Antisemitism and the mob mentality of Gen Z

It always used to be that anyone who singled themselves out as an individual, bucking societal norms, by being different, was often thought of as more interesting and someone to watch. Not so with a wide representation of Gen Z, comprising anyone born from the years 1997 to 2013.  

Apparently feeling safer and more secure in numbers, many from that generation have come to rely upon social media, influencers and fellow peers, when it comes to making decisions as to how to think and whom they should follow.

It explains the way that gender confusion began to take off, just a few years ago, as large numbers of students in a class, all began to believe that they were the opposite sex, trapped in the wrong body. This sudden phenomenon, never previously seen, was now everywhere. Not only contained to gender identification, that lockstep mentality also manifested itself through social justice issues as well as the political landscape.  

The need to be part of the crowd, by adopting the prevailing position of the Gen Z bloc, also explains how antisemitism has gained so much traction on college campuses. Once held as a giant warehouse of diverse thought, ideas and philosophies, today’s universities have morphed into an exclusive enclave where one central opinion must be the singular dogma, lest you be singled out as standing alone, pitting yourself against the mob whose power and self-aggrandizement is fearsome.  

Dare to challenge them, and you’ve just crossed the picket line of thought, which carries the risk of verbal and physical harm, for not bowing down to what’s already been decided as absolute truth. Sadly, this is what is happening at today’s university campuses.  

In her article entitled, “The roots of campus antisemitism,” writer Sabrina Soffer, herself a student at George Washington University, describes the “mob-like conformity,” as part of the indoctrination these students are receiving.  She reveals that these young people are “encouraged to define themselves based on race and other aspects of their identity as opposed to character. This group identity turns those with more oppressed identities into individuals who are seen as more virtuous and powerful.” 

Despite having endured centuries of persecution and disenfranchisement, Jews, today, are no longer viewed as “the oppressed.” That means that the only other box for them to inhabit is “the oppressor.” This accounts for the ubiquitous protests on so many campuses, following the October 7th massacre, continuing to the present time.

Just a few days ago, we saw protesters storming Barnard University, taking over the school, accompanied by bomb threats, along with their complete control of the library. Masking themselves, to avoid bearing responsibility for their intimidating acts, they become judge and jury, pronouncing condemnation on whatever it is that they have decided does not meet their standard of justice, equity, virtue or mercy.  

In short, they see themselves as the true arbiters of what determines the law of the land, and heaven help you if they view you as the impediment to the unfair society which demands change. So, whether it’s tearing down statues of revered past figures, who failed to live up to their morals, or completely rewriting history, Gen Zers will do whatever it takes to sanitize the world of what must be forgotten.

However, reconstructing Jewish history, in order to serve their purpose of collective guilt, is highly problematic, because Jews have only stopped being oppressed for the short time that the State of Israel has been in existence. A Jewish homeland enabled us to defend ourselves as a people, develop our gifts and talents and write our own destiny – all the things that they hold in contempt!

The strong Jew does not fit into their concept of those who they can champion, since only weak and marginalized people are worthy of their attention. But while they claim to be the stalwarts of such virtuous endeavors, they seem to deliberately miss the fact that it is from the evil hands of the terrorists, who have cruelly exploited the victimized, that they need to be freed.

Their inability to accurately identify the enemy of the weak is mind-boggling.  But to do so would require the abandonment of Jewish blame which would not serve their purposes. So, they, instead, create the narrative, one which ignores history and designates the independent Jewish state as the oppressive force, smothering the feeble and powerless inhabitants of Gaza who have been crushed under their rule.

But Gazans have not been under Israeli rule. It was their democratic process that elected Hamas terrorists to reign over them. It was their votes who put them in power, as Hamas demanded their young be turned over to them for the purpose of training them to annihilate the Jewish state. And it was their choice to elect savages who used them as human shields, forbidding them to escape harm’s way, so that they could become the casualties to complete the claim that Israel is responsible for all the carnage.

All of this has been purposely disregarded by the Gen Z activists, because to acknowledge it would have ruined everything for them. In their desperate need to champion a cause, all the boxes had to be checked, and if they weren’t, they manipulated the facts in order to do so.  

Mob mentality has always relied upon minimal information and maximum emotion. The idea was to enflame passions, to the point where discussion is unnecessary and even antithetical to their perception of truth. So why bother? Guilt is determined by a cohesive bloc which refuses to familiarize itself with evidence.

This generation, many of whom are our grandchildren, have been, sadly, used to usher in a new emergence of antisemitism, based upon rumors, innuendo, lies and lack of accurate information. It is rooted in ignorance and laziness – the absence of truth accompanied by the indifference and inertia to uncover it, explaining why they need to remain in a mob. 

Individually, they are incapable of defending their false assertions, so the safe place is to band together and hide behind the lies and the masks which remove all accountability. But just as any other mob in history, they are eventually unmasked and revealed for the small-minded, bigoted fools that they really are.

We can only hope that virtuous members of Gen Z, who know right from wrong and are willing to stand alone, become the real influencers of their counterparts who engage in such egregious acts.