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*Also do check out Matt Ruby’s excellent piece on the Seinfeld debacle
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I recently listened to one of the most fascinating interviews I’ve heard in a long time: Bari Weiss dialoguing with Jerry Seinfeld. They talked about a lot of things—his new show “Unfrosted,” being a comic in the 1980s compared to now, the helpfulness in life of laughter, and Seinfeld’s lack of social superficial layers making him (and he argues most comics) those people who cut straight to the deep stuff. But one of the most interesting (and disturbing) was how at a recent graduation commencement speech at Duke, he was interrupted by hecklers yelling that he “supported genocide.” (He also criticized the idea of “Writer’s Block” saying there’s no such thing; there’s “lazy,” there’s “scared,” but not W.B. I agree.)
*(What’s also terrifying and fascinating is how out of context and in bad faith some Lefties have extracted Seinfeld’s words from the Weiss interview attempting to create in Seinfeld some sort of hyper-masculine genocide-supporting sexist misogynist Alt Right monster. You cannot listen to the 55-minute interview with Weiss and, being anything close to rational, come away with this exaggerated, dramatic, absurd conclusion. Seinfeld is clearly normal, average, representing most Americans’ basic views, regardless of race or gender. To take that and twist it into some kind of nightmare Frankenstein…well…this is why you can’t trust media anymore.)
I posted about the piece on Facebook and elsewhere. One woman I don’t know on FB commented, “Don’t you know about he and wifey’s warmongering? I’m glad I didn’t buy your book.”
My first thought was: Fuck you. (Honestly.) I of course considered ripping her a new spiritual asshole…but then I just hid the comment and let it go. What it brought to mind, though, was this: How have we come to the place where we are so radically tribalized that artists can’t engage in art anymore; that everything—and I mean everything—is political?
Seinfeld had signed a letter not long after October 7th condemning Hamas. For this egregious sin he is mocked, yelled at and heckled by a bunch of rich elite white kids who are part of a larger milieu which is currently engaged in screaming things at protests such as “gas the Jews” and “By Any Means Necessary” and “From the River to the Sea” as well as, recently, “Stand with Hamas” and “Jihad.”
*
“But Xavier Westergaard, a Ph.D. student in biology, said the mood for Jewish students was “very dire.”
“There are students on campus who are yelling horrible things, not about Israelis only or about the actions of the state or the government, but about Jews in general,” he said.”
““It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus,” wrote Rabbi Buechler, the director of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Columbia University and Barnard College. “No one should have to endure this level of hatred, let alone at school.”
“Chabad at Columbia University, a chapter of an international Orthodox Jewish movement, said in a statement that some protesters had hurled expletives at Jewish students as they walked home from campus over the weekend, and had said to them, “All you do is colonize” and “Go back to Europe.”
“Reports of antisemitic harassment by protesters surfaced on social media late Saturday. A video posted on X shows a masked protester outside the Columbia gates carrying a Palestinian flag who appears to chant “Go back to Poland!” One Columbia student wrote on social media that some protesters had stolen an Israeli flag from students and tried to burn it, adding that Jewish students were splashed with water.”
“In one instance, video captured a person holding up a sign that said, “Al-Qasam’s Next Targets,” referring to Hamas’s armed faction, near several Jewish counterprotesters. Mr. Adams said the police had already increased its presence near the campus and would investigate any potential violations of the law.”
“The verbal attacks left a number of the 5,000 Jewish students at Columbia fearful for their safety on the campus and its vicinity, and even drew condemnation from the White House and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.”
*
It's been terrifying and fascinating to watch the new surge of antisemitism on the progressive Left. And by fascinating I mean disgusting. If the Right—who have mostly lost their minds in the Trump era—have fallen victim to praising Russia (equally dumb and bizarre), the far-Left has fallen prey to the delusion that everything in the world depends on power dynamics, particularly when it comes to gender and race.
Except that doesn’t even make sense. Hamas is a murderous, genocidal, incredibly antisemitic, antizionist terror group. They will murder your ass if you happen to be gay, trans, non-binary, etc. Women are treated as sex objects and are routinely brutalized, raped, murdered, etc by this misogynistic, patriarchal murder-squad called Hamas.
And yet…because Palestinians are “brown” all of this terror is just fine. Jews in Israel are “white” even though they are actually a massive mixture of many races(including Middle Eastern, African, etc) and have a 4,000-year history of oppression, the longest of any group on Earth. History really does repeat itself.
I’m not Jewish. I don’t think all that often about Israel. Netanyahu sounds like a pseudo rightwing fascist. I don’t defend any abuses of power by the IDF during this or any previous conflict. I don’t agree with everything Israel does. I feel conflicted, even, about U.S. support on some level.
And yet.
Clearly, Israel—the only functional democracy in the region which believes in things like equal rights, freedom of speech, Western values, punishment for rape, murder, etc—is a complex and imperfect nation. (Like all nations.) But they also also have every right to exist. I don’t know who exactly was there—in the land of Palestine—“first.” Both Israelis and Palestinians have occupied parts of the land for thousands of years. I do know that this argument is also silly and absurd.
Should we give the United States “back” to the Native Americans? Should we give Texas and California back to Mexico? Some of you probably think we should. Nevertheless, we all know—those of us who have a close relationship with reality—that ain’t gonna happen. The history of the world is the history of slavery, war, conflict, colonialization, domination and submission. You know where slavery started: In Africa by Africans of their own peoples. No one is immune to this.
Look: I don’t really care what your opinion is on Israel, Hamas, the current conflict, etc. A big believer in freedom of speech, I feel firmly that every person absolutely has a right to their own views. But can we cut out the anti-intellectual, anti-Art bullshit where every-goddamn-thing has to be about political point A versus political point Z? Can’t Seinfeld—an old-school wildly famous wildly successful very Jewish comedian—just be who and what he is without being called “Genocide Jerry” and heckled as a genocidal warmonger?
*(Footnote. There are two dumb-as-rocks, totally ridiculous, nonsensical claims that The New Left Antisemites love to use:
1. Israel is engaged in genocide: Here is the definition of “genocide” from Mirium-Webster: “The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.”
Israel is not engaged in the “deliberate destruction of a racial, political or cultural group.” Israel was attacked brutally and genocidally on October 7th. Hamas fucking recorded the slaughter. Hamas has repeatedly stated their intensions, which are to murder as many Jews as possible and obliterate the state of Israel. So, you’ve got it backwards, kids: Hamas is trying and would love to genocide every Israeli citizen; Israel is attempting to destroy a terror group while giving food, aid and pathways out for regular Palestinian citizens. Try again.
2. Being “anti-Zionist” is not being “anti-Semitic”: Horse-shit. Here’s the definition of Zionism: “a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.” In other words: Zionism is simply the desire for a Jewish state for the Jews. No group has ever suffered as much as the Jews, and for thousands of years. They have literally one state in the whole world. They’ve been ejected from the dozens of Arab states many times over the years; in many regions of the Middle East there are literally now zero Jews. Arabs have plenty of countries to go to which will welcome them with warm, open arms. The Jews do not have that luxury. So let’s be crystal clear: If you are “anti-Zionist,” yes, my delusional friend: You are antisemitic. Sorry not sorry.
Moving on.
I think what we’ve learned in the Trump/Biden Era is that people cannot handle nuance anymore. Psychic fragmentation a la social media, generational gaps (Millennials and Gen Z compared to Gen X and Boomers), technology generally, iPhones, lives shifting dramatically over a short time from physical to digital realities, the lack of human direct connection, online dating, etc etc etc: These things have basically ruined a couple generations. Independent thinking is at an all-time low; hell thinking in general is at an all-time low. The psychology of mobs and crowds is fascinating. Once a group forms, the ability to turn your brain off and simply mouth the words of the group becomes very strong; this is our biological evolution. We evolved as and still very much are “social” creatures. It feels good and righteous to tear another person or group down.
Now we know that any group under any guise can propagate violence, racism, bigotry, whether it’s the Right or the Left. The Progressives—read: Regressives—have set us back twenty years in terms of racial, social and cultural harmony. Look back to 2012 and it almost felt like racism by some measures had nearly dissolved completely. (Read the Washington Post Police Database: Only a tiny fraction of Black citizens are killed each year, despite the Leftist hype.)
Progressives have absolutely—in the most uproariously Orwellian fashion—cracked open language and planted spiritual and linguistic TNT inside the old words, making them their own. Racism now means whatever the fuck they want it to mean depending on the context (when it serves their purposes). Gender is completely meaningless. Heterosexuals are freaks and terrorists. Hamas and Osama bin-Laden are good, misunderstood heroes. Crime never spiked; that was just a “Republican talking point” (the Left’s favorite delusion/lie). Covid restrictions weren’t crazy. Etc. On and on down the line: Gaslighting, lying, full of shit.
This is why NPR—which I once listened to agreeably until about 2018—has lost 18 million subscribers, dropping from 60m to 42m since just 2020. That is absolutely astounding. Similarly, the Washington Post has lost a record 50% of its subscribers in just the past 5 years.
I think we’ve reached Peak Woke…except in academia (elite colleges like Harvard) and, frustratingly, The Arts. *(Read my essay on Woke Bookstores here.) The vast percentage of Americans support Israel and do not buy into Woke beliefs, including the dumbest ones such as “Defund the Police.” You know what group doesn’t and never did support Defund the Police, and also Affirmative Action, as well as what group is politically moderate and against most progressive views and is peeling off more and more for Donald J. Trump?
You guessed it: Black Americans.
Wake up, kids. Your time is coming to an end. Your ideas are beyond naïve, and they’ve become increasingly racist, bigoted and intolerant. How is it that in our supposed time of tolerance and inclusion you are “allowed” to hate Jews openly? How is it that you destroy trans people who de-transitioned and dared to speak out? How is it that you destroy any Black writer or thinker who dares to step out of the progressive lens and speak openly for most Black Americans (Coleman Hughes, John MCWhorter, Glen Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster, etc)?
You’ve lost your way, with Israel, with race, with gender, with everything. Your narcissistic myopia is making society worse and less safe for everyone.
Ask yourself—when you’re alone—the hard question: Do you really, honestly think you’re on the Right Side of History? Would you feel that way if the media and the 8% of white elite rich progressives weren’t telling you to feel that way?
Are you actually being honest with yourself?