I don't think it's mainstream. It's just that the majority doesn't care and doesn't vote. One lesson from history is that hatred does not require a majority to take hold. Hitler was never elected by a majority of Germans. Democracies are weakened when the majority stays silent and looks away.
Pat, this is one of the best pieces,I have ever read about the refusal to be sucked into the vortex of Jew hatred and how the Left has identified self determination of the Jewish people with the antithesis of social justice. Please continue your excellent analyses.
“Civilizations are capable of collective wisdom. They are also capable of collective delusion. Mass graves are filled with the victims of majority opinion.”
I used to believe that I was a leftist. When my son began his journey with schizophrenia, I found the mental health system almost useless and often harmful. at first I thought it was a lack of quality control, people coming out of the education system with degrees and certificate but no knowledge about what the job demanded. I decided to get educated. Reading(books, studies etc.) , taking courses, workshops, lectures, conferences and conversations. I found Ideology was more important than practical solutions everywhere and at every level. I began to dig into where this was coming from. The hard left. I realized that it was always heading this way and its true gift was the use of language. The education system trains people to regurgitate, not think.
This is the short version of a long heartbreaking nightmare. be very careful of assuming that the silent majority will eventually speak up. the youth are in school. The zealots control most of the institutions we depend on for regulations and complaints etc.
I would like to ask a question Pat. When you use the term Queer, do you mean same sex attracted or anti normal. I met some very hateful people who claim to be Queer. very confusing using the same word. Any thoughts?
Thanks Michele ... so sorry to hear of your journey. I'll admit I used the term queer without a ton of thought ... it's really become a catch-all for anyone who doesn't identify as ssexually conventional. Generally I use LGBTQ+ tho, and prefer it.
Thank you Pat. I can't agree that using the same term for two very different world views is helpful. It seems to allow for some very harmful misunderstanding of what's going on. How do you explain Queers for Palestine ? Well, the worst of the hard right certainly knows how to use it. They are using the same playbook, list of grievances ( often legitimate), exaggerate, stoke up anger, demand over simplified solutions, justify violence. Draw a mob in. It seems to me that the direction of societies travel today could see the LGBTQ thrown under the proverbial bus with the Jews. The encounter I had with a young trans person who reacted so furiously to my little Canadian,Israeli flag is a victim of all of it. I am so worried about the future of all of them. I do think clear language and concepts matters. It might help the silent onlookers wake up. ?
Pat, right now, fighting back is really all we have left. And you're right that one person can make a difference. One person jumps into the pool, and suddenly somebody else realizes it's safe to jump in too. That's how movements begin.
But I think we're at the point where one person isn't enough anymore. We're fighting a constant barrage of lies, propaganda, media coverage and institutional hostility. Look at John Fetterman. Whatever else one thinks of him, on Israel he has stood his ground while much of his party has moved in the opposite direction. Yet even his willingness to stand virtually alone hasn't stopped the Democratic Party from continuing down a road that is becoming increasingly hostile to Israel and, in some quarters, to Jews themselves.
That's why I think the next stage has to be small alliances. Don't ask one person in a union, political party, university or organization to stand alone. Find two. Then five. Then ten. Give people somewhere to stand and other people willing to stand beside them.
One courageous person can break the silence, exactly as you say. But a small organized group can begin changing the institution. And once people who have been keeping quiet realize they aren't alone, that's when five can become fifty and fifty can become five hundred.
We've spent too much time fighting as isolated individuals. Now we have to start finding one another.
Accurate analysis of the recent processes afflicting Jews in Western cultural and political sphere . What Jews experience now has all characteristics of a prelude to what happened in Europe during period of Crusades or in Spain during Inquisition or in Europe in 20th century . It typically starts with declaring innocent victim(s) and ends with punishing Jews for a crime . It was William in Norwich, England in 12th century and Jews accused of his ritual murder although nobody knew if he was innocent much less who murdered him and why and ended with mass murders and eventual forced expulsion of Jews from England. . Similar dynamics work today in the Western world. Declared innocent victim are Palestinians (even though they are neither innocent nor victims) and the Jews are already accused of a crime. .
The instigator in the past was for the most part Christianity, in modern times it progressives or those that call themselves progressives lead the way - National Socialists in Europe, Bolsheviks-communists in Russia and their fellow travelers everywhere else . .
This new antisemitism is, importantly, yoked with promotion of Islamism, which was not the case before; that is, your David Dukes and conspiracists weren't also chanting "Death to America" (as US citizens!) and practicing taqiya. These two things together take it from disturbing to terrifying.
Here's the problem. The West imported masses of Arabs and Muslims who have a Hallucinatory Worldview whereby they are supposed to be the colonial overlord, and anyone, but especially Jews, not groveling sufficiently is picking a fight.
I don't think it's mainstream. It's just that the majority doesn't care and doesn't vote. One lesson from history is that hatred does not require a majority to take hold. Hitler was never elected by a majority of Germans. Democracies are weakened when the majority stays silent and looks away.
Pat, this is one of the best pieces,I have ever read about the refusal to be sucked into the vortex of Jew hatred and how the Left has identified self determination of the Jewish people with the antithesis of social justice. Please continue your excellent analyses.
Thanks Sebastian. I promise.
I am still stunned by how we got to this point.
I'm stunned by how many people aren't.
Growing up, I never thought that I was living in the golden age of North American Jewry, but in hindsight, I clearly was.
Pat Johnson, substack:
“Civilizations are capable of collective wisdom. They are also capable of collective delusion. Mass graves are filled with the victims of majority opinion.”
I used to believe that I was a leftist. When my son began his journey with schizophrenia, I found the mental health system almost useless and often harmful. at first I thought it was a lack of quality control, people coming out of the education system with degrees and certificate but no knowledge about what the job demanded. I decided to get educated. Reading(books, studies etc.) , taking courses, workshops, lectures, conferences and conversations. I found Ideology was more important than practical solutions everywhere and at every level. I began to dig into where this was coming from. The hard left. I realized that it was always heading this way and its true gift was the use of language. The education system trains people to regurgitate, not think.
This is the short version of a long heartbreaking nightmare. be very careful of assuming that the silent majority will eventually speak up. the youth are in school. The zealots control most of the institutions we depend on for regulations and complaints etc.
I would like to ask a question Pat. When you use the term Queer, do you mean same sex attracted or anti normal. I met some very hateful people who claim to be Queer. very confusing using the same word. Any thoughts?
Thanks Michele ... so sorry to hear of your journey. I'll admit I used the term queer without a ton of thought ... it's really become a catch-all for anyone who doesn't identify as ssexually conventional. Generally I use LGBTQ+ tho, and prefer it.
Thank you Pat. I can't agree that using the same term for two very different world views is helpful. It seems to allow for some very harmful misunderstanding of what's going on. How do you explain Queers for Palestine ? Well, the worst of the hard right certainly knows how to use it. They are using the same playbook, list of grievances ( often legitimate), exaggerate, stoke up anger, demand over simplified solutions, justify violence. Draw a mob in. It seems to me that the direction of societies travel today could see the LGBTQ thrown under the proverbial bus with the Jews. The encounter I had with a young trans person who reacted so furiously to my little Canadian,Israeli flag is a victim of all of it. I am so worried about the future of all of them. I do think clear language and concepts matters. It might help the silent onlookers wake up. ?
Pat, right now, fighting back is really all we have left. And you're right that one person can make a difference. One person jumps into the pool, and suddenly somebody else realizes it's safe to jump in too. That's how movements begin.
But I think we're at the point where one person isn't enough anymore. We're fighting a constant barrage of lies, propaganda, media coverage and institutional hostility. Look at John Fetterman. Whatever else one thinks of him, on Israel he has stood his ground while much of his party has moved in the opposite direction. Yet even his willingness to stand virtually alone hasn't stopped the Democratic Party from continuing down a road that is becoming increasingly hostile to Israel and, in some quarters, to Jews themselves.
That's why I think the next stage has to be small alliances. Don't ask one person in a union, political party, university or organization to stand alone. Find two. Then five. Then ten. Give people somewhere to stand and other people willing to stand beside them.
One courageous person can break the silence, exactly as you say. But a small organized group can begin changing the institution. And once people who have been keeping quiet realize they aren't alone, that's when five can become fifty and fifty can become five hundred.
We've spent too much time fighting as isolated individuals. Now we have to start finding one another.
Accurate analysis of the recent processes afflicting Jews in Western cultural and political sphere . What Jews experience now has all characteristics of a prelude to what happened in Europe during period of Crusades or in Spain during Inquisition or in Europe in 20th century . It typically starts with declaring innocent victim(s) and ends with punishing Jews for a crime . It was William in Norwich, England in 12th century and Jews accused of his ritual murder although nobody knew if he was innocent much less who murdered him and why and ended with mass murders and eventual forced expulsion of Jews from England. . Similar dynamics work today in the Western world. Declared innocent victim are Palestinians (even though they are neither innocent nor victims) and the Jews are already accused of a crime. .
The instigator in the past was for the most part Christianity, in modern times it progressives or those that call themselves progressives lead the way - National Socialists in Europe, Bolsheviks-communists in Russia and their fellow travelers everywhere else . .
This new antisemitism is, importantly, yoked with promotion of Islamism, which was not the case before; that is, your David Dukes and conspiracists weren't also chanting "Death to America" (as US citizens!) and practicing taqiya. These two things together take it from disturbing to terrifying.
Here's the problem. The West imported masses of Arabs and Muslims who have a Hallucinatory Worldview whereby they are supposed to be the colonial overlord, and anyone, but especially Jews, not groveling sufficiently is picking a fight.