A good march, of protest or support, is a fine counter to Elias Canetti’s mindless, destructive mob. Glad to see another one that didn’t morph into a mob, unlike January 6th.
Nov 15, 2023·edited Nov 15, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
Most people are, in fact , reasonable. The assholes stand out. Seems like we could marginalize them a bit better. (Like, not putting assholes in charge I guess.)
I'm at the hospital. My wife is having surgery. Not major, though not minor either. The hard part will be the potential 6 - 10 weeks on a liquid diet. My wife has been honest about our marriage not lasting through that.
When I first went out to the waiting room there was some tall , older ex - realtor looking guy talking to the chaplain who was explaining to him they wouldn't change the TV to Fox News because it upset people. He retired rather sullenly to a corner to watch it on his phone. Everyone seemed relieved.
Thanks for attending these things - it's always interesting.
"...I had always been flattered to be approached, to be asked if I was Jewish, as if I could ever be part of the grand thing they were. How much we lose and keep losing."
I feel that; like (as a non-American) I feel like I've lost "America." Both ideas are kinda intertwined in my mind.
This is a terrible mess. Solutions are beyond me, so I'm basically keeping my mouth shut (because I don't know what to say that would help in any way).
I think the rhetoric from conservatives – most of whom are not Jewish, at least in the U.S. – obscures a great deal, as it’s intended to. Most Americans support Israel, but if you drill down that doesn’t mean they support unlimited Zionism. The “pick a side” rhetoric also obscures how many Jews in Israel and how many liberal Jews in the states oppose Netanyahu’s policies, how many have marched and rallied in opposition to the slaughter of Palestinian civilians and called for a ceasefire.
That said, the slide from opposing Israel’s policies into antisemitism has proven to be alarmingly slippery – far more so than I would have imagined in the U.S., at least. I blame Trump and MAGA for softening that ground, but a dispiriting amount of it is also being insinuated by the Left. And as Roy has pointed out before, the way the hostilities are being framed so closely mirrors the post-9/11 build up to the Iraq war it’s hard to see how the rhetoric is walked back. I'm glad this appears to have been more a rally in support of Israel than an opportunity to lean heavily on anti-Palestinian sentiment.
Nov 15, 2023·edited Nov 15, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
What can I say?
My Zionist sympathies took a huge hit when Israelis freely voted into power Nazi-esque ex-terrorists with Begin in the mid-70s or so. I mean, if Israelis *wanted* to be Nazis... The irony can kill you.
And speaking of irony, I'm starting to equate Hamas (not an endorsement of anything they've done), compare/contrast the Warshaw ghetto 1942.
Mandatory reminder: The $2b Abraham accords at the least did more than its fair share to trigger 10/7. Not that they're really anything more than commercial policies...
Almost forgot; word of the day:
"The new word “humineral” (人矿 rén kuàng) has taken the Chinese internet by storm and is now a sensitive word subject to censorship. First introduced in a now-censored Zhihu post... “humineral”... describes a person relentlessly exploited by society until they are eventually discarded on the refuse pile.
1. Huminerals: You are a resource, not a protagonist. You are a means, not an end. Your life’s work will go towards the fulfillment of others instead of the pursuit of your own desires.
2. The life of a humineral can be divided into three stages: extraction, exploitation, and slag removal. Investment in your education over your first decade or so is oriented at extracting your potential—turning you into usable ore. The middle decades are a process of exploitation and consumption. When you’re finally useless, they’ll use the least polluting method possible to dispose of you.
**
8. Huminerals power the motors that turn the wheels of history. Huminerals have few other choices: either fuel history’s engine, or be ground beneath its wheels. Of course the inverse is true. If huminerals were to stop propelling history, then those other huminerals who abstained would not be crushed. Yet there are always huminerals who see more value in a lifetime of being fuel than to risk being flattened."
The big story this morning in Michigan is the "hundreds of Jews stranded at Dulles" because their charter bus drivers supposedly didn't want them to attend. Thank you for pointing out, on Twitter, that the Metroline train runs all the way to Dulles and they could have just bought tickets that would take them to the National Mall. But being Detroiters, I'm sure many were unfamiliar with the entire idea of mass transit. No city this size does it as badly as we do.
I was in DC yesterday and saw lots of flag-draped folks heading to the mall as I made my way to Union Station. Didn't hear any speeches but there were a lot of smiling, laughing people. Kids, too.
This is beautiful. And sad. I'm always flattered, too.
"In the old days in New York whenever they approached me from their silly RVs I had always been flattered to be approached, to be asked if I was Jewish, as if I could ever be part of the grand thing they were. How much we lose and keep losing."
Any either/or, you're-either-with-us-or-against-us dichotomies are made even more indefensible by the fact that, because it's a quasi-religious state, Israel is three/three/three mints in one: There is (sic) The Jews. There is Israel-the-nation. And there is the Israeli government. That pro/con duality represents two-dimensional thinking in a three-dimensional world.
A good march, of protest or support, is a fine counter to Elias Canetti’s mindless, destructive mob. Glad to see another one that didn’t morph into a mob, unlike January 6th.
Most people are, in fact , reasonable. The assholes stand out. Seems like we could marginalize them a bit better. (Like, not putting assholes in charge I guess.)
I'm at the hospital. My wife is having surgery. Not major, though not minor either. The hard part will be the potential 6 - 10 weeks on a liquid diet. My wife has been honest about our marriage not lasting through that.
When I first went out to the waiting room there was some tall , older ex - realtor looking guy talking to the chaplain who was explaining to him they wouldn't change the TV to Fox News because it upset people. He retired rather sullenly to a corner to watch it on his phone. Everyone seemed relieved.
Thanks for attending these things - it's always interesting.
"...I had always been flattered to be approached, to be asked if I was Jewish, as if I could ever be part of the grand thing they were. How much we lose and keep losing."
I feel that; like (as a non-American) I feel like I've lost "America." Both ideas are kinda intertwined in my mind.
This is a terrible mess. Solutions are beyond me, so I'm basically keeping my mouth shut (because I don't know what to say that would help in any way).
Not losing, not when jewel-like prose still prevails...
Cheers.
I think the rhetoric from conservatives – most of whom are not Jewish, at least in the U.S. – obscures a great deal, as it’s intended to. Most Americans support Israel, but if you drill down that doesn’t mean they support unlimited Zionism. The “pick a side” rhetoric also obscures how many Jews in Israel and how many liberal Jews in the states oppose Netanyahu’s policies, how many have marched and rallied in opposition to the slaughter of Palestinian civilians and called for a ceasefire.
That said, the slide from opposing Israel’s policies into antisemitism has proven to be alarmingly slippery – far more so than I would have imagined in the U.S., at least. I blame Trump and MAGA for softening that ground, but a dispiriting amount of it is also being insinuated by the Left. And as Roy has pointed out before, the way the hostilities are being framed so closely mirrors the post-9/11 build up to the Iraq war it’s hard to see how the rhetoric is walked back. I'm glad this appears to have been more a rally in support of Israel than an opportunity to lean heavily on anti-Palestinian sentiment.
What can I say?
My Zionist sympathies took a huge hit when Israelis freely voted into power Nazi-esque ex-terrorists with Begin in the mid-70s or so. I mean, if Israelis *wanted* to be Nazis... The irony can kill you.
And speaking of irony, I'm starting to equate Hamas (not an endorsement of anything they've done), compare/contrast the Warshaw ghetto 1942.
Mandatory reminder: The $2b Abraham accords at the least did more than its fair share to trigger 10/7. Not that they're really anything more than commercial policies...
Almost forgot; word of the day:
"The new word “humineral” (人矿 rén kuàng) has taken the Chinese internet by storm and is now a sensitive word subject to censorship. First introduced in a now-censored Zhihu post... “humineral”... describes a person relentlessly exploited by society until they are eventually discarded on the refuse pile.
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/02/word-of-the-week-huminerals-%E4%BA%BA%E7%9F%BF-ren-kuang/
1. Huminerals: You are a resource, not a protagonist. You are a means, not an end. Your life’s work will go towards the fulfillment of others instead of the pursuit of your own desires.
2. The life of a humineral can be divided into three stages: extraction, exploitation, and slag removal. Investment in your education over your first decade or so is oriented at extracting your potential—turning you into usable ore. The middle decades are a process of exploitation and consumption. When you’re finally useless, they’ll use the least polluting method possible to dispose of you.
**
8. Huminerals power the motors that turn the wheels of history. Huminerals have few other choices: either fuel history’s engine, or be ground beneath its wheels. Of course the inverse is true. If huminerals were to stop propelling history, then those other huminerals who abstained would not be crushed. Yet there are always huminerals who see more value in a lifetime of being fuel than to risk being flattened."
Both sides?
I grew up in a liberal Jewish family which had basically four political dogmas:
1. FDR saved this country
2. Never cross a picket line
3. We Shall Overcome
4. Israel is never wrong.
It really hurt to have to abandon #4; Jewish exceptionalism, like American exceptionalism, is a helluva drug. Guess I've gone from:
Israel is always in the right, to
If Israel is ever in the wrong, they were intolerably provoked into it by their enemies, to
Israel is, like every other country, a land of moral contrasts, to
Israel is trying very, very hard to lose any degree of sympathy I ever had for it, to
If I had to choose which march to go to, it would be the one chanting "From the River to the Sea..."
I'm not Jewish either, Roy ... but Shalom.
The big story this morning in Michigan is the "hundreds of Jews stranded at Dulles" because their charter bus drivers supposedly didn't want them to attend. Thank you for pointing out, on Twitter, that the Metroline train runs all the way to Dulles and they could have just bought tickets that would take them to the National Mall. But being Detroiters, I'm sure many were unfamiliar with the entire idea of mass transit. No city this size does it as badly as we do.
I was in DC yesterday and saw lots of flag-draped folks heading to the mall as I made my way to Union Station. Didn't hear any speeches but there were a lot of smiling, laughing people. Kids, too.
This is beautiful. And sad. I'm always flattered, too.
"In the old days in New York whenever they approached me from their silly RVs I had always been flattered to be approached, to be asked if I was Jewish, as if I could ever be part of the grand thing they were. How much we lose and keep losing."
I'm glad to hear Mike Johnson got a warm welcome, I guess Israel didn't need that $14 billion in aid after all.
Any either/or, you're-either-with-us-or-against-us dichotomies are made even more indefensible by the fact that, because it's a quasi-religious state, Israel is three/three/three mints in one: There is (sic) The Jews. There is Israel-the-nation. And there is the Israeli government. That pro/con duality represents two-dimensional thinking in a three-dimensional world.
Roy, with all due respect, you look like a smurf here, just goin' around and all this stuff
(jk)
Roy got there late, that must be why he missed the guy with the "Sasquatch Israel" sign.
That guy's elusive, you know.
Nice one.