TRUMP SAYS SHUT DOWN PROTESTS-BUT NOT WHEN IT’S HIS PEOPLE RIOTING

He’s right to call for an immediate end to violent, antisemitic “protests,” but I wish he felt the same way about the violent, antisemitic insurrection he provoked on January 6, 2021.

“Stop the protests now!!!” Trump said in an all-caps post.
(Disgraced former President Trump on the nationwide college protests.)

I agree with the sentiment, as it applies to violent, harassing, or trespassing students, and all outsiders.

People not breaking any laws or campus regulations must have their First Amendment rights respected. We all must struggle to understand that the First Amendment means some people will say things that disturb others. Thus, even when extremists on either side scream out divisive and provocatory, shouts, if it’s not encouraging illegal behavior or violence, or hate speech, it’s protected. (Though campuses can reasonably regulate time, place and manner; students can’t set up encampments it violates the law or the campus rules.) A student who wishes to wave a Palestinian or an Israeli flag is free to do so, but neither is free to tear down the other’s flag.

Today we are seeing a common phenomenon on the right and on the left: Trumpies and anti-Israel (often just antisemitic) protesters share the belief that if they themselves determine there is a moral issue with only one possible point of view, and that’s their side, the normal rules and laws of society don’t apply. So Trumpies free to…