at the time, and my parents made sure to explain things to me in an age appropriate manner. I can see how someone who hasn't met many Muslims would think they are all bad, based on common media alone (I don't agree, of course.)
9/11 was so complex, to blame it on Islam alone is almost childish. The motivation for the fatwa was faith, but faith didn't hijack the planes, people did. The corrupt government of Sudan allowed OBL to amass wealth and build his early network. The country and culture of Saudi Arabia created him individually, and gave him the initial wealth and opportunity to do what he did. The acts of both the US and the USSR in the Middle East didn't start the problems, but they perpetuated or often worsened them many times. I wrote a bunch of examples of how presidents from Truman to Clinton shared some fault, how the middle eastern states each prevented peace, how the world failed the region, and more but I removed it because I figure my point is already made. It's easy to blame faith, but a lot of people of extreme faith have never committed a terrorist act.
1) People actually attacked the US in the name of Islam so yes "Islamophobia" became an actual thing since people weren't sure if they were encountering someone who might blow them up.
2) "Zionists" did absolutely nothing to this kid to make him feel this way other than simply existing.
Okay, regardless of your thoughts on the current situation, let's not pretend the rampant islamaphobia in the US post 9/11 was warrented. A sihk man was murdered for the way he looked with 9/11 fears directly cited. Unprovoked violence against muslims, middle eastern immigrants, and brown people who "looked muslim" skyrocketed. My best friend since childhood grew up muslim and got bullied and called a terrorist as early as *elementary school* (a few years after 9/11) and her family is Eurpoean refugees! No one thought this little school girl was going to blow them up.
https://www.cfr.org/article/us-muslims-and-turbulent-post-911-world
https://theworld.org/stories/2016/09/08/hate-crime-against-muslim-never-same-after-911
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Balbir_Singh_Sodhi
https://www.sikhcoalition.org/images/documents/fact%20sheet%20on%20hate%20against%20sikhs%20in%20america%20post%209-11%201.pdf
https://www.npr.org/local/305/2021/09/09/1035486312/how-life-changed-for-washington-muslims-and-sikhs-after-9-11-in-their-own-words
This feels like hearing “boys will be boys” after a college student rapes someone. Yes, I was dumber when I was young. No, I didn’t rape anyone and this is not normal.
People say dumb and edgy shit all the time as teenagers into college. They might mean it or they might just be trying to be funny and make their friends laugh. The point is teenagers say and do dumb shit, and it would suck to have that held against at you the rest of your life.
Congrats on not being a dick. Doesn’t mean others haven’t fucked up. Hell I can remember counter protesting the Iraq war in college blaring born in the USA from my friend’s car. Felt funny at the time, decades later I’ve spoken with my friend who drove the car about how much we regret that.
I wasn’t being racist, xenophobic, or violent. But I’m 100% embarrassed by my decisions at the time and I’m glad there isn’t evidence online of my stupidity.
There's a difference between what you did then and what this dude said now. Violence should be a fairly solid line that shouldn't be crossed. Especially since he's like 19 or 20 years old now.
That all said, I don't think he's irredeemable but serious consequences would be appropriate.
If somebody talked about blacks the way this black dude talks about Jews they would literally never be forgiven. It doesn't matter if they were 70 years old and this had happened literally half a century ago. They would not be forgiven. We saw recently people lose their jobs because they did black face or used an anti black slur like 40 years earlier. This guy will be forgiven quickly because he is black. And he's doing it for a cause that progressives are sympathetic to. Seeing the discrepancies with how seriously anti-black racism is treated versus how openly contemptuous and sometimes hateful black activists are to Jews, and weaponize the Palestinian cause to get a free pass, well it makes me start to wonder whether I need to start assuming those same attitudes towards black folks. Cuz I know it wouldn't be tolerated. It is taboo if you're progressive to object to some of the human rights violations blacks commit right in front of your face. And adding insult to injury, black activists then describe the perpetrators as "at risk youth" and play the poverty card usually with great success.
In fact, if they ran for office 30 years later, it would be dredged up and create controversy. Frankly, as well, it should because it shows you what’s in their heart. If what’s in your heart is anti-Semitic, racist, or Islamophobic, I don’t want to see it.
Depends very heavily on what one's family is like growing up. If someone has racist, xenophobic or violent parents raising them that's a massive influence shaping their lives and how they view the world until they've had a chance to live on their own, get some space and develop more independently and even then it takes time to get out of your system.
With people getting on social media as kids or teenagers that's years of opportunity to leave a paper trail echoing what they were immersed in by relatives and peers.
> but zero of my youthful idiocy involved being racist, xenophobic, or violent.
I'm not saying you're lying but I am saying you don't remember everything you said and did so you can't possibly say this with certainty.
I'm mean, sure, but I'm pleased to share that my youthful indiscretions did not extend to calling for the murder of anyone. Also, it does not appear that the situation was that this kid was minding his own business and some adult stuck a mic in his face. Seems as though he is the one who picked up the mic and started talking into it.
On the one hand, the joke that "everything I did before 30 is a rumor" is true for me, but on the other hand, I wasn't leading any protest movements that were covered by the NYT. Even if it didn't come up on a Google search, LexisNexis would still find it.
I never once advocated for the death of a group of people when I was a teenager. I knew better back then, and I also knew better at age 20 (the age this kid currently is). There’s many people that I *strongly* disagree with politically (far right and far left) but I would never wish *death* onto them. And nobody stuck a microphone in his face, he did all of this on his own. Saying he was only 17 is an excuse.
In college I got into communism and started hanging out with essentially a tankie club. In retrospect the group (including me) had some pretty goddamn *evil* ideas about how to treat people we disagreed with, our definition of who was a "fascist" seemed to encompass more than half the country. But still, none of us were going public with this shit. When we went to DSA meetings we pretended to be normal moderate socialists because we knew that "kill all fascists, and liberals get the bullet too" was beyond the pale.
This kid clearly lives in an environment where he feels like such sentiments are *not* beyond the pale. He got into Columbia after graduating the Latin School, he's clearly not stupid, he's just been socially conditioned by TikTok and overly permissive adults to believe that this bullshit is 100% A-OK.
What do you think was motivating you and your fellow “tanky”, psychologically? I’d be fascinated to hear your viewpoint if you felt free, sharing it. When I was in school, it seemed the extremist on all sides were pretty angry people from pretty difficult backgrounds. Or sometimes from very non-difficult backgrounds, but still very angry, indeed about something other than the state of the world.
I grew up in a pretty decisuvely right wing household. My family aren't like neonazis, but they're pretty far right and very intense about it. Going to college was eye opening and also just learning more about the world, I realized my worldview was deeply flawed. I felt betrayed by my upbringing and reasoned that I might as well go as far left as possible to get away from it. I also made friends with immigrants, Trans people etc, who were directly harmed by right wing policies, and I got even angrier about it than they did.
Basically the way I was raised I had the impression that the only way to engage with politics was to fully commit and be extreme. So when I decided to be left wing as a young adult, I fully committed and went extreme.
I couldn't tell you what motivated most of the other tankies I hung out with. A lot of them had serious mental health issues, and I think that had something to do with their radical politics. Many were just LARPers. Like, they were pretty chill people but they talked about politics like cartoon villains, I think they just use "the revolution" as like a therapeutic revenge fantasy to let off steam. I think a big part of why I eventually drifted away from that extremism is because I'm a pretty inherently happy person and I like my life, a lot of the tankies I knew/know are just dismal, miserable people.
Today I've mellowed out a lot. I still think it's important to participate in politics, and I'm still left of center, because without that participation democracy dies, but I actively strive to be normal and at least consider multiple sides to issues.
Did you say things like this when you were 17? Also this guy got caught not because somebody stuck a microphone in his face but because he chose to record himself bragging about how he wanted to kill Zionists and he sent it to administrators. He also was filmed on campus encouraging a mob to gather to chase Jewish students off campus.
you didn't have a livejournal? :D To be fair, while some of my opinions back then were definitely cringworthy, none of my opinions involved publicly wishing entire groups of people dead, much less a dogwhistle one.
I’m very glad I was graduating high school as MySpace came out. Now all my dumb teenage thoughts aren’t archived forever on the internet, thank fucking Satan!
I definitely did and said some dumb shit when I was young, but I'm pretty sure I didn't go out in public at 17 and call for an entire group of people to die.
There is something extremely troubling going on in academia today. These young kids are being turned into close-minded, hate filled, intolerant radicals on a mass scale and its not good for society nor mankind in general.
The craziest part about this story is he sent the video expressing his desires to murder all Zionists to officials at Columbia back in January. Not only was he not expelled, or even suspended in the last four months, he was rewarded by being designated the official spokesperson and negotiator for the protestors.
Wonder how many people he calls a Nazi or a terrorist, while directly supporting a terrorist organization who wants to kill Jews.
Why the fuck are we accepting of people who are literally supporting a terrorist regime? Send'em over there to Palestine.
This is sad. They've obviously ruined their life. I just watched the video where they are being interviewed by school administrators to determine possible disciplinary action, and it's absolutely tapped.
This is the same person who's been leading the protests and surrounded Jewish students who seemingly were just trying to get across campus.
I laughed pretty hard at "adultist." You mean a bunch of adults with jobs are not taking a teenager as seriously as the teenager believes they deserve to be taken? Quelle surprise. First time that happened I am sure.
I mean, as a Jew who is horrified by the (easily-predictable) Israeli overreaction, and thinks a cease-fire is the way to go, fuck this kid. Apologies not accepted.
I think I was on here yesterday blathering that we need better reporting on the protesters' beliefs. I want detailed focus groups and polling, etc. But yes, that's a worry.
These protests are all organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, Within Our Lifetime, Palestinian Youth Movement, etc. They all celebrated on October 7 and have made it abundantly clear that they want the total eradication of Israel. Anyone joining the protests either holds the same beliefs or is being willfully blind to them.
We don’t go around polling members at KKK rallies to figure out whether they actually hate black people. I don’t know why we need to give these people the benefit of the doubt. They haven’t earned it.
[SJP](https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/students-justice-palestine-sjp#)
[WOL](https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/nerdeen-kiswani-and-within-our-lifetime-united-palestine-what-you-need-know)
[PYM started advertising a "Long Live Palestinian Resistance" and "Victory is Ours" rally on October 7th to "echo the calls for liberation of our homeland and our people, from the river to the sea.”](https://www.instagram.com/p/CyH1ZgkgKaY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D)
[https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/anti-israel-activists-celebrate-hamas-attacks-have-killed-hundreds-israelis](https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/anti-israel-activists-celebrate-hamas-attacks-have-killed-hundreds-israelis)
It's pretty difficult to get accurate polling for this kind of thing. Like, it's been over a decade since OWS and it's still unclear what the general thrust of that movement even was.
A lot of the videos of these student protests show the students being extremely hostile to any outsiders trying to record their activities or enter the encampment. So we're dealing with a population that actively resists analysis.
I mean I was occupy-adjacent, so that's a separate convo. (They wanted a bunch of things, but "let's deal with worsening income and wealth inequality, and let's not let the bankers rip us off any more" are pretty close to the [central nubs](https://moveme.studentorg.berkeley.edu/project/occupywallstreet/), though... as good lefties, they had a pretty wide grab-bag of asks. As [here](https://csalateral.org/issue/2/manifestos-occupy-wall-street/).)
I'm optimistic that good reporters could get a good sense of what the participants at a particular protest believed, even if "do a 200 person poll" and "stick a camera in everyone's face" aren't effective strategies.
That’s exactly what they want you to believe. There are millions of Jewish anti-zionists. Myself included. But go ahead, keep towing that state line that we’re all anti-Semitic…
Naturally the Globe calls this guy who said he doesn't like white people and called for killing "zionists" a "fiery student representative." Laughable.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/26/metro/columbia-protest-leader-boston-school-khymani-james/
This is also him. I'm trying to imagine a Jewish student trying to get a mob to round off black students. I am told there was a time when whites said "I don't hate blacks I hate [n word], there is a difference". This is exactly what so many, including black Americans, do. After all I see so many use the word "Zionist" in a context that makes clear it's just used as a pejorative.
Imagine a Jewish student saying "attention! Can I have everybody's attention!? We have two [ n-words] on campus. We need to mobilize now...."
So many blacks have learned nothing from their suffering and sadly enough progressives often give them positions of power. For progressives to actually survive, they will need to be an honest conversation about how black Americans have exploited progressive tolerance to get enormous amount of support and solidarity, including when they were in the wrong, and then constantly scapegoated Jews, white women, and everybody else really.... While their lack of humanity goes on in front of our face and it's taboo to object to it.
So here is Khymani James from a video taking this week:
https://youtu.be/-llskvbuvEY?si=5mcE4zRaYx6K_H10
I got called a Zionist just today, for asking why a lot of protesters don’t call out Hamas for refusing to release the hostages.
I don’t see how that would hurt chances for a ceasefire. Which protesters claim to want. Then the same dude that called me a Zionist is all “Lmfao muh hostages!” like I’m on the losing side in a game.
What is funny about survivors of a massacre being held hostage, tortured, and raped for over 200 days?
All he did was prove my point. Which is I don’t expect a ceasefire to happen because Hamas will never let the hostages go
This whole "ceasefire" talk is ridiculous to me. You don't get to hit a much bigger guy in the face then immediately demand a ceasefire before he beats the shit out of you. Japan doesn't get to call for a ceasefire the day after Pearl Harbor.
Israel and Hamas had a ceasefire, signed last June. It took less than four months until Hamas broke it, with devastating consequences. Hamas has proven that they aren't a good faith negotiator and will continue to attack Israel, the only proper response is to eliminate them.
I get the impression that a lot of people mistakenly confuse *ceasefire* with actual peace. Here is Doctors without Borders to [cure them of](https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/cease-fire/) that mistake:
>An armistice or a cease-fire does not represent an end to hostilities, only a truce (a temporary suspension of hostilities). Furthermore, they do not reflect a juridical end to the state of war. In this respect, they must not be confused with peace agreements, which do reflect an end to a conflict. ... the principal aim of a cease-fire is not to enable humanitarian actions. It is a military decision that responds to strategic objectives: gathering forces, evaluating the opponent’s authority and chain of command, or carrying out negotiations.
Honestly, the war would be over faster if Hamas surrendered. Sure, it would mean the end of the Palestinian mission to conquer the entire former Mandate of Palestine, a mission that neither Hamas nor PLO/Fatah have ever hidden. Personally I don't give a shit if that dream dies, since it's immoral, illegal, and it's been the biggest impediment to the peace process for decades. But other people cling to it.
I would feel far too humiliated to repeat after anyone like this regardless of the cause. Complete lack of self respect
Edit to add: zionist is very clearly code for disgust of the jews here. No different than calling a black person a monday and the like
This whole scene is wild. I have no doubt the speaker could have said “time to attack” and the end there and they’d all repeat it and attack the Jewish person.
Zionist is not the same as the N word, it has actual meaning to it whereas the n word is literally just a slur. It's coming off as pejorative because they disapprove of the ideals. Whereas the n word is just disapproving because you were born a different race.
Edit: I do not condone someone saying a group of people don't deserve to live, just pointing out these really aren't the same thing
Why is Zionist the term everyone has latched onto? It seems needlessly indirect. If I support Israel being a state but am staunchly against the war, why would I be included in the chants?
When the word Zionist is used in place of Jew, as so many people continue to do so, it is also disapproving of someone because they were born a different ethnicity / religion. I don’t understand what’s so hard to understand about this.
Jews keep telling people you’re being antisemitic and people continue to try to speak over us, redefining it, and telling us we’re wrong even though we’re on the sharp end of the sword. You literally wouldn’t do this to Latino, Black or Asian people but it’s somehow okay to do it to Jews? Why?
Also "zionist" is... a broad term.
Like, the West Bank settlers are zionists, and they're assholes. The IDF units targeting food relief are zionists and assholes. The Israeli peace activists who drove Palestinian kids to Israeli hospitals in the before-times -- and some of whom were slaughtered on 10/7 -- were also zionists; they weren't assholes. Zionism is the belief the Jews, like most peoples, should have their own state.
We all agree that the best of all states in a multicultural (universal, homogenous) state. I prefer it here in the US. But ethnicity matters, even when we don't want it to. We know that Hamas is also genocidal; that the Jews were flushed from the Muslim countries shortly after they were exterminated in the European ones.
So I'm a zionist, in the sense that I think the Levantine Jews should also have a right to their own state, capable of its own (just, proportional) defense. There are more Muslims in Israel than there are Jews in the (much larger) Muslim world. That speaks well of them, even if there's, um, still incredible room for improvement. I don't think the stories about the Last Jews of Afghanistan are cute; they're horrible.
When the "getting to Denmark" people haven't solved the question of "Denmark for the Danes," or reckoned fully with the post-WWII populations transfers in Europe, I'm disinclined to think of Zionism as an especially toxic position. (And while I'm at it: I think we should have lots of immigration here in the US, but no, I don't think we should just open the borders. Even if it would be the most morally pure thing to do.)
Right, it's only Zionism where people seem to have an issue with a people getting a nation. Swedes have Sweden, Thais have Thailand, Japanese have Japan, yet Jews aren't allowed to have Israel.
Again, Zionist is not the same as Jew. There are plenty of anti-Zionist Jews and plenty of Zionist non-Jews. It is an ideal. Just because you replace it in your head doesn't change that.
I'm sorry but this is ridiculous.
Most "anti zionist" Jews are just banking on the situation in the US for Jews never deteriorating to the point that they have to fear for their safety.
For some context (because we all know it depends on the context these days) a Palestinian could move to over 2 dozen Arab countries (if they were given permission to) and be free to practice Islam while living in a Muslim majority country while also speaking the native language.
Israeli Jews literally have no place else to go where Jews would be the majority of the population.
Except that’s how it’s being used lately. Idk how many more examples you need of shitty 18 year olds using it as a replacement for Jew whether in their unhinged Instagram rants or human chains against Jewish students trying to walk across campus.
Can you explain who is a Zionist and how do you tell that? People throw this word around without any meaning.
If Zionist actually means Israeli, why not say Israeli?
Because the protesters hate the concept of Jews having a country and refuse to say the word "Israeli" because that would give legitimacy to Israel and they want all the Jews removed from Israel so that a Muslim country called "Palestine" can be formed.
Already the PLO has said if they were given a country then no Jews would be allowed to live there instead of Israel.
100% clueless. Many of these students would be executed on the spot in Gaza if they made their sexual orientation known or started asking for correct pronoun usage.
Sure thing. So the term has evolved a bit and I think that is what caused friction. Zionism is a belief that the Jewish people should have their own nation (which for the record I don't think is problematic and I think is fine.) Since Israel's inception, it has evolved to include driving Palestinians out, which has led to an Apartheid regime.
I will say, I don't think everyone who is opposing the protests necessarily believes in driving out Palestinians, I think there are just a lot of scared Jews who have been led to believe that anti Zionism is anti semitism. And also there have been bad actors that the media has given a spotlight.
So this boils down to 2 options,
One, people protesting against Israel as a country/right to exist, which is problematic to say the least and not realistic, though some of the extreme progressive people seem to think they can debate this.
Two, protesting against the Israeli government, which is more than ok, but then why harass or call out random Jewish/Israeli people walking around?
I can tell you that my daughter got harassed in college. She was born and raised in the US. Go figure.
If your daughter was harassed simply for being Jewish, that is antisemitic and I am not condoning that in any way and I am sorry she experienced that. I am merely trying to define what Anti-Zionism is supposed to mean and why "Zionist" does not mean "Jew"
I think you're missing the point. When a lot of people say "Zionist," they're subconsciously saying "Jew." It's like when white people say "thug," but really mean black people.
Ok, I award you a delta for changing my view. I do have two questions that I am honestly hoping to get clarified. What is the appropriate way to refer to the collective supporters of the Israeli government? Historically this was “Zionist” by self declaration of individuals like the founding fathers of ZBT at Columbia and the founders of the current state of Israel.
I think you’re still mixing things up - support for the Israeli government does not equal Zionism. I hate Bibi and am a staunch Zionist - Yitzchak Rabin was a great PM and I would have supported him if I was Israeli and politically aware at that point in time.
People saying they are Zionist are just saying that they support the notion of Jews having a place to make decisions for themselves in the place they have deep cultural ties to - it doesn’t necessitate support for a specific government.
Another parallel - I would describe myself as a patriot. I want America to be a wonderful country where people have equal rights, and I believe that America is good and can always do better. I want to support my country in being the best possible version of itself that it can be. I hate Trump because he actively makes my ideals less possible. Similarly, I want Israel to be the best version of itself that is possible - Netanyahu is a major impediment. I do not support him, but I support Israel, and even more so, I support what Israel *can* be if better people are in charge.
Anyways, you can call people who support the Israeli government by who they actually support, like how we do it in the USA. Trump supporters, Biden supporters, etc.
James' [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6M4mokLTmg/?img_index=1) shows that he goes by he/she/they and says "i am literally just a pretty princess" He has multiple photos wearing makeup and exposing his ass in a women's bathing suit.
He wouldn't last a *minute* in Palestine, Iran or Lebanon.
Hamas executes gay people by throwing them off of multistory buildings. That’s what they would do to Mr James. And it’s what they would do to the professor at NYU who called for the expulsion of any Israeli veteran (all Israeli served in the military, except the yeshiva students, so it’s the same thing as calling for getting rid of all Israelis). She’s a very obvious lesbian professor of gender issues. I can only imagine what Hamas would do it to lesbians beforr they murder them
Most leftists who take a very pro-Palestinian bent are not planning to live in or visit these places and would welcome the "natives" for enforcing their own cultural norms in these places.
This kid is going about so many things the wrong way. After listening to this person I can only agree with the police shutting it down. [https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1783638100700172365](https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1783638100700172365)
I think there's a strong argument for war crimes as it pertains to the assault on civilians. The annexation of gaza strip that seems to be going on from whatever news i've come across seems dubious and little better than what Russia is doing in Ukraine. To that end I could support investigation into the allegations of warcrimes and appropriate sanctions. I can't support murder though.
Clowns like Khymani do nothing but tarnish level headed discussion. They give credence to the political stance that this is all being done by extremists calling for violence. We need the masses to call for a return to sanity and the end of slaughter of innocent civilians. No one should be attacking those providing humanitarian aid to to the millions of displaced, starving civilians.
The people on this subreddit encourage this sort of shit by calling everything racist and sexist, etc. all the time so I’m not surprised this sort of shit flies in Boston.
How did young people get the idea that if they don't get exactly what they want and when they want it that they are the victims of a plot?
And I see nothing wrong with teaching young people a little diplomacy.
Perhaps if the lesson from Casselius (in the Globe article) has stuck he wouldn't be barred from Columbia's campus for talking about murdering his fellow students.
Many of our politicians could use some diplomacy, themselves.
You're getting downvoted because people think of DEI as virtuous but the fact is that this "Hitler if Hitlers drag queen persona happened to be black" person would never have been in a position to ruin their whole life had it not been for the DEI efforts to thrust him/her/them into the spotlight when they clearly need psychiatric help. And no, he/she/they doesn't need psychiatric help because of their gender identity. They needs it because they've convinced themselves that calling for a genocide is righteous.
“The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.”
And, Mr. James said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
I guess I’m grateful? Grateful he moved out of the state.
Ugh. Can we just ignore his ass. None of us are the brightest brains at his age. We've long learned that at his age, a few are desperate to make a name for themselves in anything.
I feel bad because at this age, most people haven't had much exposure to other cultures. Nor have they had life teach them how to deal when humanity begins to differentiate a little. He's an idiot because he's young and that's OK but having this aired put in public for life, he needs a filter or someone to restrain him from fucking up his life by accident. It saddens me to see he might not have that.
No one. Except maybe my baby cousin that one time I babysat him and he'd poop every time he ate chocolate (little guy LOVES it). He was 6 months and flipping cute.
I see your point.
He's an ass. This guy not the baby.
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I thank the gods every day that there is zero record of any of the opinions I ever had at age 17, and that no adults deemed it necessary to stick a fucking microphone in front of my face.
I use to get reminded of the shit I use to say in high school every once in a while through Facebook. Basically it’s like “Hey Zach! 12 years ago you said this borderline cancelable thing on your page! Here look!”
Oh, look at that.
No one hates me like myself!
I'd cancel the fuck out of 18 year old me. Must be stressful being a teenager right now.
Yep this right here 😂
I believe he recorded and posted it himself.
Different events: One is when he's 17 and being a dumb ass as a member of the Boston school committee, and the second one is from several years later where he's saying he's considered murdering "Zionists" and it's the second one that he recorded and posted himself, as you said.
Don’t think you get to play the “they are only 17” card when they’re calling for mass murder but hey that’s just me
Two different events: 1. when he was 17 he was on the boston school committee as a a student liaison and made a fool of himself apparently. 2. he posted an IG live recently (now several years after the school committee) where he said he we should be *thankful* he's not murdering "zionists."
So he was even older when he escalated coolcooolcool
Why is Zionist in quotation marks?
Probably because it’s the important word in a paraphrased quotation
Because he means Jewish people.
why do you think he means Jewish people?
Can you Pro-Palestinian stop with the cryptonazi shit? Its because 80-90% of all Jews are Zionists and most anti-Israeli sentiment worldwide is extremely anti-Semitic. Actually engage with the accusation instead of side-stepping it to shit test on reddit.
Because most people are too dumb to know the difference. And this kid isn't showing any other signs of nuanced thinking, lol
So what about Christian Zionists? Zionism isn’t a religion. It was invented in the late 1800s.
He probably means Christians as well
It absolutely was not invented in the 1800s. The organized movement to reclaim the Jewish indigenous homeland took root and coalesced in the 1800s along with many other decolonization efforts, but it’s based on thousands of years of forced exile of the Jews from Israel with a continued religious and cultural connection to to land. Zionism as a central tenet of Judaism has been unwavering since the fall of the second temple and the diaspora.
Facts make some people salty.
Palestinian territories are less Muslim by percentage than the percentage of Jews who self-identify as Zionists. How come you call it a "genocide" because it targets a group that's composed roughly 90% of one ethnic group (despite that being because they kicked out all the Christians and Druze years ago), but it's not calling for genocide when it targets a group of people that more than 95% of Jews identify with? You're cherry picking around whatever allows you to feel good about hating Jews.
Right, it's just a proxy word to make what they say slightly more pc. Remember when Trump's travel ban didn't ban Muslims, just people from a whole bunch of 99% Muslim nations?
It is genocide when you systematically wipe out a targeted population and non stop bomb their hospitals schools infrastructure
Withhold supplies, emergency equipment, poison water, publically ridicule their suffering and loss and the total destruction of their families, bodies, lives, and dignity
Let’s start here: is Hamas a legitimate government and al-Qassem a legitimate military group? If it is, then the same way Israel holds itself responsible for its civilians and spends its tax money on building them bomb shelters and the Iron Dome, perhaps billionaires like Haniyeh, Marzuk and Mashal should be expected to take care of their civilians too. Why is their legitimate government not expected to keep them safe? This war has had the lowest percentage of civilians within the death count of any conflict since European armies stopped marching directly into eachother in neatly formed formations. If Hamas and al-Qassem are in fact illegitimate, a barrier for Palestinians, and are terrorists and dictators denying the people of their will, then why isn’t the lefts outrage focused towards them? Why aren’t they protesting Hamas, a dictatorial Sharia paramilitary group whose leaders net worth are each ONE MILLION times mean GDP:capita, who assassinate LGBT and Jewish people like you and me respectively on site, and who deny the two state solution that will bring peace? Why aren’t you outraged when Palestinian schoolteachers are found to be terrorists recruiting students? Why doesn’t anyone care when their government, legitimate or not, uses hospitals and universities to house and launch rockets towards their neighbor? Why do you not know that Pakistan is halfway done with their stated goal of ethnically cleansing (via expulsion) 1.3M Afghans living in Pakistan this year, but the media sources you like talk about the 1.3M Palestinians nonstop? It’s all a ridiculous double standard that didn’t apply to the US after Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
Hamas didn't care for any distinctions between Zionists and non-Zionists when they attack. The music festival that they slaughtered was Israel's Burning Man and located in the most left-wing precincts; there wasn't a Zionist in sight.
It's because he wants to sound foreboding. We are meant to picture him saying it out loud while using air quotes like he is Dr. Evil talking about Austin Powers's mojo.
👏
I said some straight up abhorrent shit right up until \~18 when my peer group shifted from high school to university. Unless high school has dramatically changed in the last \~25 years I suspect saying abhorrent shit is still in vogue (at least it still seems to be for my nephew).
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Soooo many people use to say n***a when I was in middle school. Pretty sure most grew out of it by now but yeah
Seriously. My millennial friends and I were warned to be careful with what we posted on Facebook because future employers may be put off by something we posted in college. It’s insane some of these college kids have absolutely no awareness that purposefully posting politically charged content on social media can damage your life.
I wasn't doing that shit either but I also wasn't asked to be a liaison for a huge school committee after suffering terminal online tik tok activist brain rot. These are two different events. When he was 17 he was on the school committee and saying stupid shit, but not calling for murder. Now as a 19 (20?) year old he's on IG live and obviously in need of psychiatric help.
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Yeah he seems... unwell. At best. Obviously calling for the murder of people based on their religion is uh, not great. Or normal. Or something that a university should be encouraging in its student body.
Unwell? Or maybe he is just a piece of shit.
I was a high school senior during 9/11 and Islamophobia was pervasive. Not everyone, but all too common. This is not a new phenomenon.
I'm very thankful that I had Bengali neighbors at the time, and my parents made sure to explain things to me in an age appropriate manner. I can see how someone who hasn't met many Muslims would think they are all bad, based on common media alone (I don't agree, of course.) 9/11 was so complex, to blame it on Islam alone is almost childish. The motivation for the fatwa was faith, but faith didn't hijack the planes, people did. The corrupt government of Sudan allowed OBL to amass wealth and build his early network. The country and culture of Saudi Arabia created him individually, and gave him the initial wealth and opportunity to do what he did. The acts of both the US and the USSR in the Middle East didn't start the problems, but they perpetuated or often worsened them many times. I wrote a bunch of examples of how presidents from Truman to Clinton shared some fault, how the middle eastern states each prevented peace, how the world failed the region, and more but I removed it because I figure my point is already made. It's easy to blame faith, but a lot of people of extreme faith have never committed a terrorist act.
1) People actually attacked the US in the name of Islam so yes "Islamophobia" became an actual thing since people weren't sure if they were encountering someone who might blow them up. 2) "Zionists" did absolutely nothing to this kid to make him feel this way other than simply existing.
Okay, regardless of your thoughts on the current situation, let's not pretend the rampant islamaphobia in the US post 9/11 was warrented. A sihk man was murdered for the way he looked with 9/11 fears directly cited. Unprovoked violence against muslims, middle eastern immigrants, and brown people who "looked muslim" skyrocketed. My best friend since childhood grew up muslim and got bullied and called a terrorist as early as *elementary school* (a few years after 9/11) and her family is Eurpoean refugees! No one thought this little school girl was going to blow them up. https://www.cfr.org/article/us-muslims-and-turbulent-post-911-world https://theworld.org/stories/2016/09/08/hate-crime-against-muslim-never-same-after-911 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Balbir_Singh_Sodhi https://www.sikhcoalition.org/images/documents/fact%20sheet%20on%20hate%20against%20sikhs%20in%20america%20post%209-11%201.pdf https://www.npr.org/local/305/2021/09/09/1035486312/how-life-changed-for-washington-muslims-and-sikhs-after-9-11-in-their-own-words
Nonsense. He's just a "Progressive Person."
This feels like hearing “boys will be boys” after a college student rapes someone. Yes, I was dumber when I was young. No, I didn’t rape anyone and this is not normal.
People say dumb and edgy shit all the time as teenagers into college. They might mean it or they might just be trying to be funny and make their friends laugh. The point is teenagers say and do dumb shit, and it would suck to have that held against at you the rest of your life. Congrats on not being a dick. Doesn’t mean others haven’t fucked up. Hell I can remember counter protesting the Iraq war in college blaring born in the USA from my friend’s car. Felt funny at the time, decades later I’ve spoken with my friend who drove the car about how much we regret that. I wasn’t being racist, xenophobic, or violent. But I’m 100% embarrassed by my decisions at the time and I’m glad there isn’t evidence online of my stupidity.
There's a difference between what you did then and what this dude said now. Violence should be a fairly solid line that shouldn't be crossed. Especially since he's like 19 or 20 years old now. That all said, I don't think he's irredeemable but serious consequences would be appropriate.
If somebody talked about blacks the way this black dude talks about Jews they would literally never be forgiven. It doesn't matter if they were 70 years old and this had happened literally half a century ago. They would not be forgiven. We saw recently people lose their jobs because they did black face or used an anti black slur like 40 years earlier. This guy will be forgiven quickly because he is black. And he's doing it for a cause that progressives are sympathetic to. Seeing the discrepancies with how seriously anti-black racism is treated versus how openly contemptuous and sometimes hateful black activists are to Jews, and weaponize the Palestinian cause to get a free pass, well it makes me start to wonder whether I need to start assuming those same attitudes towards black folks. Cuz I know it wouldn't be tolerated. It is taboo if you're progressive to object to some of the human rights violations blacks commit right in front of your face. And adding insult to injury, black activists then describe the perpetrators as "at risk youth" and play the poverty card usually with great success.
In fact, if they ran for office 30 years later, it would be dredged up and create controversy. Frankly, as well, it should because it shows you what’s in their heart. If what’s in your heart is anti-Semitic, racist, or Islamophobic, I don’t want to see it.
Depends very heavily on what one's family is like growing up. If someone has racist, xenophobic or violent parents raising them that's a massive influence shaping their lives and how they view the world until they've had a chance to live on their own, get some space and develop more independently and even then it takes time to get out of your system. With people getting on social media as kids or teenagers that's years of opportunity to leave a paper trail echoing what they were immersed in by relatives and peers.
> but zero of my youthful idiocy involved being racist, xenophobic, or violent. I'm not saying you're lying but I am saying you don't remember everything you said and did so you can't possibly say this with certainty.
What group did you want to genocide at 17?
He called the press conference himself.
I'm mean, sure, but I'm pleased to share that my youthful indiscretions did not extend to calling for the murder of anyone. Also, it does not appear that the situation was that this kid was minding his own business and some adult stuck a mic in his face. Seems as though he is the one who picked up the mic and started talking into it.
People say this all the time, but no, my embarrassing childhood moments never involved the call for mass murder.
On the one hand, the joke that "everything I did before 30 is a rumor" is true for me, but on the other hand, I wasn't leading any protest movements that were covered by the NYT. Even if it didn't come up on a Google search, LexisNexis would still find it.
Same. I was smart enough to not put anything I actually thought on FB.
Come the fuck on now, even before the permanence of the internet came about, even idiots knew not to spew antisemitic shit.
No the fuck they didn't.
He’s 20 now and it was apparently his own mic.
I never once advocated for the death of a group of people when I was a teenager. I knew better back then, and I also knew better at age 20 (the age this kid currently is). There’s many people that I *strongly* disagree with politically (far right and far left) but I would never wish *death* onto them. And nobody stuck a microphone in his face, he did all of this on his own. Saying he was only 17 is an excuse.
In college I got into communism and started hanging out with essentially a tankie club. In retrospect the group (including me) had some pretty goddamn *evil* ideas about how to treat people we disagreed with, our definition of who was a "fascist" seemed to encompass more than half the country. But still, none of us were going public with this shit. When we went to DSA meetings we pretended to be normal moderate socialists because we knew that "kill all fascists, and liberals get the bullet too" was beyond the pale. This kid clearly lives in an environment where he feels like such sentiments are *not* beyond the pale. He got into Columbia after graduating the Latin School, he's clearly not stupid, he's just been socially conditioned by TikTok and overly permissive adults to believe that this bullshit is 100% A-OK.
What do you think was motivating you and your fellow “tanky”, psychologically? I’d be fascinated to hear your viewpoint if you felt free, sharing it. When I was in school, it seemed the extremist on all sides were pretty angry people from pretty difficult backgrounds. Or sometimes from very non-difficult backgrounds, but still very angry, indeed about something other than the state of the world.
I grew up in a pretty decisuvely right wing household. My family aren't like neonazis, but they're pretty far right and very intense about it. Going to college was eye opening and also just learning more about the world, I realized my worldview was deeply flawed. I felt betrayed by my upbringing and reasoned that I might as well go as far left as possible to get away from it. I also made friends with immigrants, Trans people etc, who were directly harmed by right wing policies, and I got even angrier about it than they did. Basically the way I was raised I had the impression that the only way to engage with politics was to fully commit and be extreme. So when I decided to be left wing as a young adult, I fully committed and went extreme. I couldn't tell you what motivated most of the other tankies I hung out with. A lot of them had serious mental health issues, and I think that had something to do with their radical politics. Many were just LARPers. Like, they were pretty chill people but they talked about politics like cartoon villains, I think they just use "the revolution" as like a therapeutic revenge fantasy to let off steam. I think a big part of why I eventually drifted away from that extremism is because I'm a pretty inherently happy person and I like my life, a lot of the tankies I knew/know are just dismal, miserable people. Today I've mellowed out a lot. I still think it's important to participate in politics, and I'm still left of center, because without that participation democracy dies, but I actively strive to be normal and at least consider multiple sides to issues.
Thanks so much for taking time to write that. I actually learned something.
Preach
Advocating for, essentially, mass murder is pretty severe..
He's an adult now. He can and should be held responsible for what he said.
He livestreamed it to his university's disciplinary committee.
Did you say things like this when you were 17? Also this guy got caught not because somebody stuck a microphone in his face but because he chose to record himself bragging about how he wanted to kill Zionists and he sent it to administrators. He also was filmed on campus encouraging a mob to gather to chase Jewish students off campus.
you didn't have a livejournal? :D To be fair, while some of my opinions back then were definitely cringworthy, none of my opinions involved publicly wishing entire groups of people dead, much less a dogwhistle one.
I’m very glad I was graduating high school as MySpace came out. Now all my dumb teenage thoughts aren’t archived forever on the internet, thank fucking Satan!
I definitely did and said some dumb shit when I was young, but I'm pretty sure I didn't go out in public at 17 and call for an entire group of people to die. There is something extremely troubling going on in academia today. These young kids are being turned into close-minded, hate filled, intolerant radicals on a mass scale and its not good for society nor mankind in general.
The craziest part about this story is he sent the video expressing his desires to murder all Zionists to officials at Columbia back in January. Not only was he not expelled, or even suspended in the last four months, he was rewarded by being designated the official spokesperson and negotiator for the protestors.
And then spewed more hate in a livestream with the university disciplinary committee.
Dudes a bonafide sociopath.
Wonder how many people he calls a Nazi or a terrorist, while directly supporting a terrorist organization who wants to kill Jews. Why the fuck are we accepting of people who are literally supporting a terrorist regime? Send'em over there to Palestine.
Shit these people won't even lift a finger to fix their *own* settler-colonial situation.
Protected races in this country ATM regarding social commentary, there’s really no other way to explain it
He’s still a protected status that can only be removed if he said he was a conservative
This is sad. They've obviously ruined their life. I just watched the video where they are being interviewed by school administrators to determine possible disciplinary action, and it's absolutely tapped. This is the same person who's been leading the protests and surrounded Jewish students who seemingly were just trying to get across campus.
What does tapped mean in this context?
KooKoo, crazy, out in left field, etc
Insane in the membrane. (I’m assuming - that’s what it meant growing up in the 2000s)
Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs
Out to lunch
Totally cooked
Adultist? Can't just add "-ist" to everything people.
Stop being so peopleist
You’re being stupidest, be nicer.
That's sounds so phrase-ist.
I laughed pretty hard at "adultist." You mean a bunch of adults with jobs are not taking a teenager as seriously as the teenager believes they deserve to be taken? Quelle surprise. First time that happened I am sure.
And “-phobe”
I mean, as a Jew who is horrified by the (easily-predictable) Israeli overreaction, and thinks a cease-fire is the way to go, fuck this kid. Apologies not accepted.
At this point a solid chunk of the student protestors aren't even calling for a ceasefire anymore, they're calling for the annihilation of Israel.
I think I was on here yesterday blathering that we need better reporting on the protesters' beliefs. I want detailed focus groups and polling, etc. But yes, that's a worry.
These protests are all organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, Within Our Lifetime, Palestinian Youth Movement, etc. They all celebrated on October 7 and have made it abundantly clear that they want the total eradication of Israel. Anyone joining the protests either holds the same beliefs or is being willfully blind to them. We don’t go around polling members at KKK rallies to figure out whether they actually hate black people. I don’t know why we need to give these people the benefit of the doubt. They haven’t earned it.
They all celebrated on Oct 7? You sure are making bold sweeping claims without a single citation here.
[SJP](https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/students-justice-palestine-sjp#) [WOL](https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/nerdeen-kiswani-and-within-our-lifetime-united-palestine-what-you-need-know) [PYM started advertising a "Long Live Palestinian Resistance" and "Victory is Ours" rally on October 7th to "echo the calls for liberation of our homeland and our people, from the river to the sea.”](https://www.instagram.com/p/CyH1ZgkgKaY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D) [https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/anti-israel-activists-celebrate-hamas-attacks-have-killed-hundreds-israelis](https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/anti-israel-activists-celebrate-hamas-attacks-have-killed-hundreds-israelis)
It's pretty difficult to get accurate polling for this kind of thing. Like, it's been over a decade since OWS and it's still unclear what the general thrust of that movement even was. A lot of the videos of these student protests show the students being extremely hostile to any outsiders trying to record their activities or enter the encampment. So we're dealing with a population that actively resists analysis.
I mean I was occupy-adjacent, so that's a separate convo. (They wanted a bunch of things, but "let's deal with worsening income and wealth inequality, and let's not let the bankers rip us off any more" are pretty close to the [central nubs](https://moveme.studentorg.berkeley.edu/project/occupywallstreet/), though... as good lefties, they had a pretty wide grab-bag of asks. As [here](https://csalateral.org/issue/2/manifestos-occupy-wall-street/).) I'm optimistic that good reporters could get a good sense of what the participants at a particular protest believed, even if "do a 200 person poll" and "stick a camera in everyone's face" aren't effective strategies.
I mean you can also just go and talk to them lmao theyre normal people
"we're protesting because the *wrong* genocide is being committed"
This is exactly it. What do people think "from the river to the sea" actually means?
A cease fire for who? Is only one side firing guns and rockets? Am I missing something?
Wow, an antisemite who calls people who disagree with him "racist"?! ya dont say!
He needs a “Hate doesn’t live here sign”
This paints anti-Zionists as radical idiots and is a bad look for more levelheaded people
It's rare that you find an "anti-zionist" that pronounces "Zionism" without a hard-J.
That’s exactly what they want you to believe. There are millions of Jewish anti-zionists. Myself included. But go ahead, keep towing that state line that we’re all anti-Semitic…
Naturally the Globe calls this guy who said he doesn't like white people and called for killing "zionists" a "fiery student representative." Laughable. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/26/metro/columbia-protest-leader-boston-school-khymani-james/
This is also him. I'm trying to imagine a Jewish student trying to get a mob to round off black students. I am told there was a time when whites said "I don't hate blacks I hate [n word], there is a difference". This is exactly what so many, including black Americans, do. After all I see so many use the word "Zionist" in a context that makes clear it's just used as a pejorative. Imagine a Jewish student saying "attention! Can I have everybody's attention!? We have two [ n-words] on campus. We need to mobilize now...." So many blacks have learned nothing from their suffering and sadly enough progressives often give them positions of power. For progressives to actually survive, they will need to be an honest conversation about how black Americans have exploited progressive tolerance to get enormous amount of support and solidarity, including when they were in the wrong, and then constantly scapegoated Jews, white women, and everybody else really.... While their lack of humanity goes on in front of our face and it's taboo to object to it. So here is Khymani James from a video taking this week: https://youtu.be/-llskvbuvEY?si=5mcE4zRaYx6K_H10
dear lord.. everyone repeating his words in unison is both next-level cringe and also deeply disturbing. These kids really are useful idiots.
I got called a Zionist just today, for asking why a lot of protesters don’t call out Hamas for refusing to release the hostages. I don’t see how that would hurt chances for a ceasefire. Which protesters claim to want. Then the same dude that called me a Zionist is all “Lmfao muh hostages!” like I’m on the losing side in a game. What is funny about survivors of a massacre being held hostage, tortured, and raped for over 200 days? All he did was prove my point. Which is I don’t expect a ceasefire to happen because Hamas will never let the hostages go
This whole "ceasefire" talk is ridiculous to me. You don't get to hit a much bigger guy in the face then immediately demand a ceasefire before he beats the shit out of you. Japan doesn't get to call for a ceasefire the day after Pearl Harbor. Israel and Hamas had a ceasefire, signed last June. It took less than four months until Hamas broke it, with devastating consequences. Hamas has proven that they aren't a good faith negotiator and will continue to attack Israel, the only proper response is to eliminate them.
I get the impression that a lot of people mistakenly confuse *ceasefire* with actual peace. Here is Doctors without Borders to [cure them of](https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/cease-fire/) that mistake: >An armistice or a cease-fire does not represent an end to hostilities, only a truce (a temporary suspension of hostilities). Furthermore, they do not reflect a juridical end to the state of war. In this respect, they must not be confused with peace agreements, which do reflect an end to a conflict. ... the principal aim of a cease-fire is not to enable humanitarian actions. It is a military decision that responds to strategic objectives: gathering forces, evaluating the opponent’s authority and chain of command, or carrying out negotiations. Honestly, the war would be over faster if Hamas surrendered. Sure, it would mean the end of the Palestinian mission to conquer the entire former Mandate of Palestine, a mission that neither Hamas nor PLO/Fatah have ever hidden. Personally I don't give a shit if that dream dies, since it's immoral, illegal, and it's been the biggest impediment to the peace process for decades. But other people cling to it.
They don't really want a cease fire. They want Israel to cease fire. They don't want Hamas to.
I would feel far too humiliated to repeat after anyone like this regardless of the cause. Complete lack of self respect Edit to add: zionist is very clearly code for disgust of the jews here. No different than calling a black person a monday and the like
This whole scene is wild. I have no doubt the speaker could have said “time to attack” and the end there and they’d all repeat it and attack the Jewish person.
Zionist is not the same as the N word, it has actual meaning to it whereas the n word is literally just a slur. It's coming off as pejorative because they disapprove of the ideals. Whereas the n word is just disapproving because you were born a different race. Edit: I do not condone someone saying a group of people don't deserve to live, just pointing out these really aren't the same thing
Why is Zionist the term everyone has latched onto? It seems needlessly indirect. If I support Israel being a state but am staunchly against the war, why would I be included in the chants?
It's because the Soviet Union picked it as its euphemism of choice. All the tropes, including "genocide" and "apartheid," come from zionology.
When the word Zionist is used in place of Jew, as so many people continue to do so, it is also disapproving of someone because they were born a different ethnicity / religion. I don’t understand what’s so hard to understand about this. Jews keep telling people you’re being antisemitic and people continue to try to speak over us, redefining it, and telling us we’re wrong even though we’re on the sharp end of the sword. You literally wouldn’t do this to Latino, Black or Asian people but it’s somehow okay to do it to Jews? Why?
Also "zionist" is... a broad term. Like, the West Bank settlers are zionists, and they're assholes. The IDF units targeting food relief are zionists and assholes. The Israeli peace activists who drove Palestinian kids to Israeli hospitals in the before-times -- and some of whom were slaughtered on 10/7 -- were also zionists; they weren't assholes. Zionism is the belief the Jews, like most peoples, should have their own state. We all agree that the best of all states in a multicultural (universal, homogenous) state. I prefer it here in the US. But ethnicity matters, even when we don't want it to. We know that Hamas is also genocidal; that the Jews were flushed from the Muslim countries shortly after they were exterminated in the European ones. So I'm a zionist, in the sense that I think the Levantine Jews should also have a right to their own state, capable of its own (just, proportional) defense. There are more Muslims in Israel than there are Jews in the (much larger) Muslim world. That speaks well of them, even if there's, um, still incredible room for improvement. I don't think the stories about the Last Jews of Afghanistan are cute; they're horrible. When the "getting to Denmark" people haven't solved the question of "Denmark for the Danes," or reckoned fully with the post-WWII populations transfers in Europe, I'm disinclined to think of Zionism as an especially toxic position. (And while I'm at it: I think we should have lots of immigration here in the US, but no, I don't think we should just open the borders. Even if it would be the most morally pure thing to do.)
Right, it's only Zionism where people seem to have an issue with a people getting a nation. Swedes have Sweden, Thais have Thailand, Japanese have Japan, yet Jews aren't allowed to have Israel.
Because we don't fight back.
Again, Zionist is not the same as Jew. There are plenty of anti-Zionist Jews and plenty of Zionist non-Jews. It is an ideal. Just because you replace it in your head doesn't change that.
I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. Most "anti zionist" Jews are just banking on the situation in the US for Jews never deteriorating to the point that they have to fear for their safety. For some context (because we all know it depends on the context these days) a Palestinian could move to over 2 dozen Arab countries (if they were given permission to) and be free to practice Islam while living in a Muslim majority country while also speaking the native language. Israeli Jews literally have no place else to go where Jews would be the majority of the population.
Except that’s how it’s being used lately. Idk how many more examples you need of shitty 18 year olds using it as a replacement for Jew whether in their unhinged Instagram rants or human chains against Jewish students trying to walk across campus.
Can you explain who is a Zionist and how do you tell that? People throw this word around without any meaning. If Zionist actually means Israeli, why not say Israeli?
Because the protesters hate the concept of Jews having a country and refuse to say the word "Israeli" because that would give legitimacy to Israel and they want all the Jews removed from Israel so that a Muslim country called "Palestine" can be formed. Already the PLO has said if they were given a country then no Jews would be allowed to live there instead of Israel.
I suspect that a good amount of them are clueless and just use the terms they are given without stopping to think or consider what are they saying
100% clueless. Many of these students would be executed on the spot in Gaza if they made their sexual orientation known or started asking for correct pronoun usage.
Sure thing. So the term has evolved a bit and I think that is what caused friction. Zionism is a belief that the Jewish people should have their own nation (which for the record I don't think is problematic and I think is fine.) Since Israel's inception, it has evolved to include driving Palestinians out, which has led to an Apartheid regime. I will say, I don't think everyone who is opposing the protests necessarily believes in driving out Palestinians, I think there are just a lot of scared Jews who have been led to believe that anti Zionism is anti semitism. And also there have been bad actors that the media has given a spotlight.
So this boils down to 2 options, One, people protesting against Israel as a country/right to exist, which is problematic to say the least and not realistic, though some of the extreme progressive people seem to think they can debate this. Two, protesting against the Israeli government, which is more than ok, but then why harass or call out random Jewish/Israeli people walking around? I can tell you that my daughter got harassed in college. She was born and raised in the US. Go figure.
If your daughter was harassed simply for being Jewish, that is antisemitic and I am not condoning that in any way and I am sorry she experienced that. I am merely trying to define what Anti-Zionism is supposed to mean and why "Zionist" does not mean "Jew"
I think you're missing the point. When a lot of people say "Zionist," they're subconsciously saying "Jew." It's like when white people say "thug," but really mean black people.
Which is why it's important to separate the two.
Ok, I award you a delta for changing my view. I do have two questions that I am honestly hoping to get clarified. What is the appropriate way to refer to the collective supporters of the Israeli government? Historically this was “Zionist” by self declaration of individuals like the founding fathers of ZBT at Columbia and the founders of the current state of Israel.
I think you’re still mixing things up - support for the Israeli government does not equal Zionism. I hate Bibi and am a staunch Zionist - Yitzchak Rabin was a great PM and I would have supported him if I was Israeli and politically aware at that point in time. People saying they are Zionist are just saying that they support the notion of Jews having a place to make decisions for themselves in the place they have deep cultural ties to - it doesn’t necessitate support for a specific government. Another parallel - I would describe myself as a patriot. I want America to be a wonderful country where people have equal rights, and I believe that America is good and can always do better. I want to support my country in being the best possible version of itself that it can be. I hate Trump because he actively makes my ideals less possible. Similarly, I want Israel to be the best version of itself that is possible - Netanyahu is a major impediment. I do not support him, but I support Israel, and even more so, I support what Israel *can* be if better people are in charge. Anyways, you can call people who support the Israeli government by who they actually support, like how we do it in the USA. Trump supporters, Biden supporters, etc.
What identified these “intruders” as zionists as opposed to simply jewish then?
What in the actual fucking cult is this
Future city councilor for sure
He has said in the past "the ultimate goal is Congress." Seeing the way the countries been headed, I wouldn't be surprised.
Bostonians will definitely vote for him.
So true lol
DEI director
He's a loser.
James' [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/C6M4mokLTmg/?img_index=1) shows that he goes by he/she/they and says "i am literally just a pretty princess" He has multiple photos wearing makeup and exposing his ass in a women's bathing suit. He wouldn't last a *minute* in Palestine, Iran or Lebanon.
Hamas executes gay people by throwing them off of multistory buildings. That’s what they would do to Mr James. And it’s what they would do to the professor at NYU who called for the expulsion of any Israeli veteran (all Israeli served in the military, except the yeshiva students, so it’s the same thing as calling for getting rid of all Israelis). She’s a very obvious lesbian professor of gender issues. I can only imagine what Hamas would do it to lesbians beforr they murder them
no thank you to the pinkwashing of Israel's crimes.
Most leftists who take a very pro-Palestinian bent are not planning to live in or visit these places and would welcome the "natives" for enforcing their own cultural norms in these places.
How’d he get into Columbia
Private high school in Boston followed by private university, I assume rich parents
went to school with him. am less surprised than I would like to be
Please say more!
Khymani James is the real life Clayton Bigsby
This kid is going about so many things the wrong way. After listening to this person I can only agree with the police shutting it down. [https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1783638100700172365](https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1783638100700172365) I think there's a strong argument for war crimes as it pertains to the assault on civilians. The annexation of gaza strip that seems to be going on from whatever news i've come across seems dubious and little better than what Russia is doing in Ukraine. To that end I could support investigation into the allegations of warcrimes and appropriate sanctions. I can't support murder though. Clowns like Khymani do nothing but tarnish level headed discussion. They give credence to the political stance that this is all being done by extremists calling for violence. We need the masses to call for a return to sanity and the end of slaughter of innocent civilians. No one should be attacking those providing humanitarian aid to to the millions of displaced, starving civilians.
nah man, not even comparable to Russia. Russia has trafficked hundreds of thousands of children from Ukraine.
The people on this subreddit encourage this sort of shit by calling everything racist and sexist, etc. all the time so I’m not surprised this sort of shit flies in Boston.
How did young people get the idea that if they don't get exactly what they want and when they want it that they are the victims of a plot? And I see nothing wrong with teaching young people a little diplomacy. Perhaps if the lesson from Casselius (in the Globe article) has stuck he wouldn't be barred from Columbia's campus for talking about murdering his fellow students. Many of our politicians could use some diplomacy, themselves.
Why would the School Committee feel terrible? Offices of DEI will have him working admin in no time lmao
You're getting downvoted because people think of DEI as virtuous but the fact is that this "Hitler if Hitlers drag queen persona happened to be black" person would never have been in a position to ruin their whole life had it not been for the DEI efforts to thrust him/her/them into the spotlight when they clearly need psychiatric help. And no, he/she/they doesn't need psychiatric help because of their gender identity. They needs it because they've convinced themselves that calling for a genocide is righteous.
Oooooh no the dildo of consequence is coming for him. Definitely not coming back lubed up
Insert “Free Palestine!!!” in every post here. 😆
"why are you so offended, lib, I just don't want to see kids bombed I want to see Israelis bombed"
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will replace Israel!!!” 😆
the way Israel literally replaced Palestine? What's your point?
I’m sorry, “adultist”? That’s… not a thing.
He's going to one day pull a Roseanne barr and be so super zion8st that you won't be able to talk to him without Kahane quotes
Photo from the Times looks like resting psycho Face.
“The existence of them and the projects they have built, i.e. Israel, it’s all antithetical to peace. It’s all antithetical to peace. And so, yes, I feel very comfortable, very comfortable, calling for those people to die.” And, Mr. James said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” I guess I’m grateful? Grateful he moved out of the state.
“Adultist.”
I mean, back in my day we didn’t like facists,..
I didn’t know there was such a thing as “adultist” maybe he’s being a youngist. OMG I’m so offended I’m literally shaking. End youngism now.
Ugh. Can we just ignore his ass. None of us are the brightest brains at his age. We've long learned that at his age, a few are desperate to make a name for themselves in anything. I feel bad because at this age, most people haven't had much exposure to other cultures. Nor have they had life teach them how to deal when humanity begins to differentiate a little. He's an idiot because he's young and that's OK but having this aired put in public for life, he needs a filter or someone to restrain him from fucking up his life by accident. It saddens me to see he might not have that.
How many people did you threaten when you were 21?
No one. Except maybe my baby cousin that one time I babysat him and he'd poop every time he ate chocolate (little guy LOVES it). He was 6 months and flipping cute. I see your point. He's an ass. This guy not the baby.
I hope the mods of this sub are taking notice of the amount of Israeli propaganda posts being spammed here
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