The rising tide of anti-Semitism
A reader sent me a link to this article by Rich Cohen in Tablet Magazine about how the post-WWII golden age for acceptance of Jews in America is past:
The horror of the Holocaust purchased us a 70-year vacation from history, though we didn’t know it. We believed the world had changed, as had human nature. Jews remained distinct in the new dispensation, but in a good way””a near-at-hand exotic, a symbol of exile, which we were told was the natural state of modern man. For perhaps the only time in history, you might actually want to be a Jew. Because of the close families and good husbands and yada yada. Saul Bellow, Phillip Roth, Mel Brooks. To those of us who came of age in these years, the future seemed like it would be more of the same, the present carried on forever.
We were wrong.
If you go online and read the comments on any story about Israel or George Soros or search certain terms on Twitter, you begin to feel the golden age of the American Jews was just a moment in time. Perhaps the old paranoia stirs in me, but I see ominous signs everywhere…
Cohen is correct that things have gotten worse, even in this country, although they’re far worse in Europe than here and have been for quite some time. But he gets a lot of important things wrong, too, and his errors are instructive because they are emblematic of a way of thinking that’s so common as to be typical among American Jews of the liberal persuasion—which includes most Reform Jews and most ethnic but unaffiliated Jews.
Trying his darndest to figure out what happened and why, Cohen writes:
President Obama? I don’t blame him, but I do think his disgust with Benjamin Netanyahu, which seems almost physical, as if repelled by the stink of the man, has given certain practitioners the sense that it’s safe to come into the open…
Cohen has a kneejerk—almost physical, and certainly reflexive—refusal to blame Obama for what he then describes Obama as having done. Cohen doesn’t even feel he needs to explain why he won’t blame Obama, but I’d like to ask him: why not? Is it because you don’t want to be called racist, and think that any criticism of the man is ipso facto racist? Is it because you are a liberal and criticizing a liberal president constitutes being a traitor? Is it because you yourself can’t stand Netanyahu, but don’t feel the need to explain why because everyone who’s anyone hates Netanyahu for the same reasons or non-reasons? Don’t you think that a president who seems “repelled by the stink” of Netanyahu (your word, not mine), is expressing something that you should actually call anti-Semitic? And if so, why not?
Cohen has more to say:
Then there’s the Iran deal: To get the papers signed, the president must separate from Israel. To do that, he muddies the brand. That’s how he’s always campaigned, on health care, free-trade deals, against the right and the left alike: demonize the opponent and frame the issue. You’re for this deal, or you’re for war. In the process, President Obama has unintentionally, or thoughtlessly, given cover to the normalization of the old tropes of Jewish dual loyalty and war-mongering.
That’s a very rich paragraph in terms of mining the thought processes of a liberal apologist for Obama. Cohen is able to see the tactics Obama favors, the Alinsky-esque (although he doesn’t call it that) use of Rules for Radicals #12 (“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”), and he correctly sees how it has hurt the Jews. But he subscribes to the “fool” definition of Obama’s actions in the old “fool vs. knave” dilemma: poor hapless Obama, who’s hurting Jews “unintentionally or thoughtlessly,” despite his vaunted smarts.
Iran made him do it, I guess.
The paragraph I quoted above from Cohen is followed without pause by the following:
It’s painful for those of us who love Obama. We voted for him and voted for him again. At best, the Iran deal seems misguided. Meant to avoid conflict, it will, by putting Iranian proxies on the northern and southern borders of Israel, make war inevitable.
What Obama did will, in Cohen’s opinion, “make war inevitable.” He says it has already increased anti-Semitism. And yet Cohen doesn’t just like Obama; he loves Obama (present tense, not past). He voted for him twice, and one gets the distinct impression that, if Obama were somehow to run for a third term, he would vote for him again, gladly. And it’s almost a certainty that if Hillary Clinton—Obama’s Secretary of State—runs in 2016, Cohen will have no hesitation whatsoever to pull that lever or or do whatever it takes to vote for her, too.
There is absolutely nothing in his essay that indicates he is able to connect the rise of anti-Semitism to the hard work the Left has done on its behalf, or to any sort of intention by Obama. The “knave” hypothesis is not something he considers possible. Nor does he appear to consider that, if Obama’s policies keep engendering bad consequences that Obama doesn’t intend, perhaps Obama isn’t quite the genius he was cracked up to be but is instead an incompetent and stupid fool rather merely an unlucky one. (As readers of this blog know, I tend to go quite strongly with “knave,” although every now and then there’s a bit of “fool” thrown in to keep it company).
What would it take for someone like Cohen, who seems to see certain things so clearly, but has a blind spot for so many others, to see the whole picture? I’m not at all sure there is anything that would do it.
Rich Cohen is an idiot… he does not live in the US, he lives in france, and comments from afar on things and often gets it very wrong…
Artfldgr:
I don’t know what Rich Cohen you’re referring to.
This one lives in Connecticut. See this.
By the way, I’m not writing about his article because of any opinion I have about him or his other work in general, whether approval or disapproval. I’m writing about this article because I think it expresses some thoughts very typical of many liberal Jews in the US and how they try to reconcile their liking for Obama and refusal to blame him with all the things he’s done to hurt Israel and the world.
“If only Stalin knew” encapsulates his refusal to see.
One of the best things about Twitter is how ordinary persons just call out celebs like BHO and HRC.
Barry tweeted how he doesn’t divide people in order to gain a political advantage. The tweets in response were brutal and accurate.
My thoughts about race and religion were radically changed by Tom Wolfe’s “Back to Blood.” Long but funny. And true.
The thing that the Obama crowd doesn’t get is that a big number of Muslims want to kill Jews and Christians. America is the Great Satan. We have recent evidence of beheadings. Given the chance, they would do the same here. Why even risk the chance of Iran getting nukes. Iran would use them!
ISIS and Iran are dangerous enemies and liars of the first order. They aren’t just meanie Republicans. Savages have to be dealt with by overwhelming force.
The Jews and Muslims have been fighting for over a thousand years and it will not stop in out lifetimes.
I forgot to point out that he is a socialist/communist/fascist/progressive/liberal that refuses to actually learn the history, and so things like antisemitism, a foundational cornerstone of socialism and marxism is pretended not to exist. making a lot of what he writes modern drivel, like lots of stuff people make up and pretend is real without looking it up..
[note that in band of brothers the scene where they find the camps, they put up a reference to “the jewish question”, which there was also a “woman question” and more.. ]
ANY time you have anti-capitalism, you have anti-semetism, as the left is taught that jews invented capitalism, and if you dont get rid of them (and now christian defenders), you cant have socialism… period, end of story, thats that, unless someone wants to pretend otherwise. but if so, why is it always happening
he (cohen) also deflects all commentary away from state organs and departments of intrigue, so there is no history of the soviets and the records of their converting islam into a social bomb against the united states and the west and jews… (kind of taking over where hitler and the grand mufti and modified korans left off)
however, he has no problem serving up the soviet troll line that these things were not the product of russia and its organs, but of the CIA… funny how we will believe anything about the CIA and NOTHING about the KGB, despite its actual historyh and the other history
one of these propaganda trolls is now tring to sue to have putin and soviet russia stop doing this to the US through the net…
anyone that does not oppose or mention it, is helping the side that does it. they NEED you to not say anything, not correct the dialogue, and not reveal the big lie. not acting against them, is acting for them, regardless of what you think or imagine.. only actions count…
National Review
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/218533/russian-footprints-ion-mihai-pacepa
uk daily mail
EXCLUSIVE: New book reveals how KGB operation seeded Muslim countries with anti-American, anti-Jewish propaganda during the 1970s, laying the groundwork for Islamist terrorism against U.S. and Israel
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2348191/EXCLUSIVE-KGB-operation-seeded-Muslim-countries-anti-American-anti-Jewish-propaganda-1970s-laying-groundwork-Islamist-terrorism-U-S-Israeli-targets.html
Clarion project
Soviets Engineered Islamist Hatred of America: Defector
KGB head Andropov said Islam and the Arab world was petri dish which could nurture a virulent strain of America-hate.
http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/kgb-defector-soviets-engineered-islamist-hatred-america
New American
Russian Red Jihad
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/13069-russian-red-jihad
Tablet (jewish press)
Former Soviet Spy Sees the Long Arm of the KGB in Today’s Muslim Anti-Semitism
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/140328/timmerman-disinformation
i can lay out others, but dont expect your liberal press and liberal cohen to say anything about it, and in essence blame “caucasian infestation”
[edited for length by n-n]
seems there are several of them..
Richard Cohen may refer to:
Richard Cohen (columnist) (born 1941), syndicated columnist for the Washington Post
Richard Cohen (fencer) (born 1947), British Olympic fencer and author of Chasing the Sun
Richard A. Cohen (born 1952), advocate of conversion therapy
Richard B. Cohen (born 1952), billionaire and owner of C&S Wholesale Grocers
Richard E. Cohen, congressional correspondent for National Journal
Richard I. Cohen, professor of Jewish History at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Richard M. Cohen (born 1948), journalist, television news producer, husband of Meredith Vieira
Rich Cohen (born 1968), author of Tough Jews, The Avengers, Lake Effect, and Sweet and Low
J. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center
Dick Cohen (born 1949), Minnesota state senator
Richard Cohen, husband of Paula Zahn
Rich Cohen (born July 30, 1968) is an American non-fiction writer. He is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines. His works have been New York Times bestsellers, New York Times Notable Books, and have been collected in the Best American Essays series. He lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
and
Richard I. (Yerachmiel) Cohen (born September 2, 1946) is a professor of history, presently holding the Paulette and Claude Kelman Chair in French Jewry Studies in the Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He specializes in the history of Jews in Western and Central Europe in the modern period, in particular the Jews of France, art history, Jewish historiography, and The Holocaust
and
Richard Cohen (columnist) which is who i refer to as he is in many many many articles every day in the daily news, times, huffington post, washington post, and more…
I’m convinced ISIS could burn the White House and Obama would still have a 40% approval rating.
Back to Blood.
I am also nauseated by Cohen’s inability to question his own automatic support for Obama, whose antipathy for Israel has been obvious from the outset. But at least he’s willing to admit that Obama’s Iran deal is a mistake. Most American Jews, and many organizations of the American Jewish establishment (including the Reform and Conservative religious movements) are doubling down on their support for whatever Obama does.
I understand that Cohen’s book about American Jewish gangsters romanticizes them, as if Jewish hoodlums should be a source of pride. Sad that such a book found a publisher.
Artfldgr:
If you click on the name of the author of this article at the link, it takes you to a page that says he wrote books entitled Tough Jews and The Fish That Ate the Whale. If you go to that author’s Wiki page, it says he lives in Connecticut. As far as journalism goes, he writes mainly for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.
Note also that he goes by the name of “Rich” and the others tend to use “Richard,” including the columnist I believe you might have confused with this one.
Saul Bellow wrote an article years ago about baby boomer Jewish-Americans visiting Israel with their “green, unripe morality”–expecting a socialist paradise but finding a state with an army, jails, borders, etc., a state with all the apparatus of actually, you know, defending itself. Israel can never live up to the exalted expectations of liberalism. And since there can’t possibly be anything wrong with liberalism, the problem must lie with Israel.
Cultural elites will never get it until they are mugged in reality. Are the majority of Jewish individuals blinded by the mostly safe decades since WWII? In this country, we can own guns. And we should, Jews, Christians, parents, patriots, women . . . we all should own guns. Lots of guns and even more ammo. And know how to use them. That could be the difference between what happened back then, and what might happen now. And Israel – they have a war to fight, and soon, it seems. I pray that they are vigilant, tough, cynical, compulsively over-prepared – and closely held in the hand of the Lord.
What is really funny about this is that I grew up in a small city and much of my family lived in the country. I went to Catholic schools,including college, and my favorite stores growing up were owned by people named Rosen and Levin. My closest cousins’ village doctor, who was often spoken of very fondly was Doc Cohen. Only after I moved to Philly and had many Jewish coworkers did I learn that Cohen was a Jewish name. No one every mentioned that someone was a Jew. Where I came from, the people were more important than the tribe. I suspect there are many people in flyover country who are similar, if not so uninformed as I was in my youth. It’s the “educated” types who follow NGOs and social justice warriers who are the anti-semites in America. Cohen should get out of his bubble.
Very good question neo. We tend to think the holocaust as unique in history. But it isn’t. Ask the Armenians, the Assyrians, or the Cambodians just to name a few recent examples. One possible answer I think is that American Jews have abandoned their Jewish roots and now embrace leftism as their new religion.
neo-neocon, thats why i put up the disambiguation, there are three people, the one you mention, the historian, and the columnist… i mistaked the one you mention for the columnist, but they BOTH have much the same attitude as to obama, the left, and all that. look a few postings above your second point, where i put up the three and the wiki list once it became clear there was confusion as to which cohen. (though my favorite was and always is george m cohen, who thankfully not another richard, was a member of “The Four Cohans.”)
as you often point out, this is a jewish thing, not a single person thing… ultimately, if you see one jewish dick you have seen most of them…
i work with lots and lots of this elite college type jewish american/israeli socialism lovers… they are quite inane in their love of it, often ignorant and willfully blind to the parts that would clue them in that they love what will ultimately kill them, and are the kings and queens of reletivation of ideas to meaning nothing while pretending to say something.
its quite a trick actually and they wield it to make sure that theirs is the only opinion that counts as its used to neutralize all commers without any need to actually address their points. those that press on get the idiocy of “lets agree to disagree” as if walking away full of piss and vinegar for being neutered and not allowed to make the point you allowed them to make is a good way to go onwards.
Game theorist and mathematician Robert Aumann argues that two people with common prior probability cannot agree to disagree
[game theory is a branch of math i love among many]
its “modus vivendi”, and while its trying to be smart and there are valid applications its actually now a ” thought-terminating cliché”
The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.
so its a phrase i highly dislike as its not used to actually agree to disagree its used as a social signal to say, shut up, im losing the debate and if i dont quit and claim the high ground or at least an equal place, i will be on the bottom of the losing position in the logical
i highly recoment
“Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism” by lifton
at least now i can comment on the right richard, or left richard or the right richard on the left..
I don’t know where Rich Cohen lives, but I know where Obama does. He went through a convoluted scam with Tony Rezko in order to wind up across the street from Louis Farrakhan and spent 20 years in the church of Jeremiah Wright (who presumably agrees with Farrakhan that Jews are apes and/or pigs since he gave Louis several awards).
Jeremiah Wright. Louis Farrakhan. And let’s throw in the new White House Advisor: Al Sharpton, the Hero of Crown Heights.
Are we really back to the Gee! I wonder what Obama really thinks game?
It’s painful for those of us who love Obama.
It’s painful because he can’t let himself believe that Obama does not, in fact, love him back.
He notices that Obama is physically repulsed by Netanyahu, but he refuses to recognize it for what it is. He desperately tries to figure out the Iran thing, and can’t seem to manage. I agree with you that it’s interesting that he recognizes the tactics Obama uses and still LOVES Obama.
Cohen has a kneejerk–almost physical, and certainly reflexive–refusal to blame Obama for what he then describes Obama as having done. … Is it because you [Cohen] don’t want to be called racist, and think that any criticism of the man is ipso facto racist?
As I suspected, it doesn’t even rise to the level of consciously formulating criticism of His Royal Majesty, King Barack. Later in the post, Neo quotes Cohen writing, “It’s painful for those of us who love Obama.”
Cohen has drunk so much of the Kool-Aid, he actually loves Big Brother. This idiotic infatuation short-circuits Cohen’s brain to the point where badthink about The Great Obama has become impossible for him.
How pathetic. One day in the distant future historians will chronicle the pandemic of mass insanity that elected the horrible King Barack twice and allowed him to do such destructive things with scant criticism.
George Soros! Is that supposed to be irony or irony deficiency? The attribution of anti-Semitism to anyone pointing out the signal blend of evil that is George Soros is as ridiculous as the attribution of racism to anyone pointing out the unique personal brand of evil that is Obama. And as to Cohen, fool or knave? I will not benefit him the doubt — knave — no-one, but no-one is that obtuse — just as no-one but no one could have been so obtuse as to never have caught on to Stalin (and Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Fidel).
actually the book is more relevant to this discussion than one might guess, as one is trying to work out the mental position of people who have had this played on them to one degree or another and may have even internalized it…
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing” in China is a non-fiction book by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton on the psychology of brainwashing and mind control.
here is the list, and you can work out how many are in play in the jewish community… (for whatever reasons)…
there is A LOT of these in play right now, and if you know them, you can see how people are employing them, and if you dont you wont know a darn thing about whys, hows, and the final outcomes. (you may recognize my trying to identify things from this for the blog, but given my voluminous reading and knowing, falls short as there is no common condition to lean on, and space does not allow filling things in)
Lifton outlines the “Eight Criteria for Thought Reform”:
Milieu Control
Mystical Manipulation
Demand for Purity
Confession
Sacred Science
Loading the Language
Doctrine over person
Dispensing of existence
the feminists do this, the political elite do this, and you can see the product of it in this jewish thing you come back to over and over and wonder how did it occur (without realizing the self isolation affords such games)
Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality, that is, against the claim on our thinking attention that all events and facts make by virtue of their existence.” hanna arendt – Thinking. The Life of the Mind.
-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
a MAJOR reason that they fall for OBAMA is that he is using the Cliche’s that they are trained to respond to with no thought pretending there is thougth there!!!!!
without understanding the game and how it works, you wont ever work it out yourself, as you may not realize what is going on as these things are also played on you and your also trained to accept their answers.
Political disagreement: can these marriages be saved?
the stop thinking phrase is all through this thread
http://neoneocon.com/2008/08/14/political-disagreement-can-these-marriages-be-saved/
obama speaks in autological phrases which we are trained for years and years to react a certain way to… the more elite and trained in academia you are the more likely these will work on you without you coming off boorish ignoring them.
and as you ask:
What would it take for someone like Cohen, who seems to see certain things so clearly, but has a blind spot for so many others, to see the whole picture? I’m not at all sure there is anything that would do it.
it would take him learning the game
then realizing how its been playing him
then he wakes up, and zealotly changes sides
its how it goes..
to see a collection of phrases and things related to this would see what is being used then parroted and then established custom that controls thinking about subjects.
think of obama when reading this:
Eichmann’s inability to think for himself was exemplified by his consistent use of “stock phrases and self-invented clichés,” demonstrating his unrealistic worldview and crippling lack of communication skills through reliance on “officialese” (Amtssprache) and the euphemistic Sprachregelung that made implementation of Hitler’s policies “somehow palatable.”
I couldn’t tell if this was a goof, a mis-punctuated quote, an errant line from the Onion, or whether Dorothy Parker had slipped the toils of Time, but I really liked the highlighted part
Neo:
Maybe you should establish a rule that comments can’t exceed the rough length of the original neo post.
I suspect there are many people in flyover country who are similar, if not so uninformed as I was in my youth.
Before I went to college, I would not have known anything of jewish stereotypes if it were not for television. It was never discussed in the south, unless you were at church or someone was talking about making a pilgrimage to Israel.
I certainly had no basis for judging whether the stereotypes at all matched reality.
But Nolanimrod, you forgot that while sitting in Wright’s church for 20 years, and having Wright be the greatest spiritual influence in his life, Barry O didn’t hear ONE WORD JEREMIAH WRIGHT SAID in all those years!
Mr. Cohen: Like so many of his bent, he’s rarely—If Ever—exposed to the unaccustomed torture of critical thought. Inexcusable, yet epidemic on the Left.
Sprachregelung is a German language term meaning “convention of speech”. It refers to a formal or informal agreement, or order, that certain things should be expressed in specific ways in official communications by an organization or by a political entity. Although not the same, it has some overlap with the US-American concept of politically correct speech codes. It can also cover such concepts as agreed “lines-to-take”, talking points, and the exertion of message discipline. An example came in January 1945 when Ribbentrop sent emissaries to contact the Western Allies in Sweden and Switzerland, aiming to negotiate a separate peace; they carried with them a list of Sprachregelungen to ensure they gave the same message
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Arendt argues that Eichmann, in his peripheral role at the Wannsee Conference, witnessed the rank-and-file of the German civil service heartily endorse Reinhard Heydrich’s program for the Final Solution of the Jewish question in Europe (German: die Endlé¶sung der Judenfrage). Upon seeing members of “respectable society” endorsing mass murder, and enthusiastically participating in the planning of the solution, Eichmann felt that his moral responsibility was relaxed, as if he were “Pontius Pilate”.
and there is that term again we all miss as we dont read marx and dont read how he posits key things as “questions”…
In the 20th century, the Nazi leadership in Germany had decided to annihilate the Jewish people. Heinrich Himmler was the chief architect of the plan, and the German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler termed it “the final solution of the Jewish question”
failure to grasp this and the events that came from it is pretty much why liberal leftist jews vote and do what they do… otherwise, to do otherwise, is to accept that history, and accept that these people do this, and to act as if they do, and THAT is something intolerable.
and bauer leads to marx commentary on it…
and THAT lead to, the rise of socialisms and its goals of deaths
the idea is what they wont give up on!!!!!!!!
in fact, so much so, that they use the term, final solution, and leave out the REST of the phrase… “final solution of the jewish question”, just as they coined holocaust to bury conflagration as detailed by marx.
always trying to save utopia…
in order to not do what they do, they have to give up on that utopia, but at the same time, their religion promises that to them, and they think or have internalized the utopia of deliverance.
[edited for length by n-n]
“…unintentionally or thoughtlessly…”
Yes, I noticed that, too.
One can only shake one’s head.
And the part about “those of us who love Obama” makes the sickening delusion complete.
It’s not as though Jews haven’t fallen for this in the past (others, too, to be sure).
Jacob Frank, Shabtai Tzvi. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Trotsky…. to mention only a few.
It’s the old “Thou shalt not have any other gods before thee” problem.
Jews, as a general rule, seem to be particularly beset by Messianic or “righteous” or “spiritual” seduction.
As Chesterton said, those who stop believing in God will believe in anything.
One can only shake one’s head.
It’s not as though Jews haven’t fallen for this in the past (others, too, to be sure).
Neo previously proffered a descriptive list of these clowns.
No more excuses. I blame the voters.
Nolan & Cornhead…Y’all must be awful new around these parts..huh..? Just wondering…((-:
The article has the odor of the abused spouse who cannot or will not leave the abuser…
The attribution of anti-Semitism to anyone pointing out the signal blend of evil that is George Soros is as ridiculous as the attribution of racism to anyone pointing out the unique personal brand of evil that is Obama.
You know, I never really think of Soros as Jewish; I think of him as “Nazi collaborator.”
Could be that Midwestern small-town Christian upbringing others have already commented on; I was taught all the negative Jewish stereotypes in a college “diversity” seminar ostensibly chastising me for holding the stereotypes I’d never heard before.
I was taught all the negative Jewish stereotypes in a college “diversity” seminar ostensibly chastising me for holding the stereotypes I’d never heard before.
Speaking of which, they exist for a reason. No?
Neo: “Is it because you don’t want to be called racist, and think that any criticism of the man is ipso facto racist? Is it because you are a liberal and criticizing a liberal president constitutes being a traitor?”
I guess latter rather than former. I doubt Cohen would mute criticism of Justice Thomas or Dr. Carson. Or stepping aside from black/white, Bobby Jindal or Michelle Malkin.
Though perhaps, he may feel that stepping off the liberal line is to step on a racist line.
C6loq:
Implying, what?
Implying, what?
Previously mentioned, I don’t think there are victims at large. Only players.
There is only one way, that of 100% self-responsability.
I read this idiotic piece. The guy comes out as a textbook stereotype.
And, in contravention of rule #1… never good that.
TWICE!
TRICE if they could.
In memory of Hillel Kook, aka Peter Bergson.
C6loq:
You don’t think there are victims-at-large??
Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but it sounds as though you’re saying if there’s a stereotype, then it must be true and the person is guilty of something.
Again, perhaps I’m misunderstanding you. I certainly hope I am.
And the Jews who were murdered by the Nazis—are they not victims-at-large? (that’s “at-large” in the sense of “as a whole; in general”). Or were they not even innocent victims specifically, rather than “at-large” (whatever you mean by that phrase)?
Neo: “What would it take for someone like Cohen, who seems to see certain things so clearly, but has a blind spot for so many others, to see the whole picture?”
You should interview him to seek out the answer.
I’m curious on that question since my explanation of President Bush’s decision for Operation Iraqi Freedom leans heavily on President Clinton’s Iraq enforcement carried forward faithfully by Bush. It should be convincing for people like Cohen, but maybe not if their blind spot is bigger than their ability to see.
Why the “love”? I’ve seen a lot of liberals write and say this. Why not instead something like “greatly admire”? All that lovin’ seems to point at something not rational. Very hard to talk sense to someone in that state.
Ann:
Good point. Love is a very emotional and intense word.
Why is it that Semitism is defined as the Jewish people? Arabs are Semitics as well, so do people mean the Arabs hate Jews and everyone else that was part of that ME ethnicity?
This is one of those old propaganda lines that don’t die out, because it’s too stuck in.
What would it take for someone like Cohen, who seems to see certain things so clearly, but has a blind spot for so many others, to see the whole picture? I’m not at all sure there is anything that would do it.
He’s a zombie. Why do people expect zombies to have a conscience, a brain, or a heart?
neo-neocon Says:
June 3rd, 2015 at 5:41 pm
G6loq:
You don’t think there are victims-at-large??
Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but it sounds as though you’re saying if there’s a stereotype, then it must be true and the person is guilty of something.
Stereotypes have to do with culture … annoying/infuriating mannerisms mainly.
By victimhood-at-large I refer to acts of commission or omission. – I’ll eschew a procrustean attitude and concede that infants, oldsters, people in wheelchairs or sick in hospitals get a pass.-
Otherwise, everybody is a player, no exceptions.
WWII case, too long for this medium. There was plenty of unpunished enabling prior to and during WWII.
Nowadays, we have the sad spectacle of JINOs cheekily making a nuisance of themselves in any way they can. The non-JINOs by staying generally silent are enabling.
Same with RINOs. By not vociferously confronting the Libtards currently in charge, they’re enabling. As Orwell would have said, ‘de facto allies of the fascists’.
You don’t fight, the enemy doesn’t want you to fight, you’re siding with the enemy….
Pamela Geller is the new Peter Bergson. See how she’s being treated and demeaned.
You, me, everybody else, 100% responsibility for our acts of commission or omission. And no, in our times ignorance is no excuse.
The enemy is within… Who’ll deal with it?
Soon the anniversary of the Normandy Landing. Soon thereafter purges began … It wasn’t pretty …..
Forgot:
the this and the that, and the what is and the what’s what, as we are going, we’ll be done in by
sentimentalism …
You can’t fix stupid.
The road to Hell is paved with great expectations…
The fact is that too many Jews want to emulate — even beat? — Moses;
Too many Christians want to emulate –even beat? – Jesus.
In stage vernacular: Those are two tough acts to follow.
&&&
One project springs to mind: mass importation of poverty into Memphis directly from (Islamic) Somalia.
It’s master mind is Jewish, his entire staff is new-wave/ old soul Christian.
The net result must be disaster: for this Pygmalion Project for Somalis is the height of cultural arrogance.
Like Higgins, these players figure that they can manipulate Somalis into some idealized creatures.
There is NO WAY that this displacement project can possibly dial in on individuals as such.
For the Somali immigrants: it’s total social shock — every time, every soul. They are entering a society in which they can make no positive contribution. They really have nothing to offer — but poverty, rage, dependence and cultural alienation.
They come from a society that is embedded in the NEOLITHIC era — culturally. Somalia is so backward that Islam is a step forward!
Yiikes!
This Memphis project is replicated by fools in Maine and Minnesota… by the thousand. For reasons too obvious, NO-ONE can afford to hire them…
Starting with Somali pre-agricultural norms of behavior. Up until the most recent times, Somalia was simply a land of brigandage. It’s PIRATE COUNTRY… and always has been.
You can scarcely grow anything there. So it flunked Neolithics.
It’s not for nothing that infamous Captain Kidd flew the Jolly Roger just off Aden. (Hence the Royal Navy’s decision to establish a port there.)
&&&&&&
What’s happening here is exactly what Jesus preached against: Jesus stipulated that charity BEGINS AT HOME — namely with your family and neighbors.
He was aiming his comments at (fellow) Jews who were all high and mighty about formal gift giving — especially in a public venue — {{{ think Herod, et. al. }}} while being rogues in all personal behavior.
The base calculation of Indulgences was in full play — two thousand years before Luther.
&&&&&
We are seeing this eternal with:
The Clintonistas —
The 0bamanistas —
&&&&
And in my own family, the same, as ever.
The darker the soul, the worse the behavior: the more ostentatious the display of alms.
&&&&&
It’s irony compounded that Barry sees that America is too involved overseas — and then he doubles down on stirring the pot.
One of the PRIMARY rages that Kenyans had against Britain — was modernity.
People don’t like to change — and between all of the Do-Gooders and Leftists — we’re headed straight for an international cultural civil war.
I believe that the Divider in Chief actually doesn’t quite see that such is so.
That’s the deficiency one faces when you live in a mirrored palace… and the mirrors only face the oval office.
and the mirrors only face the oval office.
I twice blame the voters ….
plus; you can not be a big fan of Soros and not have any problem with Jews. Doesn’t help that he funds tons of subversive groups / makes it easy fodder to claim its stereotyping…. but that doesn’t mean he isn’t actually doing it…
Great article! I read the Cohen article earlier this week. As a Jew myself (conservative though), I appreciate your insight into a Jewish Liberal mindless mind.
Leftist Jews tend to be highly educated, which brings this Orwell quote to mind: ‘Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.’
I found your blog via Legal insurrection where you recently wrote. http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/05/obama-on-the-iran-deal-trust-me-its-my-name-on-this/
And thank you for the “If only Stalin knew” link!
Jerry S:
Welcome, and you’re welcome!
I’ve found “if only Stalin knew” to be an extremely useful concept, especially during the Obama years.
Well, how many “non-conforming” bolsheviks and trotskyites, put against a wall or worked to death in a gulag, died still believing, and maybe more so than when they were put on the wall or in the camp? It’s part of why they had to be murdered, actually. That sort of government isn’t about belief, or idealism, but sheer terror, force, command, and obedience. The only thing that will help these many is hell. A place where they cannot lie, not even to themselves. They are so buried in their lies and deceits and believe that is so clever, that they can’t escape the trap. They want what they want, when they want it, and will have it if it kills them. And, for most of them, it will. Oh, they know the truth, but have cut it off inside, and out, which why they are so virulent about quitters (like you). Just wish I could give them what they want without endangering the rest of us. They will never be clean, always dangerous to the rest of us. Always.
Even defectors like Horowitz shows signs of deep Leftist programming still imbedded within, such as when he defended Soviet researchers against Diane’s American Betrayal book. By using character assassination as his righteous tool to redeem his getting his own ally killed by Nation of Islam black panthers.
Ymarsakar Says:
June 5th, 2015 at 5:43 pm
Even defectors like Horowitz shows signs of deep Leftist programming still imbedded within, such as when he defended Soviet researchers against Diane’s American Betrayal book.
Exactly. Having been on the other side is a bad sign. Something not quite right about one’s deep instinct.
Ya know, I love Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin, but would have no issues criticizing them if I felt they were wrong on any given point. Yet Cohen can’t seem to do that with Obama.
For the most part I only tolerate politicians in general though.