The intifada has come to Boston.
Lost in the national news out of Columbia and Yale were the raucous protests at Emerson College and Harvard that resulted in injured cops and more than 100 arrests. The defiance of protesters against police and their fellow students is part of a wider trend that signals the beginning of the end of the overpriced, elite university system in the United States.
While what’s happening at Columbia, NYU, and Harvard are all disturbing, the reckless nature of the student protesters and weak-kneed response from Emerson, my alma mater, is especially unsettling. Following days of its student body defiantly blocking public areas and intimidating Jewish students, Emerson’s president Jay Bernhardt said in a statement the college will not bring disciplinary action against lawbreaking students and will urge prosecutors to drop all charges against those arrested. Hilariously, Emerson’s own student government responded to Bernhardt’s statement by demanding his resignation and whining that his statement failed to “acknowledge the damage” the arrests had… on the lawbreaking students.
What parents would take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to send their kids to colleges like Emerson where the education is often subpar, and the student bodies have become mobs of radicalized, militant nihilists? Increasingly, many wouldn’t. This school year saw the biggest plunge in college enrollment nationwide ever recorded.
This should come as no surprise, and enrollment figures at overpriced “elite” colleges will likely continue to drop like a rock. The reckless actions by students and weakness shown by college administrators around the country in recent weeks shine a bright light on the serious decline of our modern educational system.
It’s not just that the protesters are dumb…and they are. They are also dangerous. There have been violent attacks against police and clear intimidation efforts against Jewish students reminiscent of Nazi stormtroopers. The flirting with jihadist groups on our nation’s elite campuses is only growing and more open than ever. At Princeton, a protester flew the Hezbollah flag. Hezbollah, when it is not firing rockets at Israeli civilians, is best known for the 1983 Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 Americans.
Student protesters at the University of Wisconsin allegedly shouted “Heil Hitler” at Jewish students from their illegal encampment. At Columbia, a masked woman held up a sign calling for Hamas’ military wing to attack pro-Israel protesters. A speaker at George Washington University called for an “intifada revolution” and a “socialist reconstruction” of the United States.
Protesters at Harvard tore down the Stars and Stripes to replace it with the Palestinian flag. Another student was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag. The student encampment was assaulted by the greatest force yet used — lawn sprinklers.
The protests appear to expose two of the worst assumptions about our Generation Z brethren. First, some students absolutely understand that “From the River to the Sea” truly means the extermination or expulsion of Jews from Israel. Second, many other clueless young people joined in on the chaos having close to no understanding of why they are protesting. They appear to just be along for the ride.
It’s hard to discern which is more concerning, the malice or the ignorance. The protests today, like the 2020 George Floyd riots, represent a core group of radical activists surrounded by large numbers of bored, coddled upper-middle and upper-class youth looking for some sense of meaning in their privileged lives. Young students who missed the window to burn down a pharmacy during the riots of four years ago can feel like they’re fighting racism and war in one fell swoop. You can sleep in a tent at night with your iPhone and drive home in your parents’ Audi while claiming to be standing up for the oppressed.
The fewer true responsibilities asked of young people, the more listless and radical they become.
These aren’t students protesting against being deployed to Vietnam. They’re not marching against the Ku Klux Klan. Groups such as “Queers for Palestine” are giving their efforts to jihadists who consider homosexuality a mortal crime. They’re also giving vital cover to the more radical socialist and Islamist members within the movement, parroting ignorant slogans that have real genocidal intent behind them.
Our nation’s top colleges are no longer welcoming to those who dare to question the left-wing narratives and latest protest activities du jour. Students who do not fully on board with the predominant liberal ideology must fall into line… or risk being silenced, bullied, and ostracized.
It is no wonder that colleges have seen a slow but steady decline in enrollment over the last decade. The downturn appears to be especially strong among young men, who are now outnumbered in four-year programs by a margin of almost 3-to-2. Many of these young men are turning to technical schools and less expensive, local two-year programs.
At the same time, the poison fruits of the DEI programs and special allowances for universities have come to roost. The result is an enormous echo chamber, buffeted by grade inflation, where students pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to take classes on Harry Potter or Taylor Swift or on the “Problem of Whiteness” in between protesting. Administrators have transformed their campuses into places where young people with the preferred political beliefs are allowed to live independent of consequences. It’s the true lesson being taught by many of the liberal arts at top schools. And it’s certainly the wrong one.
The student protesters seem to believe that this is their moment and the spirit of ‘68 crystalized. In many ways, it could be. After all, Richard Nixon was elected in large part due to protesters’ excesses. However, what may be the lasting legacy of the Hitler Youth tryouts with iPhones may simply be that it laid bare the comical debasement of our educational system.
Our higher education system is at a crossroads where it will either evolve or die. And watching the news coverage lately, that can’t happen fast enough.
Kristin Tate is a political columnist and author based in Massachusetts. Her latest book is “The Liberal Invasion of Red State America.” Follow her on X @KristinBTate.
