By now, you have likely heard about the Congressional hearings on antisemitism.

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who is often treated as a dunce because she is a female Republican, absolutely slaughtered the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the hearing. While the Harvard grad (yes, this purported dunce is a Harvard graduate and currently enrolled at the Kennedy School getting a Masters in Defense and Strategic Studies) pressed these college presidents to clarify their policies on bullying and harassment of Jews, they smirked and squirmed their way into a rhetorical kill box.

Stefanik: "Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's rules or code of conduct?"

Magill: "It is a context dependent decision."

Stefanik: "Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment?"

Gay: "It can be depending on the… pic.twitter.com/DshHkDrkdt

— Terri Green (@TerriGreenUSA) December 7, 2023

The entire hearing presented a bad look for the presidents of these universities for several reasons. The first and most obvious one is that these presidents have embraced some of the most restrictive speech policies on US campuses and suddenly and inexplicably discovered a free speech loophole when it comes to antisemitism. Had these universities been consistent protectors of free speech, even despicable speech, I would reluctantly applaud their defense of free speech principles in the face of grandstanding politicians.

(With that said, some of these demonstrations clearly crossed the line between speech and conduct, including harassment).

As it is, screw them. They are hypocrites and should be made to live by the rules they created for others: goose, gander, and all that.

As somebody who has been involved in a lot of meetings with politicians about how to communicate a point of view, I recognize the imprints of a preparation done by lawyers, not crisis communications specialists. These presidents came into the hearing with the strategy of getting a “Not Guilty” verdict in a courtroom, not one of winning a PR battle where they were already well behind on points.

They fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of the hearings and confirmed in everybody’s minds the belief that these are elite a**holes who deserve to be taken down a peg or ten. Which is, of course, what they are.

The results for these ivory tower elites have been devastating. The scale of the PR disaster is difficult to exaggerate, and the consequences will likely be the dismissal of one or more of them. They looked utterly indifferent to the plight of Jewish students on their campuses, and to be honest, that isn’t just due to their inability to communicate well but because they are indifferent to the plight of Jewish students on their campuses.

The fickle finger of fate will likely come first for the president of Penn, Liz Magill, who perhaps performed the worst due to her smirking at Congresswoman Stefanik. She managed to project a sense of moral superiority, indifference to the harassment of Jewish students, and contempt for others whom she clearly thinks are less intelligent or enlightened than she.

She looked like a jerk, and probably is one. Not having met her I can’t say for sure, but she plays one on TV very well.

She knows her head is on the chopping bloc. Last night, she released a video basically begging for forgiveness (without uttering the phrase “I’m sorry”), as John wrote yesterday. She released something akin to a hostage video “clarifying” her position (President Gay of Harvard had issued a statement earlier in the day after getting pummeled as well).

A Video Message from President Liz Magill pic.twitter.com/GlPE3QZU4P

— Penn (@Penn) December 6, 2023

It’s a strategy that is unlikely to work if she is trying to save her job. The Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, clearly wants her gone, and while Penn is not actually a state school, the governor has a seat on the Board and a lot of pull with important people. Even the White House weighed in against the presidents, so it’s hard to see how this will simply blow over.

“It should not be hard to condemn genocide, genocide against Jews, genocide against anyone else,” @GovernorShapiro said Wednesday in a meeting with reporters.https://t.co/qT4IckTpwm

— Taylor Gage (@gagetaylor) December 6, 2023

Free speech advocates have taken the position that even calls for genocide should be protected, and depending on the context, they may have a point. They worry that bullying these schools about their failure to condemn and punish students for their protests on campus will simply empower even more speech suppression than we have already seen on campus.

Of course free discourse is far different than interrupting classes, holding students hostage behind closed doors, and blocking entrances to buildings isn’t free speech in any case. It is conduct and punishable by any standard. That is what I mean by context.

FIRE, an organization I respect immensely, has taken this position–one similar to the ACLU’s defense of Nazis marching in Skokie decades ago.

Tonight, @Penn President Liz Magill signaled that one of our nation's most prestigious institutions is willing to abandon its commitment to freedom of expression.

“For decades, under multiple Penn presidents and consistent with most universities, Penn’s policies have been guided… https://t.co/k2GaIi4NY0

— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) December 7, 2023

Respectfully, I disagree. And here’s why: these schools have zero commitment to free speech and have repeatedly demonstrated that. What we saw in Congress was not a renewed appreciation for defending the rights of students to express even abhorrent opinions; if it were, I would be 100% on board with FIRE.

But it wasn’t. According to the organization, Harvard and Penn are the two worst schools for free speech in FIRE’s rankings–the most oppressive schools in America. They literally cannot get any worse and deserve no defense at all. FIRE should use this as an opportunity to work with the new presidents of these universities to craft unambiguous policies that distinguish between speech and conduct, and help universities enforce these policies.

They shouldn’t defend the enforcers of the current unequal regime.

These presidents weren’t defending free speech, but antisemitic speech in particular. If students had been chanting “Kill the Trans” or even “White Lives Matter,” they would have come down like a ton of bricks, and everybody knows it. When conservatives attack them for defending antisemitism, they are 100% correct, not demanding special treatment for Jews, conservatives, or any other group.

I’ll join FIRE in a fight for free speech, but I won’t defend the academic tyrants against people trying to hold them to the rules they created. As I said, goose, gander.

Let’s change the rules to make them friendlier to free speech, but until they are changed, let’s hang the tyrants with their own words, clean them out of academia, and start afresh.