I don't have time to write a long treatise comparing 2024 to 1968, but I watched the protests of 1968 and the chaos in Chicago happen in real time, not in person, but live on TV, and I can say with conviction: 2024, you ain't no 1968.
The main reason in a nutshell: young people in 1968 were protesting a senseless war being conducted by their *own* government in which thousands of Americans had already been killed. That's not even counting the deaths of innocent Vietnamese. The protesters -- at least the young men among them -- had actual skin in the game, and by 1968 they had had enough of the lies and the killing on both sides. Some of their lives were literally at stake.
In 2024, there are many reasons to protest the terrible destruction and death wrought by the Israelis in Gaza, and especially since it's happening with the support of our own government. But when one sees Intafada signs hanging from occupied buildings, a hear "from-the-river-to-the-sea" chants ringing across campuses nationwide, one cannot help but draw the conclusion that protestors in 2024 are not protesting against atrocious Israeli policies and tactics, they are shouting at the top of their lungs their support for Hamas, a terrorist organization that wants Jews dead and Israel wiped off the map. (Don't take my word for it. Read the Hamas charter.) Talk about being on the wrong side of history.
So while 1968 protestors were not babes in the woods and certainly did not do everything right, 2024 protestors seem not to even understand the issue they're supposedly upset about, or how to make that displeasure known without appearing to be anti-semites --- all while having no skin in the game whatsoever. (Did they really ask for food after taking over Hamilton Hall?)
