The Deadly Consequences of Campus Chants

Victor Joecks on Jun 3, 2025

Ideas have consequences. The ideas pushed on many college campuses have deadly consequences.

Elias Rodriguez stands accused of murdering two Israeli Embassy staffers. The shooting happened recently outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The victims were Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple who were about to be engaged. The propaganda press has largely moved on from the shooting because it doesn't fit its preferred narrative.

When Rodriguez was arrested, he shouted, "Free, free Palestine." His sing-song cadence sounded like it came straight from a college campus rally. So did the words in his alleged manifesto.

He started by accusing Israel of committing "atrocities" against Palestine that "defy description and defy quantification." He continued, "We who let this happen will never deserve the Palestinians' forgiveness."

Rodriguez then admiringly cited Aaron Bushnell as one of those who "sacrificed themselves in the hopes of stopping the massacre." In February, Bushnell, who served in the Air Force, set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Rodriguez lamented America's ongoing support for Israel. He then laid out his justification for randomly murdering people associated with Israel.

"Humanity doesn't exempt one from accountability," he wrote. He called his action "morally justified."

"I am glad that today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do," he concluded.

It can be tempting to dismiss his writing as the rantings of a lunatic. But that would be a mistake. Most haven't resorted to violence, but college campuses are filled with students who agree with the philosophy he espoused.

That's because many colleges and high schools have indoctrinated students in critical theory. It divides the world into victims and victimizers. The success of the supposedly oppressors doesn't come from their own choices but from how they exploit the oppressed. This theory contends that what makes one moral isn't individual choices, but group identity.

Therefore, it holds, the victim group is justified in doing whatever is necessary to overthrow the supposed victimizers. There are many ways to divide people into groups. For instance, critical race theory focuses on race. Other categories could include sex, wealth or national origin. Intersectionality is the left's attempt to rank and prioritize victim groups.

You have just witnessed the terrifying implications of this worldview. Rodriguez believed he was morally justified in murdering two strangers because of their group identity. After the October 7 massacre, dozens of student organizations at Harvard signed onto a statement asserting they "hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence."

This is why it isn't enough to point out how people like Rodriguez are wrong on the facts. And they are. Hamas gleefully murders Israeli women and children. Hamas hides behind women and children in the Gaza Strip because it knows Israel values protecting innocent life. If Hamas could kill every Jew in Israel, it would. Israel had the ability to kill every Muslim in the Gaza Strip, but it didn't. Instead, it sent in food aid -- which Hamas systematically stole to fund its war efforts. After a U.S.-backed group started delivering aid directly to Gaza civilians, Hamas threatened those who took the free food.

You have to point out the folly -- and immorality -- of judging people based on group identity instead of individual choices. That's much harder to do when taxpayers subsidize a higher education system that brainwashes students in critical race theory and enforces it through DEI bureaucracies.

You may not take chants of "Free Palestine" and "Globalize the Intifada" seriously. But when someone does, the results are often deadly.

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Victor Joecks is a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and host of the Sharpening Arrows podcast. Email him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or follow @victorjoecks on X. To find out more about Victor Joecks and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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