Resist temptations to see a dark money conspiracy behind the campus protests

There are many opinions to hold about the students and rabble-rousers camping out on college quads these days — and those occupying buildings and smashing windows.

You may consider them antisemites, terrorist-apologists, violent thugs, spoiled brats, misguided idealists, angry young men and women, or anything else. Or maybe you have sympathy for them, because they are motivated by real compassion for the real suffering going on in Gaza.

Surely, many of these students are ridiculous.

But among those who really dislike the protesters, many have rushed to a conclusion that is ungrounded in evidence: that the protestors across dozens of college campuses have some sort of centralized funding source and coordinated action plan.

There surely are some institutions that in small and scattered ways are supporting these encampments, protesters, and rioters, but there’s no reason to posit a broader conspiracy.

There are simpler explanations for why these protests are popping up around the same time around the country. It’s social contagion. It’s finals time, and so plenty of young adults see an added benefit of shutting down all academics right now.

You can also explain this phenomenon by realizing that many children of American elites have been raised with an entirely narcissistic and self-absorbed ethic, in which a relentless grind for self-improvement is the only thing that approaches virtue. They are, as a result of this vacuous value system, hungry for actual service and sacrifice. Raised and educated in an environment that rejects Western tradition as oppressive and Christianity as evil, the plight of the Palestinians (non-white, non-Christian, non-Western, poor) gives them something they can care about.

The supposed evidence of coordination and central funding seems to begin with tents.

This is an odd claim. For starters, the front three tents there are all different. If those light-green tents look alike, that may be because tents are a mass-produced item that are very affordable in 2024.

Those light-green tents are $15 at discount chain Five Below. Any Columbia student could have easily bought 20 on his credit card and collected the $15 on Venmo from each taker — no George Soros money needed.

And on the message — there is no uniformity of message. Some protest leaders declare that all Zionists deserve to die, others have no idea what they’re protesting, while others are calling for a ceasefire. Every position in between is also present.

I’ve been in political journalism since before the 2000 elections. I remember the Left protesting against the fact that they lost the 2000 elections, against the U.S. military response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, against the fact that they lost the 2004 elections, against the Iraq War, against Wall Street, against the fact that they lost the 2016 elections, and against the fact that abortion law could be determined by the democratic process, and plenty more.

I’ve seen the Right throw Tea Parties, protest bailouts, and storm the U.S. Capitol to protest losing an election.

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Every single time, the folks opposed to the protesters asserted that there was some dark puppet master or central planning or paid protesters. Either Charles Koch or George Soros gets blamed, and 95% of the time it’s total hogwash.

It’s just true that the people you don’t agree with sometimes get so worked up that they protest. Criticize their methods, aims, or rhetoric, but don’t assume they’re all paid by some billionaire mastermind.