Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe decried the radicalism of pro-Hamas students on college campuses in the US during an interview with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Thursday.

Scarborough noted that the radicalism on college campuses began before October 7th – “the radicalism that has mainstream students exposed to propaganda from Tiktok and their professors, leading them to call the president of the US ‘Genocide Joe,’ calling the Clintons ‘war criminals,’ and stopping a building  from being named after Madeline Albright who made history as the first female Secretary of State because their professors called her a ‘war criminal’!”

“It’s distressing!” Scarborough said. “What do we do about it? Students are being taught that American leaders are war criminals! And secondly the STUPIDITY of the slogans that ignore all the history [of Israel] since 1948.”

“Calling Albright and you a war criminal – it’s disgusting! How do we get Madeline Albright’s name on the building? Because she’s been slandered in death! A public servant who escaped the Holocaust and gave her entire life to the United States of America and has been slandered in death by extremists!”

Clinton responded: “I have had many conversations with a lot of young people over the last many months and you’re right – they don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East or frankly about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country.”

“The important point I want to emphasize is – propaganda is not education. Propaganda – whether on TikTok or in the classroom is actually the opposite of education.  Anybody who is teaching in a university or anyone who is putting content on social media should be held responsible for what they include and what they exclude. And so much of what we’re seeing, particularly on TikTok, about what’s going on in the Middle East is woefully false, but it’s also incredibly slanted, pro-Hamas, anti-Israel – and is not any place where anyone should go to get information about complex matters like what is going on there.”

“We have to do a much better job…in recognizing the propaganda value of social media. People are often on social media to press an agenda – ideological, religious, financial or political agenda. So of course, you don’t get the facts, of course, you don’t get any kind of context.”

“We have to do a better job with young people in trying to help them understand how to filter and interpret the information they’re getting and I think we also need to do a better job in our classrooms – particularly at the college and university level – not to fall into easy absolutes – you’re either for or against. Life is too complicated, history certainly is. We must do something to stand against these false narratives.”

“Heaven forbid, if we don’t protect this democracy, this constitution, our values, our institutions – against false narratives, against demagogic wannabe authoritarian leaders – shame on us!”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)