In this week’s example of “I Can’t Believe What My Country Has Become,” we saw students at exorbitantly expensive universities compete for the title of most antisemitic campus.  These were once constructive pillars of education, but leftist ideology has had the same effect on these institutions that rat poison has on internal organs.  Columbia, NYU, Yale, MIT, and others have seen “Pro-Palestinian” protests recently devolve into anti-Jewish hate gatherings where Hamas-supporting chants can be heard.

The red line that protects free speech was emphatically crossed this week when Jewish students and professors were blocked from entry to campus, encouraged to stay home for their own safety, and even assaulted.  The administrators of these schools seem frightful and impotent as their idea of addressing the problem is offering remote learning to students under threat.  Biden himself has offered nothing, ostensibly terrified of losing the “Death to America and Israel” vote in the critical swing state of Michigan.

Virtue signaling through hatred is nothing new for the left.  For years, prominent Democrats have openly expressed their hatred for President Trump, going as far as saying they want to physically attack him or kill him.  They do this because they’ve been told again and again that Trump is Hitler, and there is a direct correlation between your degree of hatred for Trump and your morality. However, the basis for this week’s appalling behavior is the leftist tenet of collectivism, which teaches who each person is as an individual matters not, but his or her group identity is paramount. 

The simple-minded identity politics that has been preached in universities for decades and recently gave us the societal tumor known as DEI has finally escalated to its inevitable consequence of naked antisemitism. Students have been programmed to put people into groups and side with the group who is most oppressed.  To a quixotic teenager, that means the group who is poorest and has the darkest skin is automatically deserving of their support.  They have been told by their professors and the media that the murderous acts of October 7th were likely exaggerated and certainly justified. They have been told Israel’s military response is genocide.  Now they hate Israel.  Israel is Hitler.  In fact, a person’s morality could even be judged by how much they hate Israel. 

It therfore becomes critical to be associated with a group that demonstrates enough hate for Israel to endow moral superiority to its members.  This moral high ground can apparently be achieved through burning Israeli flags, donning Amazon-purchased Keffiyeh scarves, and banishing Jewish students and professors from campus.  None of the exiled individuals have anything to do with Israel’s actions in Gaza, of course, but collectivism has no time for such details.  If you’re in an oppressor group, they hate you and wish you harm.  Moreover, no self-respecting Marxist can afford to be seen not hating Israel right now, less their fellow collectivists question their commitment or their values.  In this caustic ideology, hate is an irreplaceable component of integrity.

This is why I will do my best to steer my children away from leftist/collectivist ideology.  It robs you of your identity as an individual.  It causes destructive and hateful tribalism.  It removes your personal responsibility to act like a human being.  Maybe worst of all, it is rooted in mob mentality and is therefore always escalating.  It is equally poisonous for institutions as it is for the soul. 

The parents of these Hamas fangirls apparently did not warn their children against collectivism.  Now they’re seeing the ugly results, a brainwashed mob of terrorist sympathizers who attempt to show virtue through hate.  To be clear, if you’re spending $89k/year on a school where your child romanticizes terrorism and chants,  “From the river to the sea,” you have failed as a parent.