This framework makes a hell of a lot of sense. As an average liberal American Jew (who strongly supports Israel and fully accepts the premise that eradication of Jews and Israel is central to Islam), I’m not at all ready to give up the notion of building a more equitable society here. At the same time, I’m good with engaging with non-democracies where THEY are even if it’s anathema from a democratic standpoint.
My political party has somewhat succumbed to decades of Iranian/Russian propaganda that Palestinians are struggling for freedom under Israel’s thumb. I disagree, but I agree with them on a domestic policy standpoint.
Do you have a suggestion for how to reconcile the two? All I can see is the need for a countervailing propaganda campaign to win back the narrative and smite the majorly creeping Jew hate.
I will not be voting for Trump the fascist no matter what, nor would I ever consider voting for his so-called party, which doesn’t even believe in food or housing as human rights.
You should abandon your notion of building a more equitable society because modern society does that all by itself. Of course you can hold to that value, but that does not mean you should vote for parties based on whether they claim that as a political goal to be followed by policies which wind up being detrimental to society. Over time democracies inevitably create a more equitable society, especially when compared to other ones. Most of the issues that arise in a complex modern society have nothing to do with equity. Many of them deal with the complex issue of where to assign responsibility and how much is allocated to citizens and how much to governments. There are other issues like that,, all of which have ramifications for other areas of social life, notably the legal system. If people understood that, they would not indulge in antisemitism based on an equally false narrative that Jews are colonialist occupiers of Palestinian lands. As for Trump, calling him a fascist is way off the mark. When you look at how the Democrats have weaponized the justice, security and intelligence services along with the IRS a good case can be made that they are the real fascist threat to the USA, though I consider them more akin to Soviet style totalitarianism of a soft insidious managerial kind than fascist. Too often we hold on to our beliefs because they confirm to us our moral worth. But we do not really need them for that. Our moral worth comes from how we conduct our lives, and everybody slips up now and then. When morality gets confused with politics we are headed for hell.
Perhaps in the future I will expand on these themes. Most people's understanding of modern society is so off the mark, even and especially in sociology, whose practitioners are so wedded to making society more equitable they misread everything and thus encourage their students to misread things when they go out into the world. That's one of the reasons for those stupid antisemitic encampments, but also all the fake news about Israel by journalists who learned nothing but slogans in school.
I agree with all of that. I see the anti-historical narrative about Israel, the Jewish diaspora as more of the problem than sociology. This allows the misapplication of concepts like colonial/settlor, which are obviously totally inappropriate.
And since Iran is fully engaged in the meme war, it would be helpful (I think) if Israel did a better job with the (truthful) counter-narrative.
I see plenty of enemies on the right as well as left including the evangelicals who want Jews alive now so that Jesus will come back and rapture them, since this requires Jews to die.
Also, I’m a woman, as well as a Jew, and the attacks on reproductive healthcare don’t sit well either.
So lots of conflicts between things that matter to me.
This framework makes a hell of a lot of sense. As an average liberal American Jew (who strongly supports Israel and fully accepts the premise that eradication of Jews and Israel is central to Islam), I’m not at all ready to give up the notion of building a more equitable society here. At the same time, I’m good with engaging with non-democracies where THEY are even if it’s anathema from a democratic standpoint.
My political party has somewhat succumbed to decades of Iranian/Russian propaganda that Palestinians are struggling for freedom under Israel’s thumb. I disagree, but I agree with them on a domestic policy standpoint.
Do you have a suggestion for how to reconcile the two? All I can see is the need for a countervailing propaganda campaign to win back the narrative and smite the majorly creeping Jew hate.
I will not be voting for Trump the fascist no matter what, nor would I ever consider voting for his so-called party, which doesn’t even believe in food or housing as human rights.
Thanks.
You should abandon your notion of building a more equitable society because modern society does that all by itself. Of course you can hold to that value, but that does not mean you should vote for parties based on whether they claim that as a political goal to be followed by policies which wind up being detrimental to society. Over time democracies inevitably create a more equitable society, especially when compared to other ones. Most of the issues that arise in a complex modern society have nothing to do with equity. Many of them deal with the complex issue of where to assign responsibility and how much is allocated to citizens and how much to governments. There are other issues like that,, all of which have ramifications for other areas of social life, notably the legal system. If people understood that, they would not indulge in antisemitism based on an equally false narrative that Jews are colonialist occupiers of Palestinian lands. As for Trump, calling him a fascist is way off the mark. When you look at how the Democrats have weaponized the justice, security and intelligence services along with the IRS a good case can be made that they are the real fascist threat to the USA, though I consider them more akin to Soviet style totalitarianism of a soft insidious managerial kind than fascist. Too often we hold on to our beliefs because they confirm to us our moral worth. But we do not really need them for that. Our moral worth comes from how we conduct our lives, and everybody slips up now and then. When morality gets confused with politics we are headed for hell.
Thank you.
Perhaps in the future I will expand on these themes. Most people's understanding of modern society is so off the mark, even and especially in sociology, whose practitioners are so wedded to making society more equitable they misread everything and thus encourage their students to misread things when they go out into the world. That's one of the reasons for those stupid antisemitic encampments, but also all the fake news about Israel by journalists who learned nothing but slogans in school.
I agree with all of that. I see the anti-historical narrative about Israel, the Jewish diaspora as more of the problem than sociology. This allows the misapplication of concepts like colonial/settlor, which are obviously totally inappropriate.
And since Iran is fully engaged in the meme war, it would be helpful (I think) if Israel did a better job with the (truthful) counter-narrative.
I see plenty of enemies on the right as well as left including the evangelicals who want Jews alive now so that Jesus will come back and rapture them, since this requires Jews to die.
Also, I’m a woman, as well as a Jew, and the attacks on reproductive healthcare don’t sit well either.
So lots of conflicts between things that matter to me.
I hope you do write more on this topic.
Oops, meant to include also in the sentence with diaspora “the anti-historical narrative about what is a Palestinian”.
The world is "saturated in politics", to quote "The Sovereign Individual", and is collapsing under the weight.
Moving, honorable and truth. Great piece…