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Illogic on parade

The New Neo Posted on by

One of the particularly horrible things about the aftermath of October 7 and the Israeli reaction to it is that the Hamas/Palestinian sympathizers are both ignorant of history and don’t even attempt to make logical arguments. Or perhaps they’re not so ignorant and they are lying. But again, they don’t even try logic; just slogans and Orwellian reversals.

Of course that isn’t just the hallmark of the talk around this particular issue. We see it over and over from the left, and although it’s not limited to the left it’s extremely prevalent there; it’s the left’s meat and potatoes, as it were. It shouldn’t persuade anyone but it certainly does, because it is vehement and “passionate,” and appeals to emotion which is a strong element in the way most human beings make their decisions and decide on their allegiances. And it thrives on historical ignorance and lazy thinking, which are usually in abundant supply.

I was talking to a friend recently about the Israel/Palestine question, mentioning some facts she hadn’t previously realized, and she said to me: “If what you say is true, then Israel is really really bad at PR.” Good point. I answered that, although PR is not their strong suit, when they do mount good arguments and inform people of history – which they have done over and over again – people deflect it with lies and hatred, and pretty much shout them down with slogans. And when the entire MSM and much of the world is arrayed against you, it’s very hard to make yourself heard in a way that counts.

Which brings me to this statement from Naftali Bennett, with which I happen to agree:

If for some reason you can’t read the whole tweet, here’s the gist of the rest of it:

Are there more civilian losses in Gaza (10,000-14,000) than in other wars? Not at all. The war in Congo killed MILLIONS. The Syrian civil war almost a million. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan killed hundreds of thousands each.

Was it that Israel initiated this war? Nope. This war started ONLY because of the savage October 7th massacre that Hamas executed against innocent babies, women and men.

So why? What’s is it about this war that gets these intellectuals and students out there burning and breaking into buildings?
Why is the ICC singling out Israel?

You know the answer: Because it’s Israel, the only Jewish State on earth. It’s the Jews.

It’s the same reason Jews were singled out for the past 2000 years. Jews were accused of being lazy or too ambitious;
of behaving differently or trying to assimilate; of being weaklings or being too strong; of being an economic burden on society or succeeding too much in business. The true reason was none of these. It was because they were Jews. This wave of Israel-hate is simply a new incarnation of good old antisemitism.

The double standard is the tell: Jews are treated differently than every other people on earth.

On “X,” in response to Bennett’s tweet, you can see a torrent of bile that ignores what he is actually saying and employs the usual Orwellian slogans. It’s as though, if words are repeated often enough, they become true. And in fact that’s the way it works in many people’s minds and perceptions.

For example, the very first response I see there is this: “The GENOCIDE… Are you ret*rded?” Not an argument at all, nor does it answer any of Bennett’s arguments. It’s merely the ploy of repeating the world “genocide” – this time in all-caps – as though Israel’s commission of genocide (which is easy to refute in factual and logical terms) is so screamingly self-evident that to deny it is to be a “retard.”

The next response is a recitation of how the Palestinians are the poor suffering victims of Israel. Palestinians are certainly victims – of Hamas (whom they elected, so the victimhood is of their own volition), and earlier on of other Arab nations. But the only reason Israel ever wars on them is because the Palestinians have been perpetrators of violence against Israel from the very start. And the reason the Palestinians’ Arab neighbors have become somewhat cool towards giving them refuge is that they’ve wreaked havoc and chaos on every Arab nation they’ve entered as well, trying to overthrow governments and foment civil war.

The next tweet: “The murderer is asking why me and not all the other murderers.” It’s not murder to kill in a defensive war, which is what Israel is reluctantly doing. If the Palestinians stopped attacking Israelis there would be no war. But that distinction is utterly lost. Let’s say for the sake of argument, however, that Israel really is murdering a certain number of Palestinians, in which case it would certainly be valid to compare degrees of murder in terms of numbers lost in wars.

In the next tweet we hear from a holdout on the Israeli left: “Your arrogance, hatred and racism. That’s what. And I’m speaking as an Israeli-born Jew.” I don’t see anything Bennett has said there that exhibits hatred or racism. But name-calling is the way it goes, when you can’t out-argue someone, and “racist” is always good for the purpose.

The next two tweets are of the “GENOCIDE!” variety. And then some of the pro-Israel tweets begin. But it’s the nature of the anti-Israel ones that proves Bennett’s point, although their authors certainly don’t think so.

I’ll end by quoting one of the pro-Israel tweets. Here’s an excerpt:

What’s happening around the world has nothing to do with Gaza or how Israel is. It has everything to do with pure Jew hatred by the Arabs towards the Jews. And the young people protesting against Israel are so uneducated, brainwashed and stupid that they believe the lies. They’re like idiotic flies flying into a Venus flytrap and believing the Venus flytrap when it tells the fly that it is the victim and is there for peace. Then boom!!!

The Jews have been trying to tell these idiots what’s coming. We’ve had 1400 years of being the flies and we know now what the Venus flytrap is and will do. Yet these imbeciles see their enemy as their friends just before they too get eaten alive.

Why are they so stupid?

Because it’s pure Jew hatred. They fight for the rights of the minority, yet march hand in hand with 24% of the human population against 0.1%. They’re fighting against the very cause they claim to be protesting for.

Why? Because they’re indoctrinated like simpletons by pure Jew haters.

Speaking of indoctrination, last night I listened to a good interview with Coleman Hughes. In it, he describes (among other things) the extent of the pro-Palestinian propaganda he saw back when he was a Columbia student in 2015-2020. I’ve cued it up for that section, which lasts about four minutes (by the way, the interviewer seems to be Bret Stephens, who is generally awful on anything related to Trump but has been pretty good on Israel):

And here’s the entire interview; well worth watching:

Comments

Illogic on parade — 37 Comments

  1. To me it’s certainly Marxist Antisemitism but also notice their AntiAmerican protesting.

  2. Skip:

    Yes, anti-American and anti-Western and anti-Enlightenment. And not just illogical, but anti-logical.

  3. The palestinians so called are decent liars who talk to gullible people like the bbc le carre et al

  4. I see Bennett’s estimate of civilian deaths in Gaza is about 1/3 of what Hamas claims. It’s credible.

    To some extent the Palestinian cause in the current campus uproar is the excuse, whereas Marxist destruction is the root cause. However, Jew-hating, plain and simple, is the excuse, not “Palestinian rights.” Arab cultures are a web of tribes and clans. Jews, for reasons of pure hate, are the only tribe which is not allowed to have its own land.

  8. now naftali is one of those who partnered with the blue and white parties to keep netanyahu out, for the same tantrumy reasons we see on this coast,

    but the ziggurat of illogic is rather extraordinary, a people nearly wiped from the earth of the earth, in the 20th century, are persecuted by the enablers of the powers of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, this zanjak is only committed to death and thevery

    https://twitter.com/sfrantzman/status/1786863582031819105

  9. Some of this is hatred of conservative Jews. Israel lost its support on the left when it turned away from Socialism and became prosperous. Netanyahu is hated by the left and Obama made that clear. Clinton tried to defeat him, interfering openly in Israel’s election.

  10. The left has so twisted language that discussion is irrelevant.
    Standard English language words such a woman, violence, fascist, genocide have no meaning; everything means whatever suits their purpose at the time.
    The only solution, our only way of survival, is unfortunately with the time honored means of brute force. That is all the Israelis have left, and they are fully justified in using it. It’s not their first choice, or their second. It’s their only option. If they go ahead and destroy Hamas, more Gazans will also die. That is unfortunate, but the Israelis will feel a lot worse about what they will have had to do than the Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudis, etc. Those and other Arab/Muslim peoples will care not a bit, and will continue to explore normalizing their relationship with Israel.
    Their is a whinging piece in Slate.com about how the mean old police are using rubber bullets against the more aggressive campus rioters. Lots of setting of hair on fire about how there are better alternatives, and rubber bullets really hurt and sometimes kill (they are less lethal, not non-lethal). The Slate article does not consider that the alternative to rubber bullets is not no bullets, it is real bullets.

  11. It’s simple, eternal, universal hatred of the Jews. He chose Abraham, but, more importantly, Abraham and the Jews chose God. And they have been following HIM ever since, and that closeness to God and to all that’s good and righteous has made them hated forever.

  13. Read your post, David. Very insightful.

    I’ve been trying to put my finger on what’s happening and have recognized many of the issues you describe. But I’ve never been able to organize my thoughts as well as you. I recommend it highly to anyone interested.

    It’s Jew hatred, but it’s bigger than that. Hating Israel and Jews is a cover for the bigger cause, IMO. The Jews and Israel are the present scapegoat. But the real target is Western Civilization – democracy, freedom, private property backed by courts, meritocracy, and the search for both truth and beauty.

    All these are under attack, and in order to raise people to their side, they have to set up a strawman enemy. An apartheid state? Strawman. A colonial state? Strawman. A genocidal state? Strawman. If Israel and the Jews were to disappear tomorrow, what would happen? Would the Marxists. fascists, autocrats, theocrats, dictators, and other authoritarians be satisfied? Nope, they would find a new enemy – like whites and the USA.

    I’m no psychologist, but I see a streak of autocracy that runs through humanity. A desire to tell other people what to do and how to live. We see it on a local, less destructive level in Home Owners Associations (HOAs). We see it in politics at all levels, and most destructively, in authoritarian governments.

    Your quote about farming from Michael Bloomberg is an example, David. Wow, he’s filthy rich, but he’s not wise. Not at all. But he believes he can tell others how to live. 🙁

    The various authoritarians are not always aligned and working together, but they generally oppose us in the UN on all important issues, and anywhere they can. We are their natural enemies because we stand for all the things they abhor.

    A small thought experiment. When Russia invaded Ukraine, where were the protests against an aggressive, unwarranted invasion? Where were the demands for a cease fire? Why wasn’t Russia widely denounced as a colonial power? The answer – Russia is part of the authoritarian bloc of nations. Therefore, they get no criticism or blowback from those who share their views. Many of whom are in academia right on our campuses.

    The big picture is becoming clearer, but I’m afraid that many of the leaders of the West have not put the pieces of the puzzle together. We can only avoid defeat by becoming a strong, well-armed, resolute nation unafraid to use our energy resources, our technology, and our manufacturing to become as impregnable as we were after WWII.

  14. As a follow-up, there’s THIS from the “What Are Friend For?” File…
    “US national security adviser: Saudi defense pact not possible without Israel deal;
    “National security adviser Jake Sullivan says defense agreement with Saudi Arabia goes hand-in-hand with the kingdom and Israel normalizing ties: You can’t disentangle one piece from the others.”—
    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/389412

    Yes, indeed! The Honorable Mr. “Region-Hasn’t-Been-This-Quiet-In-Over-Two-Decades” discloses why Trump’s Abraham Accords were so EGREGIOUS and DETRIMENTAL, and thus deserved to be ridiculed, ignored and undermined…:
    Short version—“How can you have regional (and GLOBAL) peace unless Israel is CUT OFF AT THE KNEES?”
    (Um, if it’s any help, this is a rhetorical question…!)
    – – – – – – – – – – – –
    “There is a broad-front attack not only on the US…”
    The rather curious thing is that the attack is being coordinated, encouraged and FUNDED by the current American “administration”…and its fine-feathered friends…
    (which means it’s being funded in large part by the American taxpayer! OH glory to Obama’s sense of humor!)

    Hold on. Not so curious….

    Addendum: Similarly, the attack on Canada is being coordinated, encouraged and FUNDED by the current Canadian MINORITY government.

    A coincidence? Perhaps, but one could also mention the “situation” in Europe as well as in Australia. To be sure, it would be most unprofessional if one hesitated to give credit (or at least honourable mention) to the demon consortium that is the WEF/WTF…and all the creepy crawlers in its rancid ranks…

  18. From ‘The “time is out of joint” ‘ Dossier…

    “…Al Sharpton Triggers Leftists by Equating Anti-Israel Campus Mobs to J6”—
    https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/head-combat-antisemitism-movement-accuses-nyt-distorting-coverage-anti-israel

    Simply Unbelievable…
    (Fortunately, the NYT is able to restore one’s faith in the corrupt Left by providing its trademark lies, prevarications, obfuscations and distortions…
    “Head of Combat Antisemitism Movement accuses NYT of distorting coverage of anti-Israel protests”—
    https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/head-combat-antisemitism-movement-accuses-nyt-distorting-coverage-anti-israel )

  19. From Barry Meislin’s link to the Belmont Club:

    Circling back to [James] Lindsay’s original premise of Marx as a theologian one might ask what is the essence of species Marxism, of which Woke is a genus? If Marxism is a religion what ‘God’ does it serve? What lies at its core? Given its ability to shape-shift it may take a thousand years to see its true face. The ‘Marxian’ God may be very ancient, like a Jungian archetype. Marxism could in fact be a misnomer because Karl did not invent this God. If archetype it was there before him. We can only learn to keep such things at bay.

    Seen through this lens, both Islamism and Marxism can be viewed as movements which hate the revelation of ethical monotheism through the Jews to the human race.

  20. One word: Power. (More specifically, the manipulation, distortion and perversion of “Human Rights” and other humanistic principles to attain Total Power.)

    Against which the American Founding Fathers founded the principle of Anti-Power…or rather the Balancing Out of Power (having seen the rampant abuses of power in both Europe and the various religions with which they were familiar), since political inefficiency—involving the necessity for partisan give and take leading to bipartisanship—was seen to be preferable to giving leaders the tools to abuse power.

    Such a view is anathema to the enthusiasts of Total Power Which is just another reason why Marxists of any flavor MUST hate, despise, cancel and attempt to destroy America.

  22. Fascinating, lengthy, intelligent, wide-ranging and detailed commentary, in the form of an interview, providing much food for thought on I-P for those who are TRULY suffering from malnourishment (and would benefit greatly were they to bother to internalize what the author is attempting to tell them).

    In this ambitiously-titled interview, Susie Linfield, walks a fine line, trying hard to be judicious, fair, Socratic and historically accurate—a combination all too rare—in addressing the details of this tormented topic.
    Alas, in spite of this heroic and generally successful effort (all things being equal) she still, in too many cases—not being able it seems to fully escape where she is coming from—doesn’t quite seem to “get it” (at least not fully)….

    But that might be asking for far too much…
    (besides which, one’s mileage may well vary on this last comment of mine).
    And so kudos for a very, very important posting…
    “From the River to the Sea;
    “Getting it Right, Getting it Wrong”—
    https://salmagundi.skidmore.edu/articles/501-from-the-river-to-the-sea
    H/T Powerline blog.

  23. Fired from Rafah, eh, Barry? I hope the Israeli offensive comes soon and is well-planned. I’d like to think “civilians,” if any, will be spared, but that’s on Hamas.

  24. Well, they just want to get in their “last licks”.
    Show the ZIOs who’s the real boss.
    That way, they can agree to a cease-fire with “dignity” and declare themselves THE VICTORS!!!
    (Or maybe not…)

    Meanwhile, Ed Driscoll (Instapundit) takes us on—yet another—tour of Rick’s Cafe…so, um, prepare to be, er, SHOCKED!!!
    “…Pro-Palestianian (sic) protesters are backed by a surprising source: Biden’s biggest donors.”—
    https://instapundit.com/645667/

  27. well it seems they want to make category error, a fine art, gessen who has occasionally ventured into sanity, re the Russia matter, loses his marbles very much so, Gaza is a thanatos state, that is it’s purpose,

    it’s much like the notion that orwell expounded somethings are so ridiculous intellectuals can only come up with it,

    as they often say, fiction has to be logically consistent within their own rules,

    re the rockefellers, l ron hubbard, made then the enablers of his sprawling space opera, which I used to think was crazy right, well they have often served tyrants like the Nazis
    as the cost of doing business

  28. It’s official now, Barry. The Democrat party is more antisemitic than Al Sharpton.

  31. “It’s official…”
    Yep…and also more corrupt than the good Reverend.
    (But then we already knew that about the King of Corruption. Here are some juicy details….)
    “How Hamas Bought Joe Biden;
    “Bloodstained currency, smuggled gold bars and a $200,000 check.”—
    https://www.frontpagemag.com/how-hamas-bought-joe-biden/
    H/T Instapundit.

    Gosh, lucky thing for “Biden” that “he” owns the DOJ, heh.

  32. Looks like they’ll have to rename it the “Magic Mushroom League.”…
    “Columbia President Shafik Downplays Pro-Hamas Mob, Treats Last Few Weeks Like a Preschool Argument”—
    https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/05/columbia-president-shafik-downplays-pro-hamas-mob-treats-last-few-weeks-like-a-preschool-argument/

    Or “Hallicinations ‘R US”….
    …with an official credo along the lines of “Follow your most cherished dreams: Lie like theirs no tomorrow…”

  33. well look at her deeds at the gates foundation, world bank, bank of england, just more higher hogwarts,

  34. re [Barry Meislin on May 5, 2024 at 10:26 am]

    Yep. Power is their god. They are like the Ringwraiths in LOTR.

  35. Something that should not be overlooked about why these people are so successful in spreading their ideas and their nonsense, both to young people in class rooms and others: there’s mostly been no opposition.

    Oh, there’s plenty of opposition at street level, it’s heartening to see students and others standing up to these people, it’s a good reminder that the Left _doesn’t_ own the entire public mind, or the entire youth mind. A lot of people see through them.

    But ever since the 1970s, the supposed opposition has been conspicuously silent. They talked about free markets and free trade. They talked about the wonders of entrepreneurship. The loved to quote Ayn Rand.

    But they just couldn’t bring themselves to oppose the Left on social issues. A lot of the time they didn’t really want to. So there wasn’t much in the way of open public opposition to them until Limbaugh broke the dam. Since then, the counter-voices have gotten steadily louder, but the Republicans continued to refuse to act in the name of their voters and supporters. So Democrat administrations advanced the agenda, and GOP administrations, at best, simply stopped or slowed the advance, they never tried to reverse any of it. Reagan was an exception, the next one was Trump.

    Now some State legislatures are beginning to try and rein in the nonsense, but after decades, it’s deeply rooted.

  36. “Yes, anti-American and anti-Western and anti-Enlightenment. And not just illogical, but anti-logical.”

    It goes all the way back to the French Revolution. That’s when what we call ‘the Left’ emerged as a recognizable force, and it emerged defined in opposition to the core elements of Western Christendom, such as Christianity, social traditions, etc.

    It would be a lie to say that the Left’s views were entirely false or bad. Some of what they opposed did indeed need changes. Much good came out of alliances between the true Left and common laborers, or (believe it or not) Jews, or others. The roots of the Jewish Lefty sympathies go back centuries, and originally there was some reason and justification for it.

    But at its very core, the Left is ‘anti’. By now, they’re run out of bag things in the West to be against, but ‘against’ is still their essence, their default. So now hatred is their core emotion, and that includes a certain amount of self-hatred.

  37. It is Islamo-Marxism. On the surface Islamism and Marxism has absolutely nothing in common except a disdain for Jews and Western Civilization. The morons know nothing about Israel only that it is a Western and Jewish oriented country. The real object of their hatred is the United States (and in the UK, Britain) and the previously mentioned Western Enlightenment. They are beyond pathetic.

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