WaPo Columnist Says GOP Believes In Free Speech Except When It Comes to Israel

"Cancel culture is back"? So there really was a thing called cancel culture, but it went away for a while, but now it's back. But this time the targets are on the Left. So cancel culture was a real thing used by the Left to shut up the Right. We're on board with that. But we seem to be doing one of those "The parties have switched" deals. Republicans are "working overtime" to criminalize pro-Palestinian speech. Pro-Palestinian speech like calling for the genocide of Jews? You're still free to do that, but it doesn't mean there won't be consequences.

This is like the New York Times saying that conservatives have "seized" on antisemitism to punish university presidents. You're free to call for a global intifada, but colleges have rules of conduct that seem to protect everyone except Jewish students.

Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid, also an editorial board member, says that the GOP is working overtime to criminalize "pro-Palestinian" speech; i.e., calls for genocide.

Cancel culture is back. The difference this time is that the targets are on the left. Republicans are working overtime to criminalize and punish pro-Palestinian speech they disagree with.

My new column for @washingtonpost: https://t.co/WbcC1v8RFZ pic.twitter.com/fQkD75hp5y

— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) December 11, 2023

As conservatives, we'd be happy to have Republicans in Congress working overtime on a number of issues, but this isn't one of them. Sure, a student lost her scholarship after ripping down posters of kidnapped Israeli hostages, but Republicans didn't do that. Some law students have lost their internships, but Republicans didn't do that.

You have a basic misunderstanding of what "cancel culture" is.

Do you also struggle with what "doxxing" is, Shady?

— JWF (@JammieWF) December 11, 2023

My, my, what a tune change. pic.twitter.com/Qu68vgvfIT

— Tony Kinnett (@TheTonus) December 11, 2023

Free speech is a good thing.

Next time, perhaps people on the left will remember suppressing free speech is a boomerang.

— Florida Man V - Chappelle/Rogan 2024 (@FloridaManV) December 11, 2023

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We remember when campus security wouldn't even let Ben Shapiro step foot on campus, let alone speak.

"Back?" When was cancel culture ever here? WaPo told me it was a Republican invention.

— Tanya Berlaga (@TBerlaga) December 11, 2023

No one is censoring you but we all know what bigots you are now.

— theherman (@keeperofthemap) December 11, 2023

This is hysterical. Your own tactics are being used against you leftists and now they are somehow unfair? LOL.

You have sowed the wind, and now you are reaping the whirlwind.

— John Johnston III (@JohnTheKnife) December 11, 2023

I'm so sorry this is happening to you!
Thoughts and prayers!

— Honey Bunches of Stoats 🇻🇦🇺🇸 (@BunchesOfStoats) December 11, 2023

Incitement has always been illegal and is not considered free speech. Deliberately creating a climate to make an ethnic group unwelcome has been a civil rights violation for decades at the federal level.

— newsperplexed (@newsperplexed) December 11, 2023

But WaPo and NYT denied that there was ever a cancel culture.

— overview_effect (@overviewEffect1) December 11, 2023

Tell me Mr Hamid, should calls like "the south shall rise again" be tolerated on campus? Obviously not right? But if not, why should calls for a violent uprising (intifada) against civilians not be held to the same standards?

— אבצרים חסרי כבוד (@AvtPhant) December 11, 2023

Democrats don't even say they support free speech anymore.

— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐥 (@AtheismNTheCity) December 11, 2023

Is "Genocide Joe" Biden a Republican?

You miss the issue entirely -- for partisan reasons at that. If the same kind of speech had been directed against black or brown people, it would have been swiftly denounced with severe consequences. When directed at Jews, nothing to see here.

— WatchingEyesOnU (@WatchingEyesOnU) December 11, 2023

"If it's not Jews, it's not news." Rep. Elise Stafanik didn't ask those university presidents about "pro-Palestinian speech," she asked them specifically about calls for genocide.

Is tearing down posters of kidnapped Israelis "pro-Palestinian speech"?

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