Concern about lack of consistent critical investigation
A bit taken aback by breaking points and counterpoints lack of critical analysis of the encampments at uchicago, breaking the consistency with how they’ve investigated Columbia/ucla/gw/washu/emory/etc. the latest interview released today 5/10 as well as what was released on 5/3 made the same reference praising uofc admin’s response to the encampments…regurgitating word for word snippets of uofc admins published statements without even investigating what was actually happening on the ground and what students and faculty in the encampment were experiencing (and how much their speech has been silenced with suspensions and arrests since November when they began speaking out about the war crimes in Gaza. I know uofc isn’t a bastion of free speech and hasn’t been for the past decade bc I’m an alumn of the college and was on call as a medic for the encampent all of the past week. I treated students who got sprayed with skunk Monday of last week, mere hours after their encampment was set up. I witnessed former USAID COO Bonnie Glick tweet on 5/2 at 9 pm that the students were terrorists and that she had recruited fraternity members at uofc and surrounding colleges to handle them for her (literally check X, the tweet is still up). Exactly 14 hours later, sure as day, several fraternity boys showed up looking for a fight and to convince admin to suspend/deport all the campers. It did get violent for a bit, but eventually simmered into a tense atmosphere throughout the weekend until on Tuesday at 4 am ucpd in riot gear and cpd in unmarked cars around campus stormed the camp, were filmed hitting students and faculty with slabs of plywood, hid their badges, etc to the point… even the mayor of Chicago and cpd publicly came out criticizing ucpd’s plan of conduct immediately after the raid ended. DePaul and northwestern were far more tolerant of free speech and student encampments than uofc by a long shot. UofC hasn’t been a bastion of free speech for the past decade if not more. I got death threats anonymously to my doorstep on several occasions in 2016 when I was a student after doing a teach in on the humanitarian situation in Gaza post operation protective edge, I got spooked after the third round of such threats and went to uofc admin who not only refused to investigate who was sending these threatening messages to me, but told me to reconsider doing whatever led me to deserve receiving notes like that or to face potential consequences for appearing to some students to be spreading antisemitism by even hosting the teach in that uofc themselves signed off on. I myself am Jewish, I myself had only done ONE teach in. For the next 7 years that shut me up out of fear to ever speak my mind on anything again, like a coward I didn’t want to be smeared and I didn’t want to be physically harmed…but those should never be the options forced on students simply doing a teach in that isn’t disrupting anything in a “free country” whatsoever. Additionally, UCPD has a higher security density than the Vatican and they have been documented shooting at students and faculty in years prior, most notably during an incident in 2019 which I witnessed from two blocks away with my own eyes. I hope counterpoints and breaking points critically investigate uchicago like they have for other schools instead of regurgitating uofc admin’s published statements. I know you are better than this and are better journalists than this, please give this story the balanced investigation it deserves, not just a skewed version that entirely ignores lived experiences of students and faculty on the ground.
The Power of Comedy
Dear Krystal and Saagar, I was lucky enough to attend the Breaking Points live show in NYC last year and was frankly surprised by how much I laughed that night. As a Palestinian comedy writer myself, I’m curious what your philosophies are on the role of comedy in retail politics, justice movements, and your own personal lives as fellow political junkies.
The Lone Soldiers
Hey guys, huge fan recent premium subscriber, and I am feeling pretty anxious over this rabbit hole I've found myself in. It seems a very common theme with conflicts happening domestically over the Israel occupation where former IDF soldiers instigating (i.e. ASU professor, young men spraying chemicals on protestors at Columbia) violence. Occam's razor says they're probably just young people getting heated and wanting to take it out on the "other" however, it might just be me but the idea of this many citizens with that strong of loyalty to Israel makes me nervous as hell lmao. Am I dipping too far into the conspiracy theory bucket to think it could be an intentional system to do exactly what was done in those scenarios? The ASU professor was teaching classes on ethics and called a young woman a bitch I mean come on 💀. If we're war gaming I'd sure as hell love to have 7,000 active (who knows how many former) soldiers spread out across the world in case of dissent I'm just saying. Love you guys!
Thoughts on the Eurovision protests
I wanted to get your thoughts on the protests in Europe against a Female Israeli singer. This feels like it goes against your feelings of mostly peaceful protest against the war when this is protesting in mass against an Israeli, not the government. She was even asked by the press if she shouldn’t perform to keep the other competitors safe.
Merch idea?
Hi guys! Thanks for saving my sanity since the Rising days - HUGE fan of all of you. I have not so much a question as a request. Can we get bobble-heads? Maybe they were there at one point and I missed it, and I'm not sure how cost-effective it would be for you, but I can't be the only person that wants a foursome of Breaking Points bobble-heads lined up to remind me there are still rational people in the media. Bonus if there's a drawstring or button for catchphrases! Thanks, keep up the good work! -Vanessa