Over the years, media outlets have become islands of ideological conformity, where the need to affirm supersedes the obligation to inform. In the case of Israel, the subordination of Truth to ideology by some of the most revered international news outlets has led to levels of global antisemitism not seen since the Holocaust.
Under the guise of “objective journalism,” journalists frame information in such a way that ignites our confirmation bias while trying to mask their own biases and agendas. Given the constant bombardment of information from these sources, seeking out alternative views requires Herculean discipline, which few of us possess.
Media bias did not light the fuse for recent events, but it certainly fanned the flames. The dangers of media bias cannot be underestimated.
Sadly, bias presumes unconscious intent, and I do not believe the rush to judgment by the BBC, New York Times, and others in blaming Israel for the purported attack on the Gaza hospital, or in CNN’s case, equivocating over the likely culprit, was unconscious. It was malicious and intentional.
Their false reporting based on verifiably false information led to violent global protests and raised the prospect of a world war. It’s only natural to ask, “How in the world did we get here?”
I’ll try to shed light on how we got here by exploring the convergence of four cultural trends in Western nations, most notably the US and the UK, and the ensuing psychological prisons that capture minds.
The Role of the Universities
Let’s start with the trend affecting the media and proceed from there. Many journalists are educated in elite institutions like Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Oxford, Stanford, and Yale. Even those who attended other institutions of higher learning could be considered somewhat elite since approximately only 38% and 26% of the US and UK populations earned a bachelor’s degree.
Unfortunately, elite institutions possess very little viewpoint diversity. As I wrote in my book, The Cancel Culture Curse, “At Brown, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and Princeton, liberal students outnumber conservative ones by a ratio of at least 4:1.” It’s safe to assume that Columbia, NYU, and Stanford suffer the same lack of viewpoint diversity.
Notice that the elite universities with the lowest viewpoint diversities are the very same universities now hosting pro-Hamas and “pro-Palestinian” protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and signing letters pronouncing Israel as the aggressor while ignoring the atrocities perpetrated against Israelis. In the US, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Penn, and Stanford have become ground zero for antisemitism and anti-Israelism.
While being a college liberal in no way guarantees a student is anti-Israel and pro-Hamas, every pro-Hamas or “pro-Palestinian” protester at the dozens of protests across the US and the UK falls decidedly in the liberal camp.
I can hear some of you questioning, “What about the far right?!” The far right does in fact have a “Jew problem,” and they no doubt are aligning in words and deeds with their brethren on the far left. However, the trends I’m discussing, and which are playing out in colleges and media outlets across the country are not being driven by the right.
The UK has its own long history of antisemitism and anti-Israelism, but British universities are likely on par with US universities when it comes to viewpoint diversity. Hence, the BBC, the Financial Times, and The Guardian are bastions of anti-Israel viewpoints.
The changing college milieus in which current and would-be journalists are cultivated is a trend that profoundly impacts what and how “news” is presented and received. Now, let’s explore why these educational environments became ground zero for anti-Israel sentiment.
Saudi-Funded Programs
For decades, Saudi Arabia funneled billions of dollars into hundreds of American universities to fund Islamic studies and international relations programs as well as other programs in science and technology. In 2019 alone, 144 American universities received a total of $270 million from Saudi Arabia. When Qatar and China are added to the mix, the total amount is estimated to be $43,000,0000,000 since 1990. Yes, forty-three BILLION dollars.
The well-funded Islamic Studies and International Affairs programs helped lay the groundwork for pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel narratives to take hold throughout the US and no doubt the UK as well.
The promotion of these viewpoints created fertile ground to enable these Islamist and pro-Palestinian voices to ingratiate themselves into left-wing politics. Once inside, these voices started appropriating left-wing causes as their own: aligning themselves with African-American activism by referring to themselves as “people of color,” describing Israel as a colonial power, and conflating Palestinian rights with reproductive justice, gay rights, and transgender rights.
That’s how we get a group called SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Campaign conflating reproductive justice, which does not exist in Gaza, with the understanding “that Palestine and the freedom of the Palestinian people is an issue of reproductive justice.” Freedom from whom, we all know to be Israel, not Hamas.
Once these alliances were formed, they started to snowball.
Despite the fact that upwards of 70% of Israelis could be classified, using the left’s definition, as “people of color,” all Israelis, in fact, all Jews, are viewed as white oppressors. These identitarian gymnastics are the result of intersectionality, a framework to classify groups of people as oppressors and oppressed.
According to intersectionality, Jews are white oppressors and Israel is a white colonial oppressive nation. Palestinians and Muslims, on the other hand, are considered oppressed “people of color.”
Each of these trends has dramatically changed college education and culture, and it is on these campuses where many current and most future American and British journalists were and are nurtured. They then take their viewpoints to the media outlets that employ them.
These outlets have become ideologically homogenous echo chambers that promote intersectionality either consciously or unconsciously. As such, conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians can be viewed as a conflict between the “oppressor” and “oppressed” or the powerful and the powerless.
Regardless of the sheer magnitude of the atrocities perpetrated by the “oppressed” Palestinians, outlets such as the BBC will rationalize such violence based on the status of oppression.
“Intelligent Stupidity” and Cognitive Dissonance
The coalescing of these trends has resulted in two dangerous consequences. The first is amathia, a Greek word that can be defined as lacking wisdom, or as “intelligent stupidity.”
Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of philosophy, explains amathia in this way: “It is the opposite of wisdom, a kind of dis-knowledge of how to deal with other human beings, and it results in awful actions undertaken by otherwise perfectly functional, intelligent human beings. Moreover, people characterized by amathia cannot simply be persuaded by reasoned argument, because they understand the argument but are crucially deficient in their character, which…is developed over time by a combination of instincts, environment influences [author’s note: college, media, social media], and reason.”
Those protesting on elite college campuses and journalists at the NYT, CNN, and BBC are all intelligent, very much so. However, their characters are flawed. But for the fact that our laws prevent them from dismembering or killing people, these people possess the intelligence to rationalize any form of violence against people they don’t like. The only check on their reason would be to possess the right character. This is the danger of intelligent stupidity. It leads to what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil.
The second is cognitive dissonance, which is the tension created when someone is faced with information that conflicts with their strongly held beliefs. To resolve that tension, people tend to double down on their beliefs with more aggression and conviction rather than change their position.
Amathia and Cognitive Dissonance help explain why Ivy League protesters, purportedly the brightest among us, having been birthed in anti-Israel incubators, not only look askance to the reports of horrific atrocities perpetrated by the Palestinians but double down on their support of Hamas.
Only those who suffer from amathia and cognitive dissonance could argue that slaughtering babies, disemboweling mothers, and burning alive innocent people are fair acts of resistance.
Signs of Resistance
Knowing from where all this came can be instructive for how to move forward from here. Thankfully, we are seeing signs of resistance.
1) Huge donors to Ivy League schools in the US have finally started speaking with their dollars. While losing millions here and there when an endowment has billions, may not have a huge financial impact. But, it sends a powerful message of “no more.”
2) Exposure is the best disinfectant against dangerous ideological viruses. Americans are now seeing what has been lurking in certain corners of American educational institutions, and most Americans are disgusted by what they are seeing. Finally.
3) This is one issue that is not partisan. The overwhelming populations in Western nations are banding together to confront this assault on reason, compassion, and humanity. The lines are no longer left versus right. Instead, the battle lines are between wisdom and amathia, civilized and uncivilized, and good and evil.
Each of us has a role to play. Sapir Journal has put out a comprehensive list of actionable steps each of us can take: signing college petitions, taking political action, and seeking out news sources that more fairly present information. You are sure to find something constructive from Sapir’s list. It’s on all of us to toe the line.
Mark Sachs is the founder of Orwell Grey Strategic Communications and a long-time pro-Israel activist. Mark co-authored the book, The Cancel Culture Curse.
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Featured image: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
