Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his call to ban pro-Palestinian groups from Florida state colleges Sunday, after one of his Republican presidential primary opponents, Vivek Ramaswamy, slammed the demand as “a shameful political ploy.”

“It’s unconstitutional. It’s utter hypocrisy for someone who railed against left-wing cancel culture,” Ramaswamy posted on X (formerly Twitter) Thursday, alleging that it violates students’ right to free speech.

DeSantis held firm Sunday.

“This is not cancel culture. This group, they themselves said, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack, that they don’t just stand in solidarity that they are part of this Hamas movement,” DeSantis said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

  • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Hamas represent Palestinians like the KKK represent people from Tennessee. Some people support them, most don’t.

    It’s possible to support Palestinians while denouncing Hamas as murdering terrorist wankers.

    It’s equally possible to support Israelis and Jews while finding the actions of the Israeli government reprehensible.

    • Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Hamas is the only group meaningfully defending Palestine from the attempted genocide. Not at all like the KKK. They would only be like the KKK if they were doing it unprovoked. Palestine has a right to defend itself against genocide, and the only way that seems to work in Israel’s eyes is killing Israelis. Peace is not a language that genocidal states understand.

      • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Hamas is the only group meaningfully defending Palestine from the attempted genocide. Not at all like the KKK. They would only be like the KKK if they were doing it unprovoked. Palestine has a right to defend itself against genocide, and the only way that seems to work in Israel’s eyes is killing Israelis. Peace is not a language that genocidal states understand.

        Hamas directly provoked the current outbreak in violence by murdering over 1,400 Israelis. Mostly civilians, and many of them elderly and children. They took 120 hostages.

        Hamas aren’t freedom fighters - they’re terrorists.

          • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            Who’s says it wasn’t provoked?

            Intentionally murdering civilians is still terrorism. It’s wrong when Israel does it, it’s wrong when Hamas does it.

            • Cethin
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              The implication from your statement is Hamas provoked the attack through an unprovoked action. It’s implied that you’re justifying Israel’s genocide because Hamas provoked them. However, Hamas was provoked as well. Is their attack justified?

              • jj4211@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                1 year ago

                Considering he said “It’s wrong when Israel does it”, it doesn’t sound like he is justifying Israel’s genocide.

                If Hamas were attacking IDF facilities, ok, that would seem to be a desperate move that could be seen as provoked. I could perhaps understand that approach.

                Hamas instead striking innocent civilians cannot be condoned.

                Neither can we condone Israel going scorched earth without regard for collateral damage. We should be sick to our stomachs every time an Israeli representative responds to a question about mitigating civilian casualties with “It is simply imperative that Hamas be destroyed” clearly showing they are perfectly fine with Palestinian casualties.

                We can recognize that both sides are culpable for their actions. We can recognize several opportunities for peace that have cropped up, but failed to some key extremist Zionist or Palestinian keeping it from happening.

                So sick and tired of folks that need to see one side or the other as unambiguously justified when ESH.

              • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                You’re reading a lot into what I said that isn’t there.

                Israel isn’t justified. Hamas isn’t justified. They’re both murderous bastards and civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, are being killed.

              • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                The real slaughter started after Hamas murdered a thousand civilians.

                How can you justify killing innocents to achieve a political goal?

                • Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Oh, do palestinian lives not matter or not count? Or are you really so stupid you believe all Israeli propaganda? Because reality is that the “real slaughter” started decades ago, and has been done entirely by Israel.

                • Cethin
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  I don’t know how you can justify it. Ask Israel. They have killed dozens of Palestinians for every Israeli killed prior to this attack. I wonder what we’re up to now…

                  • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    3
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    You can’t. Israel don’t have the moral high ground here.

                    The slaughter of one group provides no moral justification for murdering another.

        • Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          No, Israel provoked that attack by committing 30 years of war crimes on Gaza, and attempting to steal all of their land. What exactly would YOU have done in reaction to an enemy intentionally starving your people for 30 years? I know that compared to how America would have reacted, Hamas is a full on pacifist

          • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            NOT murder civilians, including children and babies?

            There’s no justification for murdering innocents, no matter who does it.

            • yuriy@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              i like to believe they’re still trying to type up a response that justifies killing civilians without actually saying it outright

              • Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                Nope, killing Israeli civilians is justified. Ideally they kill soldiers, but any Israeli they find is good. Remember, the IDF has compulsory service. So all of them are guilty of the genocide. But a better reason is that, since the US made them overwhelmingly powerful, it would be absurd to expect Gaza to fight back along traditional lines of warfare. Whatever they are capable of doing to hurt the people genociding them is justified.

            • Thief_of_Crows@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Israel will not respond to peace. If they don’t kill every Israeli they can, Israel will genocide them. It is downright absurd to suggest Gaza is beholden to any traditional rules of warfare in the face of genocide.