Summary
The good-versus-bad, “us” versus “them” mode of thinking that Kenneth S. Stern, drawing on Hate Studies, makes the central human mechanism behind campus conflict over Israel/Palestine in his 2025 testimony and the enemy of critical thinking (Written Testimony of Kenneth S. Stern, PDF p.3, p.8).
Details
- In such moments people crave simplicity and certainty, are allergic to complexity, and give symbols — flags, slogans, or the IHRA definition itself — outsized importance; people who believe they are fighting hate are not immune (PDF p.3, p.24).
- Legally endorsing a binary, whether the 1975 Zionism=racism resolution or its mirror image that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, harms democracy and Jews and others (PDF p.21).
- Filters such as trigger warnings, safe spaces and microaggression hunts, and IHRA codification alike, operate for Stern as binaries that simplify complicated things (PDF p.38, p.15).
- Countering it is the long-term educational task: Stern closes Appendix A urging rebellion against the orthodoxy of binaries (PDF p.42).
Related pages
Written Testimony of Kenneth S. Stern, Hate Studies, Antisemitism, Academic freedom