Facebook is down. Instagram is down. WhatsApp is down. MySpace … apparently still exists. The New York Timessays they don’t know what’s going on. Mark Zuckerberg says, “Who is this and how did you get this number?” Anyway, I figured now was as good a time as any to try something new. Let’s talk! What’s on your mind? What questions do you have for me and each other?
What do you think is the best response to Jewish anti-Zionism e.g. Peter Beinart? Or, to put it another way, what's the best progressive case for Zionism, and how do we get progressive leaders to better embrace that argument?
If you take audience requests for your conversation with Dara Horn, I'd love if you would ask her why antisemitism appears to be so resistant to reason, such that more-educated people are not any less likely to express it (any maybe even more likely). It feels like so many otherwise-great minds had this prejudice, and there's a baffling reluctance to call it out in the academy. Even an otherwise excellent review of her book in Tablet Magazine insists that Horn's skeptical son is "dead wrong" about the Merchant of Venice. The Tablet article contains this incredible sentence: "Sure, Shakespeare’s Jew is vengeful, intent on judicial murder, but watch Patrick Stewart and David Suchet in their prime trying out Shylock’s speeches. It’s impossible not to be seduced." Really? WTF is going on here? I've read and seen the play, and I totally agree with Horn's son.
Ok i will read it even though I dont think the Lefties love dead Jews anyone...that's so 1970ish. They are sick about hearing about dead Jews. The Queen of the Squad, Cortez, only cares about the Holocaust when it involves supporting illegal Migrants at the border.
What do you think is the best way for pro-israel people to deal with(fix) the fact that an increasing number of jews don't support Israel(or support BDS/consider Israel an apartheid state)?
Facebook is unnecessary. WhatsApp is unnecessary. Instagram is unnecessary. And every day reveals new ways that these platforms are reducing the quality of life. Keep up the good work Yair.
I subscribe to *hundreds* of RSS feeds in Feedly (feedly.com), which enables me to read pretty much everything I want in one place. These span the gamut from politics to culture to religion to music to baseball to computer gaming. I even get Google Alerts and YouTube search alerts for key figures in there (like every video whose metadata mentions politicians in Israel that I'm following). I mostly don't actually subscribe to headlines from major national publications, but rather to commentators and writers who I find informative and trustworthy (but not necessarily who I agree with), and who direct me to which stories they think are important. (I get all the headlines immediately on Twitter anyway.)
Facebook was down on the day after the Facebook whistleblower identified herself, was presenting and being interviewed. Just one helluva coincidence - not. Facebook must be held fully accountable AND must be broken up
Any chance of organizing a daily post about an arab israeli in government, medicine, law, IDF, etc to make people look even more stupid claiming apartheid, and also enabling others to have a ready refutable site for the blasphemy
How about also african israeli jews for same reasons
How about a second column dealing with how Africans are being treated in Gaza and the PA, hey why not add christians, women, gays, jews, minorities, etc.
These hours are probably the most productive and efficient the world has known in the past 15 years. I wonder if our dependency to these tech giants isn't so healthy...
Facebook would be a great platform under new management. Their problems are all self created by management who are in cahoots with people who profit from exploiting vast populations. Greed is the root of evil, and that is the problem with most of our world, including Facebook.
Ok I subscribed. I'm not on the Left anymore but you are one of the few Jews on the Left who actually supports Jewish causes and Israel. Unlike the vast majority of progressive Jews who support every minority cause in the world BUT the Jewish ones.
Serious question. How do you know this? Is there data that supports your supposition, especially among Millenials and Gen Z? Is there data that refutes this? I’d like to think you’re correct, but I don’t know.
Interesting to receive this invite. Yup! Social Media is down...I am enjoying the peace and tranquility! Love your articles and shares...will definitively check out the @Adventures with Dead Jews@ podcast. Mozel tov!
Hello! It’s very exciting to me that you’ve decided to do this! My name is Noah Goodbaum, but I make rap music and write essays on Substack under the nom de plume The Mighty Rhino. I’ve enjoyed your writings on Twitter, and I generally find your takes on things sagacious or at least interesting. I’m a left-wing Zionist in Toronto who believes in roughly the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vision on domestic policy but also in a relatively hawkish foreign policy that opposes the “global jihad ideology”, and I’m also interested in advancing the equality of rights and dignity of non-Jewish (and Black and Brown Jewish) Israelis with white Jewish ones and in promoting a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that envisions a free, sovereign, constitutional liberal democratic Palestine as the Jewish constitutional liberal democracy of Israel’s thriving neighbour. My writings are available at revolvearoundscience.substack.com! I’d be honoured if even one person who stumbles across this comment decided to take a look!
I'm pondering, as I write a book about Berlin 1961, about the mechanisms of the capture of legal institutions in crumbling societies. It occurs to me that this is one of the first things to go, along with artistic/intellectual freedom, as well as common language and free press. I'm thinking about the lack of challenge to the troubling (to say the least) gov't mandates that challenge the postwar Nuremberg Code, which defined the terms for informed consent. {shudder}
It'd be very difficult for an external actor to simultaneously shut down ALL of Facebook's properties (WhatsApp, Instagram, and FB) at once, as they do not run on all of the same technologies, so this is more like an internal error or (much less likely) internal malfeasance.
Any comment on the thing with VP Harris and the student calling what's going on in Gaza an ethnic genocide? What would you say to VP Harris if you could talk to her?
It was obviously an unfortunate moment for her, and one I suspect she'd like to have back. Something folks who don't closely cover politicians don't realize is that politicians often make these sorts of errors when they are publicly confronted with extreme questions out of left field. Most politicians are good at fielding questions they expect to receive, but they tend to pivot to talking points or clichés when they encounter something completely unexpected. This mostly results in boring non-answers that are quickly forgotten, but can occasionally result in a gaffe if the question was sufficiently offensive that the non-answer makes it look like the politician is excusing the offense. Bernie Sanders once got hit with a cartoonishly antisemitic question at the end of a campaign event in 2016, and basically whiffed on it in the same way as Harris -- not because he agreed with any of it, but because he defaulted to talking points. (I wrote about this incident here: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/bernie-sanders-was-asked-an-anti-semitic-question-heres-how-he-should-have-answered). I highly doubt Harris agreed with the student in their exchange, but I bet she'll be more prepared with a set answer the next time something like this comes up.
Yeah, that law won't withstand scrutiny under the First Amendment. To be criminalized, there would need to be a "true threat" - something a *reasonable* person would believe was a serious expression of intent to inflict bodily harm.
He is the governor of the state and it is his responsibility to do what he can to mitigate a public health crisis. Rather than do so, he has bullied those who were trying, schools, employers, cruise lines in an effort to polish his credentials in his political party. When you're a firefighter you don't get blame for fires starting but you do get blame if you don't, not only help extinguish the fire, but are busy tripping the firefighters who are trying to put it out.
I'm sorry but he has bullied numerous people who were trying to implement strategies for decreasing COVID spread - schools, employers, cruise lines. All done to further his own position in politics, none done for the benefit of people.
What do you think is the best response to Jewish anti-Zionism e.g. Peter Beinart? Or, to put it another way, what's the best progressive case for Zionism, and how do we get progressive leaders to better embrace that argument?
I don't have anything to say except: Go read Dara Horn's new book, "People Love Dead Jews". It is brilliant.
Oh yes. Expect more "People Love Dead Jews" content in this newsletter soon...
And if you haven't already found it, I highly recommend the companion podcast--Adventures with Dead Jews--that we've been producing with Horn over at Tablet Studios: https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/adventures-with-dead-jews
If you take audience requests for your conversation with Dara Horn, I'd love if you would ask her why antisemitism appears to be so resistant to reason, such that more-educated people are not any less likely to express it (any maybe even more likely). It feels like so many otherwise-great minds had this prejudice, and there's a baffling reluctance to call it out in the academy. Even an otherwise excellent review of her book in Tablet Magazine insists that Horn's skeptical son is "dead wrong" about the Merchant of Venice. The Tablet article contains this incredible sentence: "Sure, Shakespeare’s Jew is vengeful, intent on judicial murder, but watch Patrick Stewart and David Suchet in their prime trying out Shylock’s speeches. It’s impossible not to be seduced." Really? WTF is going on here? I've read and seen the play, and I totally agree with Horn's son.
Ok i will read it even though I dont think the Lefties love dead Jews anyone...that's so 1970ish. They are sick about hearing about dead Jews. The Queen of the Squad, Cortez, only cares about the Holocaust when it involves supporting illegal Migrants at the border.
What do you think is the best way for pro-israel people to deal with(fix) the fact that an increasing number of jews don't support Israel(or support BDS/consider Israel an apartheid state)?
Facebook is unnecessary. WhatsApp is unnecessary. Instagram is unnecessary. And every day reveals new ways that these platforms are reducing the quality of life. Keep up the good work Yair.
I'd love to know something simple: what do you read every day to get the news?
I subscribe to *hundreds* of RSS feeds in Feedly (feedly.com), which enables me to read pretty much everything I want in one place. These span the gamut from politics to culture to religion to music to baseball to computer gaming. I even get Google Alerts and YouTube search alerts for key figures in there (like every video whose metadata mentions politicians in Israel that I'm following). I mostly don't actually subscribe to headlines from major national publications, but rather to commentators and writers who I find informative and trustworthy (but not necessarily who I agree with), and who direct me to which stories they think are important. (I get all the headlines immediately on Twitter anyway.)
So helpful. Thanks.
Facebook was down on the day after the Facebook whistleblower identified herself, was presenting and being interviewed. Just one helluva coincidence - not. Facebook must be held fully accountable AND must be broken up
The greatest failure of our Democratic Republic is that of the Fourth Estate.
Any chance of organizing a daily post about an arab israeli in government, medicine, law, IDF, etc to make people look even more stupid claiming apartheid, and also enabling others to have a ready refutable site for the blasphemy
How about also african israeli jews for same reasons
How about a second column dealing with how Africans are being treated in Gaza and the PA, hey why not add christians, women, gays, jews, minorities, etc.
Silly: what's your go-to guilty pleasure movie?
Serious: What news or opinion writers do typically disagree with but enjoy reading? And why?
These hours are probably the most productive and efficient the world has known in the past 15 years. I wonder if our dependency to these tech giants isn't so healthy...
What’s up 🍷
Facebook would be a great platform under new management. Their problems are all self created by management who are in cahoots with people who profit from exploiting vast populations. Greed is the root of evil, and that is the problem with most of our world, including Facebook.
Ok I subscribed. I'm not on the Left anymore but you are one of the few Jews on the Left who actually supports Jewish causes and Israel. Unlike the vast majority of progressive Jews who support every minority cause in the world BUT the Jewish ones.
Most Jews on the Left support Jewish causes. The loud ones who do not are very much in the minority.
Serious question. How do you know this? Is there data that supports your supposition, especially among Millenials and Gen Z? Is there data that refutes this? I’d like to think you’re correct, but I don’t know.
Well you guys should be loud too. In 2021, the non Jewish "progressives" who run most of the Media, Universities, Entertainment only respect loud.
I'm another; that is, a Jew on the Left who strongly supports Israel and Jewish causes
Do you think that there's any hope/future for pro-israel dems in congress?
Interesting to receive this invite. Yup! Social Media is down...I am enjoying the peace and tranquility! Love your articles and shares...will definitively check out the @Adventures with Dead Jews@ podcast. Mozel tov!
Yair, you have one pf the darkest funniest comments for antisemites
Hello! It’s very exciting to me that you’ve decided to do this! My name is Noah Goodbaum, but I make rap music and write essays on Substack under the nom de plume The Mighty Rhino. I’ve enjoyed your writings on Twitter, and I generally find your takes on things sagacious or at least interesting. I’m a left-wing Zionist in Toronto who believes in roughly the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vision on domestic policy but also in a relatively hawkish foreign policy that opposes the “global jihad ideology”, and I’m also interested in advancing the equality of rights and dignity of non-Jewish (and Black and Brown Jewish) Israelis with white Jewish ones and in promoting a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that envisions a free, sovereign, constitutional liberal democratic Palestine as the Jewish constitutional liberal democracy of Israel’s thriving neighbour. My writings are available at revolvearoundscience.substack.com! I’d be honoured if even one person who stumbles across this comment decided to take a look!
Read Dara’s book and David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count. They are both phenomenal!
I was just going to recommend Baddiel—just finished listening to it on audio and loved it.
I'm pondering, as I write a book about Berlin 1961, about the mechanisms of the capture of legal institutions in crumbling societies. It occurs to me that this is one of the first things to go, along with artistic/intellectual freedom, as well as common language and free press. I'm thinking about the lack of challenge to the troubling (to say the least) gov't mandates that challenge the postwar Nuremberg Code, which defined the terms for informed consent. {shudder}
Do you think Facebook/Whatsap/Instagram being down is related to the 60 minutes interview with the Facebook whistleblower?
It'd be very difficult for an external actor to simultaneously shut down ALL of Facebook's properties (WhatsApp, Instagram, and FB) at once, as they do not run on all of the same technologies, so this is more like an internal error or (much less likely) internal malfeasance.
They may have suspected that this was coming and planned accordingly
Any comment on the thing with VP Harris and the student calling what's going on in Gaza an ethnic genocide? What would you say to VP Harris if you could talk to her?
It was obviously an unfortunate moment for her, and one I suspect she'd like to have back. Something folks who don't closely cover politicians don't realize is that politicians often make these sorts of errors when they are publicly confronted with extreme questions out of left field. Most politicians are good at fielding questions they expect to receive, but they tend to pivot to talking points or clichés when they encounter something completely unexpected. This mostly results in boring non-answers that are quickly forgotten, but can occasionally result in a gaffe if the question was sufficiently offensive that the non-answer makes it look like the politician is excusing the offense. Bernie Sanders once got hit with a cartoonishly antisemitic question at the end of a campaign event in 2016, and basically whiffed on it in the same way as Harris -- not because he agreed with any of it, but because he defaulted to talking points. (I wrote about this incident here: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/bernie-sanders-was-asked-an-anti-semitic-question-heres-how-he-should-have-answered). I highly doubt Harris agreed with the student in their exchange, but I bet she'll be more prepared with a set answer the next time something like this comes up.
Thanks. Something just didn’t add up.
Yeah, that law won't withstand scrutiny under the First Amendment. To be criminalized, there would need to be a "true threat" - something a *reasonable* person would believe was a serious expression of intent to inflict bodily harm.
I am being serious here. If you are pro-life, how can you countenance the deaths DeSantis has caused with his COVID policies?
That is assuming that DeSantis is to blame for a virus. We give politicians too much credit, which is the problem.
He is the governor of the state and it is his responsibility to do what he can to mitigate a public health crisis. Rather than do so, he has bullied those who were trying, schools, employers, cruise lines in an effort to polish his credentials in his political party. When you're a firefighter you don't get blame for fires starting but you do get blame if you don't, not only help extinguish the fire, but are busy tripping the firefighters who are trying to put it out.
My response and analogy were poorly written:
Firefighters - are not to blame for fires starting
Firefighters who don't help put out the fire do get blamed for damage caused by raging fire
Firefighters who don't help and trip those who are trying to get additional blame for the raging fire
Ron DeSantis = firefighter busy tripping the other firefighters who are trying to put out the fire.
He is not to blame for the virus, but he is to blame for his response to it, which flies in the face of proven scientific and medical findings.
I'm sorry but he has bullied numerous people who were trying to implement strategies for decreasing COVID spread - schools, employers, cruise lines. All done to further his own position in politics, none done for the benefit of people.