#WTH: The hate wears you down
Plus HTHH a little early today...
There is a lamentable, social media-driven habit that prompts participants to believe that their online community is real. I, happily (she said), am not among such people, and I share personal anecdotes with caution. With that caveat in mind, I thought I might explain why I haven’t written much over the last week.
I have actually been writing on the UN with my colleague Brett Schaefer. And drafting another longer piece for a magazine that I’ll share when it comes out. But if Substack is where I sometimes share my musings, diary-style (and then publish them, psychopath-style), I have been without inspiration. I know why.
After October 7, I changed my social media preferences dramatically. On Instagram, where I once shared scenery, food, cocktails, and dogs, I started sharing information about Israel’s war with Hamas, and about the hostages. I started following lots of related sites, including Jewish communities abroad, and influencers whose work I liked — also related to the war. I followed hostage families and pro-Israel journalists. It’s a lot, but I appreciated feeling at the heart of this fight.
Over at Commentary, Abe Greenwald wrote almost exactly what I was feeling:
Over the past year and a half, some sort of switch inside me has flipped. The switch pertains to matters concerning Israel, Jews, and the liberal establishment. I admit it: I’m just no longer that thoughtful about certain things. Where I could once be circumspect, I am now, frankly, simple: The current enemies of the Jews must be taken down.
Some of my family survived the Holocaust (many did not), and I ask myself periodically what I would have done if I were in the circumstances in which they found themselves. I like to believe that I would have been courageous and righteous, and that I would not simply have tried to save my own family, but would have done what I could for others as well. Today, in considerably less peril, I still try to do what I can to fight the necessary battles, but it’s different terrain. I don’t carry a gun, just ideas about how to defeat the enemy.
But after last week’s terrorist attack outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, and the subsequent outpouring of hatred against Jews, I was just… tired. Worn down. Elias Rodriguez is the shooter at the Jewish Museum. This post is from a splinter of the DSA, which endorses the likes of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Rashida Tlaib.
At a certain moment, you ask yourself if you’re really fighting the good fight, really helping to win, really making a difference. It’s not about defeating Hamas, or eradicating antisemitism; it’s just about incremental steps. But when Kanye West — and he’s a sad case of mental illness — is celebrated online for a song celebrating Hitler; when Tucker Carlson platforms Holocaust deniers; when one student after another hijacks their graduation podium to rail against Jews; when Washington Post columnists who once pretended to seriousness announce that Israel is committing genocide… It’s just an endless, almost fact-free slog.
No, there isn’t a famine in Gaza. No, this isn’t a genocide. No, Israel didn’t start this war. No, Israelis are not settler colonialists. No, no, no.
If you’re asking yourself why I’m not giving you details about why the propaganda I cite above isn’t true, go back and read everything I’ve written.
Of course, there are ways that Israel can conduct itself differently. Of course, there are good Palestinians who are also victims of Hamas. Of course, criticizing Israel isn’t intrinsically antisemitic. Of course, conflating Jews everywhere with Israel is antisemitic. How many times must these things be said?
So, I’ll be back soon. We had a great pod on Chinese infiltration of Stanford that I want to write about. And we had the incredible John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting) on the pod this week (posting this morning). More on him and his incredible, lonely fight for what’s right soon. Sometimes, we just need a bit of a step back to recharge.
Thanks for being here. Elise and I will be on a little early tonight… 5 pm ET for those who want to join us. I ginned up a cocktail this weekend… recipe manana.
Until our dearly beloved President Obama removed it, there was a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office donated by a group of Churchill’s friends (including Averell Harriman) in 1965. I was in that office and saw it a few times. And every time I saw that bust, it recalled to mind his quote at the point of deepest despair, … “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, We shall never surrender.” Churchill was rallying a people in clearly their darkest hour, …, and he led a nation at war and a fighting force. For the most part, Hitler’s supporters were not randomly killing British civilians on the streets of other countries.
So, this is not exactly the same situation we face today in a modern world constantly being reminded many still operate in the 8th century. But, “we shall never surrender.” And I must say, no President in history has been more resolute than President Trump in resisting and fighting anti-Semitism and equating resistance to Israel’s right to exist, Jews, and anti-semitism as one. For it is. It is hatred for no reason and we have every reason to understand that whether it is real racism, anti-semitism, or ethnic cleansing, … it has no place in our world and “We must never give in.”
It's not the same world we grew up in Ms.Pletka. and I too feel the fatigue. But each of us can contribute to the good fight by living our own lives with character and virtue. Eternal vigilance. Take care.