Reasonable people should be shocked that a McGill University student leader recently tweeted “Punch a Zionist Today.” Unfortunately, having watched the Campus Hate Swarm against Israel intensify over the years, it’s shocking that anyone is shocked.

Garbage in, garbage out. In the twisted world of radical campus politics, illiberal liberals forget that “liberal” and “broad-minded” once were synonyms. The herd mentality rules; loyalty to faction trumps intellectual independence. The anti-Israel indoctrination is so thorough, the demonization of Zionism so intense, the incitement against Jews so commonplace. Anti-Zionists lumber like cattle toward one conclusion: branding Israel evil justifies any opposition, including violence.

When everything you hear, read and watch in the anti-Israel echo chamber blames Israel, with no complexity acknowledged, it seems reasonable to want to punch a Zionist. When propagandizing professors make classes fact-free Hate Israel rallies, it appears logical to want to punch a Zionist. When Regressive Progressives rationalize Palestinian terrorism as Israel’s fault, condescendingly absolving Arabs of any responsibility for anything they’ve done, it’s cool to want to punch a Zionist. And when this hate spirals into a Hate Swarm – belching forth from the traditional swamp of Jew hatred, it feels noble to want to punch a Zionist – and worse.

Discourse in the Age of Trump has become particularly combustible – encouraging multiple Hate Swarms. The intolerance of Donald Trump and his fans is propelling the intolerance of the supposedly tolerant toward new levels. Trump’s herd stampedes toward their likes and dislikes, labeling allies “worthy” and enemies “unworthy.” Disgusted, the anti-Trump herd stampedes into opposing attitudes that are similarly judgmental, fanatical, all-or-nothing, with-meor- against-me. Too many students and professors don’t even want universities to be centers of free thought and critical inquiry anymore. In this North American version of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, campuses continue degenerating into re-education camps: kinder, gentler, freer and built on lovelier ideals but nevertheless unnecessarily, abusively monolithic.

At least this student and his fellow anti-Jew “stuligans” – student hooligans who place Israel at the intersection of the world’s evils – are honest. Last spring, tweets from McGill boycott campaigners denouncing Zionists as “Jew boys” exposed the boycotters’ anti-Semitism (not “just” anti-Zionism). This punching threat shows that when mob rule overwhelms reasoned discourse, violence follows. Welcome to the anti-Jew Hate Swarm. Tragically, some campuses are now unsafe spaces, as demonizing Israel escalates from hating Zionists to hating Jews, from denunciations to violence. ...