This month, the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech related to Israel-Palestine dramatically escalated when Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil.
Khalil is currently detained in an ICE jail in Louisiana, facing potential deportation. Khalil’s arrest is part of a broader crackdown now unfolding, with more arrests by the Trump administration sending a chilling message to others speaking out about the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza.
After years of complaints by conservatives about “safe spaces,” “cancel culture,” and attacks on free speech, the Trump administration is now engaging in brute legal measures and accusations of discrimination on campus to silence free speech entirely.
To discuss this topic, Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Jenin Younes, a civil liberties attorney and expert in First Amendment issues.
Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.
For 5 years, a lot of liberals have been conflating discomfort with safety. It is now coming to bite us in the ass.
Would Zionists have gone after us without the constant drumbeat of censorship in the name of "safety" that happened since 2020? Sure. But that emphasis on language policing and censorship made the Zionists' language and demands mainstream, at least among liberals.
Jenin does a great job pointing that out, but also calling out the hypocrisy of right wingers who were all about free speech when they were the ones being censored, and now are all for speech.
I believe that we should defend everyone’s free speech rights regardless of their view points, but to still believe that the truth will win in the arena of open discourse in todays damaged media ecosystem is wishful thinking. I cannot think of an example where mis-information was stifled by the truth in the past 5 years, if anyone can please correct me.