The body count keeps rising in Gaza, so it is only sensible to express concern. Whether or not this is a genocide is an open question, but it should be beyond dispute that the IDF have been reckless in their approach, as the number of civilian casualties is grotesquely disproportional to their military objectives.

Consequently, I cannot help but sympathize with students who throughout American campuses, take to the streets to protest such injustices, as it is currently happening in highly prestigious institutions such as Columbia and Yale.

But then again, upon seeing the way students protest, I have second thoughts.

In protests, there is a message and there is a medium. This dichotomy was famously established by Canadian cultural critic Marshall McLuhan, who referred to the way technology impacts communication. This dichotomy can also be extended to the current protests. The message is taking a stance against a genocide; the medium is to be disruptive.

McLuhan eventually concluded that “the medium is the message”, to the extent that, in our age, what matters is the way the message is delivered, and not the message itself. For many students at these protests, the medium has also become the message. It seems they are not so much motivated by the desire to rid the world of injustices as by the eagerness to be on the vanguard of coolness.

If they really cared about occupations and attempts at genocides, they would have long ago protested the Chinese treatment of the Uyghurs, the displacement of the Rohingya, or the recent ethnic cleansing in Nagorno Karabakh. But of course, we only heard crickets. As Steven Tucker recently phrased it in a piece for Mercator, “some genocides are more equal than others.” Given that those crimes are perpetrated by non-Western regimes, many students fear that protesting against those injustices somehow makes them complicit with colonialism, and in our times, anti-colonialism is the epitome of coolness.

No wonder the Palestinian keffiyeh has become somewhat of a fashion statement. These days, activism is all about style and hipness; not long ago, some bold producer even had the idea of doing something akin to American Idol, only this time, activists (instead of singers) would compete.  

Some Jewish leaders have argued that these double standards and selectiveness in protests are instances of antisemitism. That may be, but I am more inclined to think that many of these protesters are simply against “the system”, and they found a convenient excuse to camp out. Their quarrel is not with Jews, but with rules and structure in general.

Cultural critics have long ago noticed the appeal of these attitudes in American youth. James Dean will be forever remembered for his flamboyant looks and his untimely death, but also for his masterful portrayal of a youngster who is not at ease with himself and diverts his anger towards the system, not fully understanding why. In doing so, he makes sure the leather jacket is on and the hair is perfectly combed.

Surely most pro-Palestinian protesters are not rebels without a cause. But the history of riots does suggest that when the ball starts rolling, the medium becomes the message. During the infamous Nike riots of the 6th Century in Byzantium, fans of two charioteer teams—the Blues and the Greens— clashed, and tens of thousands died. Did they really fight over which horse was faster? Of course not. In fact, there probably was no cause, other than the eagerness to wreck stuff or bond with fellow anti-system activists in a tirade against others.

Having been a student and a professor in Latin American universities, I worry that American academia will follow some of the patterns that are more prevalent south of the Rio Grande. For decades, Latin American universities had a strong reputation as hotbeds of leftist activism. In my days, we referred to such activists as tira piedras (stone throwers). Some of them knew the intricacies of, say, the Afghanistan war and how the CIA had been in cahoots with Osama Bin Laden. But many others simply wanted to cancel some upcoming difficult exam and took to the streets using some faraway injustice as an excuse.