Of course, we'll get into this more, but it's, of course, just been very remarkable, particularly

over the past week to see how members of Congress have totally reframed, to say the least,

what these protesters are asking for. And what they have been asking for for years, this is,

again, not new. So let's talk about this reframing because last week there were, I think it was all New York

Republican representatives and Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, all descended on Columbia's

campus to give a speech, which was met with booze and years from the audience, but which

didn't, I think, anticipate a positive response. It was a kind of performative

pageantry to demonstrate to a broader right-leaning audience or pro-Zionist audience that these

representatives were clearly standing against the students. And that has come along with a number of

statements from other elected officials, whether it be Tom Cotton, who has now for well over a week been making statements that in sight quite literally approve of violence directed at protesters, whether there was a statement about how if protesters block traffic and

glue their hands to a car, then they should have the skin ripped off their hand. They should be

thrown over the bridge statements like that. Or Governor Greg Abbott in Texas, who has openly backed

the use of police force and state violence to suppress the protest, catch us up on how much

this has really escalated because you really can't overstate it. This is obviously a podcast,

not a visual medium primarily, but the imagery that we've seen across the country is gone

from having a conversation about, okay, USC bans their valedictorian from giving remarks, not because they know anything about what

she's going to say, but presumably because she is Muslim, there is this presumption that she's

going to say something about Palestine to make parents uncomfortable at graduation.

And that has now escalated into canceling the graduation altogether because of protests against the action of suppressing the literal speech of this valedictorian who's worked hard for four years to get into a position where she was granted that honor.

What's been going on?

So, of course, there's just the basic issue at hand of the litany of ways you could go to any number of these members of Congress, both on the right and left, particularly, of course, like the center left, on their stances on free speech.

Of course, this is a mask off moment for that as far as where free speech does and does not matter to them.

...