Originally published at crisis magazine
(Dedicated to Anthony Esolen for his excellent phrase to describe the character of lies, which is “to supplant propagation with propaganda.”)
In my hometown of Chicago, supporters of Hamas recently protested in front of the Israeli consulate, where they burned American flags. (Why not Israeli flags? Can demonstrators have burned so many that there is now a shortage?)
Lovers of theater should note the quality of the protestors’ dialogue:
Protester: “So let’s go to those war criminals and make them f***ing pay for their crimes against humanity!”
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
Sign up to get Crisis articles delivered to your inbox daily
Protester 2: “Free, free, free Palestine!”
Crowd: “Free, free, free Palestine!”
Protester 2: “F*** the pigs!”
Crowd: “F*** the pigs!”
Protester 2: “This is what we think of your f***ing rag! This is what we think of your f***ing rag! You are all responsible.”
Protester 2: “Shut down the DNC [Democratic National Committee]!”
Crowd: “Shut down the DNC!”
As to the latter point, we should observe that it is seldom that anyone is always wrong.
As to the linguistic impoverishment on display, well, the protesters likely went to the same public schools and suffered from the same illiteracy as everyone else in town. After all, only 21
