The Sociopaths Have Entered the Gaza Chat

Nate Silver can't comprehend the idea that people are protesting genocide because genocide is bad.

Reason/YouTube

Ever since the student movement for Palestine blossomed across the country over the past couple of weeks, very smart media types have been pondering the same question: what in the world could be making all these kids occupy their campuses, face down police brutality, and risk suspension or expulsion? What is going on???

New York Times writer Amanda Taub—whose title at the paper is “The Interpreter”—devoted a recent column to this vexing topic.

Yes, the protests against genocide are just like a viral illness that overwhelms people who might otherwise not want to get sick. Starting off great here. Taub cycles through various theories, from “the ‘ovation’ effect” (aka when one person does it lots of people follow) to the machinations of the GOP (“for Republican lawmakers, criticizing university presidents for failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism is a useful political issue with the potential to deepen divisions among Democrats,” Taub writes) to basic “drama” that has been lacking at campuses in other countries.

Hmmm. Much to ponder. I feel like there’s a big factor missing here that Taub doesn’t address, trying to put my finger on it…

OK, while I’m thinking, let’s look at another example from Nate Silver—the man who became famous for correctly predicting that Barack Obama, one of the most talented politicians in U.S. history, would beat Mitt Romney, a super-rich weirdo who publicly shared what, until just a few days ago, was the worst dog-related political anecdote of all time, in an election. And this little observation from Nate has such a disturbing undertone that it actually made me kind of scared of him.