Campus Anti-Israel / Pro-Gaza/Hamas Protests

I'm not exactly sure what's going on with these. I just want to mention that there's chatter on the non-left that seems to come dangerously close to suggesting that such protests should be suppressed. Much about some of these protests is reprehensible. But I haven't heard of anything yet that isn't protected speech. 

   Relatedly: there're a lot of suggestions that this may constitute a turning point with respect to the illiberal progressive left / identity politics / Wokeness. That is: that campus support for Gaza...which blurs into support for Hamas...reveals the true core of that movement, and, furthermore, that this is so ugly that it will finally convince fence-sitters and the silent majority to turn against the larger movement.

   Maybe.

   I'm not sure that's a very reasonable argument against the movement, as I'm not sure that support for Hamas really is integral to it. Perhaps we should be happy to use any weapon available against it at this point. I don't know. Of course I think that the movement is so crazy that there are plenty of very strong reasons to reject it. And I think the reasons for rejection matter. Though perhaps not as much as the rejection itself.

   At any rate, there have been a lot of assurances that we've passed peak woke, that the pendulum is swinging back, etc. I'm not sure of that, either. Certainly the opposition to it has got its boots on now. So that's worth a lot.

   My own suspicion is that this battle won't really end. The ideas that motivate political correctness / Woketarianism have proven to be powerful and dangerous. They have the ability to grip hearts and minds. I agree that, to some extent, Marxist ideas are at its core. And those have gripped much of the left for going on 200 years... I don't see that the battle against crackpottery of the extremist left will simply be won, any more than the battle against crackpottery on the extremist right will simply ever be won.