Posted by giuliomagnifico 3/29/2025
> Here he is giving a pep talk to Zionist students on how to takeover student gov to reverse democratically voted policies “just like how AIPAC does it in Congress”
> Perhaps that’s because most of British academia still can’t get its head around the idea that the US is now an enemy, not an ally, and that the “special relationship” is yesterday’s story.
That's a bold statement. John is using language in a manipulative way. By moving the word "enemy" into a context where it is not justified (is it really war, rather than typical negotiations?), he aims to create a dramatic perspective on a thing that is not obviously dramatic. Drama is the basis of the argument. The cases he bring up do not seem to justify the conclusive dramatic language.
Typical negotiations don't look anything like the policies they're inacting, not like retracting research or cancelling funding on the basis of including keywords that the party deems problematic (regardless of actual content), and certainly not like threats of annexation or extra-judicial disappearances if students writing political pieces in their college magazines.
It is a bold statement and it does sound dramatic, but it's still probably an understatement if you look at what has been happening. It's honestly dumbfounding to continue to see people defending this as in any way normal.
That's exactly what I would question. Does the author look just as hard in the other direction and, with intellectual honesty, defend those cases? (should he? why? why not?...) My general sense is the "other side" may have experienced similar treatment that is now being complained about. No, I don't mean it is therefore necessarily justified. I really mean that—I do not think it is therefore necessarily justified.
If I side with any of them, either side may decide I'm no longer in the in-group. Rather than either side being right, both have the same potential for corruption, and that's the real enemy.
This is not a specific answer to the effort you offered in explaining the situation. I would have to look deeper into it.
Pretending this is "Trump's America" or "Obama's America" or "Bush's America" is ridiculous. They've all participated in building these walls around the country and our freedom.
What Trump is doing right now is nothing but an application of this “domestic security” framework.
Heck, the government even gave everyone a taste of what’s to come with the repression of pro-Palestine college protests across the country, and the dystopian shutdown of any criticism of a foreign country.
You can always ignore the use of repression on people or causes you don’t agree with, but don’t start complaining when you or your cause is the one being repressed.
You can spot the same playbook in Germany, where they’re scheming to strip citizenship from dual-nationality migrants if they dare speak out against Israel. In Berlin, police are brutally pummeling pro-Palestine protesters—scenes you’d never expect to see in Germany.
Then there’s the clampdown in UK and other European countries on journalists and everyday folks calling out Israel’s moves in Palestine.
Across the West, these anti-free-speech tactics are piling up, all to muzzle anyone who questions Israel.