I join @JFunk in begging for your personal takedown of Chomsky.
I cheered when I saw his photo on your article. It's personal for me - I have a person in my life who is stuck in a 30 years ago worldview and considers Chomsky to be an irrefutable god of higher knowledge on all things Israel. Not that I think they will listen to me, even using your brilliant words, but ... well, your words make good lining for my fighting spirit. Pardon the mixing of metaphors.
The British writer Nick Cohen did a pretty good job of taking Chomsky apart in plain terms in a chapter of his 2007 book "What's Left: How Liberals Lost their Way" which was titled "The Boy on the Edge of the Gang", focusing in particular on Chomsky's endorsement of French Holocaust revisionist Roger Faurisson as "some sort of apolitical liberal" until shamed into altering track to defend Faurisson under the mantel "freedom of speech", much to the consternation of French historians who wanted Faurisson removed from his teaching position at a French university and Chomsky's track record of defending genocidaires who can be branded as "left" ... Pol Pot, Slobodan Milošević.
Absolutely, the fifth column that has closed its eyes to the misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and antisemitism of political Islam, and instead presents Hamas and Hezbollah as social justice movements that are to be understood as "part of the global left" and never mind about the evidence that far from being egalitarian, these movements peddle drugs, steal humanitarian aid and fill their own pockets.
Left wing Jew hatred is infinitely more dangerous because it is both normalized and rampant in every left of center institution from the educational system to the media.
Agreed that left-wing antisemitism is more dangerous than right-wing. The left seems to be the side that really shapes the culture, and they're currently shaping it into a Jew-free one. You have only to go onto any Jewish person's social media posts and you can witness the lengths to which someone will twist their brains to explain in the most sophisticated terms why it's actually moral and just that Jews don't deserve to even live on planet Earth (but we're not going KILL them, we're just going to send them somewhere else, that's not here, or there, or anywhere on an Earthly land mass), let alone in their own country.
The fact that the Nazis were left wing should never be forgotten. The problem with ideas is that they can be dehumanizing and anachronistic. Many Jews before WW2 were anti-Zionist in the sense that they just wanted to go on living their lives as citizens of their countries and did not want their kids to move to that strange new place. But to be antizionist today is to support the active wish to murder, rape, torture and kidnap millions of people. In other words, now that Israel has been a reality for over seven decades, antizionism is utterly dehumanizing. People who are antizionist believe that their "idea" is more important then the lives of millions of people. Haters would say that Zionism dehumanizes Palestinians, but if the Palestinian leaders wanted to they could have had a stable and peaceful state side by side Israel--not to mention the fact that about a quarter of Israel's citizens are Arab.
Trotsky biographer Isaac Deutscher looked back upon the anti-Zionism of Jewish socialists like the Bundists as a terrible idiocy that wasted precious time instead of putting energy into saving lives. To be anti-Zionist after the horrors of the Holocaust is to engage in a new variation of the Socialism of fools, one that denies Jews, and Jews alone, the right to a sovereign state.
Nazis were right wing - fascists. Other than that, I agree with you. Nobody wants to see the truth, only babble on about the "poor pallies" when their leaders constantly lead them into hell.
Pat, again, this is a MASSIVE column. I just don't know where to start. I can't begin to tell you how important it would be to get your message to a much much wider audience. Your super power is, of course, your ability to grab these ideas flying through the air at speeds so fast most of us can't grab them before they are hidden or denied, and getting them down on 'paper' for all of us to see, and understand....and talk about. You know where this is going, Johnson!! (ahem).
A really great analysis. The thing that sets me off more than anything else is these Jewish antisemites. Do they think by creating reasons to hate Jews they will be "the exception" or somehow acceptable? They are really just useful idiots. Their troops will turn on them as sure as the sun comes up every morning. They are the modern day kapos, but so much worse because at least the kapos knew who they were and why they were doing evil acts.
Given that Israel's Eurovision entrant for 2025, Yuval Raphael, placed 2nd in the contest over the weekend just past, based on the popular vote, despite efforts that some broadcasters (Spain for one) violated the rules by politicizing the event, I'm not sure that the "unintelligentisa" " are any more apt to be fooled in the 21st century than George Orwell claimed in his 1945 essay Notes on Nationalism:
"One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that; no ordinary man could be such a fool. “
This is not to say that anti-Zionist members of the intelligentsia haven't succeeded in normalizing antisemitism to a shocking extent. They have. What's harder to track is the extent to which the general population has been repulsed and angered by what they have seen, especially in the wake of October 7/23.
This isn't racist bigotry because Jew is not a race (in what sense then is Israel an ethnostate?) and it's not religious bigotry because the highly specific interpretation of Judaism I found, but don't believe otherwise, says Judaism is opposed to Zionism! Anti Zionism is just a spontaneous expression of values that necessarily follows directly from them because we are infallible and virtuous
Please please break down chomski’s bs - he’s like the universal master of pseudo
Intellectual claptrap
Ah, you play to my heart. I've got pages of notes on this somewhere. He is an embarrassment to the academy.
I join @JFunk in begging for your personal takedown of Chomsky.
I cheered when I saw his photo on your article. It's personal for me - I have a person in my life who is stuck in a 30 years ago worldview and considers Chomsky to be an irrefutable god of higher knowledge on all things Israel. Not that I think they will listen to me, even using your brilliant words, but ... well, your words make good lining for my fighting spirit. Pardon the mixing of metaphors.
I too am curious and can’t wait to read what you have.
The British writer Nick Cohen did a pretty good job of taking Chomsky apart in plain terms in a chapter of his 2007 book "What's Left: How Liberals Lost their Way" which was titled "The Boy on the Edge of the Gang", focusing in particular on Chomsky's endorsement of French Holocaust revisionist Roger Faurisson as "some sort of apolitical liberal" until shamed into altering track to defend Faurisson under the mantel "freedom of speech", much to the consternation of French historians who wanted Faurisson removed from his teaching position at a French university and Chomsky's track record of defending genocidaires who can be branded as "left" ... Pol Pot, Slobodan Milošević.
As a lifelong progressive activist until 10/7, I agree left wing Jew hatred is more threatening than right wing to both Jews AND the West at large.
Absolutely, the fifth column that has closed its eyes to the misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and antisemitism of political Islam, and instead presents Hamas and Hezbollah as social justice movements that are to be understood as "part of the global left" and never mind about the evidence that far from being egalitarian, these movements peddle drugs, steal humanitarian aid and fill their own pockets.
Left wing Jew hatred is infinitely more dangerous because it is both normalized and rampant in every left of center institution from the educational system to the media.
Bullseye. Thank you for putting into words far more eloquently what finally dawned on me, on October 8, 2023.
Bulls eye is spot on @Kip
You're so good at this, Pat.
Agreed that left-wing antisemitism is more dangerous than right-wing. The left seems to be the side that really shapes the culture, and they're currently shaping it into a Jew-free one. You have only to go onto any Jewish person's social media posts and you can witness the lengths to which someone will twist their brains to explain in the most sophisticated terms why it's actually moral and just that Jews don't deserve to even live on planet Earth (but we're not going KILL them, we're just going to send them somewhere else, that's not here, or there, or anywhere on an Earthly land mass), let alone in their own country.
The fact that the Nazis were left wing should never be forgotten. The problem with ideas is that they can be dehumanizing and anachronistic. Many Jews before WW2 were anti-Zionist in the sense that they just wanted to go on living their lives as citizens of their countries and did not want their kids to move to that strange new place. But to be antizionist today is to support the active wish to murder, rape, torture and kidnap millions of people. In other words, now that Israel has been a reality for over seven decades, antizionism is utterly dehumanizing. People who are antizionist believe that their "idea" is more important then the lives of millions of people. Haters would say that Zionism dehumanizes Palestinians, but if the Palestinian leaders wanted to they could have had a stable and peaceful state side by side Israel--not to mention the fact that about a quarter of Israel's citizens are Arab.
Trotsky biographer Isaac Deutscher looked back upon the anti-Zionism of Jewish socialists like the Bundists as a terrible idiocy that wasted precious time instead of putting energy into saving lives. To be anti-Zionist after the horrors of the Holocaust is to engage in a new variation of the Socialism of fools, one that denies Jews, and Jews alone, the right to a sovereign state.
Nazis were right wing - fascists. Other than that, I agree with you. Nobody wants to see the truth, only babble on about the "poor pallies" when their leaders constantly lead them into hell.
Pat, again, this is a MASSIVE column. I just don't know where to start. I can't begin to tell you how important it would be to get your message to a much much wider audience. Your super power is, of course, your ability to grab these ideas flying through the air at speeds so fast most of us can't grab them before they are hidden or denied, and getting them down on 'paper' for all of us to see, and understand....and talk about. You know where this is going, Johnson!! (ahem).
Right On 👍🏻
A really great analysis. The thing that sets me off more than anything else is these Jewish antisemites. Do they think by creating reasons to hate Jews they will be "the exception" or somehow acceptable? They are really just useful idiots. Their troops will turn on them as sure as the sun comes up every morning. They are the modern day kapos, but so much worse because at least the kapos knew who they were and why they were doing evil acts.
Given that Israel's Eurovision entrant for 2025, Yuval Raphael, placed 2nd in the contest over the weekend just past, based on the popular vote, despite efforts that some broadcasters (Spain for one) violated the rules by politicizing the event, I'm not sure that the "unintelligentisa" " are any more apt to be fooled in the 21st century than George Orwell claimed in his 1945 essay Notes on Nationalism:
"One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that; no ordinary man could be such a fool. “
This is not to say that anti-Zionist members of the intelligentsia haven't succeeded in normalizing antisemitism to a shocking extent. They have. What's harder to track is the extent to which the general population has been repulsed and angered by what they have seen, especially in the wake of October 7/23.
Totally agree with you, Pat. We experienced the same, as left-wing intellectuals. You have described this “phenomenon” perfectly.
Leftists, globalized in their stupidity, cause enormous harm to the Jews.
This isn't racist bigotry because Jew is not a race (in what sense then is Israel an ethnostate?) and it's not religious bigotry because the highly specific interpretation of Judaism I found, but don't believe otherwise, says Judaism is opposed to Zionism! Anti Zionism is just a spontaneous expression of values that necessarily follows directly from them because we are infallible and virtuous