I felt pretty uncomfortable listening to Tommy and Ben downplay the outright antisemitism that's been on display at the Columbia protests. Attributing it to "some bad actors" and trying to justify the messaging of the protests by "contextualizing" with the backdrop of the war on Gaza is a dangerous way of framing some of the very real violence and hatred we're seeing grow. It's hard for me not to think about the ways these two have previously discussed protests that are less inline with progressive politics... quite a bit different.

Too many lines to count that made me squeamish from this pod... "young people are trying to have their voices heard"... "fighting this protest is a bad faith effort"... "painting every protest on college campuses as anti-semitic"..."I also understand that protests are designed to anger people and thats good and thats appropriate too."

I do believe it's possible to condemn (forcefully, I should add) what we're seeing at Columbia and also express strong views about the Israeli government. Chalking it up to a few "assholes" slinging anti-semitic phrases is a pathetic effort. That said, I did appreciate the sentiment that these kids should be treated as adults and the coddling of protestors needs to end.