The Weird and Whacky World We've Created

How on Earth did we get here?

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It’s October 2nd, 1945, exactly one month after the Second World War ended.

For some odd reason, I have the ability to see into the future, and I tell you that in 2023, things are going to get really weird and really whacky.

“How so?” you anxiously ask me.

Well, I tell you, suddenly millions of people think they are a geopolitical expert or esteemed historian on matters in the Middle East.

A famed environmental activist named Greta Thunberg, after receiving a high school diploma at age 20, seems to be the newfound authority on “genocide” and “war crimes” that she claims a tiny Jewish state called Israel is waging.

Gabor Maté, who survived the Holocaust, becomes a world-renowned psychologist, yet is awkwardly featured in interviews about Israel as if he was one of its founding fathers.

Presidents of some of the world’s most “prestigious” academic institutions — including Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania — will tell us it “depends on the context” when testifying, under oath in front of the U.S. Congress, about students calling for the killing of Jews on their campuses.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the “occupied” Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, somehow finds it acceptable for a non-Jew to explicitly use the Holocaust as a call-to-action, in order to aggressively encourage Europeans to “know better” than to not have a “strong reaction” to “Israel’s current attack against Palestinians” which she baselessly infers is “genocide.”

UN Women and other “feminist” organizations, which have automatically accepted all women’s claims against physical and sexual abuse worldwide, fail to say anything about the women who were so obviously and barbarically exploited during the Palestinian attacks in Israel on October 7th. In one case, a woman was raped in the terror attack, had to undergo an abortion, and is now hospitalized in a mental health facility. But these organizations can’t find a sentence or two to “extend” their “support.”

Bernie Saunders’ former national press secretary, Briahna Joy Gray, accused the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson of “providing no evidence” and advancing a theory that unreleased female Israeli hostages are rape victims who Hamas withheld because they don’t want them to speak publicly about their treatment.

“What we know so far,” Gray wrote — emphasizing the word “know” — is that Israeli hostages “affirmed humane treatment” at the hands of Hamas.

Some wonder if she means the same Hamas that encouraged its men to behead babies, sexually assault women, and burn families to death during their October 7th attacks in Israel. Or if she means the same Hamas that drugged civilian hostages, before their release, with a tranquilizer called clonazepam, so they would appear smiling and calm as they were handed over to the Red Cross.

The issue is not necessarily that there are many ignorant folks in our world, for there always have been. The issue is that they are amplified by a new technology called social media, legitimatized by the corporatization of universities, and governed by the dysfunction of politics — a combination that is spreading propaganda, distortions of reality, and untruths at unprecedented speeds and levels.

Plus, a new fad called “influencers” who have several thousand “followers” effectively think they are the second coming of Christ, capable of lecturing us on everything moral, righteous, and praiseworthy.

Activists hold signs that affirm they “stand with Palestine” even though Palestine ceased to exist in 1948 when the British repealed their mandate of the area, and the Palestinians refused to accept the United Nations’ Partition Plan which recommended two states, a Jewish and an Arab one, for two peoples.

“Gays for Gaza” apparently haven’t heard the running joke that there aren’t enough tall buildings in the strip from which to throw them off.

The LGBTQ community supporting Hamas is like chickens supporting KFC, Rishi Bagree wrote on X.

The head of the United Nations warned that he expects “public order to completely break down soon” in Gaza — the same place where, years ago, Hamas members threw political opponents off from the tops of buildings. And where Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital and military complex in Gaza, was used to interrogate, torture, and kill Palestinian dissidents in an operation known as “Strangling Necks.”

Speaking of Gaza, there are American hostages, British hostages, French hostages, Israeli hostages — and people are marching, not in support of the hostages, but in support of the hostage-takers.

The Soviet Union fell decades ago, but Russia has an absolute ruler named Vladimir Putin. He barely travels, for survival reasons of all sorts, yet somehow the Israel-Hamas war inspired him to visit the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Expectedly, Russia is among the few nefarious countries which support Hamas — alongside Iran, Qatar, and North Korea — but few people succeed in identifying the pattern here.

“From the River to the Sea” is the new “Heil Hitler,” only that the former waxes much more poetically. Predictably, though, a survey of college students who sympathize with the Palestinians showed that less than half of them were able to name the river and the sea in this chant. Alternative answers included the Nile and the Euphrates, the Caribbean, the Dead Sea (which is a lake), and the Atlantic Ocean.

“There’s no shame in being ignorant,” Ron Hassner wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “unless one is screaming for the extermination of millions.”

Celebrities don’t know if they’re not saying enough or saying too much. Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon is attempting her best impersonation of Muhammad (you know, the Islamic prophet), while Selena Gomez — the most-followed woman on Instagram — posted a wishy-washy statement on the situation in the Middle East, as if she’s remotely qualified to say anything whatsoever.

Bradley Cooper, Joaquin Phoenix, and our antisemitic brother from another mother, Mark Ruffalo, were among more than 260 artists who signed a letter urging U.S. President Joe Biden and Congress to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza — as if people with zero skin in the game, living in the geographically isolated country of America, know what’s best for Israel and the Palestinians.

Other people in Hollywood are also losing their mind over a situation 6,000 miles away from them. Maha Dakhil, a high-profile talent agent, accused Israel of genocide, which prompted legendary screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to quit the agency where Dakhil works, saying: “Maha isn’t an antisemite, she’s just wrong.”¹

Naturally, it didn’t hurt that one of the agency’s most important clients, Tom Cruise, made it known to the agency that he is backing her.

Many Jewish celebrities, for their part, say they are “bothered” by what’s happening right now in Israel and believe they are “doing the real work behind the scenes to help” — even though the whole point of being an impactful celebrity is to do work in the spotlight, not “behind the scenes.”

When it comes to supporting their fellow Jews, though, it seems that they’re suddenly unwelcoming of the profound fame they so eagerly choose and are more than generously compensated for. All while being exploited to speak up for other distressed minority groups, so long as their selective virtue signaling reinforces their over-inflated wealth and superficial careers.

In other news, a few Jews are claiming to be “anti-Zionist,” saying that Zionism is a betrayal of the Jews’ historical struggle against persecution. Mind you, this is like an African-American person proclaiming, “I’m an anti-Africa African-American. Africa is a betrayal of our historical struggle against persecution.”

Other Jews are gaslighting each other by using their family members who experienced the Holocaust as a “reason” to continue their profuse, relentless attacks on Israel and Zionism. Someone might want to tell these Jews to ask their family members what the Nazis called Jews who helped Jew-haters. (Hint: It starts with K and ends in “apo.”)

A newish political faction called “progressives,” who have an obsessive preoccupation with their and other people’s pronouns, are so intoxicated by the “pro-Palestinian” hoopla, they’ve become blinded to the reality that, for the vast majority of them, their pronouns in the Palestinian territories would be “was” and “were.”

Jews against Israel rally the day after Hamas murdered 1,000 Israelis in Boston, October 8th, 2023, just one day after the massacre in Israel.

Many progressives are anti-Zionists, yet claim that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. What they mean is that anti-Zionism is not antisemitic in intention, only in its outcome.

For example, a mob of anti-Zionists targeted a restaurant in Philadelphia founded by the Israeli-American celebrity chef Michael Solomonov, whose brother David was killed while serving in the Israeli army in 2003. Ironically, Solomonov has been at the forefront of peace-building efforts between Israelis and Palestinians, but the angry mob surely didn’t do their homework on him.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, one in a series of anti-Israel appointees in Biden’s administration, read a list of Palestinian and Israeli casualties, including the names of Hamas terrorists, in special prayers during her synagogue’s services.

Her romantic partner and fellow Jew, Randi Weingarten, stated that American Jews are part of a U.S. “ownership class” that wants to take opportunities away from others.² If this isn’t the power of internalized antisemitism, I don’t know what is.

Meanwhile, as the Israel-Hamas war wages on, news anchors sit in comfy, heated studios thousands of miles from the action. They ask people “on the ground” empty and uncoordinated questions that only demonstrate how intellectually removed these anchors and their news organizations are from the reality, truth, history, and context.

So-called journalists cite Hamas, a genocidal terror group, as their only source of the “estimate” of Palestinian casualties in Gaza, using the word “reportedly” as a precursor. People seem to take Hamas’ word for it, forgetting that the word “reportedly” doesn’t mean that third-party sources are on the ground in Gaza, verifying Hamas’ inflated estimates. “Reportedly” means a belief that information given is not necessarily true.

However, humanitarian organizations have also joined the fray, becoming mouthpieces and servants for the Palestinians, rather than doing what they were set up to do with the billions of dollars they receive: vital humanitarian work, regardless of politics.

“Free speech” enthusiasts defend this “right” carte blanche, and then call for the censorship of views they despise. They slap the word “extremist” on every point of view, except for theirs.

“Peaceful protestors” use this “right” to disguise their micro-aggressions, bullying, intimidation, fear-mongering, and gaslighting. What’s more, these protests and other related demonstrations take place against the backdrop of “moral absolutism,” a so-called ethical view that some (potentially all) actions are intrinsically right or wrong, regardless of context or consequence.

“Freedom of religion” is being used to overlook Islamic Jihad and its obvious intentions to kill as many Jews and other non-believers as possible. For one thing, Hamas’ charter declares that “Allah is its goal, the Prophet is the model, the Qur’an its constitution, jihad its path, and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes” while the “Day of Judgment” will not come until the Muslims fight and kill the Jews.

A festival in Virginia canceled a menorah lighting because they were concerned that a Chanukah celebration — which has nothing to do with Israel — would send the message that the festival was “supporting the killing/bombing of thousands of men, women, and children.”

And a nationwide movement in America called “liberated ethnic studies” seeks to introduce a divisive politicized project into the country’s K-through-12 curriculum, disavowing a central tenet of education fostering national unity and cohesion. As part of their efforts, teachers are targeted for indoctrination into an ideology that casts Jews, Zionism, and the State of Israel as enemies of progress and oppressors.³

Unsurprisingly, prominent consultants associated with “liberated ethnic studies” are BDS movement advocates whose purpose is to aggressively inject everyone with heavily biased and grossly inaccurate anti-Israel materials.

The University of California Ethnic Studies Council fittingly wrote a letter to the University of California Board or Regents, accusing them of “demonizing” the BDS movement and equating it with “anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian sentiments.”

To add insult to injury, college campuses have been combat zones, with administrators unable to deliver logical — or should I say “studious” — recommendations. Talia Khan, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said she was forced to leave her study group because group members told her that “the people at the Nova music festival deserved to die because they were partying on stolen land.”

Another Jewish student, this one from Rutgers University, wrote an op-ed saying students are allowed to rally for Palestinian “liberation” — but she didn’t clarify from who or what they were aiming to be liberated. Is it liberation from Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where the terror group has effectively hijacked an enclave of two million people in the name of Islamic jihad?

Or is it liberation from the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, where a cataclysmically corrupt Mahmoud Abbas is in the eighteenth year of his four-year term?

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas (right) and his two sons used power and influence to control the two major Palestinian economic boards and built a West Bank economic empire worth more than $300 million.

Moving on, politicians who have zero real-world experience in foreign affairs and geopolitics habitually chime in with their unfounded claims and incoherent ideas about the Israel-Hamas war and the greater Middle East.

Many of their constituents have over-indexed on illusions, myths, and “perfect world” thinking — at the expense of learning about and accepting harsh realities, such as those related to war and military conflicts, socioeconomics, immigration, politics, history, other societies which promote varying political systems and values, and a plethora of other issues.

Citizens are locked into a perpetual game with their political and socioeconomic opponents, characterized by mutual provocation and reciprocal outrage. No one listens. No one contemplates. No one updates their beliefs with new, factual information. If “my way or the highway” was ever applicable, it is now.

A trend from the 1970s called “identity politics” has become mainstream. Politics is now determined by the social groups you associate with, rather than the burning issues we face and the available options to solve them. In this new political reality, people say they love their country, even though they hate half of the people in it.

Welcome to the weird and whacky year known as 2023.

1. “‘People are being penalised’: Hollywood divided over Israel-Hamas conflict.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/dec/02/hollywood-divide-israel-gaza-conflict-susan-sarandon-cynthia-nixon.

2. “When the Jew-bashers are Jews.” JNS. https://www.jns.org/when-the-jew-bashers-are-jews.

3. “UNDER THE RADAR: ETHNIC STUDIES ACTIVISTS PUSH ANTI-ISRAEL CONTENT INTO SCHOOLS.” Camera. https://www.camera.org/article/under-the-radar-ethnic-studies-activists-push-anti-israel-content-into-american-schools.