Jonathan Haidt, thanks for continuing to be a voice of reason in a mad world. We all have to do our part in whatever way possible to call out this madness each time we see it, or it will persist.
I'm almost as interested in the sealioning and the narcissistic self-regard of a couple of 'anti-Zionist' commenters in these replies. It's interesting that they aren't engaging with the piece, but trolling the people who reacted positively. There's been a lot of this leftishist slacktivism since the storm in a teacup over that handful of n*zis on Substack.
the real origin of the victim/oppressor dichotomy in the American academy is cultural anthropology which first inhaled the work of Fanon, Foucault and others. As America becomes much less white quickly, we need to see ALL of this as part of a real power struggle in our major institutions..because that's the struggle Fanon and Foucault were asking for...it's too easy to dismiss the simplistic nature of the dichotomy from a privileged intellectual viewpoint...there is a real power struggle ongoing that is not reducible to an intellectual or thought problem...
Oh I see, protesting against ethnic cleansing and indiscriminate killing of civilians is antisemitic. It's also antisemitic to read Israeli newspapers which report on what is being said by the highest levels of government (Netanyahu's disturbing comments about Amalek, etc), and very, very, very antisemitic to read the fairly unequivocal report that Israel is, in fact, indiscriminately killing Gazans on purpose using AI targeting by the Israeli outlet 972 Magazine:
Those Israelis are antisemitic and so is anyone who so much as reads the facts.
It's also antisemitic to point out that groups such as Jewish Voices for Peace are exactly that, Jewish, and are not antisemitic. They are antisemitic and so are those who think they aren't; Haidt is clearly a master of logic here because such twisted mind contortions couldn't be clearer.
It's antisemitic hatred to see view Israel as an occupying power under international law, and the slow ethnic cleansing they have been performing for decades is wrong. Man that is pure blind hate! And to say Palestinians actually have the legal right in international law to fight back against an occupying power, just like any other, whoa. Antisemitic hatred is exploding everywhere. Israel is the same as every other country with he same responsibilities? There's only one answer: antisemitic!
Oh and to even mention the plan for destruction of the Dome of the Rock and replacement by the Third Temple, as widely discussed in Israel (https://www.jpost.com/tags/third-temple) is massively antisemitic, but only if you think it's wrong. How could somebody hate Jews so much???
It's also antisemitic to point out that all these years of hating on "wokeness" and their "cancel culture" and censorship was 100% empty rhetoric because now all those mouth breathers want to cancel and censor anyone who so much as thinks maybe Israel is going too far. It isn't that cancel culture "wokeness" is wrong, clearly it's just that the wrong people are doing it. Call it what it is: conservative wokeness.
No, you are completely insane to think college students protesting this bloodbath are doing the wrong thing. I have entirely lost interest if you think. Bill Ackman, that Harvard alumni attacking kids for protesting Israel and trying to pressure corporations to never hire them, is a fascist scumbag and should be treated like any other fascist. If you attack children and try to ruin their lives simply for disagreeing with you then you deserve the worst, even if your issue is Israel. It's really that simple.
By wielding the word "antisemitism" as a political club against those who protest Israel you have rendered meaningless. That's 100% on you and don't expect sympathy now you don't deserve it.
This is an excellent post. I hope that it is widely read and shared. I wonder if there is a way to urge schools (especially high schools and colleges) to *teach* 'The Coddling of the American Mind.' Perhaps if more people were exposed to the ideas in your book, it would help them reflect on everything else they are being indoctrinated with. I know you have Heterodox Academy but that seems largely geared to college age, by which point it is too late. What if you created a fellowship, internship, or some other prestigious program (a summer institute?) for high school students that focused on actively teaching the book and the value of free inquiry/ truly free speech? I do not think you can rely on the schools to turn back the clock and rid us of DEI run amok.
> In the days after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, university campuses immediately distinguished themselves as places set apart from the rest of American society—zones where different moral rules applied.
You say this as if that hadn't already been the case for decades. But it has, quite openly so. The term "Berzerkeley" dates back to the late '50s, and "college students being crazy and stupid on campus" has been a distinct film genre for almost as long.
Like the proverbial "overnight success after 10 years of hard work," this moral rot on our campuses has been building for a long, long time before abruptly gaining widespread recognition.
> The new morality driving these reforms was antithetical to the traditional virtues of academic life:
> ...
> This new morality, we argued, is what drove universities off a cliff.
Again, this has been a known problem for a long, long time.
" There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality . All else is immorality." -- Theodore Roosevelt
"The so-called new morality is too often the old immorality condoned." -- Hartley Shawcross
> > Efforts in red-state legislatures to constrain, control, or defund higher ed will now find a great deal more public support than anyone could have imagined before 2015. If they are to regain public trust, university leaders will need to understand the victim/oppressor mindset and how their own institutions are encouraging it. Then they will need to take bold action and make deep changes.
The disappointing thing is just how few people are talking about (or even know about to begins with) the actual root of the problem: a well-meaning but ultimately disastrous Supreme Court ruling that created the degrees-as-credentials system lying at the root of most of the problems in higher education today. (I wrote about it here: https://robertfrank.substack.com/p/the-most-significant-case-youve-never .) If we're actually serious about fixing the problems of higher education, rolling back the Griggs decision is an essential prerequisite to actually getting anything meaningful done.
I write as a retired clinical social worker who has read and who deeply respects your work Jon, and your integrity. As someone who has travelled into four of America's counter-insurgency war zones in Latin America in the 1990's I've seen enough human suffering to last a lifetime. Suffering that my nation was deeply complicit in through the support of corrupt dictators, military and even death squads. I never considered that my active opposition to those policies in any way made me somehow "anti-American." The poor young men in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala often had few choices - join the military, be conscripted into a death squad or join the guerrillas. In Israel one serves in the military - while in Palestine that young man might join Hamas. I see no "good guys" vs "bad guys" in this Israel/Palestine equation.
All of that said, I do find it troubling that with 20,000 dead, 8,000 of which are children and 6,200 of whom are women - that many of the people I respect most who have a public voice in our society are not calling for an end to the bombing and a ceasefire. Instead most of the conservative voices which I have deeply appreciated for example, for their defense of the rights of biological women being eroded by gender-ideology and who stood in opposition to the suppression of free speech and "cancel culture" - seem completely preoccupied not with the actual physical death and destruction that is ongoing in Gaza - but instead much like the "woke" - their focus seems to be on - "words as violence" - particularly on campus or in protests. Many voices I have deeply respected seem comfortable labeling anyone like myself who simply does not see any "virtue" in the ongoing mass violence as being somehow - "anti-semitic." To say I am stunned by the tone-deafness of it all would be putting it mildly.
Agree with all this, and especially appreciate you and Zach compiling and sharing all the polls you can find on sentiment towards Israel. I appreicate that you compile and share data publicly, generally.
Thank you so much for speaking up against the growing threat of Jew-hatred, which is spreading fast from the university campuses to the mainstream society worldwide!
An analysis of one important factor of leftist anti-Semitism that seems very sound.
May I ask why you consider "the other side" to be pro-Palestinian? Frankly, this seems to be a misunderstanding that is the result of decades of propaganda. Israel, Israelis and the majority of the Jews worldwide are either neutral or explicitly pro-Palestinian, just not pro-terror, and calling those who call for the end of Israel, or those who are in favour of jihadism and islamism "pro-Palestinian" doesn't seem correct, implying those opposing the Hamas atrocities are anti-Palestinian. In fact, even considering the horrifying approval figures in polls among Palestinians, this seems just as as unfair to Palestinians, simply equating Palestinians with terrorists.
I'm also curious, as you seem to make a point of it, why you consider the West Bank occupied by Israel. I obviously do see what makes people use this term, but that's usually done in an unreflected way. For what it's worth, I think that the Jewish settlements weren't and aren't helpful, and that a two-state solution would have had some chance in theory, the theory being that the Soviet and Arab side would have played along. Even now I see some potential there. But occupied? The area was historically a mix of mostly Aramaeans, Arabs and Jews of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, secular and other convictions. Those who, still only to a degree, identify as Palestinians, were a mix of Aramaeans, even Jews, and then local Arabs (ie 7th-19th century immigrants) and a large amount of late-18th-20th century immigrants from all Egypt via Syria up to the Caucausus. Again - I accept that the purposefully, externally invented people of Palestinians today is a real identity - that's their right, and it's commonly accepted. The "occupied" area was just as much and as little "Palestinian" as the area that is green-line Israel today, or Jordan, for that matter. Legally, as far as I know, it's no man's land, after the British Mandate ended and the Arab world declined the UN plan. It was conquered from Jordan, it's ruled by the PA in a deal with Israel. Complex, but not "occupied from the Palestinians by Israel". That is a shortcut forcefully and intentionally propagated by Soviet propaganda in the 1960s that successfully spread.
The arguments here about antisemitism seem to miss the mark. The problem on campus is that political criticism of Israel has turned into personal hostility toward Jewish students. While such animosity may also easily be perception on the part of Jewish, I don't think it is entirely imaginary. It's equally a problem if we were speaking about Palestinian students (or Muslim, or Christian, or Arabic, or whatever, etc.). This is a different subject than the politics of Israel and Hamas.
Once upon a time we might be talking Japanese Americans or German Americans etc. This is the problem on campus. Not political disagreements.
Jonathan Haidt, thanks for continuing to be a voice of reason in a mad world. We all have to do our part in whatever way possible to call out this madness each time we see it, or it will persist.
Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism.
A fish rots from the head down. The Harvard Corporation board hired and refuses to fire Claudine Gay because they are also compromised. Naming and shaming will expose all of the rot in higher education: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-get-into-harvard-gay-bobo-corporation
I'm almost as interested in the sealioning and the narcissistic self-regard of a couple of 'anti-Zionist' commenters in these replies. It's interesting that they aren't engaging with the piece, but trolling the people who reacted positively. There's been a lot of this leftishist slacktivism since the storm in a teacup over that handful of n*zis on Substack.
the real origin of the victim/oppressor dichotomy in the American academy is cultural anthropology which first inhaled the work of Fanon, Foucault and others. As America becomes much less white quickly, we need to see ALL of this as part of a real power struggle in our major institutions..because that's the struggle Fanon and Foucault were asking for...it's too easy to dismiss the simplistic nature of the dichotomy from a privileged intellectual viewpoint...there is a real power struggle ongoing that is not reducible to an intellectual or thought problem...
Oh I see, protesting against ethnic cleansing and indiscriminate killing of civilians is antisemitic. It's also antisemitic to read Israeli newspapers which report on what is being said by the highest levels of government (Netanyahu's disturbing comments about Amalek, etc), and very, very, very antisemitic to read the fairly unequivocal report that Israel is, in fact, indiscriminately killing Gazans on purpose using AI targeting by the Israeli outlet 972 Magazine:
https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/
Those Israelis are antisemitic and so is anyone who so much as reads the facts.
It's also antisemitic to point out that groups such as Jewish Voices for Peace are exactly that, Jewish, and are not antisemitic. They are antisemitic and so are those who think they aren't; Haidt is clearly a master of logic here because such twisted mind contortions couldn't be clearer.
It's antisemitic hatred to see view Israel as an occupying power under international law, and the slow ethnic cleansing they have been performing for decades is wrong. Man that is pure blind hate! And to say Palestinians actually have the legal right in international law to fight back against an occupying power, just like any other, whoa. Antisemitic hatred is exploding everywhere. Israel is the same as every other country with he same responsibilities? There's only one answer: antisemitic!
Oh and to even mention the plan for destruction of the Dome of the Rock and replacement by the Third Temple, as widely discussed in Israel (https://www.jpost.com/tags/third-temple) is massively antisemitic, but only if you think it's wrong. How could somebody hate Jews so much???
It's also antisemitic to point out that all these years of hating on "wokeness" and their "cancel culture" and censorship was 100% empty rhetoric because now all those mouth breathers want to cancel and censor anyone who so much as thinks maybe Israel is going too far. It isn't that cancel culture "wokeness" is wrong, clearly it's just that the wrong people are doing it. Call it what it is: conservative wokeness.
No, you are completely insane to think college students protesting this bloodbath are doing the wrong thing. I have entirely lost interest if you think. Bill Ackman, that Harvard alumni attacking kids for protesting Israel and trying to pressure corporations to never hire them, is a fascist scumbag and should be treated like any other fascist. If you attack children and try to ruin their lives simply for disagreeing with you then you deserve the worst, even if your issue is Israel. It's really that simple.
By wielding the word "antisemitism" as a political club against those who protest Israel you have rendered meaningless. That's 100% on you and don't expect sympathy now you don't deserve it.
This is an excellent post. I hope that it is widely read and shared. I wonder if there is a way to urge schools (especially high schools and colleges) to *teach* 'The Coddling of the American Mind.' Perhaps if more people were exposed to the ideas in your book, it would help them reflect on everything else they are being indoctrinated with. I know you have Heterodox Academy but that seems largely geared to college age, by which point it is too late. What if you created a fellowship, internship, or some other prestigious program (a summer institute?) for high school students that focused on actively teaching the book and the value of free inquiry/ truly free speech? I do not think you can rely on the schools to turn back the clock and rid us of DEI run amok.
> In the days after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, university campuses immediately distinguished themselves as places set apart from the rest of American society—zones where different moral rules applied.
You say this as if that hadn't already been the case for decades. But it has, quite openly so. The term "Berzerkeley" dates back to the late '50s, and "college students being crazy and stupid on campus" has been a distinct film genre for almost as long.
Like the proverbial "overnight success after 10 years of hard work," this moral rot on our campuses has been building for a long, long time before abruptly gaining widespread recognition.
> The new morality driving these reforms was antithetical to the traditional virtues of academic life:
> ...
> This new morality, we argued, is what drove universities off a cliff.
Again, this has been a known problem for a long, long time.
" There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality . All else is immorality." -- Theodore Roosevelt
"The so-called new morality is too often the old immorality condoned." -- Hartley Shawcross
> > Efforts in red-state legislatures to constrain, control, or defund higher ed will now find a great deal more public support than anyone could have imagined before 2015. If they are to regain public trust, university leaders will need to understand the victim/oppressor mindset and how their own institutions are encouraging it. Then they will need to take bold action and make deep changes.
The disappointing thing is just how few people are talking about (or even know about to begins with) the actual root of the problem: a well-meaning but ultimately disastrous Supreme Court ruling that created the degrees-as-credentials system lying at the root of most of the problems in higher education today. (I wrote about it here: https://robertfrank.substack.com/p/the-most-significant-case-youve-never .) If we're actually serious about fixing the problems of higher education, rolling back the Griggs decision is an essential prerequisite to actually getting anything meaningful done.
I write as a retired clinical social worker who has read and who deeply respects your work Jon, and your integrity. As someone who has travelled into four of America's counter-insurgency war zones in Latin America in the 1990's I've seen enough human suffering to last a lifetime. Suffering that my nation was deeply complicit in through the support of corrupt dictators, military and even death squads. I never considered that my active opposition to those policies in any way made me somehow "anti-American." The poor young men in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala often had few choices - join the military, be conscripted into a death squad or join the guerrillas. In Israel one serves in the military - while in Palestine that young man might join Hamas. I see no "good guys" vs "bad guys" in this Israel/Palestine equation.
All of that said, I do find it troubling that with 20,000 dead, 8,000 of which are children and 6,200 of whom are women - that many of the people I respect most who have a public voice in our society are not calling for an end to the bombing and a ceasefire. Instead most of the conservative voices which I have deeply appreciated for example, for their defense of the rights of biological women being eroded by gender-ideology and who stood in opposition to the suppression of free speech and "cancel culture" - seem completely preoccupied not with the actual physical death and destruction that is ongoing in Gaza - but instead much like the "woke" - their focus seems to be on - "words as violence" - particularly on campus or in protests. Many voices I have deeply respected seem comfortable labeling anyone like myself who simply does not see any "virtue" in the ongoing mass violence as being somehow - "anti-semitic." To say I am stunned by the tone-deafness of it all would be putting it mildly.
Agree with all this, and especially appreciate you and Zach compiling and sharing all the polls you can find on sentiment towards Israel. I appreicate that you compile and share data publicly, generally.
Thank you so much for speaking up against the growing threat of Jew-hatred, which is spreading fast from the university campuses to the mainstream society worldwide!
An analysis of one important factor of leftist anti-Semitism that seems very sound.
May I ask why you consider "the other side" to be pro-Palestinian? Frankly, this seems to be a misunderstanding that is the result of decades of propaganda. Israel, Israelis and the majority of the Jews worldwide are either neutral or explicitly pro-Palestinian, just not pro-terror, and calling those who call for the end of Israel, or those who are in favour of jihadism and islamism "pro-Palestinian" doesn't seem correct, implying those opposing the Hamas atrocities are anti-Palestinian. In fact, even considering the horrifying approval figures in polls among Palestinians, this seems just as as unfair to Palestinians, simply equating Palestinians with terrorists.
I'm also curious, as you seem to make a point of it, why you consider the West Bank occupied by Israel. I obviously do see what makes people use this term, but that's usually done in an unreflected way. For what it's worth, I think that the Jewish settlements weren't and aren't helpful, and that a two-state solution would have had some chance in theory, the theory being that the Soviet and Arab side would have played along. Even now I see some potential there. But occupied? The area was historically a mix of mostly Aramaeans, Arabs and Jews of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, secular and other convictions. Those who, still only to a degree, identify as Palestinians, were a mix of Aramaeans, even Jews, and then local Arabs (ie 7th-19th century immigrants) and a large amount of late-18th-20th century immigrants from all Egypt via Syria up to the Caucausus. Again - I accept that the purposefully, externally invented people of Palestinians today is a real identity - that's their right, and it's commonly accepted. The "occupied" area was just as much and as little "Palestinian" as the area that is green-line Israel today, or Jordan, for that matter. Legally, as far as I know, it's no man's land, after the British Mandate ended and the Arab world declined the UN plan. It was conquered from Jordan, it's ruled by the PA in a deal with Israel. Complex, but not "occupied from the Palestinians by Israel". That is a shortcut forcefully and intentionally propagated by Soviet propaganda in the 1960s that successfully spread.
The lady who does my nails and the lady who does my hair / both didn’t attend college /both know Hamas is to blame here.
Defund DEI!!
The arguments here about antisemitism seem to miss the mark. The problem on campus is that political criticism of Israel has turned into personal hostility toward Jewish students. While such animosity may also easily be perception on the part of Jewish, I don't think it is entirely imaginary. It's equally a problem if we were speaking about Palestinian students (or Muslim, or Christian, or Arabic, or whatever, etc.). This is a different subject than the politics of Israel and Hamas.
Once upon a time we might be talking Japanese Americans or German Americans etc. This is the problem on campus. Not political disagreements.
Anti-semitism is the inevitable outcome of teaching students that:
1) the world is divided into Oppressors and the Oppressed who are engaged in a zero-sum group struggle
2) all inequalities stems from what the Oppressors did and are doing to the Oppressed, and
3) everyone has a moral obligation to fight the Oppressors.
Both Hitler and Marx knew it.