Wednesday, April 21, 2010
In a way, this is something of a surprise: Michael Oren to serve as commencement keynote speaker. I half expect an effort on campus to invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "balance." [h/t: Louise]
In other Brandeis news, it seems that some folks over there are mighty puzzled by them Tea Partiers, even including them in a study on "New Right Wing Radicalism": I Wonder If Brandeis Has Invited Nancy Pelosi To Speak At This Event?
This is NOT a parody. It's not a poster put up by some kooky student or lone Left-Wing agitator. This is an official poster for an official, school-sponsored symposium at Brandeis University:
The symposium will be a look at the American Right from a "neo-Nazi" perspective. And when Brandeis says "Neo-Nazis," they mean "tea partiers." Think I exaggerate? Check out the web page for the event...
Update 4/23: Brandeis apologizes.
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What did I tell you? You cannot make this stuff up. Yes, some of the bratterati at Brandeis are complaining that controversial speaker Michael Oren is going to be commencement speaker without their prior consent. Via Jeffry Goldberg, there's even... Read More
I'm a brandeis student...While the event probably had to be approved by Brandeis, I'm sure the poster was not. Brandeis staff probably never saw the poster until it was put up and had no idea that a swastika (or one with an x though it) was going to be a symbol of the event. While the poster and even the event may be a little crazy, I'm SURE the school would not condone using that image.
for the record, one paper/talk was about Tea Party-ers. Most were actually about neo-Nazis (yimach shimam ve-zichram) in America and thus the image was apropos. Maybe tasteless, but appropriate. See response of Prof. Sabine von Mering.
The conflation of the Tea Party movement with neo-Nazis, seeing them both as part of the same gestalt is shameful. It betrays profound ignorance both of the Tea Parties and also overstates the significance and impact of neo-Nazis. It's a deliberate attempt to marginalize and discredit the Tea Party movements by falsely associating them with the most base and hateful instincts of the lunatic fringe.