By Allison Anton April 24, 2024 at 2:54pm
You would think that people spending so much time and energy protesting the supposed injustices of a war happening half a planet away would be able to answer some simple questions about why they were there to begin with.
But in the days of protesting Current Woke Obsession simply because all the cool kids are doing it, expecting decent answers to simple questions from protesters seems to be expecting too much.
Former Republican New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani shared a video on the social media platform X demonstrating this very phenomenon.
Folks from his venture, the Common Sense podcast, interviewed some of the college students at New York University protesting Israel’s actions in the Gaza war, wanting to know their reasons for participating in this demonstration.
????VIDEO: A REAL interview we had at NYU:
QUESTION: “Why are you protesting?”
PROTESTER #1: “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure there’s something about Israel [turns to other person] Why are we protesting?”
PROTESTER #2: “I wish I was more educated.”
PROTESTER #1: “I’m not either.” pic.twitter.com/8aB2ZoTCCk
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) April 24, 2024
The interviewer began by asking one young woman, “And what would you say is the main goal with tonight’s protest?”
The young woman answered vaguely, “I think the goal is just showing our support for Palestine, and demanding that NYU stops … I honestly don’t know all of what NYU is doing.”
Should colleges expel students who refuse to stop protesting against Israel?
Wait, what?
She was there protesting, possibly risking arrest, and she had no clear idea of why she was there, or why NYU needed to be protested against?
Unfortunately, it got worse. Much worse.
The interviewer asked, “Is there something that NYU’s doing?” to which the girl replied, “I really don’t know, I’m pretty sure they’re — do you know what NYU’s doing?” she asked someone standing next to her, pivoting to see if one of her friends could bail her out.
The friend, however, was of no use, asking first, “About what?” with the first girl answering, “About Israel, why are we protesting here?”
The girl’s friend then confessed her ignorance, responding, “I wish I was more educated.”
More educated?
These girls — or, more likely, their parents — have paid around $60,000 a year to send their daughters to these prestigious schools, and these girls readily admitted on camera that they weren’t educated?
The first girl then tried to save face by explaining she “came from Columbia” because “they said NYU students needed our support,” but at this point, there was no saving face.
In the sober words of Not the Bee, “Let us remind you this person can vote.”
She had just exposed herself and her friend as supporters of a cause, protesting it with all the righteous fury of Old Testament prophets, while having no idea of why, outside of a general notion of “Israel bad.”
Sad as it was to see college-educated women so ignorant of something apparently so important to them, it was not exactly surprising.
As NYPD law enforcement officials told the New York Post, in an article reporting on the lack of real consequences the NYU protesters have received, “They’ll keep getting arrested and go back out and keep doing the same thing because this is all a performative game for them.”
The operative word being “performative.”
These protesters have had no need of actual knowledge regarding a complex international crisis, because the purpose was never seriously understanding and changing international relations.
Instead, it was all about the appearance, the “performance” of righteousness afforded by these public protests.
It has been a way to claim virtue without actually doing anything challenging or concrete.
What was astonishing about this particular ignorant, incurious protester was that she admitted her absolute ignorance on the subject so readily.
She barely even seemed ashamed.
You would think that having to ask a friend at a protest, in front of a camera, “Why are we protesting?” would make her rethink her life choices.
And maybe she did later — however, knowing the toxically liberal culture of college campuses in general, and New York City in particular, probably not.
As the old saying goes, there are none so blind as those who will not see.
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Allison Anton dabbles in fiction, as well as commenting on depressing modern trends and media. She calls the metro Atlanta area home, and when she’s not writing, she’s creating a loving home for her amazing husband.
