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Joshua David's avatar

Gabor Mate's comments in the aftermath of the Oct 7 attacks were atrocious. He linked the abuses of Native Canadians to the plight of the Palestinians. His analysis was lazy, and inauthentic, and very insensitive I might add.

Surely stress plays a role in health, but like so many charlatans, Mate piggybacked a bunch of political and social activism onto a truth or half truth.

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Hāns's avatar

I too was horrified with Mate's comments after 0ct 7....

Prior to then, as a person in recovery from addiction, I had felt enormous resonance with his thoughts around addiction..... But I now see that his whole SHTICK is about victim signalling

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JMCWorld's avatar

This man should not be allowed to set foot in Israel.

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JMCWorld's avatar

He’s a buddy of Barrack Obama, I’d guess….. Look at that smug mug of his….He infuriates me….Deport the IDIOT to GAZA, if he’s so concerned with the “plight” of the Devil’s Children…..😡🤬

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Frau Katze's avatar

The plight of Native Canadians has been exaggerated, with at least one wholly invented episode.

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Liba's avatar

Thank you for elaborating on this man’s theory and practice. When people hear “Holocaust survivor “, they think it means he is an expert on Israel and “Palestinian” conflict. You have shown the emptiness of his theory. He is a soft-spoken dangerous person. I heard him say there was no sexual violence on October 7. Despicable.

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Jenn's avatar

His son has posted on X denying the sexual assault and rape of Israeli women. He accused the NYT of fake news after their six month investigation to confirm the veracity of these heinous sexual crimes It’s appalling.

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Diane Steiner's avatar

His son is as despicable as he is. I had received his son's daily diatribes on "Useful Idiots." Not sure why I even got it, but after reading some of his thoughts on events, I understood why it was called Useful Idiots because he was one of them.

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JMCWorld's avatar

Kick his ass to Khan Yunis City, the piece of garbage…..

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Cynthia Lazar's avatar

Mate was a family doctor for twenty years. He has no training in psychiatry yet has styled himself as a mental health expert. His lack of knowledge is evident. It is interesting that he is anti capitalist and yet has left socialized medicine to build his own lucrative business as a trainer for therapists.

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JMCWorld's avatar

Actually, this is worse than it seems to be on the surface. I’m seething at his moronic arrogance. Canadian, of course. My parents had to flee post WWII Canada, from its systemic antisemitism. He needs to stop maligning Israel and the Jews. He’s a dangerous menace to the survival of our people.

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Jenn's avatar

Thank you for exposing the cult of Gabor Mate. By using his platform as a “trauma expert” and by capitalizing on his experience as an infant survivor of the holocaust, his pernicious libels against Israel are extremely dangerous. He has broad appeal among anti-Zionist Jews and those who wish to see the state of Israel completely eradicated. To the ignorant and uninformed, his international profile gives him all the credibility and legitimacy he needs to spew his distorted views and foment more antagonism towards Israel, Israelis and Jews.

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Penny Adrian's avatar

"Gabor Maté is a Holocaust survivor" Really??? He was SIX MONTHS OLD when the Holocaust ended. What did he survive? This is just part of his grift.

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Diane Steiner's avatar

Like George Soros.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

Soros has been maligned by various people. He is one of the most honorable and intelligent (maybe no longer now that he is old) people on the planet. I've looked into the allegations against him, and they are either false, or misleading.

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Diane Steiner's avatar

I've read several books about him and he is deserving of most allegations. Maybe intelligent, but for me, I would never use the word honorable to describe him.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

If you want to understand anything in the world, you HAVE TO look at all sides. Have you read the debunking of the allegations against him?

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Miriamnae's avatar

My ears heard what my eyes watched his mouth say.

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Diane Steiner's avatar

Do you have any links?

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Miriamnae's avatar

I’ll dig. One was a well known 60 min segment Soros did several years ago. Chilling.

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Frédérique's avatar

From his own lips, George Soros very "matter of factly" says he has no guilt what so ever on working with the Nazis in 1944/45. https://youtu.be/WLs4YjlOSug?feature=shared

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JMCWorld's avatar

Deport that bastard Soros with this Mate creep……

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Betty Balin's avatar

16 months old but I agree

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Baila Olidort's avatar

Finally, an expose of Gabor Mate, a shrewd businessman who fools his audiences by projecting a persona of empathy and honesty, and exploiting his history as a holocaust survivor. Anything to feed his greed and his lust for power and fame.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

Not so sure he is a shrewd, greedy businessman. It's possible, but it's also possible that he is acting in good faith and just happened to have hit a goldmine.

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Baila Olidort's avatar

His anti-Israel agenda makes it hard to imagine that he's acting in good faith. He made statements denying the atrocities of October 7 and liberally spews hateful comments about Israel. Which of course, adds to his gold mine . . .

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Hāns's avatar

He was VERY quick after October 7th in expressing his support for H*m*s, and his outright disdain for Israel

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Suzanne Kabis Lichtenstein's avatar

If you believe that , I have a bridge to sell you

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Peter U's avatar

Maté isn't a holocaust survivor. He was under 2 years old when the war ended. He didn't experience any trauma of the holocaust, which gives the lie to everything that he writes.

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Diane Steiner's avatar

An absolutely great essay about Mate. I heard him several years ago on a video, and Chomsky and Finklestein came to mind. You are correct that one of the reasons for Mate's populatiry is a socio political one. He speaks the Leftist ideology of feelings matter, facts don't. If something bad happens, it's because of victim status, no one has responsibility, it's other people or outside influences, and science is whatever you want it to be. I've had several extreme traumas in my life, but my positive attitude and inner strength pushed me forward. I had no need for counseling, medication, or time to feel sorry for myself. He's the perfect guru for weak minds who are looking for someone to prop them up. Thank you again for a well written and informative piece.

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Steven Brizel's avatar

This is junk science Soviet Style

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Miriamnae's avatar

lol…amen

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Amanda Benn's avatar

I’m so happy you wrote about the cult of Mate. He and his sons were so disgusting with their pro-Hamas support and vitriolic comments blaming Israel for Oct 7.

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JMCWorld's avatar

This man sickens me….I’m sorry that I’ve learned about this fool….

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Diane Steiner's avatar

I agree, but it's important to know about these cretins because there are many out there.

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Hāns's avatar

For me as an ex-leftie progressive I need to purge the kool-aid that I've drunk and parroted for many years, and appreciate knowing who to look more closely at, to question the narratives

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Diane Steiner's avatar

I'm an independent, and I tend to go with the issues I agree with on either side, but the Progressives (sorry, not you) have become such a deranged group, I wonder why they even call themselves Progressive. I'm still waiting for some websites from the person who said Soros was intelligent and honorable. Have heard nothing so far. I wish you well on your new journey of information gathering. There' s so much to learn and know out there.

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Liz Richards's avatar

As a proud Zionist and supporter of Jews and Israel, I unfollowed him after what I heard from him regarding 10/7. I haven't seen much discussion about his nonsense narrative, so I really appreciate this being addressed here. Secondly, as a recovering alcoholic, four years sober, I can tell you that my traumatic experiences did NOT make me an alcoholic, and I submit I would be one even if I had no trauma. His narrative about trauma and addiction is interesting, but it didn't serve my work of learning to live sober. I had to come to understand and fully accept my role and the correlating responsibility I have in my alcoholism to live the life I live now. Great piece--thank you for it!

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Sandra's avatar

I think Gabor calling himself a “Holocaust survivor” may be a stretch. I remember him saying his family escaped the Nazis by fleeing from Hungary. Not like he survived a concentration camp.

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Iuval Clejan's avatar

Yes, Gabor seems to be unaware of anti-fragility research, and is not a researcher himself (or only in the modern sense of someone who uses the internet to find out things), he does not conduct actual experiments. He is like a carpenter who only has a hammer (no other tools), so everything looks like a nail (trauma). He, among others on the Left, have a blindspot to the simple fact that groups like Hamas are intent on murdering all the Jews in Israel (and people like him and Finkelstein are just useful idiots to them). Even if Hamasniks are partially motivated by trauma, and even if many Jews are partially motivated by trauma, he has no practical solution about how to move forward. He believes that Hamasniks can do deep trauma "work" and be healed of their murderousness...

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Debashish Sarkar's avatar

While there are many grey areas in Gabor Mate's assertions, let me pick on one: Capitalism causes trauma. Fair enough, it does. Bur how much trauma does Communism create? And where is the evidence of which system causes more cancer patients ? Mao Ze Dong's communist dictatorship caused more Chinese deaths than the total no of persons killed in WWII. But in all the eulogising over him by a pliant media, this is rarely mentioned. That idiot caused so much trauma to the entire Chinese nation, almost exterminated the Tibetan nation and culture.How many cases of life threatening diseases? We can go to Stalin and other Leftist heroes. Any evidence?

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