Maybe you've noticed that a lot of student protesters are wearing cloth masks or kaffiyehs that cover their faces. This isn't just about striking a revolutionary pose. It's also about avoiding the consequences of their actions. As the NY Times reports today, many of these students at elite schools are thinking about life after the revolution.

On campuses from New England to Southern California, students leading one of the largest protest movements in decades have increasingly strapped on face masks and checkered Palestinian kaffiyehs in a polarizing bid to protect their anonymity even as they demand universities and governments be held to account...

In interviews, a dozen student demonstrators across the country cited the risk of being doxxed by pro-Israel groups accusing them of antisemitism, featured by news media or captured in viral videos. Several were intimately familiar with the torrent of online harassment, rescinded job offers and death threats that can follow...

“If I give my name, I lose my future,” one Northwestern student explained bluntly, as he demonstrated in a kaffiyeh and asked for anonymity.

But of course anonymity doesn't just protect you from doxxing, it also protects you from accountability for your actions. That's helpful if your goal is to flout campus rules about camping overnight or if you simply want to chant some slogans at Jewish students on campus.

Some Jewish students fear the anonymity is giving dangerous new license to protests that have already been pocked by antisemitism. Others have likened the appearance of some male protesters, who wrap kaffiyehs or other scarves around their heads so that only their eyes are exposed, to members of Hamas or the Klan...

At Columbia last Friday, a faculty member walked the perimeter of the encampment discouraging news cameramen from filming those inside, while students held up large blankets to further obscure people kneeling in prayer...

Downtown, at the New School, a prominently placed flier instructed protesters to “BLUR IMAGES, WEAR MASKS, COVER NOTABLE ARTICLES/FEATURES.”

It's amusing how the author of this piece, Nicholas Fandos, tip-toes right up to the obvious but then refuses to commit. Students doing this are looking to break the rules without consequences. That's the reason. They do it for the same reason Antifa wear black bloc when they are planning to smash windows or vandalize ATMs. Everything else is just an excuse. Fortunately, readers are willing to draw the obvious conclusion.

The relationship between the internet and masking works in two directions psychologically. As this article notes, the desire for anonymity in real life reflects the fear of doxxing online. On the other hand, this is a generation whose training in outrage has consisted of anonymous action online. Masking in person is designed to allow protestors to behave in person the way they do online, venting their rage without any personal accountability.

Another one:

Soooo…

They want the reward of causing  change without taking the risk of being identified?

They want the power to create and globally distribute their message without being held accountable for their impacts on other students and campus property?

Reward without risk, power without accountability.  

No way.

I give them zero respect or sympathy, zero credibility.

It all comes back to cancel culture which the far left has made a constant feature of college campuses.

I wish this article had addressed the cancel culture that progressives have long weaponized against dissent from their progressive views. College professors I know have reported an unwillingness of moderates (professors and students alike) to voice opinions in the classroom and on campus — even simply raising questions that might undermine progressive values — for fear of being doxxed and socially ostracized by their progressive peers. These protesters now can’t stand the heat when the tables are turned. It’s called consequences. They want robust “free speech” now yet have a long record of stifling oppositional voices. Here’s a suggestion: take off the masks, engage in peaceful protest that expresses your support for Palestinian lives and self-determination without inflammatory rhetoric, and engage in robust (albeit difficult) dialogue with the other smart people on campus, and be willing to challenge not only their views but also your own. (Otherwise, what’s the point of an elite education?)

They don't want to live in the world their fellow campus progressives have made. Too bad. Finally, a photojournalist says the students are hypocrites, demanding their rights in full measure but simultaneously looking to limit the rights of others.

I am a photojournalist who was at the Columbia University encampment last Wednesday and Thursday.  I listened to one student give an off-camera interview for 10 to 15 minutes.  He said that he and his peers are using “our privilege” to help others without privilege.  Later I had several students inside the encampment ordering me not to take photographs of food supplies in a makeshift pantry inside the encampment even after I told them that the image was framed without people in it.

Two observations.  First, the demand for anonymity is rooted in part in protecting future job prospects, although the students not wanting me to photograph the food supplies gave no explanation for their demand.  The anonymity demanded reeks of hypocrisy.  ‘I want to use my privilege to help others, but I want to be able to work for a large investment or law firm so that I can retain my privilege.’  If I were a hiring manager, I would be more inclined to a hire a student who spoke out and was willing to take the consequences.

Second, these students presumably are appalled when newsmakers try to shape the narrative by manipulating the media.  Yet that is exactly what the students are doing.  The students talk a big game about their First Amendment rights (technically non-existent on a private college campus), but they are quick to restrict the First Amendment rights of news organizations to gather and report news, particularly when they have been given authorized access to the campus.

The bad intent and hypocrisy on display are obvious to all. It would be nice if those elements of the protests would get a little more media attention.

Update: Saw this and it was too funny to leave out.

"I would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling Jews" https://t.co/dxSx1xOFBN

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 2, 2024