I beg to differ. Their behavior is not a function of stupidity or even willful blindness. It is a function of hatred. Before the holocaust, it was accepted by polite company to express a dislike of Jews. After the atrocities of the war became known, this willingness to openly say that one hated Jews was forced into the background. Antisemites had to consciously hide the beliefs. Now though, a socially acceptable outlet has emerged for antisemites to hide behind-“Anti-Zionism”. This is the new home of the pre-war antisemite. “Hate Jews!? Don’t be vulgar. Some of my best friends are Jews. It’s just those damn Zionists that I can’t stand.” It’s going to take a while to sift through this latest round of ugliness and a lot of Jews are going to get hurt and become very angry along the way. But that is, in my humble opinion, the world that we are living in.
Yes, the internazi - neonazi horseshoe circled itself. I've seen an increasing number of oldschool neonazi "influencers" on X etc. proclaiming that "we need to unite with the marxists".
I grew up in the Eastern Bloc in the '70s/'80s. Antisemitism was through the roof, as communism was generally blamed on "the jooz". How did that came about: the communist regime (correctly) registered the deep, visceral, universal hatred for communism (socialism, marxism - leftism by any name)among the populace, and sent out its undercover 'nudge units' to harvest and utilise that sentiment for its own geopolitical agenda of expanding the Global Soviet Dystopia™ franchise, of which the arab world and "palestine" was a salient detail. Also the left regards "jooz" as capitalism personified. So the army of plainclothes "influencers" were spreading the "hate communism? blame the jooz for it" soundbites amongst the grassroots, and sadly it worked on many gullible minds.
And it's still working on some gullible minds of the West.
So while the west is being flooded with muslims demanding the implementation of sharia law, right wing self-proclaimed "influencers" think Jews are the problem to such an extent they are willing to unite with marxists.
Yes. And the left is just as willing. Not only the ultracommie fringe, but the Guardian was admiring Marjorie Tailor Greene's antisemitism only a few days ago in an op-ed article.
There's a small but nasty segment (not only in the USA but here in England / Europe too) of the "right" that would rather jump into bed with islamists and marxists than stop being antisemitic.
Being a modern Progressive has nothing to do with any kind of scholarly or intellectual learning or wisdom, but is much more of a tribal faith-based identity, designed for our age of manufactured "communities".
The modern Progressive joins their tribe sometime in college, where they absorb the faith entirely off the rack—there is settled dogma (oppressed/oppressor, privilege and white guilt about colonialism and capitalism etc), a priesthood (Foucault Said Butler Chomsky and all their many acolytes), and most importantly there is the sacred Victim that binds the faith and its believers: the black/brown or Trans marginalized who suffered for their stigma and now become the center of the Progressive moral universe, where a rotating cast of Victims (George Floyd, migrants, Trans children and now Palestinians) take their turn on the Cross, toward whom all Good People know to pray and atone. (Social Justice is a post-Christian post-Marxist mashup.)
The Progressive faith serves a valuable purpose as it is the official ideology of the Western managerial class and provides proper etiquette and beliefs for the young and ambitious, serving as a social and class marker that provides the appearance of moral and intellectual superiority—esp as compared to their conservative neighbors, who are the real outgroup and enemy here, the new proles that our new aristocracy detest and look down upon.
The Progressive priesthood exists to tear down (aka "deconstruct") the pillars of Western liberal-capitalist democracy (as it must be sentenced to death for its historical crimes), but as they're only good at crafting malicious propaganda and prefer to maintain their comfy state-subsidized lives (profs never have any skin in the game), thus need to outsource their desire for radical violence: and this is where their romance for the jihadist comes in. A poor-brown skinned person shedding the blood of the oppressor in the name of freedom and Justice!—this tickles all their erogenous zones and fulfills their fantasies of midwifing a world founded on Social Justice where the oppressed and oppressor switch places and they get to punish their enemies w a good conscience.
The Left supported Israel until it offended them by winning wars and refusing to be erased, and after it became a rich, modern capitalist country. Now Jews once again have become scapegoats for all the fears, shame and guilt of Westerners and once again Justice demands that they be killed and humiliated for their sins against an imagined universalist, egalitarian, utopian future. "Progressives" know absolutely nothing except the purity of their own hearts, which allows them to ignore or support atrocities without a second thought. They will learn nothing, apologize for nothing, and just like their Soviet predecessors, will create nothing but rubble and bloodshed all "for a better world".
Excellent piece. Intelligence has nothing to do with evil or hatred. I read somewhere that most of the leaders of the Nazi party had Masters degrees, yet they also fell under the mental virus of Jew hatred that even reason and rationality will not cure. And think how much scientific brainpower went into the Holocaust: From engineering to chemistry to logistics just to pull off the systematic elimination of six million people. And the "scientific" justifications for eliminating a race of people. And hideous, carefully documented medical experiments.
One of my first (and still the biggest) culture shock in 'the West' all those decades ago was that leftism is not only regarded as a socially acceptable legitimate ideology, but somehow an article of pride amongst the edumacated & moneyed classes, something to feel superior about. The polar opposite of what we had in the communism-plagued Eastern Bloc: anyone leftist was either a thick-as-pigshit ignorant dumb prole who cannot know better, or someone who sold his/herself out to grow fat on communism. Either way, they were the "untouchables": the social pariahs shunned not only by the polite society of intellectual classes (who were vehemently anti-left) but by anyone with a backbone and more than half a braincell.
I still struggle to comprehend how / why / when the West lost its collective mind so badly that it tolerated the left's long march through the institutions without any opposition.
Being a "progressive" means 1) you don't know history nor do you want to 2) you scream slogans and chants that have no meaning for you 3) you want to be part of the trendy "Jew hatred" 4) you desperately want more followers on social media 5) you are mortally afraid to think for yourself for fear you will not be accepted. 6) the only physical part that functions well are your thumbs from media scrolling since your brain has atrophied from disuse. 7) you don't know that your hatred will come back to haunt you.
How many well read people do you know? What does it mean to be intelligent? To barely read unless you have to and if you do to restrict what you read to reinforce your world view?
Wouldn’t surprise me if on average more educated people were more moral but just the same wouldn’t surprise me if open minded people were more moral and if this crowd isn’t one thing it’s open minded. And I’d bet not very well read too. Considering how many actual intellectuals have held venomous views doesn’t tell you much at the individual level. What traits build morality. My spouse has an internal skepticism about large group events bc of what they were in the USSR. of course some of them are beautiful but their size is so not an emblem of morality it can just as easily if not more likely be a sign of sickness.
If someone directly affected by war becomes a spokesperson even an ugly one they are affected. You have enormous numbers of people doing nothing actually helpful and none will explain their single minded obsession with Israel and Jews. They can use the word Zionist but they’re not frying anyone else from an ethnostate including unfree ones with more rigid identity This is the new anti semitism and it’s not wrapped up. It’s blatant just as Nazi anti semitism was. The educated masses really believe the Nazis didn’t think they had a good reason just like them. When you don’t live in a certain environment you can look back in shock and horror and not take the message. If it’s ok to relentlessly and selectively dehumanize “subhuman” people you’re on the same path as Nazis. You’re no better and you’re no different. You are a product of your times.
The fundin' of the "Left" may be (sit yerself down) a Nazi-(yep Nazi)-backed CON. 'Fore ya write me off as a crackpot (lol), DO listen ta Francisco Gil White on George "Open Society" Soros per the link below -- Soros may NOT even be jooish... yup, White offers compellin' argue-mints ta suggest that Soros is a Nazi in disguise (this WUZ a thing apparently) which would be a game changer fer the haters (who blame "us" fer the crimes of Mr Tsuris who might not only be a self-hatin' joo - kapo but not one at all!) an' a way ta take down the "lefties" who are workin' against Israel 24/7. This is rilly a must-hear! If ya agree, blast it out!
All of this so-called "progressive thought", which I'd call regressive instead, is long on emotion and the protest du jour but pitifully short on any semblance of reason. As an example, what shows their true stupidity is the group "Gays for Gaza" forgetting, if they ever knew, that going there would be a death sentence or, as I say being a former skydiver, BASE (Buildings, Antennas, Spans which are bridges, Earth which are cliffs) jumping without parachutes.
As I have written before and is articulated here in different terms, antisemitism is either ignorant (meaning one understands what they do not know and seek the truth) or stupid (meaning one does not care to know the truth and unlike the former does not know that he/she does not know). I have never met the ignorant one but I sure know a lot of stupid ones. These people are worse than the white nationalists or the neonazis because more people will follow the stupid ones.
The real question: how can so many nation states like France and Germany and GB remain stupid when they have fought antisemitism for decades. And finally, stupidity is hatred, hatred of knowledge, hatred of a people, and hatred of humanity.
They don't want to learn, or understand, what is behind the jingoist slogans that fill their feeds - they just need to feed their addiction to being outraged as a form of virtue signaling. You can't reason with them because they are, in an almost literal sense of the word, unreasonable.
I also can't help but thing of Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty in Through the looking Glass
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
Well said Joshua - we're having a meeting in central London on September 9th - organised by our Campaign Against Antisemitism - someone should read out your article
I beg to differ. Their behavior is not a function of stupidity or even willful blindness. It is a function of hatred. Before the holocaust, it was accepted by polite company to express a dislike of Jews. After the atrocities of the war became known, this willingness to openly say that one hated Jews was forced into the background. Antisemites had to consciously hide the beliefs. Now though, a socially acceptable outlet has emerged for antisemites to hide behind-“Anti-Zionism”. This is the new home of the pre-war antisemite. “Hate Jews!? Don’t be vulgar. Some of my best friends are Jews. It’s just those damn Zionists that I can’t stand.” It’s going to take a while to sift through this latest round of ugliness and a lot of Jews are going to get hurt and become very angry along the way. But that is, in my humble opinion, the world that we are living in.
Hatred? I thought they were humanitarians to the nth degree. 🤣
Yes, the internazi - neonazi horseshoe circled itself. I've seen an increasing number of oldschool neonazi "influencers" on X etc. proclaiming that "we need to unite with the marxists".
I grew up in the Eastern Bloc in the '70s/'80s. Antisemitism was through the roof, as communism was generally blamed on "the jooz". How did that came about: the communist regime (correctly) registered the deep, visceral, universal hatred for communism (socialism, marxism - leftism by any name)among the populace, and sent out its undercover 'nudge units' to harvest and utilise that sentiment for its own geopolitical agenda of expanding the Global Soviet Dystopia™ franchise, of which the arab world and "palestine" was a salient detail. Also the left regards "jooz" as capitalism personified. So the army of plainclothes "influencers" were spreading the "hate communism? blame the jooz for it" soundbites amongst the grassroots, and sadly it worked on many gullible minds.
And it's still working on some gullible minds of the West.
So while the west is being flooded with muslims demanding the implementation of sharia law, right wing self-proclaimed "influencers" think Jews are the problem to such an extent they are willing to unite with marxists.
Yes. And the left is just as willing. Not only the ultracommie fringe, but the Guardian was admiring Marjorie Tailor Greene's antisemitism only a few days ago in an op-ed article.
There's a small but nasty segment (not only in the USA but here in England / Europe too) of the "right" that would rather jump into bed with islamists and marxists than stop being antisemitic.
Being a modern Progressive has nothing to do with any kind of scholarly or intellectual learning or wisdom, but is much more of a tribal faith-based identity, designed for our age of manufactured "communities".
The modern Progressive joins their tribe sometime in college, where they absorb the faith entirely off the rack—there is settled dogma (oppressed/oppressor, privilege and white guilt about colonialism and capitalism etc), a priesthood (Foucault Said Butler Chomsky and all their many acolytes), and most importantly there is the sacred Victim that binds the faith and its believers: the black/brown or Trans marginalized who suffered for their stigma and now become the center of the Progressive moral universe, where a rotating cast of Victims (George Floyd, migrants, Trans children and now Palestinians) take their turn on the Cross, toward whom all Good People know to pray and atone. (Social Justice is a post-Christian post-Marxist mashup.)
The Progressive faith serves a valuable purpose as it is the official ideology of the Western managerial class and provides proper etiquette and beliefs for the young and ambitious, serving as a social and class marker that provides the appearance of moral and intellectual superiority—esp as compared to their conservative neighbors, who are the real outgroup and enemy here, the new proles that our new aristocracy detest and look down upon.
The Progressive priesthood exists to tear down (aka "deconstruct") the pillars of Western liberal-capitalist democracy (as it must be sentenced to death for its historical crimes), but as they're only good at crafting malicious propaganda and prefer to maintain their comfy state-subsidized lives (profs never have any skin in the game), thus need to outsource their desire for radical violence: and this is where their romance for the jihadist comes in. A poor-brown skinned person shedding the blood of the oppressor in the name of freedom and Justice!—this tickles all their erogenous zones and fulfills their fantasies of midwifing a world founded on Social Justice where the oppressed and oppressor switch places and they get to punish their enemies w a good conscience.
The Left supported Israel until it offended them by winning wars and refusing to be erased, and after it became a rich, modern capitalist country. Now Jews once again have become scapegoats for all the fears, shame and guilt of Westerners and once again Justice demands that they be killed and humiliated for their sins against an imagined universalist, egalitarian, utopian future. "Progressives" know absolutely nothing except the purity of their own hearts, which allows them to ignore or support atrocities without a second thought. They will learn nothing, apologize for nothing, and just like their Soviet predecessors, will create nothing but rubble and bloodshed all "for a better world".
Phenomenal outtake. Love this!
Thanks!
For many progressive Jews Leftism Trumps Judaism
Prog Jews hate Trump and Netanyahu much more than they hate Hamas.
Bravo!!! Thank you for writing this!!! There has never been a Palestine nation nor is there a Palestinian ethnicity. It’s all fiction.
Excellent piece. Intelligence has nothing to do with evil or hatred. I read somewhere that most of the leaders of the Nazi party had Masters degrees, yet they also fell under the mental virus of Jew hatred that even reason and rationality will not cure. And think how much scientific brainpower went into the Holocaust: From engineering to chemistry to logistics just to pull off the systematic elimination of six million people. And the "scientific" justifications for eliminating a race of people. And hideous, carefully documented medical experiments.
The radical left spouts a narrative and refuses to face reality or debate Look at how few radical Substack pages permit debate without a paywall
The left has a policy???
One of my first (and still the biggest) culture shock in 'the West' all those decades ago was that leftism is not only regarded as a socially acceptable legitimate ideology, but somehow an article of pride amongst the edumacated & moneyed classes, something to feel superior about. The polar opposite of what we had in the communism-plagued Eastern Bloc: anyone leftist was either a thick-as-pigshit ignorant dumb prole who cannot know better, or someone who sold his/herself out to grow fat on communism. Either way, they were the "untouchables": the social pariahs shunned not only by the polite society of intellectual classes (who were vehemently anti-left) but by anyone with a backbone and more than half a braincell.
I still struggle to comprehend how / why / when the West lost its collective mind so badly that it tolerated the left's long march through the institutions without any opposition.
Being a "progressive" means 1) you don't know history nor do you want to 2) you scream slogans and chants that have no meaning for you 3) you want to be part of the trendy "Jew hatred" 4) you desperately want more followers on social media 5) you are mortally afraid to think for yourself for fear you will not be accepted. 6) the only physical part that functions well are your thumbs from media scrolling since your brain has atrophied from disuse. 7) you don't know that your hatred will come back to haunt you.
🤣🤣🤣
How many well read people do you know? What does it mean to be intelligent? To barely read unless you have to and if you do to restrict what you read to reinforce your world view?
Wouldn’t surprise me if on average more educated people were more moral but just the same wouldn’t surprise me if open minded people were more moral and if this crowd isn’t one thing it’s open minded. And I’d bet not very well read too. Considering how many actual intellectuals have held venomous views doesn’t tell you much at the individual level. What traits build morality. My spouse has an internal skepticism about large group events bc of what they were in the USSR. of course some of them are beautiful but their size is so not an emblem of morality it can just as easily if not more likely be a sign of sickness.
If someone directly affected by war becomes a spokesperson even an ugly one they are affected. You have enormous numbers of people doing nothing actually helpful and none will explain their single minded obsession with Israel and Jews. They can use the word Zionist but they’re not frying anyone else from an ethnostate including unfree ones with more rigid identity This is the new anti semitism and it’s not wrapped up. It’s blatant just as Nazi anti semitism was. The educated masses really believe the Nazis didn’t think they had a good reason just like them. When you don’t live in a certain environment you can look back in shock and horror and not take the message. If it’s ok to relentlessly and selectively dehumanize “subhuman” people you’re on the same path as Nazis. You’re no better and you’re no different. You are a product of your times.
The fundin' of the "Left" may be (sit yerself down) a Nazi-(yep Nazi)-backed CON. 'Fore ya write me off as a crackpot (lol), DO listen ta Francisco Gil White on George "Open Society" Soros per the link below -- Soros may NOT even be jooish... yup, White offers compellin' argue-mints ta suggest that Soros is a Nazi in disguise (this WUZ a thing apparently) which would be a game changer fer the haters (who blame "us" fer the crimes of Mr Tsuris who might not only be a self-hatin' joo - kapo but not one at all!) an' a way ta take down the "lefties" who are workin' against Israel 24/7. This is rilly a must-hear! If ya agree, blast it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbXbpJDHXBw
Yes. Nazism or internazism - two cheeks of the same putrid socialist arse.
All of this so-called "progressive thought", which I'd call regressive instead, is long on emotion and the protest du jour but pitifully short on any semblance of reason. As an example, what shows their true stupidity is the group "Gays for Gaza" forgetting, if they ever knew, that going there would be a death sentence or, as I say being a former skydiver, BASE (Buildings, Antennas, Spans which are bridges, Earth which are cliffs) jumping without parachutes.
As I have written before and is articulated here in different terms, antisemitism is either ignorant (meaning one understands what they do not know and seek the truth) or stupid (meaning one does not care to know the truth and unlike the former does not know that he/she does not know). I have never met the ignorant one but I sure know a lot of stupid ones. These people are worse than the white nationalists or the neonazis because more people will follow the stupid ones.
The real question: how can so many nation states like France and Germany and GB remain stupid when they have fought antisemitism for decades. And finally, stupidity is hatred, hatred of knowledge, hatred of a people, and hatred of humanity.
They don't want to learn, or understand, what is behind the jingoist slogans that fill their feeds - they just need to feed their addiction to being outraged as a form of virtue signaling. You can't reason with them because they are, in an almost literal sense of the word, unreasonable.
I also can't help but thing of Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty in Through the looking Glass
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
Brilliant article. I'm a new subscriber now, thanks to this piece.
Well said Joshua - we're having a meeting in central London on September 9th - organised by our Campaign Against Antisemitism - someone should read out your article
Best Warren