A few times a month, I get an e-mail soliciting my opinion on Israel or on Antisemitism. Often, these queries are in the context of a question about one facet of the ideological landscape. “Why do you think Jews support liberals, even though liberals hate Israel?” I have not tabulated the results, but my guess is I get more questions about Israel than any single topic, despite the fact I never write about Israel. I’d have to check, but I don’t think I have ever posted about Israel. If I have, it would most certainly be in the context of the Arab world.
My limited interest in the Jewish people is purely biological and cultural. By that I mean I find it interesting that the Ashkenazim have wildly out-performed their numbers in the United States. Jews are about 1% of the US population, but they dominate the law, academics, entertainment and finance. When 1% of the population is 30% of the richest people in the country, that’s phenomenal. There’s also the fact that you really cannot understand the world without understanding religion and that means understanding the role of Judaism and Christianity, particularity how the former made the latter.
The preceding is just a little background for the new readers who may not be as familiar with my work as others. That way I can talk a little about this segment on John Derbyshire’s latest broadcast.
I’m not an anti-Semite; I never have been; and I don’t have much time for anti-Semites. I’ve written a couple of million words of opinion commentary this past thirty years, all of it archived on my website, and I defy you to find any evidence of anti-Semitism in it anywhere.
However, I’ve turned against the word “philosemite,” for reasons I’ve explained elsewhere. Basically, it’s patronizing. If pressed on the issue, I call myself an anti-anti-Semite. I cherish my Jewish friends, and I have publicly—and again, I think, more than once—expressed gratitude in print for the positive contribution Jews have made to our civilization, way out of proportion to their numbers.
I have been reading and listening to John for decades and I think he captures his, as well as most people’s attitude, perfectly. I’m not fond of rank anti-Semitism, any more than I’m a fan of racism, but my definitions are more narrow and specific than they are today so maybe John is correct to say he is an anti-anti-Semite. I don’t know a word for being an anti-racist that does not imply lunacy, but maybe there is one. My view is people are tribal and they will have tribal prejudices. There’s no hectoring that away.
The whole segment is best listened to rather than read, as John’s intonations convey additional meaning to the words. The reason for my interest here is what he has to say at the bottom regarding the anti-Trump phenomenon.
All four debaters were Bigfoot American journalists. Both sides of the debate were anti-Trump; the debate was over whose fault it was that Trump had gotten the GOP nomination. For the motion, arguing that it was the fault of the elites, were Ben Domenech and Timothy Carney, both Gentiles. Against the motion, arguing that it was not the fault of the elites, wereJennifer Rubin [email her]and Bret Stephens both Jewish.
That tells you something by itself. That atavistic style of Jewish paranoia that I spoke about, when it hears the word “elites,” at once flies to the thought:They’re talking about US! … and the hoofbeats of the Cossacks are heard drumming in the distance.
At some mental level Rubin and Stephens read the title of the debate as: “Blame the Jews for the Trump Phenomenon.” That’s why they’re arguingagainst the motion. No, no, it’s not our fault—it’s those damn peasants!
As someone without much of an interest in Semitism or Antisemitism, this struck a nerve. I too have noticed that the people opposing Trump most viciously all have familiar last names. Lots of gold and silver in the #nevertrump clown car. This has always struck me as illogical. Trump is our most Jewish presidential candidate in my lifetime. He has always been a big supporter of Israel and he is more than a bit famous for socializing and doing business with the Jewish business community in America.
It is a good reminder that there is always a portion of every population that has a death wish. They agitate for things that are against the interests of their ethnic group and they are more concerned with strangers than their own family. Jews are no exception. Progressivism is increasingly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. Trump and his voters are very much the opposite. Yet, that causes the Jennifer Rubins of the world to hate him even more intensely than one would consider rational. Self-loathing is a powerful drug.
There is a temptation to assume there is an anti-Christian vibe to what we are seeing from people like Brett Stephens and Jennifer Rubin. That’s not the case as they reserve special hatred for orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews. This is where the self-loathing becomes more clear, These people sneer at the guys in the black hats and tzitzit hanging out. If there is any anti-Christian sense to this, it stems from the fact that American Christians are enthusiastic supporters of Israel and virulent anti-anti-Semites.
The point here is that John is correct that these people are haunted by the hoof beats, but they also wish they would return. The longing for death, the death of their people, is what makes them tick. There’s some element of this in all people. It’s just that Jews have been wildly successful in America so their death wish gets played out on TV, while the self-loathing Poles have to nurse their death wish in private. Luckily for all of us, most Jews are not crazy and the smart ones understand which way the wind is blowing.
“Haunted by the hoofbeats”,well said,Zman.I used to be an avid reader of Bret Stephens,and unable to understand his antipathy to Trump.Your perspective makes sense.Interesting,if scary,how smart guys like Stephens and Michael Hayden draw such different assessments of America’s plight than most of your readers here.The one good thing about the mess this country’s in,is that the masks are off,everyone is revealed.Good.It’s glaringly obvious that the Clinton Crime Cabal and her supporters really and truly hate us irredeemable Dirt People,and want us dead.Good to know. Next.
Nicely said. I agree. Let’s have it all out in the open. Let’s let the turd sit and fester in the middle of the dinning table. Let’s have the truth laid bare for all to see. The empire has no clothes. Starting with the truth is the only to fix it.
I understand the inconsistencies and contradictions of of the left, but somebody explain Stephens to me. I’ve read him because the parts are often good but the whole is less than the parts, and other than the parts.
“There is a temptation to assume there is an anti-Christian vibe to what we are seeing from people like Brett Stephens and Jennifer Rubin. That’s not the case as they reserve special hatred for orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews” This is where your analysis falls a little flat. It is an anti-Christian “vibe”. Orthodox Jews follow the Holy Writ and so do Christians. The “vibe” is anti bible, anti natural law, anti God. Modern Jews don’t adhere to the Holy Bible as the orthodox and Christians do. They lump us together. Many Jews hate the success of Christians and the once… Read more »
I could go along with anti-Bible as a label. People like Jennifer Rubin seem to despise faithful Jews as much as they hate faithful Christians. But that feeds into the self-loathing issue. If you are a devout Christian or Jew, you naturally love life as it is God’s gift to you. The self-loathing hate that idea.
@ theZman – In your view, is there a significant difference between Jews and Zionists? I’m trying to understand where the delta exists in the Jewish community as it would between Catholics and Protestants, Sunnis and Shia since all religions have polar opposites in their common base religions.
@karl – I’ve always thought of Zionists as Israeli patriots, whether in Israel or elsewhere. Their first loyalty is to Israel the ethnic state. In the US, they are a minority and largely looked down upon by the secular Jews, who have become strongly anti-nationalist. Then there are the ultra-Orthodox communities that are people at the fringes. Like the Amish, they involve themselves in politics only when necessary. I live not too far from a Lubavitcher community. My guess is most of them could not name the president. It gets more complicated with the secular Jews as there is the… Read more »
Zionists started out as a group that specifically wanted to create a Jewish state in the Holy Land which is what differentiated them from the Territorialists who were interested in creating a Jewish state anywhere they could get a territory. (The most famous clash between the two was over Uganda.) Part of Zionist theory was also that most Jews on earth should live in the Jewish state that Zionism would create. After Israel was established and it became obvious that most Jews in America weren’t going to immigrate, the compromise Israel and American Jewish leaders came to was that the… Read more »
Original Zionism waz Herzl’s idea in 1870 to “save your pennies to buy back Jersalem”. It worked, even at extortionate cost by the six Arab legacy landowners. (Later, said owners began riots when their debt-bondage slaves began leaving for Jewish farms where they were treated humanely.) Emir Faisal of Mecca was best friends with Herzl and encouraged Jewish settlement of a nearly deserted “Palestine”. In the 1930s, a new Zionism came to town. The same bolsheviks who took over Slavic Russia and repeatedly attacked Germany, also lusted over Israel. Takeover is what they do- even of, no, especially of, their… Read more »
And so it is.
The problem is not that these people are necessarily self loathing. They adhere to a globalist agenda. There is overlap between Jews who do this and gentiles. Siding with what appear to be anti-Semites in politics as opposed to backing their tribe in Israel is based on globalism. Israel was once a haven for socialist Jews back when it was primarily made up of kibutzes. Now it is a nationalist ethnostate. This is the apostasy. The Jew who is primarily globalist wants to be able to engage in transactions across borders that are weak enough to allow for huge deals… Read more »
Dzugashvilli (Stalin) means “Jewson”, (and he used Azeri Muslims to return him to Moscow) Beria, the original Politburo, the creator of the Gulag, the NKVD and Trotsky’s Cheka, Lenin, Trotsky (Leon Bronstein) as an agent of the banks in NY (Shropner, Kuhn-Loeb, Warburg) who funded the Bolsheviks, the owners of the NY Times hiring Walter Duranty to cover up the Holodomor of Ukrainian patriots; Mao’s advisors, not one a member of the Long March; odious survivors of the Purges who fled west and found new employment, such as Phillip Morrell who turned deportation camps into slave labor refueling coal for… Read more »
I’ve never understood anti-Semitism, but as this ludicrous election year drags on, I’ve found that I really don’t care anymore. It’s all ahistorical nonsense, but whatever. I’m all blacked out, Jewed out, gayed out, trannied out, insert whatever else here. The Left wants to make my life a Workers’ Paradise; I don’t much care what their motivation is. Pas d’ennemis a droit.
Some things you may not know: Zionism came from the same late 19th-early 20th century German ideological tempest as National Socialism. The Zionists were allied to National Socialist Germany until at least the start of WWII when the Soviet Union invaded Poland. The first hundred thousand Jews in the British Mandate of Palestine were transported there by the National Socialist government. The National Socialists literally mentored the Zionists in the art of statecraft. It shouldn’t be a surprise that today Zionist Israel is the entity with the strongest “blood and soil” ideological force and a remarkably fashy government. “Right of… Read more »
Building slums and filling them with a violent, overbreeding demographic that will keep the place in crisis (Palestinian ‘settlements’ outnumber Israeili 2 1/2 to 1) Insisting on crossborder labor to keep costs down (avoid paying and compliance) A Supreme Court that every member comes from one small, radical, pro-Palestinian town A Labor Party like our FDR Democrats (70% of the American Jewish vote) Plus 3 generals who get a cut of every weapons contract I think we already are a lot like Israel Maybe that’s why even the IDF are beginning to not show up at the behest of Ashkenazim… Read more »
Don’t forget about the Best Friends Forever coins Hitler had made for Israel and her new Jews: one side had the star of David; the other the swastika. He wanted them out and they wanted to leave. Netanyahu almost had his matzo balls handed to him for stating these truths.
Trump hate has a lot of angles to it but there especially seems to be a class issue to it; whats playing out is a lot of NYC politics that probably wouldn’t show up nationally otherwise. Uptown Manhattan elites (this includes the areas of Brooklyn that Manhattan has culturally annexed like Williamsburg and Park Slope) both Jewish and non-Jewish, hate the outer boroughs and all the ethnics there including the non-elite Jews like Hasids and Russians. Trump is rich but otherwise an outsider which is driving a lot of people in the elite up the wall. (Its largely down the… Read more »
Let me help you out, Z. The reason why the Jewish are able to dominate is mainly because of unchecked ethnocentrism. They make sure they hire other Jews, with a smattering of blacks (shvartze) to use as blunt instruments against Whitey, should they get outta line. When they do business, spend money, do favors it is almost exclusively with/for other Jews. They have next to no issues with doing some real sleazebag sheisse to get what they want. And should you have the balls to point these facts out… well… you’re an antisemitewhitenationalistnatzi. There is nothing fascinating about how the… Read more »
To quote a hipster: “The reason Jews have become so powerful is explained by three reasons: 1. More ethnocentrism. 2. Ability to pass as white. 3. 20th century control of the broadcast media”
Our Creator also called His chosen people a “stiff necked” people. In other words, we become like what ever becomes our idol, what we worship when we turn from God. In this case, the Golden Calf. God’s wrath is real.
As I age, I find myself more and more becoming what Joseph Sobran called a “counter-semite”. Much experience with the Ashkenazim has left me with a wish to have no further experience with them. Their hubris, arrogance, ill-disguised envy of the “old guard” northwestern Europeans they hold in contempt and mock, but nevertheless try to imitate, their relentless societal destructiveness… Gee, I sound like an anti-semite, except that I don’t wish them ill, I just wish they’d mind their own business, enjoy life in their ME enclave and not insist on attending my school, living nearby or joining my club… Read more »
And it’s counter-semite, if anything! Because jews are the tip of the spear of leftism, pushing every degenerate progressive idea they can find, you can not oppose one without locking horns with the other.
Not sure jewish folks have a death wish, but boy oh boy, it certainly appears that way much of the time (at least for american jew. I think Israeli jews are more grounded; dodging rockets and suicide bombers forces you to keep your common sense wits about you). I think the high intellectual, educational and socio-economic levels many (most?) jewish folks have attained make it difficult for them to reconcile a belief in the existence of an other-worldly god with the logical, rational, scientific here on earth world. This may explain somewhat the contempt many reform or “secular” jews have… Read more »
self-loathing Poles
Is there such a thing?
I’ve been wondering the same thing. At least the Poles in Poland, to which I in Germany am a national neighbor, seem quite self-respecting, nationalist, even proud. While on occasion they may be going just a bit too far in it, out of provincialism, I generally admire them for their attitude and wish my people, in their current confused and deplorable state, would learn a little from them (as from the Hungarians, the Czechs, the Slovaks).
Maybe Poles in the U.S. (by which I actually mean Polish-Americans) have a different mentality though.
I rather liked the National Lampoon evolutionary tree that included a toaster in the Polish ancestral line.
I agree with Herzog’s statement. But allow me to expand on it a little. Historically, Poland has always been on the short end of the stick no thanks in part to their geographic location on the map. But they have certainly contributed their fair share to western culture and science with people like Chopin, Copernicus and Marie Curie. A quarter century ago most of people in Poland (like everywhere else in the East bloc) had a similar income, engineer or a plumber, all were the same. Since there were no large scale private companies, most of the population was employed… Read more »
“However that is starting to change as the ‘state of democracy’ is under threat as far the right-wing movement continues to grow in popularity.”
You mean as the Polish government steadfastly refuses to allow its nation to be overrun by sandgoogles.
@ KG III – Yes, exactly. AfD in Germany, FPÖ in Austria, National Front in France, KORWiN in Poland – it’s a long list. I’m not sure Americans understand how serious this can be if these parties actually polarize their respective populations. Our badly managed refugee problem could trigger a serious backlash that could effect us in serious ways. Imagine your Patriot Act on steroids. In my view, Hungary responded correctly by simply saying “No” and erecting barriers. This is what the Hungarian people wanted and their government acted accordingly. As a result, the Jobbik has lost any traction they… Read more »
“Think of the Patriot Act on steroids.” Oh damm. I didn’t get it before, now I do. Agitation by any means necessary. About time we sent some USAA Gladio teams like we did for Greece and the Ukraine. Nuland, Kagan, (Ukraine) Kahane, Soros, (Germany, Austria) W. Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn- the good neighbors who groomed Obama; Zuckerberg and the 11 Silicon Valley billionaires who met BO in Palo Alto in 2006 and told him “We’ll make you president (in return for surveillance infrastructure contracts)” and built a social media election machine; The owners and financiers of the Hollywood studio system… Read more »
@Karl: as far as most Brits are concerned, Poles tend to represent the work ethic that Brits increasingly lack. They are white and christian which makes them invisible on the street. I am always puzzled whenever people say they don’t want to employ a Polish plumber or builder, especially as our more visible muslim friends don’t do plumbing or building to a standard we might find acceptable. Generally the Poles try to learn English and fit in, and while they still send money home so too do people from places like Pakistan (In fact, sterling transfers to the Indian subcontinent… Read more »
@ UKer – Agreed. The Poles I work with are outstanding engineers, well educated, smart and hard working. If given the choice of an immigrant next door neighbor, I’d prefer someone with a last name that ends in -ski, -czyk, -stein or -berg. That way at least I’d know the local farmers goats would be safe.
No, only the Jewish “Polish” feel self-loathing.
May I direct you to a comment made at the bottom of “All Blacked Out”?
I just wrote it, it is more relevant to this article.
A year ago, I began to wonder, “why do so many complain about the Jooos?”
So I began to look- since my mother’s maiden name is Einstein, after all
Lost in the verbiage- please remember the most important point: Criminals, not victors, write history- to hide their crimes. The next generation cannot know that the ‘good’ used to be the ‘bad’- and so they fight on their side. This applies to Jews or any identity group. The 98% good sometimes cannot control their 2% of sociopaths. American Blacks have the same problem. Without empathy means with without conscience-they don’t care about the future, their kids, neighbors, country, or own people. Whites controlled the ‘paths by hanging them and hanging them til enough were culled. Aztecs cut their hearts out,… Read more »
I find the entire middle east tedious and uninteresting (except in the archaeological sense). all involved peoples are odious to me. the one saving grace is that the hebrew women are not shaving their muffs off (at least not as frequently) as their goyim sisters. if tumblr is anything to go by.
I agree, but, curiously, I’m the only one. I’ve lived in the ME, so I have no delusions about those dusty people. And I have not seen a Hebrew muff to say whether it’s disco bush or shorn like a sheep.