University & College encampments became a “home base” for “climate justice groups, labour activists, trade unionists, gay rights activists (and) socialists/Marxists.”
While there is no particular reason why such groups should be inherently against Israel — a state that has a strong labour movement, strict environmental regulations and affords more rights to LGBTQ individuals than any other country in the Middle East — the woke ideology of the modern left sees the world through a Marxist lens that views all conflicts as being between oppressors and the oppressed, colonizers and the colonized. And Israel has been branded as a colonialist oppressor state in the Marxist language.
These “outside agitators” were not created in a vacuum. They were churned out by a higher education system that has for years allowed facts and critical thinking to take a back seat to ideology and activism. Indeed, the report found that the encampment received “substantial support from faculty and staff, which contributed to its prolonged existence and the lack of significant consequences for participants.”
This was not merely pro-Palestinian activism, but blatant hatred targeted toward people with a specific religion, ethnicity and worldview. It is the type of speech that would surely not be tolerated by university administrators if any other minority group were being victimized.
Imagine, for a second, if similar levels of hatred were being experienced by Black or LGBTQ+ students. Would the administration still have refused to enforce its code of conduct, which prohibits “vexatious conduct” based on “race,” “ancestry” or “ethnic origin,” along with causing “another person or persons to fear for their safety”?
While there is no particular reason why such groups should be inherently against Israel — a state that has a strong labour movement, strict environmental regulations and affords more rights to LGBTQ individuals than any other country in the Middle East — the woke ideology of the modern left sees the world through a Marxist lens that views all conflicts as being between oppressors and the oppressed, colonizers and the colonized. And Israel has been branded as a colonialist oppressor state in the Marxist language.
These “outside agitators” were not created in a vacuum. They were churned out by a higher education system that has for years allowed facts and critical thinking to take a back seat to ideology and activism. Indeed, the report found that the encampment received “substantial support from faculty and staff, which contributed to its prolonged existence and the lack of significant consequences for participants.”
This was not merely pro-Palestinian activism, but blatant hatred targeted toward people with a specific religion, ethnicity and worldview. It is the type of speech that would surely not be tolerated by university administrators if any other minority group were being victimized.
Imagine, for a second, if similar levels of hatred were being experienced by Black or LGBTQ+ students. Would the administration still have refused to enforce its code of conduct, which prohibits “vexatious conduct” based on “race,” “ancestry” or “ethnic origin,” along with causing “another person or persons to fear for their safety”?
NP View: Our universities' ideology problem — National Post
As a new report on the University of Toronto encampment makes clear, woke ideology has allowed hatred to fester on campus
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