After terrorists killed my cousin Daniel Pearl, my family called for peace. But after the worldwide celebration of our people’s slaughter, my hope for peace is dead.
Your story is heart wrenching. It's like the entire world is turned upside down and pure evil is running rampant. Christians and Jews and all good people of God need to band together and pray. Pray for common sense, love and compassion to return now and Pray for God to judge these terrorists speedily.
We've had our Pearl Harbor moment and 9/11 debacle of murder and that still didn't wake people up. Or rather it let them continue sitting on a branch eating the plums to the degree that the juice is dribbling down their chins all the while they say at the branch they're sitting on. What a tragedy and when these do gooders lovers of everyone wake up it will be too late. Haven't read it through but Spengler apparently had all this in his Decline of the West and certainly Suicide of the West by James Burnham should be part of every college students curriculum. There might not be so many demos against the system them or supporters of BLM for that matter. Beware self-hatred that can so easily bring us down. Guilt is the most powerful instrument of self-destruction.
I wish you all the best, and welcome you into the real world that is anti-progressivism which supports Israel and fights against those who would destroy Western Civilization.
Your article is so very strong and sensible. As an American born Israeli, I so identify with what you have written. אלוהים וצה״ל ישמור אלינו, עם ישראל חי 🙏🏼
Very powerful. Reminds me of my switch to the Republican Party after 9/11. I couldn’t believe the Democrats had no interest in crushing Al Qaeda so they couldn’t harm us again.
I can relate to the death of idealism, mine is similar but less specific - the ideal that all humans are basically the same: inherently good. They're not. After being confronted with truly sub-human people over the course of my life, psychopaths, criminals willing to threaten my life for a small personal gain, etc, I realized that not all humans are made the same. I will never be able to understand the sort of person that is incapable of responding to love, appeals to care for Life, or the most skillful uses of non-violent communication, but I've had to admit to myself that there are such people. Not just people that get activated and say things they later regret, or even that do something awful in a fit of momentary rage, we're all susceptible to that "normal" human frailty. But people that, in their calmest states, will happily plan and carry out evil over and over again unless physically stopped from doing so. People that need to be in prison, or in extreme cases, destroyed entirely for civilization to function at all. I used to overthink things, have "excess empathy" (as Jordan Peterson would say) as I would try to understand all the causes of evil behavior (maybe it was their religious indoctrination, maybe they didn't get enough love, maybe they are just "ignorant" and with further education/experience they'd change, maybe they have a chemical imbalance but they want to be better people and will seek treatment..) It was a hard pill to swallow that there are people in the world that want to commit evil, revel in committing evil, and have zero desire to change. So now I'm only interested in the here-and-now, what a person is, right now, how they act, right now, what they believe, right now, and protecting myself and others from real evils, right now. So what I've had to mourn is that, because of the psychopathic 1% of individuals, or terrorist groups, or whatever, it is naive to approach other humans as inherently acting out of good faith and love. Because not everyone is. And from this framework, I see that we as a civilization make a grave mistake over and over again when we project the hearts and minds of our best onto the worst, the sub-human, the ones that for whatever reason have never successfully developed a connection with heart/soul/relationships/Life, because those people are only further empowered as they take advantage of our mistaken projections.
Such an important prospective. So much of what you say resonates with me to my core. I stand with all Jewish people and Israel. Even more so in the face of the kind of virulent antisemitism that has shown itself in this world again. Never extinguished, but festering in cowardly silence, until it felt safe to go public with subtle and often times not so subtle hate.
Progressives are a hate group that hide behind moral superiority. The fact is, progressives hate liberty, true diversity, meritocracy, and everything else Americans hold dear. Progressivism is incompatible with democracy and we must purge them.
The term "useful idiot" is used to describe a naive individual who is cynically used, especially by the left. Colleges should add a "Utibilis Fatuo" UF to the BA degree at commencement, perhaps a UFBA degree.
Hi Ilan, if you're reading this. First, I'm so sorry for all your losses. I remember when your cousin disappeared. I followed the news closely. Though I didn't know him, my heart broke when the news reported what happened to him. I felt so sorry for his wife too. I'm glad your Israeli host family is save, and I pray for them.
And, welcome to the Politically Homeless Wasteland. I'm one of an escapee from what's become The New Left too. Not everyone here are former liberals, but there are many of us. We've been here, watching and waiting. I call this space (not Bari's Substack but the intangible space where we escapees have found each other) the Neutral Zone. It's quite beautiful here. The scales have fallen from our eyes and we finally saw the light. The very heavy burden we carried, which you have so eloquently expressed in your article, which had been destroying ur souls, have been lifted. We can finally take a deep breath of fresh air! And feel the warmth beams of sunlight and the balmy breeze. It's not a perfect world, but my God! What freedom! And again, we've been watching those of you still stuck in the realm of The New Left, cheering for you to find your way out. And now, you're out. Welcome. We've been waiting.
you are a late arrival at that obvious conclusion; it has been visible for years. the Israelis are negotiating with themselves; no one has been on the other side of the table forever.
Your story is heart wrenching. It's like the entire world is turned upside down and pure evil is running rampant. Christians and Jews and all good people of God need to band together and pray. Pray for common sense, love and compassion to return now and Pray for God to judge these terrorists speedily.
We've had our Pearl Harbor moment and 9/11 debacle of murder and that still didn't wake people up. Or rather it let them continue sitting on a branch eating the plums to the degree that the juice is dribbling down their chins all the while they say at the branch they're sitting on. What a tragedy and when these do gooders lovers of everyone wake up it will be too late. Haven't read it through but Spengler apparently had all this in his Decline of the West and certainly Suicide of the West by James Burnham should be part of every college students curriculum. There might not be so many demos against the system them or supporters of BLM for that matter. Beware self-hatred that can so easily bring us down. Guilt is the most powerful instrument of self-destruction.
I wish you all the best, and welcome you into the real world that is anti-progressivism which supports Israel and fights against those who would destroy Western Civilization.
Many of my friends in Kibbutz Nachshon would agree. And Nachshon was always pretty solidly on the left.
Your article is so very strong and sensible. As an American born Israeli, I so identify with what you have written. אלוהים וצה״ל ישמור אלינו, עם ישראל חי 🙏🏼
Very powerful. Reminds me of my switch to the Republican Party after 9/11. I couldn’t believe the Democrats had no interest in crushing Al Qaeda so they couldn’t harm us again.
I can relate to the death of idealism, mine is similar but less specific - the ideal that all humans are basically the same: inherently good. They're not. After being confronted with truly sub-human people over the course of my life, psychopaths, criminals willing to threaten my life for a small personal gain, etc, I realized that not all humans are made the same. I will never be able to understand the sort of person that is incapable of responding to love, appeals to care for Life, or the most skillful uses of non-violent communication, but I've had to admit to myself that there are such people. Not just people that get activated and say things they later regret, or even that do something awful in a fit of momentary rage, we're all susceptible to that "normal" human frailty. But people that, in their calmest states, will happily plan and carry out evil over and over again unless physically stopped from doing so. People that need to be in prison, or in extreme cases, destroyed entirely for civilization to function at all. I used to overthink things, have "excess empathy" (as Jordan Peterson would say) as I would try to understand all the causes of evil behavior (maybe it was their religious indoctrination, maybe they didn't get enough love, maybe they are just "ignorant" and with further education/experience they'd change, maybe they have a chemical imbalance but they want to be better people and will seek treatment..) It was a hard pill to swallow that there are people in the world that want to commit evil, revel in committing evil, and have zero desire to change. So now I'm only interested in the here-and-now, what a person is, right now, how they act, right now, what they believe, right now, and protecting myself and others from real evils, right now. So what I've had to mourn is that, because of the psychopathic 1% of individuals, or terrorist groups, or whatever, it is naive to approach other humans as inherently acting out of good faith and love. Because not everyone is. And from this framework, I see that we as a civilization make a grave mistake over and over again when we project the hearts and minds of our best onto the worst, the sub-human, the ones that for whatever reason have never successfully developed a connection with heart/soul/relationships/Life, because those people are only further empowered as they take advantage of our mistaken projections.
Godspeed my friend! You are not alone in this! Thoughts and prayers in this difficult time from Texas
Thank you for your powerful words. Gut-punch indeed. May you find a path forward that allows you some hope and joy, even without idealism.
Such an important prospective. So much of what you say resonates with me to my core. I stand with all Jewish people and Israel. Even more so in the face of the kind of virulent antisemitism that has shown itself in this world again. Never extinguished, but festering in cowardly silence, until it felt safe to go public with subtle and often times not so subtle hate.
Progressives are a hate group that hide behind moral superiority. The fact is, progressives hate liberty, true diversity, meritocracy, and everything else Americans hold dear. Progressivism is incompatible with democracy and we must purge them.
God bless you and the people you care for.
The term "useful idiot" is used to describe a naive individual who is cynically used, especially by the left. Colleges should add a "Utibilis Fatuo" UF to the BA degree at commencement, perhaps a UFBA degree.
Hi Ilan, if you're reading this. First, I'm so sorry for all your losses. I remember when your cousin disappeared. I followed the news closely. Though I didn't know him, my heart broke when the news reported what happened to him. I felt so sorry for his wife too. I'm glad your Israeli host family is save, and I pray for them.
And, welcome to the Politically Homeless Wasteland. I'm one of an escapee from what's become The New Left too. Not everyone here are former liberals, but there are many of us. We've been here, watching and waiting. I call this space (not Bari's Substack but the intangible space where we escapees have found each other) the Neutral Zone. It's quite beautiful here. The scales have fallen from our eyes and we finally saw the light. The very heavy burden we carried, which you have so eloquently expressed in your article, which had been destroying ur souls, have been lifted. We can finally take a deep breath of fresh air! And feel the warmth beams of sunlight and the balmy breeze. It's not a perfect world, but my God! What freedom! And again, we've been watching those of you still stuck in the realm of The New Left, cheering for you to find your way out. And now, you're out. Welcome. We've been waiting.
You can't make friends with a cobra. It might act docile for a time but it will eventually strike.
you are a late arrival at that obvious conclusion; it has been visible for years. the Israelis are negotiating with themselves; no one has been on the other side of the table forever.