Ever noticed how the most cretinous conspiracy theories are always preceded by an “actually”? “Actually, Paul McCartney died a long time ago.” “It was actually the Royal family who killed Diana”. “Everyone knows that 5G was actually responsible for Covid.” A few months ago, a friend’s daughter confirmed this when she told me how a fellow student at the same London university had inferred that the Israeli military had “actually” killed its own civilians on October 7 2023.
What shocked her the most wasn’t the level of misinformation (though admittedly lamentable, even by misinformation’s bottom-feeding standards) but the fact that this was said at a crowded pub table – and that she was the only one out of five students to correct the young woman in question.
I thought of that deeply depressing anecdote when I read about a new report, released yesterday, claiming that anti-Jewish narratives are “flourishing unchecked” on university campuses – thereby contributing to hostility towards Jewish students. According to findings compiled by Helena Ivanov at the trans-Atlantic national security think tank, the Henry Jackson Society, more than 20 per cent of the students questioned (from three unnamed universities) said anti-Semitic claims were aired in lectures, seminars and class discussions. Meanwhile, a whopping 70 per cent of those polled said disinformation had directly shaped their peers’ understanding of the Gaza conflict.
It’s bad enough that you could get away with airing toxic bilge in a pub, but British universities are praised across the world for their strong academic standards and rigorous research, and if those antisemitic claims are being repeated in teaching environments, it means that either the lecturers aren’t refuting them, or that they are doing so in far too feeble a way – as, many say, was the case at Columbia University in the US. Certainly, it makes a mockery of the words “higher learning.”
This is not a “we’re all entitled to our opinions” situation, and how “generation feelings” may feel about the conflict doesn’t come into it. This is a place of learning. Here are the facts. They are immutable. Anything we discuss therefore needs to work on those foundations.
Imagine if doctors allowed their interns to make categorically incorrect medical statements (“it’s not actually the heart that pumps blood through the body”), or the government put out a series of blatant falsehoods? (OK, bad example).
Young minds are particularly malleable, as we know. Now there’s a wonderful fact, but also a dangerous one. Because if the people in charge of shaping those minds are being cowardly or deliberately turning a blind eye to any disinformation that suits their agenda, those students will go forth into the world armed with nothing but propaganda and prejudice.
Ever noticed how the most cretinous conspiracy theories are always preceded by an “actually”? “Actually, Paul McCartney died a long time ago.” “It was actually the Royal family who killed Diana”. “Everyone knows that 5G was actually responsible for Covid.” A few months ago, a friend’s daughter confirmed this when she told me how a fellow student at the same London university had inferred that the Israeli military had “actually” killed its own civilians on October 7 2023.
What shocked her the most wasn’t the level of misinformation (though admittedly lamentable, even by misinformation’s bottom-feeding standards) but the fact that this was said at a crowded pub table – and that she was the only one out of five students to correct the young woman in question.
I thought of that deeply depressing anecdote when I read about a new report, released yesterday, claiming that anti-Jewish narratives are “flourishing unchecked” on university campuses – thereby contributing to hostility towards Jewish students. According to findings compiled by Helena Ivanov at the trans-Atlantic national security think tank, the Henry Jackson Society, more than 20 per cent of the students questioned (from three unnamed universities) said anti-Semitic claims were aired in lectures, seminars and class discussions. Meanwhile, a whopping 70 per cent of those polled said disinformation had directly shaped their peers’ understanding of the Gaza conflict.
It’s bad enough that you could get away with airing toxic bilge in a pub, but British universities are praised across the world for their strong academic standards and rigorous research, and if those antisemitic claims are being repeated in teaching environments, it means that either the lecturers aren’t refuting them, or that they are doing so in far too feeble a way – as, many say, was the case at Columbia University in the US. Certainly, it makes a mockery of the words “higher learning.”
This is not a “we’re all entitled to our opinions” situation, and how “generation feelings” may feel about the conflict doesn’t come into it. This is a place of learning. Here are the facts. They are immutable. Anything we discuss therefore needs to work on those foundations.
Imagine if doctors allowed their interns to make categorically incorrect medical statements (“it’s not actually the heart that pumps blood through the body”), or the government put out a series of blatant falsehoods? (OK, bad example).
Young minds are particularly malleable, as we know. Now there’s a wonderful fact, but also a dangerous one. Because if the people in charge of shaping those minds are being cowardly or deliberately turning a blind eye to any disinformation that suits their agenda, those students will go forth into the world armed with nothing but propaganda and prejudice.