Protesting the Protesters: Bruce Robbins on the Protests over Vietnam, Gaza and Minneapolis
"I'm much more likely to protest when I feel responsible—when violence is being done in my name." — Bruce Robbins
As always, the media is full of stories about political protest. A Columbia University Gaza protester held by ICE claims to have been chained to her bed after a seizure. Our friends at FIRE are addressing the right to demonstrate against ICE in a house of worship. Obama is arguing that ICE demonstrators should have the right to demonstrate on the streets of Minneapolis. The US government, meanwhile, cheers protesters on the Iranian streets while cracking down on protesters at home. Today's guest isn't shy at pointing out that contradiction.
Bruce Robbins is a professor at Columbia—ground zero for the Gaza encampments of 2024—and his new book Who's Allowed to Protest? argues against those who protest the protesters. Conservatives like David Brooks, Musa al-Gharbi, and others have dismissed campus demonstrators as "spoiled rich kids at elite schools" who are "just doing this to feel morally superior." Robbins points out that the same argument was used against Vietnam protesters in the 60s, against Greta Thunberg's climate activism, and against anyone whose cause appears in any way utopian. This reactionary critique never changes: they're privileged, they're not starving, so ignore their hypocritical whining.
What drives people to protest? Robbins says it's a sense of moral responsibility. He confesses that he's much more likely to get off his couch when violence is done in his name—particularly as a Jew or an American. And he makes an interesting broader argument: that the conservative attack on student "elites" dangerously conflates educated elites with moneyed elites. The firefighters in LA were an elite team, he reminds us. Scientists are elites. We need expertise, Columbia's Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities says. The question is who controls this expert knowledge and who pays for it.
I think Bruce Robbins has a point here. But some American student protesters, especially the Gaza crowd, do make themselves vulnerable to critics like Brooks and al-Gharbi. As I suggested to Robbins, if these smart kids at Columbia want to protest, then they should be smart about it. Especially by recognizing the moral complexities of the Palestine-Israel issue and by being able to convincingly explain why they chose to protest this injustice over everything else.
About the Guest
Bruce Robbins is the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. He is the author of Atrocity: A Literary History and numerous other books. His new book is Who's Allowed to Protest? (2026). He succeeded Edward Said in the Old Dominion chair.
References
People mentioned:
● David Brooks wrote about "America Needing a Mass Movement"—though apparently not an anti-Israel one. Robbins finds his dismissal of protesters hypocritical.
● Musa al-Gharbi is the author of We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite, which Robbins takes issue with.
● Edward Said held the Old Dominion chair before Robbins and was a visible Palestinian presence at Columbia. His office was trashed multiple times and he received death threats.
● Mahmoud Khalil was a Columbia student arrested in his apartment lobby in front of his pregnant wife, jailed for 104 days, released by court order, and is now facing re-arrest.
● Bari Weiss, now head of CBS News, tried to get Palestinian professors fired when she was a Columbia undergraduate, sponsored by the David Project.
● Greta Thunberg faces the same "spoiled rich kids" critique that Gaza protesters face. Robbins sees the same silencing tactic applied to any protest that seems "disinterested."
● Greg Lukianoff and FIRE are mentioned as free speech absolutists.
Events mentioned:
● Columbia 1968 preceded May 1968 in Paris. Apparently the Paris students asked Columbia students for advice on what to do after occupying a building.
● The Columbia encampments of April 2024 made the university ground zero for Gaza protest in America.
● Robbins was found guilty by Columbia for taking students to visit the encampment during his class on representations of atrocity.
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States—hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.
Chapters:
- (00:00) - Introduction: Headlines full of protest
- (02:07) - The double standard on protest
- (03:32) - Lika Cordia and Mahmoud Khalil
- (05:46) - Is this just a Columbia issue?
- (07:44) - Brooks, al-Gharbi, and the broader argument
- (09:12) - Greta Thunberg and the spoiled-kids critique
- (10:11) - Do leftists have the same authoritarian impulse?
- (12:19) - Not rights but attention
- (13:09) - The 60s parallel: Vietnam and Oedipal nonsense
- (14:50) - Why Columbia became ground zero
- (16:47) - Bari Weiss and the David Project
- (19:03) - Bruce is found guilty
- (23:38) - Iran, Sudan, and what gets us off the couch
- (28:18) - Elite firefighters and respect for expertise
- (31:18) - Do protesters need to be better i...
00:00 - Introduction: Headlines full of protest
02:07 - The double standard on protest
03:32 - Lika Cordia and Mahmoud Khalil
05:46 - Is this just a Columbia issue?
07:44 - Brooks, al-Gharbi, and the broader argument
09:12 - Greta Thunberg and the spoiled-kids critique
10:11 - Do leftists have the same authoritarian impulse?
12:19 - Not rights but attention
13:09 - The 60s parallel: Vietnam and Oedipal nonsense
14:50 - Why Columbia became ground zero
16:47 - Bari Weiss and the David Project
19:03 - Bruce is found guilty
23:38 - Iran, Sudan, and what gets us off the couch
28:18 - Elite firefighters and respect for expertise
31:18 - Do protesters need to be better informed?
36:20 - Will history ask why we didn't protest?
39:07 - Who's not allowed to protest?
[00:00:44] Andrew Keen: Hello everybody, it’s Tuesday, the 17th of February, 2026. The headlines are full of stories about one kind of protest or another. New York Times, a couple of days ago, had a headline about a Columbia University protester who was held by ICE... The guys at FIRE... are protecting New Yorkers' right to demonstrate near houses of worship. Barack Obama has argued that ICE demonstrators have a right to be on the streets of Minneapolis. And of course, outside the United States, the demonstrations continue in Iran...
[00:01:38] Andrew Keen: Meanwhile, there’s a new book out about protest by my guest today, Bruce Robbins, who’s a professor of the humanities at Columbia University. It’s called Who’s Allowed to Protest? Bruce, what kind of title is that? Isn’t anyone allowed to protest?
[00:02:07] Bruce Robbins: Very, very far from me to suggest such a thing. I’m struck by the double standard that our government seems to be wildly enthusiastic when the people of Iran protest, but not so enthusiastic when the people of Minneapolis do.
[00:02:30] Andrew Keen: No, and I think it goes without saying that at least on Keen on America, we’re very much in the protest rights camp.
[00:02:40] Bruce Robbins: Right... The inspiration for this book... was certain reaction in the mainstream press when the students at Columbia where I teach protested the violence—military violence—in the spring of 2024 in Gaza. And people were saying... "You really don’t have to listen to these kids. They’re—they’re brats at an elite school... they’re elites and you really don’t have to listen to them."
[00:03:32] Andrew Keen: So it's like this character, Lika Cordia... the argument that she was part of an elite, she went to Columbia University, so she had no right to protest?
[00:03:41] Bruce Robbins: Something like that... Mahmoud Khalil... who was involved in the protests and was arrested in the lobby of his apartment building in front of his pregnant wife and then deported—sent to Louisiana, spent, I don’t know, 104 days in—in prison.
[00:04:22] Andrew Keen: Yeah... I saw one [headline] a couple of days ago about him. I think he’s out, but he’s still giving interviews and they’re still trying to throw him out of the country.
[00:04:31] Bruce Robbins: Exactly... that would be an example of someone that the government would be saying doesn’t have the right to protest because he has a green card, but he’s—he’s not a citizen.
[00:04:42] Andrew Keen: Bruce, you—as I said, you’re a professor at Columbia University... Why did Columbia... become ground zero in all this?
[00:14:50] Bruce Robbins: Uh, good question. Um, some of it I think has to do with the history. The fact that Columbia 1968 caught the world’s attention in a big way... It’s also true that Edward W. Said, who died in 2003—
[00:15:28] Andrew Keen: Whose chair you now occupy... Quite a big chair, Bruce, for you to occupy.
[00:15:43] Bruce Robbins: Don’t humiliate me in public like this... But he was a very, very visible Palestinian presence. I think he expanded radically the range of things that were sayable in American mainstream discourse... and that attracted a lot of attention to Columbia.
[00:18:16] Andrew Keen: I remember her name now; I looked it up. Bari Weiss... Is this an inside Columbia University or inside Upper West Side New York kind of argument... meanwhile something real is happening in Iran.
[00:19:03] Bruce Robbins: Well, I certainly take Iran very, very seriously... I personally am much more liable to demonstrate when either as a Jew or as an American I feel responsible.
[00:24:49] Andrew Keen: I had a daughter—or I have a daughter—who was a bit of a demonstrator. I’m not sure how much she really knew about the complexity of the situation... I mean, she certainly was involved in all sorts of tent cities.
[00:25:15] Bruce Robbins: ...one of the members of the Board of Trustees of Columbia was on the Board of Trustees of Lockheed Martin... It counts when Columbia either objects or doesn’t object to the way its endowment is used and who’s on its Board of Trustees.
[00:27:32] Andrew Keen: How deep are the wounds on all this stuff? ... Are these things done now? Are they fixed, or is the wound so deep that it will last forever?
[00:27:45] Bruce Robbins: Nothing lasts forever... The Columbia campus seems pretty quiet right now... I don’t think this is the one big issue in the world. I mean, I totally take the point that what’s going on in Iran is bigger.
[00:28:18] Bruce Robbins: If you don’t mind, I’m going to try to divert the conversation a little bit in the direction of California... one thing that you and I have in common and which is a theme of my book is respect for expertise—respect for knowledge... When I object to anti-elitism, I’m trying to make a broader case... against a kind of anti-elitism that encourages closing down federal agencies and that discourages respect for expertise.
[00:30:08] Andrew Keen: No, yeah, I know how to demonstrate. No, I take your point... I wonder, Bruce... do you think the protesters... need to be better armed, more informed, be able to say, "Look, I know that Gaza... doesn’t compare with what’s happening in Sudan... But nonetheless, I still have the right to demonstrate..."
[00:31:18] Bruce Robbins: Yeah... I think the demonstrators at Columbia... were feeling some version of what I feel myself, which is I’m much more likely to protest when I feel responsible.
[00:35:36] Andrew Keen: So you’re saying that—I mean, in 20, 30, 50 years... do you think people will look back... and say, "Why weren’t people protesting?"
[00:36:20] Bruce Robbins: Yeah... what I would predict, however—which is not a happy prediction—is that the many, many people who died in Gaza since October 2023... have generated a whole generation of people who are going to be at least as angry at them as Hamas was or is.
[00:38:13] Bruce Robbins: ...I’m not saying that [everyone who doesn't protest is morally compromised]... I’m a very reluctant protester myself... I am very comfortable where I am, I watch sports... I understand that life is complicated and there are many demands on us.
[00:39:07] Andrew Keen: Netflix has to be watched. So, I guess what I’m suggesting is... I would title it Who’s Not Allowed to Protest?
[00:39:19] Bruce Robbins: That might have been a better title for it.
[00:39:23] Andrew Keen: Well, Bruce Robbins, you’ve been a wonderful sport... you’ve been very honest and forthright in your position. Thank you so much, and we’ll have to get you back on to talk more atrocity.