In a world rife with inanity, it can be tough to stand out. And yet an activist with the group that led the violent attack on Democratic National Committee headquarters last year has cleared that bar in a much-circulated tweet. The tweet, which has tallied seven million views, insists: “A good law of history is that if you ever find yourself opposing a student movement while siding with the ruling class, you are wrong. Every single time. In every era. No matter the issue.”

It’s remarkable to see that sentiment circulate at a time when masked student mobs are assaulting their peers, spewing antisemitic vitriol, and chanting paeans to genocide. But, given that this faux-profundity has somehow gained currency, let’s tally some of the “student movements” that have been a source of (mostly authoritarian) misery, mayhem, and murder over time. In every era. And no matter the issue.

There was the student movement that helped establish Fidel Castro’s oppressive regime in Cuba. In 1957, the Revolutionary Directorate, an insurrectionist organization that drew heavily upon students, mounted a bloody attack on the presidential residence during which dozens were killed. Students served as a vanguard for Castro’s regime as it wantonly arrested, tortured, reeducated, and murdered those deemed suspect.

There was the Marxist-shaded Iranian student movement that helped bring Ayatollah Khomeini to power, occupied and seized hostages at the US embassy in Tehran, and fueled the rise of religious fanaticism. Ironically, for the students, one of the first actions Khomeini took was to “Islamize” universities as part of a Cultural Revolution, which involved purging Marxist and secular books and professors.

There were Mao Zedong’s Red Guards, the student-led paramilitary that loomed so large in China’s Cultural Revolution, who helped to round up, attack, imprison, and murder millions of “counter-revolutionaries.” Impassioned students helped liquidate Mao’s rivals while demanding lockstep obeisance from petty officials, educators, scientists, and educated professionals—all conveniently dismissed as members of the “ruling class.”

There was Daniel Cohn-Bendit (“Danny the Red”) and the French student strike of May 1968, which raised justifiable concerns of civil war. This led to street battles in Paris, the retreat of French president Charles de Gaulle to West Germany, moments when it appeared Soviet sympathizers would overthrow France’s democratic government, and de Gaulle’s ultimate dissolution of the National Assembly.

Then, of course, there were the US student strikes of the 1960s. While the intimidation of campus leaders, building occupations, violence, and revolutionary cosplay have somehow gained a romantic edge, the institutional destruction wrought by these protestors is perhaps best captured by recalling Mark Rudd’s 1968 letter to the president of Columbia: “Up against the wall mother—–, this is a stick-up.”    

I could go on, but you get the point. The ugly record is even more striking given that student movements are a relatively modern phenomenon. In light of all that, how can anyone declaim so unironically about the all-encompassing rightness of student movements? Well, for one thing, we too rarely recall this litany. After all, however wrongly, it’s natural to view earnest, impassioned youth as harmless—even if the record says otherwise.

But the past is pretty clear that today’s campus bullies are not in good company.

The post Actually, Student Movements Are Often Wrong. In Every Era. appeared first on American Enterprise Institute – AEI.