Lame. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 52nd Edition.

That being the responses of university heads from Harvard, M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania to easy questions, or really even a question, from Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, somebody who, when she appears here, normally appears here for selling her soul for Donald Trump.

Here, Stefanik, who asked the presidents of the three major universities  if calling for the genocide of Jews violated the code of conduct at their schools.  All three couldn't do it without massive qualification, which basically amounted to saying that calling for mass murder is okay, as long as you don't actually attempt it.

Liz Magill of Penn State had a particularly difficult time. As the New York Times has summarized it:

Much of the criticism landed heavily on Ms. Magill because of an extended back-and-forth with Representative Stefanik.

Ms. Stefanik said that in campus protests, students had chanted support for intifada, an Arabic word that means uprising and that many Jews hear as a call for violence against them.

Ms. Stefanik asked Ms. Magill, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?”

Ms. Magill replied, “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment.”

Ms. Stefanik pressed the issue: “I am asking, specifically: Calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?”

Ms. Magill, a lawyer who joined Penn last year with a pledge to promote campus free speech, replied, “If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment.”

Ms. Stefanik responded: “So the answer is yes.”

Ms. Magill said, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”

Ms. Stefanik exclaimed: “That’s your testimony today? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context?”

Let's be clear, it's only "context-dependent" if you have allowed your status as a lawyer to completely rot your brain, but then, a lot of lawyers have done just that.  The easy answer to this is this:

Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?”

Well if it doesn't, it sure ought to, there's no room for that sort of thing whatsoever and anyone calling for genocide of anyone ought to be expelled from higher education and run out of town on a rail.

It's just this sort of left wing muddy mindedness that has led us to the situation where a lot of Americans now feel it'd be better to appoint a Caudillo than elect a President. If the nation's academic, and mostly left wing, elite can't figure out that murdering Jews is bad, there's an existential problem in the American intellectual left.   This is exactly the sort of thing that makes some people think that Mike Johnson declaring himself to be a latter-day Moses might not be so bad.

Last Prior Edition:

Why specific movements on the left always end up being disregarded. Sense and Solidarity. Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 51st edition.