Can't really think about anything but the shitshows on campuses and how they're being misrepresented, poorly reported, poorly processed by the public including people close to me, successfully manipulated by politicians and political groups, and misunderstood by most people. 1/x
At Slate we've tried to be fair, right, and useful, as ever. But it's hard to believe right now that any reporting, photo, audio, video, or testimony would convince anyone of anything they don't already believe right now. 2/x
Where people already stood before this moment seems to dictate whether anyone believes either that the protests and campus are full of antisemites, or that there are basically NO antisemitic things happening or being said. 3/x
What I hear and read on all sides, with some exceptions I'm grateful for for, is that any evidence contrary to what people WANT to believe is either propaganda by their political opponents, or a meaningless exception to the broader Antisemitic Or Not at All Antisemitic Reality. It sucks. 4/x
On the one hand, it's tempting to blame everyone and their shitty information literacy compared to members of the media. But this entire awful war and this moment in particular are a big indictment of journalism and media as a whole for me. 5/x
Many journalists have done admirable, brave, emotionally difficult work, trying to bring factual and moral clarity to what's happening. But a lot of journalists have been trigger happy, reductive, and not empathetic enough toward the real people involved. 6/x
A large number of us hold no opinion about the exact frequency of bigotry in these crowds, and just don’t think it matters very much — compared to our consciousness that we, as Americans , are accessories in the murder of tens of thousands of civilians. +
Here’s eliminationist rhetoric associated with American support for Ukraine. This is vastly worse than anything I heard at a campus rally for Gaza, where the worst thing I heard was a reference to the Jordan River and freedom that has been declared impermissible. But rhetoric is not the story, +
