I think there is another thing at play here. As someone who has proudly worn the moniker of woke and leftist, and who is also not only by coincidence Jewish, the left has shown itself as boldly antisemitic to the extent that it is not only in vogue, but is now a badge of courage to stand against Israel. What many, not all, don't realize is that it is possible to be against what Israel is doing, (I am) and not be antisemitic, but there is a place where being pro Palestinian (I am) intersects with antisemitism. If I think about it, the left is wholly, without hesitation in support of those they see as victims. This is their justification. There is no room for nuance, whatever the issue. This makes them as dangerous as many on the right end of the spectrum. We are a walking a dangerous road as a society.
I agree with all of this. My counterpoint, to the extent that it needs one, is wondering if you can point to any examples of groups who are vocally critical of the Israeli government but who are not facing accusations of anti-semitism?
The annihilation of nuance has been a long term deliberate choice that has served a number of not-very-nice people, on several sides of the conflict, very well. I’m not sure how it gets walked back. In many ways the sorts of academics and NGOs who are typically the voices of nuance in complex situations are exactly who are the most desensitized to this one. So I’m not sure where else to find those voices, on a large scale level.
The only group I can honestly identify is Jewish Voices for Peace. Having said that, I have had many conversations with individuals who object to Isreal's actions, but I would not suggest those objections are antisemitic.
The remainder of your response quite honestly nails it Ryan. From the annihilation of nuance to the fact the NGO's and academics are most often the voices for nuance. I too, am not sure where to find these voices - but I for one continue to try and be that voice as often as I can. Sometimes, I am effective and often I am not. In this polarized world we live in the middle ground is an uncomfortable position to take.
Thank you. I think most of us follow Evan’s posts because of the quality of discussion. I don’t always agree with everything posted here, but it’s rarely thoughtless.
I do find it darkly ironic that when I looked up more info on Jewish Voices for Peace this was one of the top articles
“CEO Jonathan Greenblatt announced that the ADL would devote more energy to combating anti-Zionism. “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” he said”
I too have had good individual conversations. But more than most issues, translating those individual interactions into a larger conversation seems fraught.
Take care of yourself, your mental health, and those close to you. I think the foreseeable future is going to be a long, hard road for people who care.
You see a similar pattern with the defence of Dr. Gay, the president of Harvard University, against accusations of plagiarism. The main argument is that these are directed at a woman of colour, not against the substance.
Are minority academics supposed to get a mulligan on plagiarism because of their privileged status?
Preach! Those anonymous Canadaland cowards should be fired pronto.
(As for Paradkar, no way she should ever have been hired for that position. And, sadly but not surprisingly, what a travesty that she's now been hired to do a similar job by the Star's union. Good luck to the Star's Jewish employees going to the union about workplace toxicity.)
.. I ‘get it’ - these are truly fine.. razor sharp ethical lines.. & In that sense or spirit.. ‘oh lord.. please don’t let me be misunderstood’. .. Are you trying to isolate Right From Wrong within a murderous Conundrum ? Of course Society will attack itself & you In Binary manner. Nuance or Context ? Are you joking ? It’s our own fault if we don’t accept that every ‘word, phrase, gesture’ is parsed for potential Weaponizing as Headline Propaganda potential - scandal - misinformation seeded virally via Disinformation reflecting News.. Or is it the other way around.. or its all just milling & churning happily along via MEDIA & Popularity Polling
We’re in a Social Media era now that’s subsuming Yellow Spectrum ‘MainStreamMedia’ toxic froth & Re-Echoing it back & forth with Algorithmic Predictability.. Cole Hogan of Earnscliffe Solution boasts about using the phenomena ‘to map’ such demographic ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ effect into similar datawanked 4 Pierre cohorts across Canada .. easy as pie. After all the CPC have ALL OUR DATA.. - see Jenni Byrne & Pierre Poilievre living together 12 years ago re RoboCall 2011 ..
Does anyone think they haven’t upgraded & reloaded a dynamic contemporary Black Ops Disinformation Dispensing MagaMachine ? Duh.. we’re watching it live & in colour Daily / 24/7
You're right that the "infantilization of minorities" angle has been at play here, and that many have left unacknowledged problematic comments by some of the parties mentioned here when they run to their defence - but I think that's the important part here: the issue is acts of omission. Things left unsaid. Brown, rightly, has been criticized for being very selective in how he opines on the Israel-Palestine issue (that's right in the union's release so I don't know why you're saying it's not clear what they're critiquing beyond the Shree stuff). You characterize this as him "giving a shit about Jewish people", which is an oversimplification. He's made it fairly clear he thinks Israel's strategy of indiscriminate bombing is fine by omitting absolutely any comment on the plight of Palestinians or the humanitarian issues or the way these things are covered in our media, instead pushing the predominant narrative that criticism of the Israeli government or being pro-palestine is by default antisemitic. This whole conflict has been very fertile ground for Canadaland in terms of media critique and bias and he's totally abdicated that role in favour of personal aims. You mention Sarah Jama (who was deemed antisemitic due to acts of omission in her initial statement) and I think her and Brown are comparable cases through that lens of omission.
I think there is another thing at play here. As someone who has proudly worn the moniker of woke and leftist, and who is also not only by coincidence Jewish, the left has shown itself as boldly antisemitic to the extent that it is not only in vogue, but is now a badge of courage to stand against Israel. What many, not all, don't realize is that it is possible to be against what Israel is doing, (I am) and not be antisemitic, but there is a place where being pro Palestinian (I am) intersects with antisemitism. If I think about it, the left is wholly, without hesitation in support of those they see as victims. This is their justification. There is no room for nuance, whatever the issue. This makes them as dangerous as many on the right end of the spectrum. We are a walking a dangerous road as a society.
I agree with all of this. My counterpoint, to the extent that it needs one, is wondering if you can point to any examples of groups who are vocally critical of the Israeli government but who are not facing accusations of anti-semitism?
The annihilation of nuance has been a long term deliberate choice that has served a number of not-very-nice people, on several sides of the conflict, very well. I’m not sure how it gets walked back. In many ways the sorts of academics and NGOs who are typically the voices of nuance in complex situations are exactly who are the most desensitized to this one. So I’m not sure where else to find those voices, on a large scale level.
The only group I can honestly identify is Jewish Voices for Peace. Having said that, I have had many conversations with individuals who object to Isreal's actions, but I would not suggest those objections are antisemitic.
The remainder of your response quite honestly nails it Ryan. From the annihilation of nuance to the fact the NGO's and academics are most often the voices for nuance. I too, am not sure where to find these voices - but I for one continue to try and be that voice as often as I can. Sometimes, I am effective and often I am not. In this polarized world we live in the middle ground is an uncomfortable position to take.
Thanks for your well considered response.
Thank you. I think most of us follow Evan’s posts because of the quality of discussion. I don’t always agree with everything posted here, but it’s rarely thoughtless.
I do find it darkly ironic that when I looked up more info on Jewish Voices for Peace this was one of the top articles
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-adl-doubles-down-on-opposing-the-anti-zionist-left
“CEO Jonathan Greenblatt announced that the ADL would devote more energy to combating anti-Zionism. “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” he said”
I too have had good individual conversations. But more than most issues, translating those individual interactions into a larger conversation seems fraught.
Take care of yourself, your mental health, and those close to you. I think the foreseeable future is going to be a long, hard road for people who care.
You see a similar pattern with the defence of Dr. Gay, the president of Harvard University, against accusations of plagiarism. The main argument is that these are directed at a woman of colour, not against the substance.
Are minority academics supposed to get a mulligan on plagiarism because of their privileged status?
Preach! Those anonymous Canadaland cowards should be fired pronto.
(As for Paradkar, no way she should ever have been hired for that position. And, sadly but not surprisingly, what a travesty that she's now been hired to do a similar job by the Star's union. Good luck to the Star's Jewish employees going to the union about workplace toxicity.)
Bingo
.. I ‘get it’ - these are truly fine.. razor sharp ethical lines.. & In that sense or spirit.. ‘oh lord.. please don’t let me be misunderstood’. .. Are you trying to isolate Right From Wrong within a murderous Conundrum ? Of course Society will attack itself & you In Binary manner. Nuance or Context ? Are you joking ? It’s our own fault if we don’t accept that every ‘word, phrase, gesture’ is parsed for potential Weaponizing as Headline Propaganda potential - scandal - misinformation seeded virally via Disinformation reflecting News.. Or is it the other way around.. or its all just milling & churning happily along via MEDIA & Popularity Polling
We’re in a Social Media era now that’s subsuming Yellow Spectrum ‘MainStreamMedia’ toxic froth & Re-Echoing it back & forth with Algorithmic Predictability.. Cole Hogan of Earnscliffe Solution boasts about using the phenomena ‘to map’ such demographic ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ effect into similar datawanked 4 Pierre cohorts across Canada .. easy as pie. After all the CPC have ALL OUR DATA.. - see Jenni Byrne & Pierre Poilievre living together 12 years ago re RoboCall 2011 ..
Does anyone think they haven’t upgraded & reloaded a dynamic contemporary Black Ops Disinformation Dispensing MagaMachine ? Duh.. we’re watching it live & in colour Daily / 24/7
🦎🏴☠️
I enjoy reading Evan. This is one of his better coloumns. I am glad he wrote it.
You're right that the "infantilization of minorities" angle has been at play here, and that many have left unacknowledged problematic comments by some of the parties mentioned here when they run to their defence - but I think that's the important part here: the issue is acts of omission. Things left unsaid. Brown, rightly, has been criticized for being very selective in how he opines on the Israel-Palestine issue (that's right in the union's release so I don't know why you're saying it's not clear what they're critiquing beyond the Shree stuff). You characterize this as him "giving a shit about Jewish people", which is an oversimplification. He's made it fairly clear he thinks Israel's strategy of indiscriminate bombing is fine by omitting absolutely any comment on the plight of Palestinians or the humanitarian issues or the way these things are covered in our media, instead pushing the predominant narrative that criticism of the Israeli government or being pro-palestine is by default antisemitic. This whole conflict has been very fertile ground for Canadaland in terms of media critique and bias and he's totally abdicated that role in favour of personal aims. You mention Sarah Jama (who was deemed antisemitic due to acts of omission in her initial statement) and I think her and Brown are comparable cases through that lens of omission.