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I agree with this as far as it goes. Any thoughts on how to thread the needle between an "immunocompromised society" and a despotic theocracy (like Iran)? IMO, Israel kind of does that, but what's the secret sauce?
The secret sauce in Israel is that the pro-establishment left (in Israel's case, the historically Labour-voting secular Ashkenazi elite) are fiercely patriotic in a way that the pro-establishment left is not in most other Western countries, either because of woke, because of American cultural capture, or (in the case of the UK) both. That, in turn, is probably due to the role of the Holocaust as part of the Israeli founding myth. The pro-establishment right tends patriotic everywhere, and the anti-establishment right almost everywhere, but you need patriotic factions on both sides of the aisle if you want to ensure generally patriotic government.
Israel is in danger of losing its secret sauce because the pro-establishment right (i.e. Netanyahu) is increasingly dependent on the votes of the Haredim (who are functionally unpatriotic because they see the Israeli state as a food animal).
Thanks. This explanation is new to me, at least regarding Israel specifically, and feels plausible.
On the other hand, we can't deliberately subject our nation to decimating attacks by outsiders as a means of forging a shared national identity. Any ideas on how to recreate the effect without the cause?
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Being one of the progressive stack's sacred cows probably gave them a layer of insulation. It seems to be wearing thin, but it's there.
Not really. The kind of person who talks about the "progressive stack" unironically has hated Israel since before they knew what the "progressive stack" was.
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