You call that a take... Funny how you never mentioned why they were protesting.

There is nothing difficult to understand about the protests on campus.

Coordinated protests is evidence of lack of community?

CNN MSNBC and Fox have not had student protesters on the air giving their point of view.

Google: Fareed Zakaria apartheid As a student at Yale University in the mid-1980s, Fareed Zakaria opposed anti-apartheid divestment and argued that Yale should not divest from its holdings in Apartheid-era South Africa. He co-signed a letter to Paul Giamatti's dad condemning peaceful anti-Apartheid protesters (downthread).

Fareed doesn't think young people are conversing. Perhaps it is he who has lost touch.

So u saying these kids are doing protest because they are lonely and wanna camp out for fun?

This is the most bizarre monologue I've seen from Fareed. Maybe College students have eyes and ears and can see the disproportionate collective punishment being delved by the Israeli government on the Palestinians and feel morally obligated to speak up. I'm actually quite proud of these youngsters. Gives me hope for the future.

Free Americans from AIPAC 🇺🇸

I used to have utmost respect for Fareed, but his take on this collage protest is whitewashed. Not for once did he mention the reason for the protest and how protest is one of the bedrock of our democracy. He simply undermined with absolute n0nsense.

Yeah, back in his college days, Zakaria was pro-apartheid and debated in favor of denying blacks in SA democracy and equal voting rights. Dont believe me? Look up his college and his debate group while at that college.

Their movement is spreading throughout the country and the world - what are you talking about?

Your take is ridiculous. You are literally the old man complaining about “these kids these days…” This is different from 1968 in exactly zero ways. These kids see the actions of the powerful, they see the injustice, and they are rising up against the empire. Period.

Typical of C.N.N. to have got this so wrong!!

Students agree with me : healthy discourse Students disagree with me: damaged communities.

My daughter’s college experience was centered around alcohol. It wasn’t part of the experience it was THE experience. Empty and sad.

Always offended, never ashamed

seriously, when college protest as united and crystal clear as ever, he doesn't know what to make out of it? Well how much did AIPAC pay him?

It's a genocide, Fareed.

Stop Genocide Gaza 😢

As a student at Yale University in the mid-1980s, Zakaria opposed anti-apartheid divestment and argued that Yale should not divest from its holdings in South Africa.[8]

Sorry to see Fareed minimize the courage of student protesters

He is righ about the decline in community but i don't see how it is related to protests

These protests have nothing to do with your Yale nostalgia. These protests are about injustice and genocide. Focus Fareed, you're trying to minimize the efforts of these young people and it won't work. Your monologue is boring and off topic!

Does this guy realise 40000 human beings have killed..... Good on the young people for standing up and speaking out.

That was such a weird report… it’s a literal community of different groups of people, different religions, coming together for something greater than themselves. standing up against genocide, if anything it restores my faith in humanity, it is so inspiring. The sad part is in a few years these pundits will look back as if they were on the side of the protesters the whole time

Yemen expressed its concern on the rapid deterioration of human rights and liberties in the USA, where professors and students protesting against war and a plausible genocide (ICJ dixit) are being silenced by force, beaten and jailed by police and threatened with expulsions by authorities.

You weren’t up against the ADL & AIPAC

"It's difficult to make of the turmoil these days ..." The very first sentence shows how clueless Fareed is.

What is $300 billion? The amount of free aid your governments give to a very small country far away. Where were our taxes spent?

Several things come to mind at my age of 81. How you going to keep them down on the farm? or It takes a village. Speaking of which our son just called from Vancouver. We are in Massachusetts. Walmart started it all. Buy low sell low sell high and let the communities (real people) fly kites.

The kids these days are doing exactly what they should be doing, engaging in civil discourse and making themselves heard. This isn't any different

Who is the highest paid person on the major university payroll? 1)College President 2)Political Science Dept Chairman 3)Football Coach

I remember well when I came home one day from school, wearing a P-scarf. My father was furious and my mother tried to explain to me that, even when my motives were right, I was not seeing the big picture. 30 yrs later, having watched the conflict every 3 yrs reappear, having had 100ds of debates.... my allegance has changed. Back then the Hamas were not "founded", but the PLO was. And what the leaders have done to their citizens is simple, they kept them in poverty and did nothing to improve their lives. And they had multiple offers since the 90s from nations not consideredd "imperialist". Against any peace improvements, against reason and most of all against empowerment. They turned hope into hate. Hate into extremism and extremism into online propaganda for all fresh young minds, trying to find a cause. If the Palestinians wanted a democracy, they could have done it easily. When Arafat got the nobel peace prize......next logical step could have been what the israelis already had.... but they refused. Why are students fighting for something the palestinians refuse to establish? It's not logical, nor common sense.

"Friends don't let friends commit genocide."

Why don’t you go work at Fox News or the daily wire Fareed? It’s very weird how the media is so obsessed with young people. We got much bigger issues to deal with in this country.

Once you fully appreciate how low our legislators (our role models, and builders and maintainers of our system) have become, then you can understand why everything in this country is the way it is.

As a professor myself, I have been witness to the process by which Campuses went from collegial, argumentative, thought-provoking years embracing a diversity of thought and backgrounds to an impersonal corporatization. The same can be said for medicine. Until we realize that not everything is best undertaken solely with a profit motive and the 'corporatization of America' is not used with a sense of pride, we will continue to breakdown bonds of community, discussion and humanity.

I think if you ask the average pro-Palestinian protester in the US what "river to the sea" means ... and compare that to the average Palestinian's response - you'll get two VERY different meanings. Most Palestinians will say that Israelis should "just go back to Europe" - yet , the majority of Israeli Jewish families can still trace their lineage to the areas surrounding Israel/Palestine during the 1943+ expulsions of the Jews from Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Syria, etc. They look indistinguishable from Arab Palestinians. It seems that the US protest movement hasn't even bothered to read Wikipedia before hitting the streets in force but are happy to have a new cause now that BLM has been knocked down a few notches in their credibility (especially after promoting the "we don't need allies, we need accomplices" mantra. Bottom line - think twice before supporting organizations that merely tolerate your support, but have a very different agenda than you may think (not all people think like you - even if they're "friendly" today). Unfortunately the October 7th attack served to create the precise over-reaction that's happening today - by design Hamas knew tens of thousands of Palestinian lives would be extinguished - but just didn't care. I can't get behind either side in this conflict - but I don't want innocents to die (albeit very brainwashed innocents). Think about this - if you don't support a two-state solution (or you do), you may be planting the seeds of civil war within Gaza that will lead to many more innocents dyeing than we've already seen. Netanyahu is bad, but Hamas induced Sharia law across the region is worse. Both need to go.

Horrific take

This is happening by design: universities don't care or want students to be outspoken or critical thinkers, but rather obedient and silent customers indebted for life. Students don't see their classmates as partners but as competition for scholarships or a good job. It's hard to create a sense of community in a place where grades and personal success are the priority.

Wish these students would put their energy into protesting the cost of American universities. These higher ed schools have been leaving families in debt for decades and denying children education because they can't afford one semester. Where are their proprieties? Help your fellow neighbors first and let everyone get a chance to receive higher ed because this is a big injustice at home here in the USA.

*FAREED IS NOT ONLY GETTING ROASTED AND RATIOED IN THE COMMENTS, HE IS ALSO GOING TO LOOK BACK ON THIS VIDEO IN 10 YEARS AND WANT TO ERASE IT!*

These young kids are clean and have full sense of justice not dishonest like this puppet.

The important point to consider is that these students are future leaders and politicians. The older generation of politicians in the White House and the Senate should be cautious as this may lead to their production. American politics is evolving and the media should be prepared to accommodate these students and their right to express their opinions freely.

Look at south Africa now, the crime is out of the roof. No power, no employment. Honestly we blacks got problem. we need to look inwards. Not a country in Africa is something to write home about. Are we the only country colonized. Time to look forward and inwards

mid-1980s, Zakaria opposed anti-apartheid divestment and argued that Yale should not divest from its holdings in South Africa.

AND it is a huge generational gap. People over 45 today don't understand the youngsters at all. Plus they refuse to discuss with the youngsters. Instead they hope to impose their way by authority... which is a wrong way to go.

Students: There is a genocide going on! Fareed: Students are lonely😭 Talk about an intellectual effort to diminish the protests and to infantilize politically informed and well-organized communities.

I remember being excited to be in a class of 300 students. Then it happened, and you realize you don’t get to know anyone. You make more connections with a smaller setting. I made more lifelong friends from my small Community college than I did once I transferred to a big university.

well, this is RIDICULOUS. I haven’t felt more in a community in MONTHS until joining the encampment during the day at usc yesterday. I have never felt in a more safe environment, everyone was talking, working on homework, meditations were being led, and professors were giving talks on knowing our rights, anti semitism, etc. The only agitators we had was one man who came thru the crowd filming everyone, declaring loudly he was a “proud zionist”…

When humanity's been decimated, all that's left is politics. And politics is ugly.

“Israel working to block feared ICC arrest warrants against PM, and others over Gaza war”. The Times of Israel. 4/28/24

I’m 100% remote in college, and with parents again, who have mental health issues. I’ve been in a state of chronic freeze through my whole time in college because I have no community and my parents don’t understand my own disabilities. It’s like the colleges turned a blind eye to the complex PTSD people in my perspective.

We have young people united in a similar cause, pitching tents and camping together on campus. You wanted a community? Now you got it.

You could have just said. All the adults have put material goods and addiction to money over the community. Hence the giant debt they built. As it was never sustainable. I have no interests in the society at large if this is all they have to offer.

The kids are alright. It's the Baby Boom that created the world we live in now.

The problem with this video is context, or rather decontextualization. It's fine to talk about universities as communities, but not in a period when there is an active event going on that is the centre of all commentary on the topic. Nothing that is going on now is about how well campuses operate as communities, nor did Fareed give anything resembling empirical evidence in support of his argument, and it would be difficult to do so for many, many reasons. Rather it comes across as using the protests as a reason, entirely tangentially to talk about something unrelated to them. If anything, inherently, protests are communal activities. Of course they involve disagreement and division, but they also involve working together, meeting, discussing, and engaging. They are fundamentally community-oriented activities aimed at using the power of collective action to reshape the broader community. And to be very clear, I don't think the sharpness of the divide over this topic has anything to do with students. It has everything to do with a United States that has always had a very sharply defined and one-sided media narrative concerning the Levant, one that other western nations have largely not engaged in, and one which cannot survive contact with reality. Students are more plastic, they are able to change their views and their understanding of the world, and so the transformation of their perspective has been explosive compared to older Americans. But that is, frankly, the fault of those older generations failing to ever adapt to the realities rather than the narratives historically. This was always going to happen someday, it was only a question of circumstance. The presence of social media, the wide distribution of camera phones, the continued escalation of dehumanisation, the creation of a dominant political coalition within Israel that overtly and publicly favoured ethnic cleansing, and then, an outrageous terrorist attack, but also a justification to act on those existing tendencies. A lot of people saw all of this as inevitable, including many Israelis. And when it happened, as it has happened, young Americans were always going to be the first to change their perspective, and to begin to educate themselves on the history, one the things they were never taught, and never had any reason to research. On the things Fareed has of course lived through as a journalist, and certainly the things Joe Biden has lived through, given that Biden is older than the state of Israel.

I guess everyone thought this video was going to be all about the protests since they're in the news this week, but I think Zakaria just wanted to talk about a different aspect of it and I appreciated how he describes changer over the years. 30 years ago, I myself remember endless conversations in college on issues of the day until the wee hours--I wonder if that still happens as much or in the same way. I expect it does not.

Editing on what a wise man once said... It is difficult to get Fareed to understand something, when his salary depends on him not understanding it.

The arguement for all these acts of loneliness and less community is as follows: CEO pay is 500-1, wages have been stagnated for over 40years, actual union participation is at 7%, productivity has increase while wages haven’t gone up, technology and automatization, and the outsourcing of American jobs have all been promoted by our Capitalistic model.

In the 80s, I remember students chanting: "US out of El Salvador." And now the Salvadorans have left as well and come to the US. I guess the protests were pretty powerful.

Cuz they hate Genocide??

I agree. I would also add that the present "social media" has made people vulnerable to extremism and ease the creation of social silos. It makes people lazy in their personal analysis of the situation. It trivializes arguments and allows people to take positions without background or context. It also doesn't help that there is disingenuous use of free speech, just to goad people. I have zero interest in many speakers at places like universities and colleges. But to intentionally invite people on the outrage factor to generate publicity is in itself trivializes debate. And it even happens in the commentary.

Truth. Got a bachelor's in the 1990's. Best time of my life. Racked up $12K in debt, paid it all back. Got a master's in 2019-2023. Prior to covid, campus community was just ok. Covid wrecked everything. Now I have $120K in debt and barely any friends from campus. And was mentally exhausted by the program.

"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."

the turmoil is the recognition of an injustice I am so proud of these students

We made car centric hellscapes. You can only get places by cars and that means the barrier to do things is quite high. I am currently living in Germany and social life seems to have recovered here and in other European countries quite quickly. People have gone back to walking to the pub, they have gone back to having a sandwich at a bakery and meeting friends. The last few times I have visited friends and family in the USA I have had to ask people to put away their phones while out having dinner together. Even though I see some of these people only once per year and we went out to dinner together they just can't manage to stop doing stuff on their cell phone. This is not something I have run into in Europe.

Colleges have intertwined themselves with the military industrial complex. That's what changed. That's what we're protesting.

There’s a tragic irony in universities instilling ethical values in students, and then punishing them for exercising those values.

No student loan forgiveness. Make them pay

Addendum: And colleges are NOT the same, as I, jobless, can attest to with my multiple advanced degrees.

I was a student when Charles Murray’s book, “The Bell Curve,” was published. We should have shut him down. We didn’t. Now we live with that inaction and young people are determined not to make the mistake that my generation made.

In 90’s, as with decades before, my university had Free Speech Alley every Wednesday in front of our campus Union. It was a discussion, not an aggressive & violent mosh-pit.

Before discussing, you should learn about the reason of protest…. If not, its just a bullshit

This was the first time Fareed was not interesting or important.

No, communities still exist today, they've just gone online. The issue is that this online connection means they no longer have a social connection to the people that are physically near them. Which may be a problem but it's not the problem HERE, this protest is more about power dynamics than divisiveness.

There is only one side that is not listening and is smearing anyone who criticizes it or talks about war crimes, apartheid, rights of ALL people ! Anyting against Israel is termed as anti-jewish or anti-semiti or pro-hamas - tells you a lot about the dearth of any credible, logical, sensible case against college students protesting apartheid.

🤦‍♂️ And CNN not the station it use to be these days. Let's act we we care and not face real issues.. let's just shed light on the people standing up against the system that do us wrong 👏👏 smh

Social media didn't exist and as a result echo chambers were never as strong as today compared to Fareed's time at College. Its also okay to oppose Israeli policy and conduct.

"You lose your job, you lose your membership in the community."😢

Isolation, alienation and loneliness is one of the biggest threads to democracy

More importantly, WHO IS PROFITING from all the money flowing into these colleges & universities? Public tax dollars as well as tuition payments are literally flowing into someone’s pocket!!

Saddest of all, social collapse starts at home for (arguably) most people. And that is where is should be restored primarily.

The comnents seem to have missed his point. He's not talking about the protest, he's talking about the wider concept of community. Ironically most of the comments support his argument

It's the the older generation that created this chaotic atmosphere.... they didn't do to themselves....then look at this recent Antisemitism propaganda that came from the older generation , basically bullying them for doing the right thing , seeing injustice and cruelty being carried against the innocent and speaking out against it .. that's what adults should be doing, and taking the led in , that's just completely backwards that's the problem don't try to blame them for yalls mess!!......all this recent anxiety and depression found in them came from the older generation,not leading properly thru example... look at Congress and how they act..it matters it really does

His reasoning just doesn't add up. College students today seem more vibrant, breaking away from the norm, and resisting institutionalization. I'm curious about Fareed's perspective on this.

Damn. I’ve always really appreciated Fareeds takes. I know his informed and nuanced, so this can’t be ignorance, just his preference and or attempt to help manufacture consent. Truly sad 😢

Zareed- I have attended many, many concerts in my life. And that has been a major part of my social life. The spiritual and emotional nourishment that happens there is incredible. Large groups of people all on the same wavelength and vibrations of beautiful music 🎶 experienced spontaneously with all of those people has been profound for me and them. And a whole lot of fun (!) Peace, love and community through music is still alive and well. ✌️ ☮️ 🕊 💖 🎪

Thank you for commenting on how Covid is a contributing factor in the continuing isolation of us all.

People are more aware of how much of an industry college is. Military industrial complex ties, administration that cares more about the money than the students, it’s evident.

Civil discourse ended with social media rise

What happens in Washington DC has an impact on Students.

I'm shocked...I've yet to see objective coverage of the relative size of these protests and their relevance. All news outlets ( right and left) are making it sound like students everywhere are upset. Columbia University has 36,000 students! The VAST majority of students there and on every campus are not upset! A very small minority of students are protesting and yet it's treated like BIG news and over sweeping conclusions are reached. The news media needs to keep their perspective on it's relevance and no it does not even compare to Vietnam protests!

Right now the young people are the redeeming voice of america

Israeli news channels, how come you never mentioned why they were protesting.

You can thank DEI and critical race theory for causing the fragmentation and division by forcing those to focus on our differences rather than on what we have in common.

This is the generation that ate Tide Pods. A brilliant group.

The social aspect is the absolute least of the problems with higher learning. The universities are failing as academic institutions. In an environment where unemployment is at historical lows, graduates are finding fewer and fewer job opportunities upon graduation because they aren’t qualified to do anything an employer is willing to pay for. Further, you can’t even trust their research anymore. The plagiarism and fraudulent data is at crisis levels. Colleges need to first get a grip on their core competencies. It’s hard to trust and feel connected to an institution you feel is overcharging you and setting you up for failure in your career.

Oh, dear me! How authentic! Do you see how everyone is soooo empowered? They're walking in their stunning truth as they move barriers and break boundaries (at the end of the day, a few of them even shattered glass ceilings; and that's like really radical)! I overheard some speaking of context-dependent social constructs; that caused my jaw to literally drop as I fell to the floor in rapt worship and adulation! The stunning bravery and unprecedented courage allows them to confront the traumas which are indelible in the hippocampus! That's really breathtaking and heartbreaking because they're really making the world a better place, as an inflection point on their very noble journey! Did you hear their voice? They're being a voice for the voiceless (that's like... really powerful and moving).That's like... um... soooo... I mean... iconic because they have agency; they're like... um... bending the arc of the um... moral universe to... um... like... social justice! Did you review the "takeaways" and "things you need to know"? Don't forget to reach out and, most of all: be AUTHENTIC! Black Lives Matter!