George Ciccariello-Maher, an associate professor in Drexel University’s history and politics department, was a guest on the Thursday, March 30, edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight on the Fox News Channel, when he tried to defend a tweet he made that caused a huge online backlash.
"Some guy gave up his first class seat for a uniformed soldier,” he posted. “People are thanking him. I'm trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul," a city in northern Iraq and where the national government is trying to defeat and dislodge militant forces there.
Carlson began the discussion by stating that the tweet was “something that you wrote. I don’t understand the answer, but I’m going to pass on” the message the professor posted about an act of kindness to a soldier in uniform.
“Was that satire?” the host asked. “What does that mean?”
Ciccariello-Maher replied: “I think it’s really irresponsible to blindly support, for example, wars that send off young people into combat, risk their lives and kill many others as we’ve just seen in Mosul, where 200 people have been incinerated by U.S. bombs.”
The professor also stated that such combat is not taking place “in a way that expands anyone’s freedom, that makes anyone feel secure.”
Carlson responded:
But you’re blaming the soldier, you’re not blaming the policy makers. You’re saying that giving up a seat for a soldier in uniform made you want to vomit.
You’re not saying giving a seat for the guy who made the war policy, but for the soldier, the guy who’s [taking the risks]. Why did that make you feel like throwing up?
“I think U.S. troops need real support,” the professor stated. “They don’t need symbolic gestures. What they need is not a first-class seat.”
Instead, “what they need is health-care support, psychological support,” he continued. “Women in uniform need to not be subjected to an epidemic of sexual assault.”
More than anything, “they don’t need to be deployed, have their lives risked, be taken away from their families for wars that do nothing and no good for anyone.”
“OK,” Carlson noted, “but why is it bad to give them a first class seat? I’m missing that. Someone tried to be nice to the guy who’s going through all these hardships you just described, and that makes you mad. Why?”
Ciccariello-Maher replied: “I’m all for generous gestures devoted to those who most deserve them in our society, and I have the deepest respect for anyone who, particularly for economic reasons, makes difficult decisions.”
The guest then described such choices: “Whether it’s joining the military, whether it’s doing other dangerous work that has to take place in our society, whether it’s being an economic migrant."
“I think these people all deserve better. They deserve to not have to join the military if they would rather just get an education instead.”
"OK, but he did [join the military]," Carlson responded. "He doesn't have a government-subsidized job at a university like you. So why does that make you mad?"
Responding to his previous list, he claimed: “This is how we support the troops, not by sending them off into wars.”
Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time Ciccariello-Maher has gotten into trouble over a contentious post in his Twitter account.
On December 25, 2016, the professor posted a surprising holiday message: “All I Want for Christmas Is White Genocide.”
According to an article by Leesa K. Donner for the Cybercast News Service (another branch of the Media Research Center), Drexel University released a statement regarding the incident:
While the university recognizes the right of its faculty to freely express their thoughts and opinions in public debate, Professor Ciccariello-Maher’s comments are utterly reprehensible, deeply disturbing, and do not in any way reflect the values of the university.
Ciccariello-Maher said in an email that the tweets were only aimed at poking fun at white supremacists and that he and Drexel had become targets of a smear campaign.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the professor reportedly took part a racially charged exchange with his son in September of 2016: “Son: If I was a slave, I’d bake a cake & put a potion in it & the white people would steal it. Me: What would the potion do? Him: Kill them.”
We can only feel sorry for the students who supposedly learn about history and politics in any class taught by Ciccariello-Maher. And let’s hope no one arrives at a class wearing a military uniform.
