Jonathan Haidt and the Campus Intimidation Campaign at NYU

The Nazi swastika flew proudly over New York City’s West 4th Street this week. It was hoisted over New York University’s Greenwich Village campus on a banner that, at its center, also featured a Jewish Star of David with NYU’s emblematic torch in the middle. The flag’s white and blue color scheme left no doubt that it was designed to mimic Israel’s national banner — a ham-fisted visual metaphor intended to accuse the Jewish State and its supporters of mirroring the Third Reich’s genocidaires.

NYU’s spokespeople were, of course, appalled. So, too, were staffers and students who frequent the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, over which the flag was raised. But where was the mass outpouring of aggressive fragility? What happened to the cascade of voices that can be counted on to tell anyone willing to listen that they felt unsafe? How is it that a campus environment so attuned to and supposedly fearful of the rise of fascism in America was unmoved by the Hitlerian semiotics just over their heads?

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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The Nazi swastika flew proudly over New York City’s West 4th Street this week. It was hoisted over New York University’s Greenwich Village campus on a banner that, at its center, also featured a Jewish Star of David with NYU’s emblematic torch in the middle. The flag’s white and blue color scheme left no doubt that it was designed to mimic Israel’s national banner — a ham-fisted visual metaphor intended to accuse the Jewish State and its supporters of mirroring the Third Reich’s genocidaires.

NYU’s spokespeople were, of course, appalled. So, too, were staffers and students who frequent the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, over which the flag was raised. But where was the mass outpouring of aggressive fragility? What happened to the cascade of voices that can be counted on to tell anyone willing to listen that they felt unsafe? How is it that a campus environment so attuned to and supposedly fearful of the rise of fascism in America was unmoved by the Hitlerian semiotics just over their heads?

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.