We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

A New York University professor called out anti-Israel student protesters for being easily manipulated by TikTok and conflating the “oppressors and the oppressed.”

Scott Galloway, a professor at NYU Stern School of Business, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that there is a double standard when it comes to campus protests as demonstrations broke out at Washington Square Park in Manhattan where the university is located.

The Jewish author and educator defended Israel’s right to defend itself after the brutal Hamas terror attacks in October, telling host Joe Scarborough that the U.S. was “not accused of genocide” when reacting to Pearl Harbor, 9/11, or in wars in the Middle East.

Galloway called the “level of hate” in the U.S. against Jews before October was “on an iceberg that was 99.9% below the water line.”

“I do think there is a double standard. I walked by NYU last night, what I saw was peaceful protest. But I can tell you, if I went into the NYU square with a white hood on and said, ‘lynch the blacks or burn the gays’- my ID would be shut off by that night and I would never work in academia again,” Galloway said.

“There would be no need for the words ‘context’ or ‘nuance.’ I wouldn’t be protected by terms like First Amendment or free speech. I would be out of the world of academia. It seems like we have a double standard when it comes to hate speech as long as it’s against Jews,” he added.

When asked by co-host Willie Geist about the double standard, the professor noted, “It’s complicated.”

“I think, one, young people have a healthy gag reflex on what people our age think. I think that’s healthy,” he replied. “Two, I don’t think Israel has draped itself in glory over the last 20 or 30 years. They’ve shifted from being kind of a David to a Goliath.”

“Incorrectly, students conflate the civil rights movement with what is going on in Palestine and have digressed, unfortunately, because of an orthodoxy promoted by me and my colleagues that there are the oppressors and the oppressed,” Galloway said. “And how you identify oppressors is how white and how rich they are. Fairly or unfairly, Israel is seen as ground zero for whiteness in how wealthy they are.”

Students at NYU, a private research university made up of 20 schools and colleges, took the cue from their colleagues at Columbia University and others by pouring out on campus Tuesday to protest.

Galloway contended that there was a level of manipulation going on.

“What might sound paranoid, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong, I think we are being manipulated, specifically youth, whose frame for the world is TikTok,” he said.

“If you look at TikTok, there are 52 videos that are pro-Hamas or pro-Palestinian for every one served on Israel. I think that we are being manipulated. I think Americans are easier to fool than to convince they’re been fooled. If I were the CCP, I’d do exactly the same thing,” Galloway continued, adding that social media “is sowing division and polarization in our society.”

The marketing professor admitted he has “absolutely never seen anything like it” before, noting that it is “rattling to Jews across the nation.”

“I’d like to think that America is steadfast here. I think the Biden administration has done a great job. But I think young people, over time, will look back and regret their views on it,” he concluded.

Frieda Powers
Latest posts by Frieda Powers (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.