Perhaps youve heard of the Palestine Exception, the idea that all sorts of behaviors and speech that are acceptable in other contexts are denied and punished when it comes to advocacy around Palestine. But what if the treatment of Palestinians wasn't an exception, but a stress test? A test of our tolerance as a nation and as a people, for cruelty and the consolidation of authoritarian rule. Authoritarians name an enemy, declare an emergency, and, on that pretext, invoke extraordinary, often military, powers to shock and intimidate credible sources of opposition and dissent, including politicians, the law, the media, the academy, free speech, and even the truth itself.