I AM JUST TRYING TO DIRECT OUR ATTENTION AWAY, FOR A MOMENT, FROM THE POLITICAL MANIA THAT HAS SURROUNDED US FOR 363 DAYS THIS YEAR SO FAR AND COUNTING. WE HAVE TWO MORE TO GO. WEDNESDAY WE START ALL OVER AGAIN. I WANT TO TAKE A BREAK FROM THAT AND HAVE US LOOK AT 400 YEARS WITH THE ENGAGEMENT OF THE IDEA OF LIBERTY. MY ARGUMENT IS THAT IS THE ESSENCE OF AMERICA, OUR NATIONALISM. IT IS THE EXCEPTIONAL AMERICAN IDEAL. IT IS SOMETHING AMERICANS HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT, WRITING ABOUT, FIGHTING FOR 4 CENTURIES.If this is so, we should all be disgusted by an epidemic of anti-Semitism sweeping this nation.
According to Brookhiser, our obsession with liberty is manifested by 13 documents, starting with the Jamestown papers in 1619. He continues through Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down this Wall Speech" in 1987. He stops there. Like any good historian, he avoids the temptation to cover more recent events.
One of the 13 papers he mentions is the Flushing Remonstrance, a 1657 petition signed by about 30 Flushing residents in opposition to as ban on Quaker worship. It concludes,
The law of love, peace and liberty in the states extending to Jews, Turks and Egyptians, as they are considered sonnes of Adam, which is the glory of the outward state of Holland, soe love, peace and liberty, extending to all in Christ Jesus, condemns hatred, war and bondage. And because our Saviour sayeth it is impossible but that offences will come, but woe unto him by whom they cometh, our desire is not to offend one of his little ones, in whatsoever form, name or title hee appears in, whether Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker, but shall be glad to see anything of God in any of them, desiring to doe unto all men as we desire all men should doe unto us, which is the true law both of Church and State; for our Saviour sayeth this is the law and the prophets.This theme of tolerance exists in other documents as well, including William Penn's Charter of Privileges to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania.
So it's clear this religious intolerance is distinctly unAmerican. This is not a Jewish problem, but a stain on American exceptionalism.
Though I am not particularly religious, I intend to visit a few more synagogues in upcoming weeks. Also, like the residents of Flushing, we need to stand up to those who engage in anti-Semitism, no matter how subtle they are.
To me, a feeling of America First, Nationalism, etc. is not only logical, but appropriate. THIS IS WHERE I CHOOSE TO LIVE ! This is MY team, for goodness sake!
ReplyDeleteMy greatest concern is in preserving THIS culture. I’m proud and thankful to be living here. I can enjoy aspects of other cultures, of course. But, THIS culture is where I’m at, and I’m not leaving it.
Society is increasingly secular, and outright hostility toward religion is not only socially acceptable, it's a requirement in many circles. It's no wonder these attacks are increasing. They've been fomented for quite some time. We have a freshman class of congessional representatives who have openly advanced the Jewish blood lie. Few cared and they're considered opinion leaders for their constituents who truly believe it's all about the Benjamins. Disgusting. And it's been coming at us in slow motion for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid to google this but why do people hate the jews?
ReplyDelete8:07 - To me, Jews represent a small, but mighty, threat to those who insist on changing Jewish beliefs. Like Trump, Jews fight back. No matter how much bigger the aggressor who attempts to harm them. A proud people, emblematic of great accomplishment against heavy odds. Not a Jew, but the Jews inspire me. They will NOT be bullied again. Gotta love it . . . unless you are a meddling bully who isn’t getting his/her way.
ReplyDeleteRacism and bigotry are sinful and unpatriotic. I learned that from nuns, who had no problem with the CYO b-ball team playing "our older faith brothers" at the JCC. Jewish kids could pick and roll like we did. Been lifelong friends with one of them since the day he flattened me on an offensive and quickly reached down to help me up. Wore his yarmulke once and thought I was going to hell. I may still be. But not for wearing his yarmulke. LOL.
ReplyDeleteIt's a complicated age-old problem that has no easy solutions.
ReplyDeletePretty sure releasing hate-crime suspects with no bail isn't going to do it though.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/woman-charged-with-hate-crime-amid-nyc-anti-semitic-attacks/2251473/
The predictable happens.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-woman-accused-of-anti-semitic-attacks-arrested-again-a-day-after-release/2252361/
Yeah, racism and bigotry are still present in our society, culturally ingrained.
ReplyDeleteIf you had a father who fought in WW2, you usually were raised in a household condemning hate. They saw when those thoughts get carried to extremes.
When I arrived at college in 1970, I went through fraternity rush. I was shocked. Organizations supported by alumni and administrators blocking Jews, blacks and Asians from membership.
Then, I returned to the valley. The seventies and Jews and blacks were barred from country clubs and other social organizations. I found those attitudes into the first decade of 2000. We have a long way to go, but we have not eliminated a lot of the attitudes we were born with, I don’t like any of this. But, I am not alarmed by the crimes that have been reported. The extremist criminal is still present.
The Squad!!!
ReplyDeleteNeed more???
Two best bosses i ever had were Jews. One was business owner and rewarded me accordingly. Others got what they deserved. Wasn't the same reward if they weren't doing the job.
Other was a boss but saw to it that i was gotten raises other than once a year.
I've also saw/heard/experienced several refusing to tip a man busting his ass in the hot sun, commenting to each other to make sure they got their change back and no tip for the worker. Recently.
So there are good and bad in everyone.
10:14
ReplyDeleteYeah, that frat-boy/country club attitude is a real problem with NYC anti semitism.
In an interview Sunday morning with the editors of the Washington Post and New York Times, “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd picked a letter to read on air that compared people of faith to believers of fairy tales. This is what is wrong, wrong, wrong. People interviewed in Times Square didn't know that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. Hard to believe.
ReplyDelete11:15. You don’t understand my point. Bernie’s piece is about how we react. My statement is that hate is so ingrained in our culture and reinforced that we all are numb to this act. The reaction of not caring is more present in my community than what it should be.
ReplyDelete5:12 Your attitude is a big part of the problem. It is what is helping to create the atmosphere of intolerance and people who have decided who or what is "American". America is and always will be a melting pot or a salad (choose your metaphor) it is our strength. We are a "nation of many nations" as an 1800's American journalist once said.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if the diversity crowd would actually buy into that "nation" thing. Unfortunately, for too many, the US is just a place to live, while acting like they still live where they fled from, wondering why things never get better.
ReplyDeleteWe're even starting to see it with intra-country "immigration" now. Wackos from California are moving to Texas and Arizona because even they can't put up with it any more, but they insist that those states become like California. In a few years, after voting in the same kind of government that had in Cali, they'll be sitting around with dazed looks on their faces saying "wha-happen?"
Bernie, I think you're misinterpreting what those who care about "the Jewish Question" are really on about. The core issues for them are not the religious practice per se, but accusations of nepotism, promoting degeneracy, elitism, anti-whiteness, etc. Some nutjobs conflate this with "average" Jews, when the issue it more with elites.
ReplyDeleteIt is a cultural problem, not a religious one, and always has been. Everyone is taught that Hitler just was a nutjob and hated the Jews irrationally. If you actually look into history, it was a specific set of grievances, mostly centered around control of press, banking, support of communism, LGBT research, etc. He wasn't just some super-charismatic dictator, but speaking what a lot of people at the time thought. It's eerily similar to what we see today. The problem is, Jewish people really *are* over-reppresented in many of these institutions, for example, Jewish enrollment in Ivy League schools is over four times what would be expected even when accounting for student ability. And the slavish bi-partisan support for Isreal in Congress doesn't help. The problem is, even bringing this stuff up gets you labeled an anti-Semite. If folks acknowledged some of this instead of trying to hide or deny it, then we would have less people stumbling upon these facts and drifting over into extremism.
@ 8:07
ReplyDeleteIf you really are curious, you will see a bunch of extremists promoting books like Kevin MacDonald's Culture of Critique. This is probably the most prominent argument from radicals today. MacDonald was a professor at CalState, who worked in developmental psychology. In the 1990's, he wrote a series of books about secular Jewish culture, culminating in The Culture of Critique, where he proposed that Jewish culture has developed as a sort of group-evolutionary strategy to keep resources focused on their in-group. This is somewhat interesting considering that Ashkenazi Jews apparently descended from a very small group of people less than a thousand years ago. So at some point the culture (and people) were very focused, which may explain their distinct culture today.
Anyway, unfortunately MacDonald's work has been banned by Amazon so it's tough to actually read it. If you really want to peak behind the curtain and see what these people believe, here is a hour long video synopsis from a critical perspective. If you want to get a hand on the book or a PDF, you probably have to go to darker corners of the net.
There is conflation between being against Jews as a culture and being against what the leadership of Israel is doing to Palestinians. Keep them separate. Judaism is a faith practice and, to some, a people. This second point can be argued as people can convert to Judaism and they are not part of an ethnicity which is how some in the Jewish community see themselves. Those who are against the faith are intolerant and should be called out as such. However, the ongoing, intractable conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a different matter. Blame is on both sides, but Israel clearly has the power hand and is exercising it in an authoritarian manner that is unfair at best to a people who also want their own homeland, just like Israel.
ReplyDelete3:02 and 3:17 are examples of a subtle anti-Semite who links to articles claiming Hitler really wasn't such a bad guy after all and complaining that Jews are over-represented at Ivy league schools while ignoring the virulent anti-Semitism on college campuses.
ReplyDelete"https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-woman-accused-of-anti-semitic-attacks-arrested-again-a-day-after-release/2252361/"
ReplyDeleteAnd she's been released again!
https://nypost.com/2019/12/30/tiffany-harris-let-loose-again-after-second-alleged-anti-semitic-assault/
Harris is a low level offender. She has 13 assaults to her credit, but they are for slapping people and hurling obscenities.
Yes they are Bernie. And that's how Hitler and others like him infiltrate the minds of otherwise sane, rational people.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Christians??
ReplyDelete"Within a few hours on Sunday, suicide bombings hit three Christian churches and three upscale hotels in the Indian Ocean island nation of Sri Lanka, still recovering from a quarter-century civil war in which the suicide bomb was pioneered".
NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/world/asia/sri-lanka-bombings.html
@Bernie 4:10
ReplyDeleteThat article on Ivy League didn't mention Hitler at all though? It was written by Ron Unz, who is Jewish?
Likewise, you're making a non sequitur statement regarding "antisemitism" on campuses. Do you doubt the admissions data from these organizations? Why does an elevated rate of admissions preclude antisemitic sentiments on campus from the rest of the student population? More correctly, you're probably referring to anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist sentiments. In this case, the "antisemitism" may actually be coming from Jewish students themselves.
Why only respond with ad hominem and deflections? What facts are wrong with the cited articles/videos?
Likewise, @4:18, what is "infiltrating" the minds of sane people? Statistics and historical information? Engage with the facts, not slander or name-calling.
Pandora's box now wide open. This coincides with the election of 45 and his personal expressions about many cultural subjects once hidden away from public view and left unspoken..until now. Can the genie be put back in the bottle? I pray it happens with his ouster from public view and influence.
ReplyDelete8:48, You proved exactly what you are. It is you who defended this genocidal maniac. That made a review of your links unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI am now deleting the anti-Semite who disguises himself.
ReplyDeleteGlad this crap isn't being tolerated here. But it's shocking so many otherwise normal people hold these opinions. To me, it seems like there's certainly an uptick, and dog whistling is everywhere. Case in point: You have people like Tucker Carlson talking about "the elites" or "the globalists"...and you do you think the elites and globalists are, of course? I don't think we can rest on our laurels and think this is going to go away. So many otherwise smart people, and particularly the youth, are falling down this rabbit hole.
ReplyDeleteThink Tucker Carlson is referring to well-educated Democrats, and it is certainly true that many among us have lost touch with the rest of the world. We are elitists and, with the exception of Tulsi Gabbard, globalists. I may be wrong but do not consider these code words for Jews. Frankly, there's been a shift among evangelical Christians, who now embrace the Jews. Since Carlson's fan base is on the right, I do not see your point at all. At the same time, many of those on the left are masking their anti-Semitism in attacks on Israel.
ReplyDelete