Denial of civil liberties, accompanied by punishment for anybody who exposes those violations, has become commonplace in contemporary America.
Yet, nothing that the nation has experienced — and that the more discerning protest — prepared us for the grotesque spectacle on display in the brutal suppression of free speech on university campuses.
What we witness is the iron fist of autocracy employed to intimidate, to hurt, to deter those who would question — however peaceably — the right of the powers-that-be to impose their confected version of the truth on the public. Moreover, it is grounded on an arbitrary assumption of power having no basis in law or customary practice.
Two singular features of this situation focus our attention. First, there is the stunning near unanimity of agreement by all segments of society’s elites on the rightness of the ruling narrative — and on the actions they take to enforce it.
That is to say:
1) casting the issue as the dangerous radicalization of students by nefarious forces;
2) smearing demonstrators as “anti-Semites” — despite the large numbers of Jewish participants;
3) blanking out any reference to the cause and motivations of the protest: Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians; and
4) the need to crack down hard on these seditious students — physically by rioting police, and administratively by summary expulsions and suspensions without a semblance of due process.
These assertions emanate from the mouths of elected officials, police commissioners, media personalities, pundits and — most distressing — university presidents as well as boards of regents and trustees.
Hellbound and Down 