Cancel Culture and the Antisemitism Rot in Universities

Marinating in extremism.

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Sarah and David return to their regularly scheduled Supreme Court programming, specifically to a racial gerrymandering case out of South Carolina (Sarah has copious notes). The two also have a lot to say about the insanity coming out of elite law schools. But first David revisits law of war to explain the international rules of siege warfare. Then:

-Supreme Court justices speaking statistics

-Non-justiciable gerrymandering

-Bonkers law student statements

-Some cancel culture clarity

-Ideological hot houses at elite institutions

-Harmonizing grace and morality

Show notes:

-Term statistics (2023)

-South Carolina gerrymandering case

-Rucho v. Common Cause

-Allen v. Milligan

-John Oliver talks Franklin, TN mayoral race

-Chicago BLM chapter comments on Israel-Hamas war

-Harvard students comment on Israel-Hamas war

-David French: Difference between Kaepernick and Barr

-GWU students comment on Israel-Hamas war

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Comments (82)
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  1. Biglaw_Blues

    Here's my semi-educated guess on Gaza:

    Israel is going to use reservists forces to fix Gaza and establish defensive positions in the North and Western fronts. While the perimeter is established (and some time for civilians to leave) Israel is going to strike critical targets, decapitate leadership, and stage professional units for a ground invasion (that's happening now).

    Hamas is going to use barrier units to dissuade, slow, stop meat shields from leaving. They'll preposition rockets (which btw 20% of them fail and land in Gaza but 100% get blamed on Israel), ammunition, etc. Starting soon, we'll see Mogadishu-esque roadblocks with burning tires/murder holes/IED/VIEDs/EFPs/etc etc.

    Full-timers in IDF will start with a combined heavy armor & infantry to breach into Gaza. They're going to go house-to-house, but they won't put up with sh#t. If they take fire from a building, it's getting blown up from a tank/CAS. Hamas has 40,000 fighters in a *small* area. So that process will keep playing out with a relatively high (but absolute number small) IDF causalities as the line of contact turns into Grozny/Aleppo.

    Also, I assume that Hamas will use the tried and true tactic of sending waves of surrenders/civilians to give up to the advancing IDF forces to screw with them, and even mix in suicide gunners. Taliban used to send gunmen into breaches with S-vests on. Idk if Hamas has too many bombers, but that would be a good idea to try and get IDF to shoot on sight for propaganda and/or not do so and occasionally get vaporized by a bomber like the 13 Marines in Kabul surrender.

    Guess that a lot of experts probably disagree with me about: I don't think the tunnels will be that much of a problem. They're not well constructed with air gaps. Israel will shove large thermobaric weapons in there (or just ground penetrate) and those vacuum bombs will be horrific to anyone in here.

    Oh, and Israel is probably already accepted the calculation that all the hostages are going to die. They'll get the bodies and utterly destroy Hamas for all time.

    -11B OEF x2

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    1. Biglaw_Blues

      If I were them, I would be working with Red Crescent from other countries in the Ummah to establish humanitarian displacement camps ran by acceptable 3rd countries. Think the Syrian camps inside of Turkey.

      Israel is going to dominate that battle-space, so the imaginary line of Gaza doesn't matter any more. If they need to expand some refugee camp into an empty field in Israel-proper, so what? They need to start constructing that now and place probably 10k reservists to guard it and work to get 3rd party administrators on the ground with humanitarian aid.

      All of the Islamic countries voicing outrage at Israel should be publicly asked if they will send administrators, aid, and human rights workers to Israel to help the Gazans---Israel will need them eventually and even if they say no it's a propaganda win for Israel.

      If the IDF tries to have Jewish soldiers put Gazans into displacement camps and manage them directly the optics and real tension on the ground are going to be SUPER SUPER BAD. Even if it's a bona fide humanitarian center, the Auschwitz commentary will be cranked up so hard the dial breaks. They need to make sure there's buy-in from others. UN blue helmets, Red Crescent, Qatari (etc) monitors, Jordanian guards on the ground, their own heliport, etc.

      Media (not y'all!) tends to have magical thinking about, well, everything. But in this context their magical thinking manifests in Godlike power of technology instead of warfare being a nasty, difficult, impractical, slog.

      To emphasize this point, I went to https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ and dropped 1 Minuteman (1 mt) on Gaza city in the north and 1 in Khan Yunis. Even then, there would be an estimated 810k fatalities, 600k injuries with many dying. That is to say, EVEN NUKING IT with bombs way to big for that area leaves a million people you have to deal with.

      I am not advocated that in any way whatsoever, I am trying to emphasize the point that no matter what tactics Israel employs, there is going to be a *lot* of people to deal with. I mean, 50k-ish civilians survived *Stalingrad* for God's sake (half mil population before WWII), so it's going to happen.

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  2. Sam19952005

    I had a lot of yardwork to di this weekend. I have listened to a lot on the Israel Gaza news, I realized I don't want to over do it and become hardened by news cycles so passed on many of my go to podcasts. But I listened to some old AO (the Dispatch flaghsip pod) which I had not heard due to travel, etc...Thanks for having such a great show. Smart, interesting and funny too. David, if I met you I would say I love you and Sarah on the show. as well as both Davids too. Thanks for providing smart weekend listening as always. I talk about your show always, btw, I am a legal nerd but not an attorney, your show makes my interest grow... again thanks David (and Sarah).

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  3. Affable Misanthrope

    On a lighter note, this is the first time I have ever heard anyone spell out the acronym LSAT. I have only ever heard it pronounced "ellsat". Is spelling out the acronym a common pronunciation?

    On the topic of moral confusion in the Ivy League, others have pointed out the seeming hypocrisy of inflating all sorts of minor human interactions into "micro-agressions" and decrying the violence of words, while simultaneously excusing and even celebrating actual horrific violence against Israelis (I say Israelis and not Jews because, although Jews obviously constituted the overwhelming majority of victims, Arab Israelis were also tragically murdered in the attacks). This only seems like a contradiction because we made the mistake of thinking that these students were hyper-sensitive to confrontation, causing them to misinterpret simple disagreement or misunderstanding as violence. We thought they were "snowflakes", fragile and afraid. These demonstrations show the opposite is true. They are violent people, and they see violence everywhere because of the violence in their own hearts. They are the like the man in the Rhorshach test joke who sees sex in every inkblot and blames the psychiatrist for showing him dirty images. The intention of concepts like micro-aggresions is ultimately to lay the groundwork for more, not less, violence. If all of life is violence, then actual violence is no longer distinct or horrific, and can be a justified response to any perceived slight. I think this intellectual double think, of ostensibly objecting to violence while secretly yearning for it, is a big part of what is wrong at our universities.

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      Aylene Wright

      This description actually reminds me of the Code Duello back in the day, in which "slights to honor" were seen as the kind of attack that was equivalent to actual violence, and hence required a violent response.

      Supposedly, we civilized (post) Christian Westerners, no longer live in such an honor culture. Or only a few ignorant Southern rednecks do. But I get the impression, many East and West Coast progressives do. With the caveat that they see "microaggressions" as more an attack on their entire tribe, not just an attack on one's personal honor.

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  4. Kanejeong

    Can you really call that anti-semitism without considering the power imbalance between Israel and Palestine (or whatever else is the proper term to refer to Palestinians in Gaza)? Is it really surprising that college students will side with the underdog?

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    1. Affable Misanthrope

      Yes, it is shocking and disgusting that students excused the brutal rape, torture, and murder of innocent people. Justifying those atrocities because they were perpetrated by an "underdog" is an indictment of their moral code, not a defense.

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  5. Chipwatkins

    How about an episode focusing on legal ethics, e.g., Trump's lawyers who have been disciplined, or this matter from Houston, https://www.wsj.com/articles/bankruptcy-judge-jones-to-stop-handling-complex-cases-after-relationship-with-lawyer-revealed-fad88b0c?page=1.

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  6. Corilowe

    Egypt enslaved the Jews, not the Romans.

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      Me_and_mike_d

      I think they were referring to the more recent slaughter, subjugation, and mass deportation of Jews from Judah around 70 AD, but I agree that it wasn’t a mass enslavement (though the Roman’s did have Jewish slaves in the first century).

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      1. Corilowe

        Right you are. The Simon Sebag Montefiore book on Israel is full of gruesome stories.....Romans were crucifying 500 Jews a day in year 70, in a run up to the destruction of Jerusalem. Yikes!

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  7. Aaron H Frank

    Hamas and Hezbollah use Nazi rhetoric, just not in English. If you read any pf their writings in Arabic at MEMRI the term "judenrein" is used frequently. HAMAS and the PA wish the Middle East to be "judenrein".

    Law of War questions - Israel has "blockaded" Gaza and is "cutting of food, water, and medicine". But it was Israel that was providing these before Hamas attacked them. Is Israel obligated to supply Gaza in the first place? And is Israel still obligated once this border has been breached and used to attack them.

    What are Egypt's obligations? Gaza's other border is with Egypt and it has been sealed. Egypt went several miles into Gaza and razed villages to create a cleared security zone before their walled off border. Is Egypt - who controlled Gaza before Israel - required to supply humanitarian aid and if Egypt isn't, why is Israel.

    For those who call for "grace" - people who support Hamas are supporting a group calling for the extinction of ALL Jews, not just Israel. They would murder gleefully my entire family.

    They would murder Sarah and Scott and Nate and Case. And maybe even David French because of his support for his Jewish friends.

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  8. LucyTrice

    On a lighter note: At the blacksmith forge at the NC State Fair today, I had a brief conversation with a man about forged nails. He told me he had heard that at one time door nails were hammered over to prevent them from being reused and it being related to "dead as a door nail."

    Imagine my surprise, then, on listening to this podcast on the way home, only to hear a close version of the explanation he gave me! A close encounter with an unknown Dispatch subscriber sparked by, of all things, hand forged nails. It definitely brightened my day!

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  9. Sam19952005

    It is great to have the team back again and mixing law with their humanity. Sarah as always amazing, and your comments on the overton window sadly you are correct. The lengths a social order will do to get likes on social media and in their peer groups has been well proven in the past 10 years. Mindless mob mentality seeking approval because other people's acceptance is supreme. Tragic and the educators lean in. The person wrote their compelling narrative to please the crowd, it is pleasure based not based on knowledge or objective facts purely sucking up and in. This is the generation who know how to study and score high and achieve but have no interest in learning, thinking opening up to well thought and maybe too many truths. Truth is not the goal, endorphin highs. Let's hope and for those who pray this can be a moment that reclaims this lost generation.

    Thanks for being a great podcast, to help us think, laugh, seek understanding of complex issues in the world. The Flagship.

    ps...the line on the 17 year olds priceless

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    SeanM76

    Sarah, I love hearing your thoughts and passion on this episode. I also listened to you today on Left Right and Center. And cannot thank you enough for going after the Center on the show for not strongly condemning the Antisemitism on our college campuses. I would love to see you get a liberal person on the podcast to try and defend what some of these racists are saying.

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