naraburns nihil supernum
1yr ago
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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1
This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
I think Tablet’s output over the last few years reflects to some extent a growing neoconservative acceptance, though not embrace, of Donald Trump. Clearly, he wasn’t as much of a Nazi™️ as feared, there weren’t any state-sanctioned pogroms, and it seems now again that the right supports Israel more than the left, plus isn’t his faction being falsely persecuted, and isn’t that bad? DeSantis may have been preferable, but provided Trump has a few Good People in charge, all the nasty election business can be quietly forgotten.
Jewish politics often alternates spastically between neuroticism and pragmatism, sometimes both simultaneously (occasionally warranted). Sectarianism is simply too ingrained for blue haired Berkeley or Columbia Jews to switch to the right (their gentile white peers are the same, of course). But, then again, old men like Howard Schultz, or Reid Hoffmann Silicon Valley types and so on aren’t blue haired Berkeley activists, and it is the former rather than the latter that pays the bills for the DNC. For now, Gavin Newsom is still preferable to the vulgarity of Trump (and is stupid enough to be easily led anyway). In ten years, the logic may differ.
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Notes -
I think Tablet’s output over the last few years reflects to some extent a growing neoconservative acceptance, though not embrace, of Donald Trump. Clearly, he wasn’t as much of a Nazi™️ as feared, there weren’t any state-sanctioned pogroms, and it seems now again that the right supports Israel more than the left, plus isn’t his faction being falsely persecuted, and isn’t that bad? DeSantis may have been preferable, but provided Trump has a few Good People in charge, all the nasty election business can be quietly forgotten.
Jewish politics often alternates spastically between neuroticism and pragmatism, sometimes both simultaneously (occasionally warranted). Sectarianism is simply too ingrained for blue haired Berkeley or Columbia Jews to switch to the right (their gentile white peers are the same, of course). But, then again, old men like Howard Schultz, or Reid Hoffmann Silicon Valley types and so on aren’t blue haired Berkeley activists, and it is the former rather than the latter that pays the bills for the DNC. For now, Gavin Newsom is still preferable to the vulgarity of Trump (and is stupid enough to be easily led anyway). In ten years, the logic may differ.
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