I had some kebabs a few months ago, and asked my obviously Arab waiter where he was from. He said Palestine. I said, oh, West Bank or Gaza? He said Ramallah, with a mild look of disgust in his eyes, and it was obvious to me that when he said Palestine he meant all of Israel, AND the West Bank and Gaza. Looking around the room, they had a picture of the Dome of the Rock with a caption of Jerusalem under it, and had put a Palestinian flag on it.
I don't think most people grasp that when the descendants of the refugees of the War for Israeli Existence say they are oppressed, what they mean is that the EXISTENCE of Israel as a Jewish State "oppresses" them, and that nothing less than the violent ejection--or preferably murder--of all the 8 million Jews in Israel will satisfy them.
Israel HAS occupied Gaza, but had not for 20 or more years; and despite many past acts of mass murder by these savages had been slowly increasing access from Gaza to the economy they had built. There was nothing they were doing that remotely warranted those attacks, much less the horrific evils perpetrated during them, which were cheered on by their equivalent of soccer moms.
Here is the thing: Israel will nuke every nation in the Middle East before it allows itself to be conquered by howling ghouls. This is obvious. This means that the only SANE approach is--and for that matter long has been--to make the best of a bad situation. These Arabs are not the first refugees pushed off their land in human history. They are just the most masochistic, and most committed to battles they can't hope to win.
And as I have said, much of this has to be attributed to the grievance business run by wealthy elites, for whom giving up this pointless battle would mean the loss of large revenue streams. Yasser Arafat was worth BILLIONS when he died, and he likely has dozens of equivalents out there. None of this is for the ordinary people in Gaza and the West Bank. They are just the dupes of effective propaganda and grievance mongering, much like the black community in the US, who have been lied to for fifty years. Every two years it's "THE REPUBLICANS WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE", which works, and then NOTHING--maybe free to them cell phones once in a while.
It's a strange thing, observing the hallucinations of others. I can't say I'm innocent--I have long observed that being completely wrong about something and being completely right feel exactly the same--but I do subject myself to regular feedback. I'm not in the back woods writing in my journal about some Them I am unwilling to engage with and talk with and listen to.
You aren’t wrong. Since 10/7 I have read this argument numerous times. The problem is, no one has a peaceful answer to the situation. Palestinians/Iran will not accept a two state solution; it has been offered many times and rejected. Israel cannot tolerate the constant attacks on its people and threats of anihilation . If I put the two sides on a balance, I find Israel’s right to exist far outweighs the hate of Palestinians/Iran. So if that means Israel must crush Hamas and kill Palestinians in the process, that is the unfortunate but necessary action. Palestinians know what Hamas is and what it does, so I don’t absolve them of complicity. They should think about why their fellow Muslims in surrounding countries refuse to take them in. They should think about how peace and prosperity could come if they accepted a two state solution. They must realize their hatred of Jews is the reason for their circumstances. I’m not holding my breath.
It's possible both to feel some pity for at least some of them, but also to view them as stupid, self destructive, and as a whole contemptible in their failure to adapt to the reality as it has existed since 1947 in a way which creates better lives for their children.
I'm am not going to resist the temptation to say that they have become a people largely composed of bitter, sadistic psychopaths.
There are several examples I use. One would obviously be cheering the rape, torture and murder of non-combatant women and children. That's certainly horrific, and it just happened.
"Ahlam Tamimi, who was charged as an accomplice, scouted for a target before leading Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri, the suicide bomber, to the Sbarro restaurant. They arrived just before 2:00 pm, when the restaurant was filled with customers, "dozens of women, children and babies", and pedestrian traffic outside was at its peak. Tamimi departed before Al-Masri, thought to be carrying a rigged guitar case or wearing an explosive belt weighing 5 to 10 kilograms, containing explosives, nails, nuts and bolts, detonated his bomb.
The dead included 14 Israelis, one pregnant American, and one Brazilian, all of them civilians."
Now, that is bad enough, but there is this added horrifying fact: "After the suicide bombing, Palestinian university students at the An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus created an exhibition celebrating the first anniversary of the Second Intifada. The exhibit's main attraction was a room-sized re-enactment of the bombing at Sbarro. The installation featured broken furniture splattered with fake blood and human body parts. The entrance to the exhibition was illustrated with a mural depicting the bombing."
The only ways to deal with people like that are killing them and putting them behind walls. No negotiation can ever be done in good faith.
Very good. After 75+ years, that is how to deal with Hamas: "kill them, and put them behind walls." And bravo for saying the quiet part out loud: "Israel will nuke every nation in the Middle East before it allows itself to be conquered by howling ghouls."
I do need to ask tho - what portion of the student body of An-Nahah University created that horrific display? I am appalled by the re-enactment, but I am slow to conclude that it came from the mainstream rather than a radical fringe.
White supremacists have done terrible things, without those representing the mainstream of a nation. Some conservative Jews in Israel have abominable attitudes. Leftist student group in the the US have said terrible things. But they are not mainstream.
So I'm cautious about overgeneralizing from horrific examples.
I understand; Hamas is an extremist group whose primary goal is not good governance and improving the lot of Palestinians under their authority, but destroying Israel at any cost, and Jews anywhere after that, and they say so openly.
To clarify my previous comment, I am NOT being cautious about characterizing Hamas, it would not be overgeneralizing given both their statements and their actions.
Right idea, wrong target. Hamas, along with Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all the other alphabet soup of homicidal maniacs are simple extensions of Iran, which funds, supplies, and directs their activity. Israel will eliminate Hamas. America has the power to eliminate the Iranian threat which, parenthetically, would be cheered by the Iranian people who have suffered mightily under these homicidal maniacs. America has the power but does not have the will. I’m no fan of Trump as a human being, but the inescapable truth is that he faced reality about the mullahs. When he left office, Iran had less than $4 billion in Foreign Exchange Reserves (now $86 billion), US sanctions on Iranian oil sales were working, there was no war on the ME. This is because the mullahs feared Trump. After the atrocity of October 7th, the US moved two Carrier Groups, with unimaginable destructive power, into the region but did not deploy them. One of the carrier groups recently departed while the other is defensively shooting down Houthi missiles and drones. The current administration recently unfroze another $3 billion to Iran. Does anyone think the mullahs fear the US. The question answers itself.
How come undocumented Democrats are treated better than our own citizens? California is giving them free heath care. If I move to California ,will I get free heath care?
If you’re low income, yes you can get free healthcare. It’s called MediCal. Most states have have it, Medicaid. The migrants were moved from a shelter to a school gym because of the storm coming & possible flooding of the shelter. They were moved back, kids missed one day. Wonder if she & her kids complain & go on Fox when there’s a snow day
Neither the NYC school should be shuttered to it taxpayer families, even for a day, nor should illegal migrants get free medical care BECAUSE WE HAVE A BORDER, like an actual demarkation between Mexico (another country) and our own country, where when you cross it, you have broken the law and are owed nothing but removal back to your home country.
It's really lame to compare a snow day with a complete removal of a school for non citizens.
Furthermore, you are complicit in the sexual exploitation of women and children by supporting illegal migration.
I'm told that multiple hotels in NY are full, filled with undocumented Democrats. How long is this going to last, a week, month, years. It is costing the city millions.
If our border laws on the books were being enforced instead of ignored by the ever senile Joe, this wouldn't be happening.
This is face of IsIam and it is who they are, a violent religion that generates fanatics. Its history is replete with murder and slaughter. The word assassin is derived from a group of Islamic fanatics run by the Old Man of the Mountain in the 12th century.
What I don’t understand is why people go crazy if rejection of two states comes from Israel, and at the same time celebrate the idea of one state of Palestine (as an expected act of resistance and claim of indigeneity) when it comes from Palestine.
“The existence of Israel as the Jewish state is what “oppresses” them, and that nothing less than the violent ejection—or preferably murder—of all the 8 million Jews in Isrsel will satisfy them.”
Unsaint- Finbar, you have captured the essential truth. We have not been listening to the blasting messaging; the existence of Israel is oppressive. The article about Arab culture curriculum in Public Schools in NY featuring a map with Palestine in place of Israel.
Israel is fighting for their right to live and thrive. This new Arab indoctrination education is another equal Goliath that needs to be stopped now before the USA is replaced with whatever conglomeration of words will replace our country. This is subtle terrorism at its finest.
One main goal of much of the cultural propaganda inflicted on us has been to destroy our self confidence, and in so doing eradicate our ability and willingness to have boundaries, in which we say we accept this, but that is too far, and to act accordingly.
Our southern border is wide open. We are housing people who should not be here in public spaces of airports. People who should not be here are being bussed and flown all over the country with TAXPAYER MONEY. People who should not be here are being housed and fed with taxpayer money. This, while poor kids born here go hungry. Who suffers the most from all this? The already poor. Is it not a core article of Democrat faith that they care about poor people? Yes. Can this be squared with that? Of course not. The whole thing is a ludicrous joke only made possible by conditioning people to do as they are told and not ask or entertain doubts or questions.
We have been so traumatized by delusional screaming hysterics that most people are genuinely afraid of stating the obvious clearly in public.
This is why Trump is the man of the hour. He may be crass. He may go too far. But he speaks obvious truths plainly without pussy footing around. That spirit is missing from our country and culture, and without it none of our problems can be NAMED much less fixed.
We are also missing another essential truth: the people who talk about "decolonization" feel that the very existence of white people anywhere but Europe "oppresses" them, and nothing less than the murder of all those white people will satisfy them.
Of course, they are also cheering for the Islamic immigrants in Europe to wipe out (or at least forcibly oppress) all the white people there.
I think there’s a third even more sinister option. After watching young Western malcontents enthusiastically enlist with ISIS years ago, I believe some of the “decolonizers” salivate at the thought of participating in the “liberation” (purging) process.
The goal of the PA, Hamas and their sugar daddy Iran is extermination of everything Jewish. The majority of Israelis are not white Europeans but of Asian and African origin. Most descend from families kicked out of Muslim countries. All that matters to the Jihadists is that they are Jews and must be eliminated.
I’ve been haunted by a comment made in a Times of Israel podcast, linked below. It’s this notion that Islam began in the whatever 7th? century as a conquering religion, and beginning about a hundred years ago the leaders started asking, and still ask, why aren’t we world beaters anymore? And how do we get our swag back? (I’m using “swag” here in its current colloquial sense as short for swagger, though one could argue that Palestine is the swag, in the other sense, that they’re after.) Beginning with the Mufti of Jerusalem the answer has been plain: first we kill all the Jews.
They are conquering Europe, aren't they? In plain view, and without apology?
Jerusalem and the "Holy Land" were really not considered all that important in the Islamic faith until the Crusades. It's kind of like--and this is an interesting and perhaps inapt metaphor--Hannukah and Christmas. Christian interest in retaking Jerusalem sparked an inverse interest in "keeping it Muslim".
And yes, I do think there is a generalized Islamic pride in never, ever renouncing land, once conquered, and that that does play a role in this conflict.
People on my side of the high gated wall tend to talk a lot about George Soros and his funding of left wing causes; but there are his equivalents and more all around the Middle East, sponsoring Islamic subversion everywhere it is tolerated.
Most Muslims are not crazy. But about a third of them are, and I think most of the sane two thirds would admit it.
The ME was Christian and Jewish for centuries before Mohammad burst on the scene in the 7th century. There were hundreds of churches and monasteries from Baghdad to Ethiopia, wiped out by Muslims and later Turks. The slaughter was unspeakable. Islam is the real colonizer. It erased all vestiges of Christianity and planted their mosques on former church sites. Any remaining Christians were treated horribly. To this day Christians in Africa are killed or enslaved by Islamists. But shhhh, it’s “the religion of peace.”
Christians have killed plenty of people too; and so have Jews, for that matter. The difference is that that is contrary to our religion, but absolutely central to Islam. Muhammad himself was a war leader. The gist of what he preached was that he represented God as his last and best Prophet, and that if you were Muslim you were safe, but if you were not Muslim they were coming for you. If you were Christian or Jew they would tolerate you in what amounted to a religiously ordained Apartheid--in which they wouldn't kill you, but in which you had to pay a special tax to exist, and in which most of your legal rights were eliminated; but if you were anything but a Christian or Jew, they would offer you the choice of conversion on the spot or death. And yes, the piles of heads got enormous at times.
Historic estimates put 6 million religiously ordained murders on the low side. History is filled with this sort of thing, though, by all sorts of people. I am going to post some little known stories on my blog in the next few days.
"Christians have killed plenty of people too; and so have Jews, for that matter. The difference is that that is contrary to our religion, but absolutely central to Islam."
In other words, the Satanic Verses. Nothing more. And certainly not entitled to the protection of our First Amendment. Because, as Justice Jackson presciently observed "our Constitution is not a suicide pact."
Not fully sure I understand you, but I certainly think that preaching for the overthrow of the First Amendment--which of course the many Communists in our midst have long done, since open debate is inimical to their horrible ideas--is not protected by the First Amendment. Our Bill of Rights will do us little good if it ceases to exist.
People are crazy, particularly in groups. This is a pretty clear lesson from reading history. Craziness is muted and reduced by free speech, and basic guaranteed rights, the existence of which is taken seriously by those in power.
Muslims aren't conquering Europe - Most, if not all, European countries have been inviting them in with open arms and have been for decades and many have passed laws that make it illegal for anyone to complain about it. Those places are getting exactly what they deserve.
I agree that they are getting exactly what they deserve.
The reality is that the people of Europe have been voting for decades for governments that have welcomed these invaders with open arms. At best, this is being done under the (racist) philosophy that "we need more workers" (since Europeans have been refusing to have children of their own). But I'm sure there are Leftists in Europe who share the same idea as their friends in the U.S.: that their fellow white people are evil and deserve to be wiped on the face of the Earth.
I find it tragic that the historic center of Western culture and science is going down into another Dark Age without a struggle. But this is, in fact, what they voted for.
Yes, interesting, isn't it, how "patriarchy" ensures that life goes on, while this weird "matriarchy" that disdains children is bringing on the end of Western civilization -- and a return to patriarchy -- or something much, much worse.
I disdain to call it a "matriarchy," since it is fundamentally built on the denunciation of motherhood. It is a Marxist cult built on the belief that women are identical to men.
The slavering devotees of the Satanic Verses have been a problem for the world since they swept out of North Africa in the 600s. We need a new Charles Martel to send them scurrying back to the nest from which they skulk
Actually there needs to be a complete repudiation of the Islamic creed of submission, sanctioned violence and heavenly reward for murder of an infidel. I like to imagine those 72 virgins are actually 80 yr old nuns with gigantic rulers.
I was watching a comedian asking where do the 72 virgins come from? And after you have sex with them then what? It was funny but also terrifying how the Islam world sees women. How about the women suicide bombers? What do they get? Just asking
Most of the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza are savage lunatics. But I don't necessarily agree this should be applied to all Muslims the world over. They differ greatly in their behavior and beliefs. Keep in mind that some of the largest Muslim countries are Indonesia and Malaysia, and that in absolute numbers the majority of Muslims are not in the Middle East.
Religion clearly plays a role in savagery, but I think most of the time other factors are as important or more important. Context and specificity are always useful to clear thought.
I would also keep in mind that if push came to shove, those Muslims in Indonesia would side with their fellow, savage Muslims vs. defending Christians and Jews.
The Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia only look moderate compared to the ones in the Middle East. If you actually look at the laws of these countries, you will find that anything that doesn't please Muslims is suppressed quite nastily.
It's worth noting that most of these people, if you had dinner at their homes, you would find charming and ingratiating. And most of them had long since given up on global conquest, which after all is a lot of work.
In most screwed up areas of global culture what I think you will find at root is a small group of very rich and profoundly emotionally disturbed people who are using their money to pay for propaganda and indoctrination. And changing minds like that does have long term consequences. Changing them back is no easy matter, especially if the conditioning happens early.
I think some balance is the best approach. We need to describe our problems clearly, but not overreach; and wherever possible negotiated solutions, talking solutions, should always be preferred. Now, in Israel, no negotiation will do the job. But larger scope, it may.
Tell that to Omar and Tlaib. Not to mention Sarsour. All of Islam has had decades of opportunities to denounce the radicals and police their own houses. And "crickets." Tired of excuses for them. I view Islam as an existential threat. Along with the white. liberal women who shriek and march for savages.
If I were in, say, East Timor, and reading about Omar and Tlaib as "American Leaders", and assumed they spoke for all Americans, would I be right? The radicals within Islam terrorize their own people. They are the Left within Islam. If you speak up, you face violent consequences. So a minority has bullied a majority into a different sort of submission.
Most people the world over just want to have financial security, peace, and a better future for their kids.
Again, I feel no political duty to be an apologist, but objectively this is what I believe to be the truth.
Temporizing never works. When the call to prayer echoes from loudspeakers affixed to minarets of the mosque formerly know as Notre Dame will that be too late to call for succor from the ghost of Charles the Hammer?
What's infuriating with all this is that there are a large number of options between violence and doing nothing. We do not have to accept or attack what we don't like. The problem is that the Europeans generally, and many Americans, have simply lost their--our--cultural confidence.
People who lack any sense of their own or world history can easily be convinced they are bad by pointing to the things done in the past that we would--with our values as they exist today--consider unacceptable. The problems comes when those things were not unusual in any way, and that as a culture Europeans are UNIQUE in human history for having renounced imperialism and colonialism. There is no real historic precedent for that anywhere in the world, not in Asia, Africa, or the Americas.
So because of clearly bad things, they are tricked into renouncing the GOOD also. This is stupid.
What is needed is basic emotional health, which doesn't deny the bad, but emphasizes the good both in the past, and in the potential presents and futures, goods which depend on Liberal values, human rights, mutual respect, and common decency of the sort embodied in the Golden Rule.
No: very rich people are funding things like maps that have erased Israel and its Jews from their maps. It was Qataris in this case, who also harbor the people who benefit financially from conflict.
Watch one of the dozens of videos of the conflict posted. y Israelis. Gaza is in shambles. There is no respect in which this outcome does anything but destroy the lives of these people, and the people who planned and funded this KNEW AT THE OUTSET this would be the outcome. The people of Gaza are pawns in a scheme if breathtaking wickedness and cynicism.
Baruch HaShem thank you Unsaint Finbar, somebody finally gets it, they can’t handle a state, they don’t want a state. A state is a lot of hard work especially a fledgling one - and pray tell me if they do have one, what will they have to bitch about. I fear it will still be about Israel, Israelis and Jews, we not going away wish they would get that into their thick skulls🇮🇱🇮🇱
“Here is the thing: Israel will nuke every nation in the Middle East before it allows itself to be conquered by howling ghouls.”
Israel will do no such thing. And it is grossly stupid to suggest that it would. It will never be necessary for Israel to resort to what is unthinkable. The intelligent way to defend against the conquest ideology of Islam is to tell the truth about Islam’s ideology and history.
He's just making a point. "Give me liberty or give me death." The mere threat of using nuclear arsenal is a very strong deterrent.
Israel will not and should not compromise with Hamas. The problem is if/when they do 'win' this war it will be as all previous previous 'war-stops' and only be temporary.
At the lowest point of the Yom Kippur War the Meir government was considering employing its nuclear arsenal. Israel was the third temple to that generation and it would be defended by any means necessary.
My only point is that the refugees CANNOT win militarily. Its not close. Its the Crimson Tide playing an average high school football team. Their entire strategy depends on the stupidity of the people who believe their BS. Take the fellow travelers, opportunists, crooks and enablers away and they will have no choice but to sue for peace and take it seriously, something that they have made much harder by their cultivation of Jew hatred in their children.
You don't know that Israel will never do that. No one does. Personally I think the goal of all this is to bait Israel into doing so and have Iran bring about Armageddon in response. Israel has shown remarkable restraint I think. But I also think our nation's support for Iran is moving us much closer to a nuclear showdown.
I will add that based on long experience with people like you, it seems likely that comment bothered you more than reading about babies being cut out of their mothers and murdered in front of them.
Although, to be fair, you have most likely made ZERO effort to learn any of the facts; or in limp conformity to the demands of your morally grotesque tribe, you have been accusing the Israelis of lying about things Hamas filmed and bragged about enthusiastically and excitedly.
Arabs speak Arabic, have Arabic writing everywhere, and they post photos everywhere of Arab things. If my waiter had had a Yarmulka on and there was a menorah in the window and Star of David on the wall I would also have drawn the obvious conclusion.
And I dont really care if I offend petulant children. Your opinion is worth less than nothing to me.
Good one but this looks more like a maintenance issue. And given the gushing obeisance of our airlines to DEI, one wonders how much of a role that played. On two recent flights, I had the most ridiculous experiences on landing; one when they couldn't get the passenger door open for almost an hour and the other when they couldn't get the cargo door open. This is not normal. Airlines need to focus on the people who are vital to ensuring our safety.
Not a maintenance issue. A combination of poor design and poor construction.
I don't know who is building these airplanes for Boeing, but one thing that is painful clear is that they did not attach the required number of bolts to keep the unused door in place. As a lifelong tool-woman, I know that when you put high stress on an inadequate number of attachment points, the existing attachment points will eventually fail.
Your experiences reinforce the fact that something has gone badly wrong somewhere in the process. Poor design and engineering? Poor materials? Poor construction specs or methods?
My parents bought me a solid metal Singer sewing machine in 1978, and it only failed when the gears wore out, after heavy use, 20 years later (if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have looked harder for someone able to replace the gears). I purchased the very same model in the early 00s, but I know that it was not made in the U.S. (because no Singer machines were made here by then). Over the course of about 8 years, the FRAME ITSELF slowly warped, until the needle, feed dogs, and bobbin no longer lined up. Either there were flaws in the steel that was molded to make the frame, or there were connection points inside the frame that were unable to withstand stresses in the frame's configuration.
We have lost any pretense to items having proper craftsmanship. When people's lives depend on that, there will ultimately be deaths.
But it does work both ways, right? The previous disasters involving the 737Max 8/9, two crashes killing hundreds of people were in 2018 and 2019. And which competent Sec of Transportation was that under?
I think she did get on it, eventually - as I suspect the present one will.
I am well Lee and hope the same is true for you. The Boeing 737 Max crashes were both overseas so the US Sec of Tran would have no authority there. It is my understanding though that significant DoT resources were made available to Ethiopia and Indonesia. Additionally the US fleet of the Max was grounded immediately and remained so for a considerable length of time. That seems like a pretty competent Sec of Tran to me. I have a friend who is a pilot and he posted a number of detailed articles on both the crashes and planes. My impression is that at the time there was significant competition between Boeing and Airbus. Airbus was fly by wire and Boeing was human flown with technological support. The two crashes were the result of a sensor issue and either failure of the pilots to recognize the issue or failure to address it. Neither airline utilized exemplary pilot training protocols. What we are seeing now is different. More of a management issue than plane defect I think. I was almost stranded in Hawaii during the Southwest debacle last year. I was annoyed so I followed the issue for awhile. Southwest was more concerned with stockholder dividends and price per share than computer systems. Ditto other issues with maintenance on Southwest But Southwest is not alone there. I see much more than in years past fully loaded planes sitting at the gate while maintenance is performed on the plane, I have deplaned once for a plane that was taken out of service for maintenance. Do not get me wrong, I am grateful that the decision was made. But my overall sense is that routine maintenance is less so. I think plane maintenance is regulated by the FAA which is overseen by the DoT. I really am not trying to be snide about Mayor Pete but he strikes me as very ill-suited for a pretty significant position. Transportation is an area that I think justifies a strong federal presence.
My father was head of the tooling department in one of the big three airplane plants on Long Island going back to the 1950s. He retired in the late 1980s.
He had a hard time with the newer engineers and mechanics. Kinda sloppy and entitled, he thought. Dad was a perfectionist, so I don't know how sloppy and entitled the guys were, but I imagine that nowadays it's way too much trouble to tighten bolts the way they should be.
Just as it's too hard for many teachers nowadays to correct their kids' papers (excuse: seeing corrections lowers self-esteem).
Just as it's too hard for people to carry candy wrappers and coffee containers to the nearest garbage bin or home if need be.
Indeed. I read _Atlas_ only a few years ago and I literally checked the copyright date so freaked was I at how precisely the atmosphere in the first few chapters matched what I was seeing outside my window.
Readers Digest version: Superfluous openings in pressure vessels are Not a Good Thing. And wisely designed closures for large openings are fitted on the inside.
My brother sent his career working on planes, then helicopters. He started as a sheet metal working and ended on helicopters. Military aircraft primarily. He worked all over the world on very high-clearance projects for both Boeing and Lochheed Martin. He will not fly unless absolutely necessary and when he must my sister-in-law sedates him. He says that all of the modifications to keep older planes airborne render them structurally unsound.
No surprise; I've had my suspicions but lack your brother's inside view. The 737 hijinks are unusually obvious and accessible to the Rest of Us -- and this one freaking left the factory that way. No fatigue cycling or salt air exposure or anything else required.
Julia - one day, when you reach the stage in your life when you have to care for others, you will appreciate that Peter sometimes leaves at 4 to care for his family and has established a work culture that will offer you the same flexibility. That is new culture and a benefit to all.
This also hit me. I (Millennial) leave work at 3:30-4 so I don't have to pay an extra $120 in day care aftercare each month. BUT I also get into the office at 6:30, when nobody else is here yet. (I'm lucky I have the flexibility to do that.) We just need to quit judging each other, because we don't know all the details of each other's lives.
Julia is (insanely!) blaming Gen-X for the things the Boomers have done. I guess because she wants to attack Peter, who is Gen-X instead of a Boomer?
What younger people don't seem to realize is that we Gen-Xers were the first to suffer from the bad behavior of the Boomers. Some of us (not me, fortunately) were latchkey kids because feminist Boomers decided that being a SAHM was only for servants. We had trouble getting jobs because employers no longer trusted young people to be grown-ups on the job, thanks to the Boomers who came before us.
Leaving at 4 pm to care for your family is a valued flexibility gift.
I miss working with the MBA graduate students and the mathematical geniuses in the Courant program.
As a baby boomer, it was an opportunity to to learn about and listen to their world. Regardless of our generational differences, we experience vulnerability with more similarity than not.
I am pro-Gen Z, but with a giant asterisk. Mostly, they are just like any other generation: good, hard-working, decent people. BUT the anomalies are anomalies and extreme. With the substantial decline in organized religion, schools run by ideology rather than merit, nonexistent gender roles, and self-absorbed parents, some of the kids are not all right. (If all of these things are present, the kids are amazing like other generations) The key thing to change this from Jodi Foster's point of view is to feed them consequences rather than complain about them. Show up late enough and get fired. As a broader society, we have to push back against them when they cross a line to bother the mainstream. Being firm and fair will help change the lives of many. Sadly, these kids are the natural consequences of progressive stupidity.
Would it be asking too much for a GenZ waitress to remove her face piercings while waiting on tables of boomers? We old folk are generous tippers for good service and prefer not to have to see a lip piercing while the daily special is being described.
Peter Savodnik: You can’t trust anyone under 30. He then lists their failings, and says, “To be fair, this is a function of the world we’ve bequeathed to them.”
Yes, Peter, if by “we” you mean people on the Left.
Any institution or organization that starts out neutral but does not vigorously pursue conservative values will inevitably be taken over by the left. See: Any prominent foundation, program in the arts, college, Christian denomination, media outlet, the medical and legal and teaching professions. The same thing can happen at the Free Press if it loses its vigilance, which I see happening already.
Bari, co-founder of the University of Austin, I suggest you wake up!
I don't think the "right" did much better. The left was busy taking over institutions. The right, meanwhile, was pushing for less regulation and more money so capitalists could hijack their brains with deceptive advertising. Make them feel depressed and sell them SSRIs. Make them feel ugly and sell them makeup or cosmetic surgery. Sell them extremely addictive cell phones at young ages.
This is a technology problem as much as it is anything else.
Rather than cut and paste, I'll let you look up the various definitions and take your rchoice. They range form the scientific to the political. Any or all will suffice.
Your post indicates you don't have the wisdom to tune out advertising that doesn't personally connect with you. Are you that easily hijacked?
Just what is deceptive advertising? An older home with a fresh coat of paint listed on Zillo? Has anyone hijacked you into making a purchase?
Addictive cell phones? Landlines were once thought to be addictive. Same with tv's.
Yes, capitalism and freedom of choice demands less regulation. I don't want to be told what kind of car to buy, how much water I can use (really, is the earth running out of water?), or being forced to buy new baby health insurance at my age.
If you feel depressed figure your life out.....or get professional help.
Pursuit of happiness is guaranteed, not happiness itself.
Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
You think “the right” was doing those things on behalf of big corporations, when nearly all the big corporations have drifted left? (My point in the OP, actually).
Perhaps once Bari’s tiresome barrage of post 10/7 “everyone hates Jews and if you don’t believe us you’re probably an antisemite too” journalism dies down things can return to some semblance of normalcy where mocking conservatives is back in fashion.
I hope not. Oct 7th removed leftist blinders from some people's eyes and pointed out to them that radical "progressive" leftists ARE NOT their friends. Welcome to reality!
It would be hysterical if both sides were telling the truth, or not telling the truth. But not everything is Trump’s fault, whereas the accounts of the Left’s takeover of our institutions are factual. I hope you can see the difference.
Instead of this school, can we talk about the New York school - James Madison -that is forcing it's kids into online learning so that all the illegals can be brought in to have a place to sleep? Hello????
Wiping Israel off the map or the NPS attempt, now withdrawn, to remove the statue of William Penn and associated exhibits from his own Philadelphia park, is deracination, e.g. "decentering" and "decolonizing." It is pulling up a culture and a people by the roots. And yes, it is what we did to Native Americans--- a long time ago, and what conquering armies or mobs ( see Rome) have done since the beginning of time. It's part of sacking. The illustration for the sacking of Rome shows a mob takedown of what else? - a statue. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(410). Uprooting our culture, renaming committees, removing portraits, downing statues- all manner of erasure, with malice, should be as unconstitutional as college admission by race is supposed to be. In its murderous, ultimate form, it is concentration camps and the horror of October 7.
The apparently disproportionate and hostile Arab presence and influence in higher education and media is curious. Thirty -four pro-"Palestine" - anti-Israel groups and assorted,agitating professors and well-placed editors at Harvard alone? What passes for a Ph.D. these days? Clearly, with the profusion of agitprop and hardcore rioters, there has been an infiltration of U.S. schools by an oppressive society attacking a free one as an "oppressor." That's beyond lunacy but here we are. Part of DEI is acute overrepresentation while suppressing hated groups.
As everyone now knows, DEI isn't about a benign inclusion; it's about a malign exclusion, tearing down. The Park Service could have, and should have, commemorated a former tribal presence in the area- have at it, by all means. But no, DEI minions had to erase William Penn.
One of the things Claudine Gay was doing was "decolonizing" Harvard, edifice-wise, by removing white names, portraits, as well as course content. The answer to DEI envy and destruction is build. Or add. Don't go after Neri Oxman - that's envy. Build. If you want Harvard without the white guys who founded and built it, build your own. Instead of erasing Israel, build. Gaza could have been, maybe, Singapore instead of tunnels.
Interesting looking at that 'art' teacher's map of "Arab World". It's a huge area of Arab speaking, Muslim run nations. And it just pains the world to no end, that within this huge chunk of the earth taken up by Arab people, that there is one tiny sliver of land that is the Jewish homeland, where Jews have built a nation. One small sliver that just asks to be left alone, to live in peace with others around them who are willing to let them do so. One small sliver that has given the world so much in the way of inventions, patents, agriculture, science and the arts. Oh yes...'art' teacher...the arts.
But apparently that is too much for this 'art' teacher and much of the rest of the world. I have a few words for this 'teacher', but I'll save it for X. I like to keep The FP civil.
My dear Julia, blaming your work habits on Gweneth and Goop pretty much sums up the problem with gen z. I know you think you deserve a participation trophey in Free Press Fight Club, but I sincerely hope there isn't one.
I'm a retired teacher who taught for 14 years (2005-2019). I came into the profession mid-life (at age 48) after a long career in the business sector. I taught mostly seniors, so their age range today is roughly 23 to 36.
Now, match the age range to the beginning of the infiltration of smart phones and social media into the classroom (2010-to 2012) and proliferated until my eventual retirement. So most of the 30-and-unders I taught brought Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok with them.
So from 2010-ish to retirement, I was competing with social media for the students' most precious asset ... their attention. I saw what social media did to Gen Z first hand, and it was not good. Without going into the gory details, they became addicted to tech devices that brought about lonliness, depression, anxiety and social dysfunction we see today. Read about it in Jon Haidt's and Greg Lukianoff's "The Coddling of the American Mind."
I see Peter Savodnik's points and agree.
Then again, who was responsible for introducing Gen Z to digital crack?
You have hit the nail on the head. Very cogent. The twin headed serpent of iPhones (circa 2007) and mind twisting social media has indeed damaged an entire cohort of innocent children. As a father to 3 millenials and one Zoomer (1997)…I saw the change…just like you did.
However, just a quick thought ... when we grew up, we got bikes, skateboards etc. for presents. Millennials got video games and went indoors. Gen Z got smartphones and ... well you see what happened.
One can also intuit the correlation of the advent of 'digital crack' of smart phones and social media to the veritable explosion of underage trans gender issues we're wrestling with today. In 2000 this was not on anyone's radar. Now, it's a story everywhere.
Hey Lee. Yes. I've broached that topic in the past, too. I saw a study out of UCLA (forget which research dept.) said 1 out of 2,000 young people identified as trans/dysmorphia. By 2020, that number was 1 in 20. A 5,000 percent increase. I can only surmise that it has increased since. And, as you say, not a coincidence.
Here's another issue to chew on ... there exists on Instagram whole communities of young girls who "compete" over who has the most illnesses/afflictions. The most popular girls (i.e. "likes" and followers) are the ones who boast the greatest number of ailments.
Maybe the extinction event asteroid can't come soon enough?
That 'interesting issue to chew on' you mentioned is insane. Perhaps it's the addiction to the number of 'likes' you get on your profile that motivates these young girls. Where being accepted for having the most afflictions is worth having said afflictions..
Yes, Lee. This phenomenon is astonishing. And real. It is a type of psychosis that isn't new, but has expanded because of technology and social media. These girls crave attention. They are starving for approval. If it's not their physical appearance, which can be enhanced by heavy filtering, it manifests elsewhere. There's "status" to be attained by broadcasting your illness, real or imagined. I suppose it's another branch of narcissism.
Does Gen Z suck? Well, as a boomer growing up in a military family, I used to get taken to the airbase barber shop every Saturday for a “number one”, which was essentially an attempt to eliminate all evidence of hair on my head. The 60’s and college came along and, with it, long hair (gasp), tie-dyed t-shirts, and (yikes) acid rock. We “let it all hang out.” All very Groovy. The Greatest Generation that produced us was aghast. Eventually I grew up and became a successful corporate executive.
Every generation will define itself by contrasting itself from previous generations. That’s normal. What’s discomfiting today is that a growing proportion of younger generations do not appear all that interested in growing up and taking on individual responsibility. The lead article today provides, I think, some insight into this phenomena. There is a demonstrable case to be made that the education process in America, starting in the 60’s in the teaching colleges, has been deeply corrupted. Objective truth has been replaced with what can be simplistically described as Marxist indoctrination with a trendy new name - DEI. As the lead article shows, much of this is funded by enemies of individual freedom and responsibilities who aim to turn America into another Marxist paradise like China or Russia filled with obedient, mindless serfs best represented by the current organized marches celebrating the beheading of babies and gang rape along with disrupting traffic and desecrating military graveyards.
If there is good news in all this, it appears that there is a growing awareness of this threat. The big question is whether, as a country, we have the will to effectively stop it. Time will tell.
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, people had to grow up and take responsibility in order to have grown-up privileges. People were expected to get married before they started having children. If you wanted a car, you needed to have a job that paid well enough for you to afford a car payment and insurance and upkeep. If you wanted to live by your own rules instead of mom and dad's, you needed a job that paid well enough for you to afford rent or a house payment.
Now teens and tweens get to do everything they want without growing up or taking responsibility. They don't need or want to drive, because mom or dad will take them anywhere they want to go. They don't need a job, because mom or dad will buy anything they want. Rules? They are entitled to live by their own rules, and entitled to make mom and dad's lives hell if they don't agree. And if they really want to move out, a girl can have a baby and get free housing, food, and some cash, and her boyfriends can alternate between mom's house and hers.
Just so, Celia. Although eventually that will change. Ask the Uighurs or, if that is too extreme, ask ordinary residents of China living in the age of Social Scoring. Run a couple of lights and your ability to purchase a plane ticket is revoked. Accumulate too many points and you’re off to re-education camp. A brilliant future awaits.
I'm beginning to think a majority of our colleges are teaching students to hate this country and wallow in perceived victimhood instead of being resilient. It's funny they never see the connection to the high cost of college with the absurd amount of bureaucrats and almost a million dollar salary to fraudulent professors like the recent one in the news.
Absolutely right. Public schools should not accept money from foreign sources. It only buys influence. I wouldn't be surprised if a law has been contravened here, but incompetent monitoring combined with the yearning for more funding has allowed it to continue, quietly.
So, the NYPD has enough slack in its schedule to send a tactical team into a synagogue and arrest a bunch of bearded Jews for digging tunnels without a permit, yet can’t do anything about retail looting, arson, car theft, robberies, and criminal gangs hanging out on street corners.
“It’s a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there!”
Why is a New York elementary school teaching a class in Arab Culture Arts? Those children should be studying math, science, American history and civics, literature in English. No wonder our students do so poorly on standardized tests of essential skills.
So what that Dean Phillips is challenging Biden. Sure Biden is dangerously deranged and a senile imbecile but if you believe that Biden is the problem with Democrats you have a big problem, yourself. The Democrat Party of today is ridden with socialists and other leftist lunatics who support open borders, benefits for illegals, Frankenstein gender transformation for children, unregulated abortions, the release of violent criminals, tribal quotas and slavery reparations for people who were never enslaved and a host of other ideas that would have gotten a person committed to a lunatic asylum only a decade ago. If, as some people say, we are divided 50/50 on these things then we are in way more trouble than any of us believe. The Democrat Party is the party of lunacy.
I didn't listen to him on this podcast but did listen to his interview with Megyn Kelly. I found myself agreeing with him and then vehemently disagreeing with him. Either way, he has a very interesting back story....dad died in Viet Nam when he was 6 months old. His mother remarried and he was adopted. His grandmother was Dear Abby and aunt was Ann Landers.
I had some kebabs a few months ago, and asked my obviously Arab waiter where he was from. He said Palestine. I said, oh, West Bank or Gaza? He said Ramallah, with a mild look of disgust in his eyes, and it was obvious to me that when he said Palestine he meant all of Israel, AND the West Bank and Gaza. Looking around the room, they had a picture of the Dome of the Rock with a caption of Jerusalem under it, and had put a Palestinian flag on it.
I don't think most people grasp that when the descendants of the refugees of the War for Israeli Existence say they are oppressed, what they mean is that the EXISTENCE of Israel as a Jewish State "oppresses" them, and that nothing less than the violent ejection--or preferably murder--of all the 8 million Jews in Israel will satisfy them.
Israel HAS occupied Gaza, but had not for 20 or more years; and despite many past acts of mass murder by these savages had been slowly increasing access from Gaza to the economy they had built. There was nothing they were doing that remotely warranted those attacks, much less the horrific evils perpetrated during them, which were cheered on by their equivalent of soccer moms.
Here is the thing: Israel will nuke every nation in the Middle East before it allows itself to be conquered by howling ghouls. This is obvious. This means that the only SANE approach is--and for that matter long has been--to make the best of a bad situation. These Arabs are not the first refugees pushed off their land in human history. They are just the most masochistic, and most committed to battles they can't hope to win.
And as I have said, much of this has to be attributed to the grievance business run by wealthy elites, for whom giving up this pointless battle would mean the loss of large revenue streams. Yasser Arafat was worth BILLIONS when he died, and he likely has dozens of equivalents out there. None of this is for the ordinary people in Gaza and the West Bank. They are just the dupes of effective propaganda and grievance mongering, much like the black community in the US, who have been lied to for fifty years. Every two years it's "THE REPUBLICANS WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE", which works, and then NOTHING--maybe free to them cell phones once in a while.
It's a strange thing, observing the hallucinations of others. I can't say I'm innocent--I have long observed that being completely wrong about something and being completely right feel exactly the same--but I do subject myself to regular feedback. I'm not in the back woods writing in my journal about some Them I am unwilling to engage with and talk with and listen to.
You aren’t wrong. Since 10/7 I have read this argument numerous times. The problem is, no one has a peaceful answer to the situation. Palestinians/Iran will not accept a two state solution; it has been offered many times and rejected. Israel cannot tolerate the constant attacks on its people and threats of anihilation . If I put the two sides on a balance, I find Israel’s right to exist far outweighs the hate of Palestinians/Iran. So if that means Israel must crush Hamas and kill Palestinians in the process, that is the unfortunate but necessary action. Palestinians know what Hamas is and what it does, so I don’t absolve them of complicity. They should think about why their fellow Muslims in surrounding countries refuse to take them in. They should think about how peace and prosperity could come if they accepted a two state solution. They must realize their hatred of Jews is the reason for their circumstances. I’m not holding my breath.
It's possible both to feel some pity for at least some of them, but also to view them as stupid, self destructive, and as a whole contemptible in their failure to adapt to the reality as it has existed since 1947 in a way which creates better lives for their children.
I'm am not going to resist the temptation to say that they have become a people largely composed of bitter, sadistic psychopaths.
There are several examples I use. One would obviously be cheering the rape, torture and murder of non-combatant women and children. That's certainly horrific, and it just happened.
Another is the Sbarro's Pizza bombing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sbarro_restaurant_suicide_bombing
"Ahlam Tamimi, who was charged as an accomplice, scouted for a target before leading Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri, the suicide bomber, to the Sbarro restaurant. They arrived just before 2:00 pm, when the restaurant was filled with customers, "dozens of women, children and babies", and pedestrian traffic outside was at its peak. Tamimi departed before Al-Masri, thought to be carrying a rigged guitar case or wearing an explosive belt weighing 5 to 10 kilograms, containing explosives, nails, nuts and bolts, detonated his bomb.
The dead included 14 Israelis, one pregnant American, and one Brazilian, all of them civilians."
Now, that is bad enough, but there is this added horrifying fact: "After the suicide bombing, Palestinian university students at the An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus created an exhibition celebrating the first anniversary of the Second Intifada. The exhibit's main attraction was a room-sized re-enactment of the bombing at Sbarro. The installation featured broken furniture splattered with fake blood and human body parts. The entrance to the exhibition was illustrated with a mural depicting the bombing."
The only ways to deal with people like that are killing them and putting them behind walls. No negotiation can ever be done in good faith.
Very good. After 75+ years, that is how to deal with Hamas: "kill them, and put them behind walls." And bravo for saying the quiet part out loud: "Israel will nuke every nation in the Middle East before it allows itself to be conquered by howling ghouls."
I get your point.
I do need to ask tho - what portion of the student body of An-Nahah University created that horrific display? I am appalled by the re-enactment, but I am slow to conclude that it came from the mainstream rather than a radical fringe.
White supremacists have done terrible things, without those representing the mainstream of a nation. Some conservative Jews in Israel have abominable attitudes. Leftist student group in the the US have said terrible things. But they are not mainstream.
So I'm cautious about overgeneralizing from horrific examples.
What might help is studying the issue. Hamas is not coy about its goal of destroying Israel and killing as many Jews as possible.
Here is another atrocity: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphinarium_discotheque_massacre
These people are celebrated as heroes and their parents are admired and even get money and I think sometimes houses.
I understand; Hamas is an extremist group whose primary goal is not good governance and improving the lot of Palestinians under their authority, but destroying Israel at any cost, and Jews anywhere after that, and they say so openly.
To clarify my previous comment, I am NOT being cautious about characterizing Hamas, it would not be overgeneralizing given both their statements and their actions.
Right idea, wrong target. Hamas, along with Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all the other alphabet soup of homicidal maniacs are simple extensions of Iran, which funds, supplies, and directs their activity. Israel will eliminate Hamas. America has the power to eliminate the Iranian threat which, parenthetically, would be cheered by the Iranian people who have suffered mightily under these homicidal maniacs. America has the power but does not have the will. I’m no fan of Trump as a human being, but the inescapable truth is that he faced reality about the mullahs. When he left office, Iran had less than $4 billion in Foreign Exchange Reserves (now $86 billion), US sanctions on Iranian oil sales were working, there was no war on the ME. This is because the mullahs feared Trump. After the atrocity of October 7th, the US moved two Carrier Groups, with unimaginable destructive power, into the region but did not deploy them. One of the carrier groups recently departed while the other is defensively shooting down Houthi missiles and drones. The current administration recently unfroze another $3 billion to Iran. Does anyone think the mullahs fear the US. The question answers itself.
NC, you know me. I am going off topic:
How come undocumented Democrats are treated better than our own citizens? California is giving them free heath care. If I move to California ,will I get free heath care?
And now this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/mom-speaks-out-after-kids-booted-to-accommodate-migrants-it-s-not-fair-to-the-kids/vi-AA1mMucw?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=bef4c1a639b144c5800438ca01432a7b&ei=28
We should all be outraged about the border crisis. Democrats aren't but the sane should be.
Why anyone would vote Dem/Commie is beyond me.
Because The Great Replacement is real
If you’re low income, yes you can get free healthcare. It’s called MediCal. Most states have have it, Medicaid. The migrants were moved from a shelter to a school gym because of the storm coming & possible flooding of the shelter. They were moved back, kids missed one day. Wonder if she & her kids complain & go on Fox when there’s a snow day
Neither the NYC school should be shuttered to it taxpayer families, even for a day, nor should illegal migrants get free medical care BECAUSE WE HAVE A BORDER, like an actual demarkation between Mexico (another country) and our own country, where when you cross it, you have broken the law and are owed nothing but removal back to your home country.
It's really lame to compare a snow day with a complete removal of a school for non citizens.
Furthermore, you are complicit in the sexual exploitation of women and children by supporting illegal migration.
I'm told that multiple hotels in NY are full, filled with undocumented Democrats. How long is this going to last, a week, month, years. It is costing the city millions.
If our border laws on the books were being enforced instead of ignored by the ever senile Joe, this wouldn't be happening.
NC Maureen
“ The problem is, no one has a peaceful answer to the situation.”
I resent being referred to as no one.
This is face of IsIam and it is who they are, a violent religion that generates fanatics. Its history is replete with murder and slaughter. The word assassin is derived from a group of Islamic fanatics run by the Old Man of the Mountain in the 12th century.
What I don’t understand is why people go crazy if rejection of two states comes from Israel, and at the same time celebrate the idea of one state of Palestine (as an expected act of resistance and claim of indigeneity) when it comes from Palestine.
“The existence of Israel as the Jewish state is what “oppresses” them, and that nothing less than the violent ejection—or preferably murder—of all the 8 million Jews in Isrsel will satisfy them.”
Unsaint- Finbar, you have captured the essential truth. We have not been listening to the blasting messaging; the existence of Israel is oppressive. The article about Arab culture curriculum in Public Schools in NY featuring a map with Palestine in place of Israel.
Israel is fighting for their right to live and thrive. This new Arab indoctrination education is another equal Goliath that needs to be stopped now before the USA is replaced with whatever conglomeration of words will replace our country. This is subtle terrorism at its finest.
One main goal of much of the cultural propaganda inflicted on us has been to destroy our self confidence, and in so doing eradicate our ability and willingness to have boundaries, in which we say we accept this, but that is too far, and to act accordingly.
Our southern border is wide open. We are housing people who should not be here in public spaces of airports. People who should not be here are being bussed and flown all over the country with TAXPAYER MONEY. People who should not be here are being housed and fed with taxpayer money. This, while poor kids born here go hungry. Who suffers the most from all this? The already poor. Is it not a core article of Democrat faith that they care about poor people? Yes. Can this be squared with that? Of course not. The whole thing is a ludicrous joke only made possible by conditioning people to do as they are told and not ask or entertain doubts or questions.
We have been so traumatized by delusional screaming hysterics that most people are genuinely afraid of stating the obvious clearly in public.
This is why Trump is the man of the hour. He may be crass. He may go too far. But he speaks obvious truths plainly without pussy footing around. That spirit is missing from our country and culture, and without it none of our problems can be NAMED much less fixed.
We are also missing another essential truth: the people who talk about "decolonization" feel that the very existence of white people anywhere but Europe "oppresses" them, and nothing less than the murder of all those white people will satisfy them.
Of course, they are also cheering for the Islamic immigrants in Europe to wipe out (or at least forcibly oppress) all the white people there.
The most bizarre fact is that a large plurality of the “decolonizer” cohort are white.
Yup. Either they are fundamentally suicidal or they believe that being an "ally" will exempt them from the purge.
I think there’s a third even more sinister option. After watching young Western malcontents enthusiastically enlist with ISIS years ago, I believe some of the “decolonizers” salivate at the thought of participating in the “liberation” (purging) process.
And to that I say....go for it. They will see dirt sooner than later.
The goal of the PA, Hamas and their sugar daddy Iran is extermination of everything Jewish. The majority of Israelis are not white Europeans but of Asian and African origin. Most descend from families kicked out of Muslim countries. All that matters to the Jihadists is that they are Jews and must be eliminated.
This is so disturbing, “the very existence of white people anywhere but Europe oppresses them, and nothing less than murder will satisfy them.”
How will this be managed going forward? A stronger word than managed escapes me, yet in truth it is not about the word, it is about strong leadership.
I’ve been haunted by a comment made in a Times of Israel podcast, linked below. It’s this notion that Islam began in the whatever 7th? century as a conquering religion, and beginning about a hundred years ago the leaders started asking, and still ask, why aren’t we world beaters anymore? And how do we get our swag back? (I’m using “swag” here in its current colloquial sense as short for swagger, though one could argue that Palestine is the swag, in the other sense, that they’re after.) Beginning with the Mufti of Jerusalem the answer has been plain: first we kill all the Jews.
https://youtu.be/5PeLBL2Xexo?si=OZ3ECJhwM1a51PKV
They are conquering Europe, aren't they? In plain view, and without apology?
Jerusalem and the "Holy Land" were really not considered all that important in the Islamic faith until the Crusades. It's kind of like--and this is an interesting and perhaps inapt metaphor--Hannukah and Christmas. Christian interest in retaking Jerusalem sparked an inverse interest in "keeping it Muslim".
And yes, I do think there is a generalized Islamic pride in never, ever renouncing land, once conquered, and that that does play a role in this conflict.
People on my side of the high gated wall tend to talk a lot about George Soros and his funding of left wing causes; but there are his equivalents and more all around the Middle East, sponsoring Islamic subversion everywhere it is tolerated.
Most Muslims are not crazy. But about a third of them are, and I think most of the sane two thirds would admit it.
The ME was Christian and Jewish for centuries before Mohammad burst on the scene in the 7th century. There were hundreds of churches and monasteries from Baghdad to Ethiopia, wiped out by Muslims and later Turks. The slaughter was unspeakable. Islam is the real colonizer. It erased all vestiges of Christianity and planted their mosques on former church sites. Any remaining Christians were treated horribly. To this day Christians in Africa are killed or enslaved by Islamists. But shhhh, it’s “the religion of peace.”
Christians have killed plenty of people too; and so have Jews, for that matter. The difference is that that is contrary to our religion, but absolutely central to Islam. Muhammad himself was a war leader. The gist of what he preached was that he represented God as his last and best Prophet, and that if you were Muslim you were safe, but if you were not Muslim they were coming for you. If you were Christian or Jew they would tolerate you in what amounted to a religiously ordained Apartheid--in which they wouldn't kill you, but in which you had to pay a special tax to exist, and in which most of your legal rights were eliminated; but if you were anything but a Christian or Jew, they would offer you the choice of conversion on the spot or death. And yes, the piles of heads got enormous at times.
Here is one link: https://www.sikhnet.com/news/islamic-india-biggest-holocaust-world-history
Historic estimates put 6 million religiously ordained murders on the low side. History is filled with this sort of thing, though, by all sorts of people. I am going to post some little known stories on my blog in the next few days.
You have to reach pretty far back in history to find an era when Jews were killing “plenty of people”.
True. But there are certainly accounts in the Bible itself of entire cities being put to the sword.
Here is one few people know about, that I just read about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamilla_Pool
Some 60,000 Christians were slaughtered. That is a lot, by most standards, although history is filled with this sort of thing.
No one walking the face of the Earth is innocent. The best we can do is speak the truth and try to do better, no matter our starting point.
"Christians have killed plenty of people too; and so have Jews, for that matter. The difference is that that is contrary to our religion, but absolutely central to Islam."
In other words, the Satanic Verses. Nothing more. And certainly not entitled to the protection of our First Amendment. Because, as Justice Jackson presciently observed "our Constitution is not a suicide pact."
Not fully sure I understand you, but I certainly think that preaching for the overthrow of the First Amendment--which of course the many Communists in our midst have long done, since open debate is inimical to their horrible ideas--is not protected by the First Amendment. Our Bill of Rights will do us little good if it ceases to exist.
People are crazy, particularly in groups. This is a pretty clear lesson from reading history. Craziness is muted and reduced by free speech, and basic guaranteed rights, the existence of which is taken seriously by those in power.
The Oath Keepers are the real threat to peace and prosperity.
I thought it was all White Supremacists....
or is it now folks (folx?) that mis-pronoun others?
The 3 percenters are much more menacing
Sarcasm?
Good point
Muslims aren't conquering Europe - Most, if not all, European countries have been inviting them in with open arms and have been for decades and many have passed laws that make it illegal for anyone to complain about it. Those places are getting exactly what they deserve.
I agree that they are getting exactly what they deserve.
The reality is that the people of Europe have been voting for decades for governments that have welcomed these invaders with open arms. At best, this is being done under the (racist) philosophy that "we need more workers" (since Europeans have been refusing to have children of their own). But I'm sure there are Leftists in Europe who share the same idea as their friends in the U.S.: that their fellow white people are evil and deserve to be wiped on the face of the Earth.
I find it tragic that the historic center of Western culture and science is going down into another Dark Age without a struggle. But this is, in fact, what they voted for.
Yes, interesting, isn't it, how "patriarchy" ensures that life goes on, while this weird "matriarchy" that disdains children is bringing on the end of Western civilization -- and a return to patriarchy -- or something much, much worse.
I disdain to call it a "matriarchy," since it is fundamentally built on the denunciation of motherhood. It is a Marxist cult built on the belief that women are identical to men.
A henhouse society.
True. It might be more accurate to say Europe is surrendering to people they invited in and who simply see no reason to acculturate.
1/3 of 2 billion is a lot.
No doubt. Its a large problem, but its always best to try and be as accurate as possible
I agree. Language matters.
100 years ago was when the Ottoman Empire thumb was removed from Islam.
The slavering devotees of the Satanic Verses have been a problem for the world since they swept out of North Africa in the 600s. We need a new Charles Martel to send them scurrying back to the nest from which they skulk
Actually there needs to be a complete repudiation of the Islamic creed of submission, sanctioned violence and heavenly reward for murder of an infidel. I like to imagine those 72 virgins are actually 80 yr old nuns with gigantic rulers.
I was watching a comedian asking where do the 72 virgins come from? And after you have sex with them then what? It was funny but also terrifying how the Islam world sees women. How about the women suicide bombers? What do they get? Just asking
What a fitting end for these savage lunatics!!
Most of the refugees in the West Bank and Gaza are savage lunatics. But I don't necessarily agree this should be applied to all Muslims the world over. They differ greatly in their behavior and beliefs. Keep in mind that some of the largest Muslim countries are Indonesia and Malaysia, and that in absolute numbers the majority of Muslims are not in the Middle East.
Religion clearly plays a role in savagery, but I think most of the time other factors are as important or more important. Context and specificity are always useful to clear thought.
I would also keep in mind that if push came to shove, those Muslims in Indonesia would side with their fellow, savage Muslims vs. defending Christians and Jews.
The Muslims in Indonesia and Malaysia only look moderate compared to the ones in the Middle East. If you actually look at the laws of these countries, you will find that anything that doesn't please Muslims is suppressed quite nastily.
Indonesia has 1500 islands Sharia Law is practiced on some of them.
It's worth noting that most of these people, if you had dinner at their homes, you would find charming and ingratiating. And most of them had long since given up on global conquest, which after all is a lot of work.
In most screwed up areas of global culture what I think you will find at root is a small group of very rich and profoundly emotionally disturbed people who are using their money to pay for propaganda and indoctrination. And changing minds like that does have long term consequences. Changing them back is no easy matter, especially if the conditioning happens early.
I think some balance is the best approach. We need to describe our problems clearly, but not overreach; and wherever possible negotiated solutions, talking solutions, should always be preferred. Now, in Israel, no negotiation will do the job. But larger scope, it may.
Tell that to Omar and Tlaib. Not to mention Sarsour. All of Islam has had decades of opportunities to denounce the radicals and police their own houses. And "crickets." Tired of excuses for them. I view Islam as an existential threat. Along with the white. liberal women who shriek and march for savages.
If I were in, say, East Timor, and reading about Omar and Tlaib as "American Leaders", and assumed they spoke for all Americans, would I be right? The radicals within Islam terrorize their own people. They are the Left within Islam. If you speak up, you face violent consequences. So a minority has bullied a majority into a different sort of submission.
Most people the world over just want to have financial security, peace, and a better future for their kids.
Again, I feel no political duty to be an apologist, but objectively this is what I believe to be the truth.
Temporizing never works. When the call to prayer echoes from loudspeakers affixed to minarets of the mosque formerly know as Notre Dame will that be too late to call for succor from the ghost of Charles the Hammer?
What's infuriating with all this is that there are a large number of options between violence and doing nothing. We do not have to accept or attack what we don't like. The problem is that the Europeans generally, and many Americans, have simply lost their--our--cultural confidence.
People who lack any sense of their own or world history can easily be convinced they are bad by pointing to the things done in the past that we would--with our values as they exist today--consider unacceptable. The problems comes when those things were not unusual in any way, and that as a culture Europeans are UNIQUE in human history for having renounced imperialism and colonialism. There is no real historic precedent for that anywhere in the world, not in Asia, Africa, or the Americas.
So because of clearly bad things, they are tricked into renouncing the GOOD also. This is stupid.
What is needed is basic emotional health, which doesn't deny the bad, but emphasizes the good both in the past, and in the potential presents and futures, goods which depend on Liberal values, human rights, mutual respect, and common decency of the sort embodied in the Golden Rule.
Very Rich? Only rich people are members of Hamas?
No: very rich people are funding things like maps that have erased Israel and its Jews from their maps. It was Qataris in this case, who also harbor the people who benefit financially from conflict.
Watch one of the dozens of videos of the conflict posted. y Israelis. Gaza is in shambles. There is no respect in which this outcome does anything but destroy the lives of these people, and the people who planned and funded this KNEW AT THE OUTSET this would be the outcome. The people of Gaza are pawns in a scheme if breathtaking wickedness and cynicism.
Baruch HaShem thank you Unsaint Finbar, somebody finally gets it, they can’t handle a state, they don’t want a state. A state is a lot of hard work especially a fledgling one - and pray tell me if they do have one, what will they have to bitch about. I fear it will still be about Israel, Israelis and Jews, we not going away wish they would get that into their thick skulls🇮🇱🇮🇱
And to the DEI crowd, the existence of white people "oppresses" them. If people don't "look like" them they feel "unsafe." The parallels are clear.
Unsaint Finbar
You were doing well until you wrote this.
“Here is the thing: Israel will nuke every nation in the Middle East before it allows itself to be conquered by howling ghouls.”
Israel will do no such thing. And it is grossly stupid to suggest that it would. It will never be necessary for Israel to resort to what is unthinkable. The intelligent way to defend against the conquest ideology of Islam is to tell the truth about Islam’s ideology and history.
He's just making a point. "Give me liberty or give me death." The mere threat of using nuclear arsenal is a very strong deterrent.
Israel will not and should not compromise with Hamas. The problem is if/when they do 'win' this war it will be as all previous previous 'war-stops' and only be temporary.
At the lowest point of the Yom Kippur War the Meir government was considering employing its nuclear arsenal. Israel was the third temple to that generation and it would be defended by any means necessary.
You have no idea if it will ever be necessary.
My only point is that the refugees CANNOT win militarily. Its not close. Its the Crimson Tide playing an average high school football team. Their entire strategy depends on the stupidity of the people who believe their BS. Take the fellow travelers, opportunists, crooks and enablers away and they will have no choice but to sue for peace and take it seriously, something that they have made much harder by their cultivation of Jew hatred in their children.
You don't know that Israel will never do that. No one does. Personally I think the goal of all this is to bait Israel into doing so and have Iran bring about Armageddon in response. Israel has shown remarkable restraint I think. But I also think our nation's support for Iran is moving us much closer to a nuclear showdown.
Ramallah was almost exclusively Arab Christian well into the middle of last century. No Christians there now. Wonder why?
Your "obviously Arab waiter?" How would your comment be treated here if you wrote about your "obviously Jewish waiter?"
I will add that based on long experience with people like you, it seems likely that comment bothered you more than reading about babies being cut out of their mothers and murdered in front of them.
Although, to be fair, you have most likely made ZERO effort to learn any of the facts; or in limp conformity to the demands of your morally grotesque tribe, you have been accusing the Israelis of lying about things Hamas filmed and bragged about enthusiastically and excitedly.
Further proving my point about insults backing up irrational statements.
Arabs speak Arabic, have Arabic writing everywhere, and they post photos everywhere of Arab things. If my waiter had had a Yarmulka on and there was a menorah in the window and Star of David on the wall I would also have drawn the obvious conclusion.
And I dont really care if I offend petulant children. Your opinion is worth less than nothing to me.
Just another TFP commenter who slings insults when rational thought becomes difficult.
You missed my rational thoughts? Long habit I guess. Most of the actually existing world must be invisible to you.
So in sum, you tried to stir shit, were responded to rationally, and then insulted ME and accused me of lacking rationality and being insulting.
Your rational response being that I am a petulant child, whose opinion is worth less than nothing?
You're hilarious.
Was that all I said? C’mon man.
Boeing's new catchphrase; "When one door closes, another opens."
Good one but this looks more like a maintenance issue. And given the gushing obeisance of our airlines to DEI, one wonders how much of a role that played. On two recent flights, I had the most ridiculous experiences on landing; one when they couldn't get the passenger door open for almost an hour and the other when they couldn't get the cargo door open. This is not normal. Airlines need to focus on the people who are vital to ensuring our safety.
Not a maintenance issue. A combination of poor design and poor construction.
I don't know who is building these airplanes for Boeing, but one thing that is painful clear is that they did not attach the required number of bolts to keep the unused door in place. As a lifelong tool-woman, I know that when you put high stress on an inadequate number of attachment points, the existing attachment points will eventually fail.
Your experiences reinforce the fact that something has gone badly wrong somewhere in the process. Poor design and engineering? Poor materials? Poor construction specs or methods?
My parents bought me a solid metal Singer sewing machine in 1978, and it only failed when the gears wore out, after heavy use, 20 years later (if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have looked harder for someone able to replace the gears). I purchased the very same model in the early 00s, but I know that it was not made in the U.S. (because no Singer machines were made here by then). Over the course of about 8 years, the FRAME ITSELF slowly warped, until the needle, feed dogs, and bobbin no longer lined up. Either there were flaws in the steel that was molded to make the frame, or there were connection points inside the frame that were unable to withstand stresses in the frame's configuration.
We have lost any pretense to items having proper craftsmanship. When people's lives depend on that, there will ultimately be deaths.
I'm thinking both but you're certainly right about poor design, materials and workmanship.
Poor design, materials and incompetent workmanship is a lethal combo. You would think a competent Secretary of Transportation would be on it.
Pete doesn't have time for silly things like that!
But it does work both ways, right? The previous disasters involving the 737Max 8/9, two crashes killing hundreds of people were in 2018 and 2019. And which competent Sec of Transportation was that under?
I think she did get on it, eventually - as I suspect the present one will.
Hope things are well..
I am well Lee and hope the same is true for you. The Boeing 737 Max crashes were both overseas so the US Sec of Tran would have no authority there. It is my understanding though that significant DoT resources were made available to Ethiopia and Indonesia. Additionally the US fleet of the Max was grounded immediately and remained so for a considerable length of time. That seems like a pretty competent Sec of Tran to me. I have a friend who is a pilot and he posted a number of detailed articles on both the crashes and planes. My impression is that at the time there was significant competition between Boeing and Airbus. Airbus was fly by wire and Boeing was human flown with technological support. The two crashes were the result of a sensor issue and either failure of the pilots to recognize the issue or failure to address it. Neither airline utilized exemplary pilot training protocols. What we are seeing now is different. More of a management issue than plane defect I think. I was almost stranded in Hawaii during the Southwest debacle last year. I was annoyed so I followed the issue for awhile. Southwest was more concerned with stockholder dividends and price per share than computer systems. Ditto other issues with maintenance on Southwest But Southwest is not alone there. I see much more than in years past fully loaded planes sitting at the gate while maintenance is performed on the plane, I have deplaned once for a plane that was taken out of service for maintenance. Do not get me wrong, I am grateful that the decision was made. But my overall sense is that routine maintenance is less so. I think plane maintenance is regulated by the FAA which is overseen by the DoT. I really am not trying to be snide about Mayor Pete but he strikes me as very ill-suited for a pretty significant position. Transportation is an area that I think justifies a strong federal presence.
Did you ever read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand? Trains derailing, bridges collapsing, etc. I have thought of that book so much in the past few years.
It's always been on my to-read list, but it's never made it to the top.
My father was head of the tooling department in one of the big three airplane plants on Long Island going back to the 1950s. He retired in the late 1980s.
He had a hard time with the newer engineers and mechanics. Kinda sloppy and entitled, he thought. Dad was a perfectionist, so I don't know how sloppy and entitled the guys were, but I imagine that nowadays it's way too much trouble to tighten bolts the way they should be.
Just as it's too hard for many teachers nowadays to correct their kids' papers (excuse: seeing corrections lowers self-esteem).
Just as it's too hard for people to carry candy wrappers and coffee containers to the nearest garbage bin or home if need be.
You see where I'm going.
No, it's rotten engineering. See later comment.
Great. Now we have both crappy engineers AND operators.
We're living _Atlas Shrugged_, I do believe.
Indeed... I wrote an article comparing 5 modern industrial accidents to passages from Atlas Shrugged.
Ayn Rand is prophetic.
https://theunhedgedcapitalist.substack.com/p/atlas-has-shrugged
Indeed. I read _Atlas_ only a few years ago and I literally checked the copyright date so freaked was I at how precisely the atmosphere in the first few chapters matched what I was seeing outside my window.
Sure about that?
Readers Digest version: Superfluous openings in pressure vessels are Not a Good Thing. And wisely designed closures for large openings are fitted on the inside.
My brother sent his career working on planes, then helicopters. He started as a sheet metal working and ended on helicopters. Military aircraft primarily. He worked all over the world on very high-clearance projects for both Boeing and Lochheed Martin. He will not fly unless absolutely necessary and when he must my sister-in-law sedates him. He says that all of the modifications to keep older planes airborne render them structurally unsound.
No surprise; I've had my suspicions but lack your brother's inside view. The 737 hijinks are unusually obvious and accessible to the Rest of Us -- and this one freaking left the factory that way. No fatigue cycling or salt air exposure or anything else required.
The crying Boeing CEO is too much for me. The bean counters fired the engineers after the McDonnell Douglas Boeing merger, simple as that, greed.
I'm going to steal that one
LOL!
For the record, everyone who runs the New York City public schools is a Democrat. These children are being indoctrinated by progressive madrassas and imams, not educated. Welcome to the woke Jihad: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-wage-a-progressive-jihad
Tell it Yuri.
Truth hurts.
Julia - one day, when you reach the stage in your life when you have to care for others, you will appreciate that Peter sometimes leaves at 4 to care for his family and has established a work culture that will offer you the same flexibility. That is new culture and a benefit to all.
This also hit me. I (Millennial) leave work at 3:30-4 so I don't have to pay an extra $120 in day care aftercare each month. BUT I also get into the office at 6:30, when nobody else is here yet. (I'm lucky I have the flexibility to do that.) We just need to quit judging each other, because we don't know all the details of each other's lives.
Julia is (insanely!) blaming Gen-X for the things the Boomers have done. I guess because she wants to attack Peter, who is Gen-X instead of a Boomer?
What younger people don't seem to realize is that we Gen-Xers were the first to suffer from the bad behavior of the Boomers. Some of us (not me, fortunately) were latchkey kids because feminist Boomers decided that being a SAHM was only for servants. We had trouble getting jobs because employers no longer trusted young people to be grown-ups on the job, thanks to the Boomers who came before us.
Leaving at 4 pm to care for your family is a valued flexibility gift.
I miss working with the MBA graduate students and the mathematical geniuses in the Courant program.
As a baby boomer, it was an opportunity to to learn about and listen to their world. Regardless of our generational differences, we experience vulnerability with more similarity than not.
Plus what time did he arrive?
I am pro-Gen Z, but with a giant asterisk. Mostly, they are just like any other generation: good, hard-working, decent people. BUT the anomalies are anomalies and extreme. With the substantial decline in organized religion, schools run by ideology rather than merit, nonexistent gender roles, and self-absorbed parents, some of the kids are not all right. (If all of these things are present, the kids are amazing like other generations) The key thing to change this from Jodi Foster's point of view is to feed them consequences rather than complain about them. Show up late enough and get fired. As a broader society, we have to push back against them when they cross a line to bother the mainstream. Being firm and fair will help change the lives of many. Sadly, these kids are the natural consequences of progressive stupidity.
Would it be asking too much for a GenZ waitress to remove her face piercings while waiting on tables of boomers? We old folk are generous tippers for good service and prefer not to have to see a lip piercing while the daily special is being described.
Yea, metal hanging out of/off of the nose just seems unclean to me too.
😂🤣 THIS!
Peter Savodnik: You can’t trust anyone under 30. He then lists their failings, and says, “To be fair, this is a function of the world we’ve bequeathed to them.”
Yes, Peter, if by “we” you mean people on the Left.
Any institution or organization that starts out neutral but does not vigorously pursue conservative values will inevitably be taken over by the left. See: Any prominent foundation, program in the arts, college, Christian denomination, media outlet, the medical and legal and teaching professions. The same thing can happen at the Free Press if it loses its vigilance, which I see happening already.
Bari, co-founder of the University of Austin, I suggest you wake up!
I don't think the "right" did much better. The left was busy taking over institutions. The right, meanwhile, was pushing for less regulation and more money so capitalists could hijack their brains with deceptive advertising. Make them feel depressed and sell them SSRIs. Make them feel ugly and sell them makeup or cosmetic surgery. Sell them extremely addictive cell phones at young ages.
This is a technology problem as much as it is anything else.
Technology didn't create itself. Most of the technocrats are on the left.
What is your definition of "technocrat"?
Rather than cut and paste, I'll let you look up the various definitions and take your rchoice. They range form the scientific to the political. Any or all will suffice.
Your post indicates you don't have the wisdom to tune out advertising that doesn't personally connect with you. Are you that easily hijacked?
Just what is deceptive advertising? An older home with a fresh coat of paint listed on Zillo? Has anyone hijacked you into making a purchase?
Addictive cell phones? Landlines were once thought to be addictive. Same with tv's.
Yes, capitalism and freedom of choice demands less regulation. I don't want to be told what kind of car to buy, how much water I can use (really, is the earth running out of water?), or being forced to buy new baby health insurance at my age.
If you feel depressed figure your life out.....or get professional help.
Pursuit of happiness is guaranteed, not happiness itself.
Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
You think “the right” was doing those things on behalf of big corporations, when nearly all the big corporations have drifted left? (My point in the OP, actually).
Perhaps once Bari’s tiresome barrage of post 10/7 “everyone hates Jews and if you don’t believe us you’re probably an antisemite too” journalism dies down things can return to some semblance of normalcy where mocking conservatives is back in fashion.
I hope not. Oct 7th removed leftist blinders from some people's eyes and pointed out to them that radical "progressive" leftists ARE NOT their friends. Welcome to reality!
And Armenia.
I have to laugh, Mark. On NYT threads it's Trump, Trump, Trump!! And here it's the Left, the Left, the Left! It's all slightly hysterical..
It would be hysterical if both sides were telling the truth, or not telling the truth. But not everything is Trump’s fault, whereas the accounts of the Left’s takeover of our institutions are factual. I hope you can see the difference.
And in the end, both will be held to account - the Progressive Left, as is their due, and Trump - as is his due..
Instead of this school, can we talk about the New York school - James Madison -that is forcing it's kids into online learning so that all the illegals can be brought in to have a place to sleep? Hello????
Wiping Israel off the map or the NPS attempt, now withdrawn, to remove the statue of William Penn and associated exhibits from his own Philadelphia park, is deracination, e.g. "decentering" and "decolonizing." It is pulling up a culture and a people by the roots. And yes, it is what we did to Native Americans--- a long time ago, and what conquering armies or mobs ( see Rome) have done since the beginning of time. It's part of sacking. The illustration for the sacking of Rome shows a mob takedown of what else? - a statue. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(410). Uprooting our culture, renaming committees, removing portraits, downing statues- all manner of erasure, with malice, should be as unconstitutional as college admission by race is supposed to be. In its murderous, ultimate form, it is concentration camps and the horror of October 7.
The apparently disproportionate and hostile Arab presence and influence in higher education and media is curious. Thirty -four pro-"Palestine" - anti-Israel groups and assorted,agitating professors and well-placed editors at Harvard alone? What passes for a Ph.D. these days? Clearly, with the profusion of agitprop and hardcore rioters, there has been an infiltration of U.S. schools by an oppressive society attacking a free one as an "oppressor." That's beyond lunacy but here we are. Part of DEI is acute overrepresentation while suppressing hated groups.
As everyone now knows, DEI isn't about a benign inclusion; it's about a malign exclusion, tearing down. The Park Service could have, and should have, commemorated a former tribal presence in the area- have at it, by all means. But no, DEI minions had to erase William Penn.
One of the things Claudine Gay was doing was "decolonizing" Harvard, edifice-wise, by removing white names, portraits, as well as course content. The answer to DEI envy and destruction is build. Or add. Don't go after Neri Oxman - that's envy. Build. If you want Harvard without the white guys who founded and built it, build your own. Instead of erasing Israel, build. Gaza could have been, maybe, Singapore instead of tunnels.
Interesting looking at that 'art' teacher's map of "Arab World". It's a huge area of Arab speaking, Muslim run nations. And it just pains the world to no end, that within this huge chunk of the earth taken up by Arab people, that there is one tiny sliver of land that is the Jewish homeland, where Jews have built a nation. One small sliver that just asks to be left alone, to live in peace with others around them who are willing to let them do so. One small sliver that has given the world so much in the way of inventions, patents, agriculture, science and the arts. Oh yes...'art' teacher...the arts.
But apparently that is too much for this 'art' teacher and much of the rest of the world. I have a few words for this 'teacher', but I'll save it for X. I like to keep The FP civil.
My dear Julia, blaming your work habits on Gweneth and Goop pretty much sums up the problem with gen z. I know you think you deserve a participation trophey in Free Press Fight Club, but I sincerely hope there isn't one.
I'm a retired teacher who taught for 14 years (2005-2019). I came into the profession mid-life (at age 48) after a long career in the business sector. I taught mostly seniors, so their age range today is roughly 23 to 36.
Now, match the age range to the beginning of the infiltration of smart phones and social media into the classroom (2010-to 2012) and proliferated until my eventual retirement. So most of the 30-and-unders I taught brought Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok with them.
So from 2010-ish to retirement, I was competing with social media for the students' most precious asset ... their attention. I saw what social media did to Gen Z first hand, and it was not good. Without going into the gory details, they became addicted to tech devices that brought about lonliness, depression, anxiety and social dysfunction we see today. Read about it in Jon Haidt's and Greg Lukianoff's "The Coddling of the American Mind."
I see Peter Savodnik's points and agree.
Then again, who was responsible for introducing Gen Z to digital crack?
You have hit the nail on the head. Very cogent. The twin headed serpent of iPhones (circa 2007) and mind twisting social media has indeed damaged an entire cohort of innocent children. As a father to 3 millenials and one Zoomer (1997)…I saw the change…just like you did.
Thank you, John. I actually wrote about it two years ago in one of my first Substack pieces.
https://jimgeschke.substack.com/p/we-need-a-12-step-program-for-cellphone
However, just a quick thought ... when we grew up, we got bikes, skateboards etc. for presents. Millennials got video games and went indoors. Gen Z got smartphones and ... well you see what happened.
One can also intuit the correlation of the advent of 'digital crack' of smart phones and social media to the veritable explosion of underage trans gender issues we're wrestling with today. In 2000 this was not on anyone's radar. Now, it's a story everywhere.
Hey Lee. Yes. I've broached that topic in the past, too. I saw a study out of UCLA (forget which research dept.) said 1 out of 2,000 young people identified as trans/dysmorphia. By 2020, that number was 1 in 20. A 5,000 percent increase. I can only surmise that it has increased since. And, as you say, not a coincidence.
Here's another issue to chew on ... there exists on Instagram whole communities of young girls who "compete" over who has the most illnesses/afflictions. The most popular girls (i.e. "likes" and followers) are the ones who boast the greatest number of ailments.
Maybe the extinction event asteroid can't come soon enough?
That 'interesting issue to chew on' you mentioned is insane. Perhaps it's the addiction to the number of 'likes' you get on your profile that motivates these young girls. Where being accepted for having the most afflictions is worth having said afflictions..
Then again, are these ailments even real?
Yes, Lee. This phenomenon is astonishing. And real. It is a type of psychosis that isn't new, but has expanded because of technology and social media. These girls crave attention. They are starving for approval. If it's not their physical appearance, which can be enhanced by heavy filtering, it manifests elsewhere. There's "status" to be attained by broadcasting your illness, real or imagined. I suppose it's another branch of narcissism.
Yeah, Lee ... I know. It's really fucked up.
Does Gen Z suck? Well, as a boomer growing up in a military family, I used to get taken to the airbase barber shop every Saturday for a “number one”, which was essentially an attempt to eliminate all evidence of hair on my head. The 60’s and college came along and, with it, long hair (gasp), tie-dyed t-shirts, and (yikes) acid rock. We “let it all hang out.” All very Groovy. The Greatest Generation that produced us was aghast. Eventually I grew up and became a successful corporate executive.
Every generation will define itself by contrasting itself from previous generations. That’s normal. What’s discomfiting today is that a growing proportion of younger generations do not appear all that interested in growing up and taking on individual responsibility. The lead article today provides, I think, some insight into this phenomena. There is a demonstrable case to be made that the education process in America, starting in the 60’s in the teaching colleges, has been deeply corrupted. Objective truth has been replaced with what can be simplistically described as Marxist indoctrination with a trendy new name - DEI. As the lead article shows, much of this is funded by enemies of individual freedom and responsibilities who aim to turn America into another Marxist paradise like China or Russia filled with obedient, mindless serfs best represented by the current organized marches celebrating the beheading of babies and gang rape along with disrupting traffic and desecrating military graveyards.
If there is good news in all this, it appears that there is a growing awareness of this threat. The big question is whether, as a country, we have the will to effectively stop it. Time will tell.
Why should they grow up or take responsibility?
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, people had to grow up and take responsibility in order to have grown-up privileges. People were expected to get married before they started having children. If you wanted a car, you needed to have a job that paid well enough for you to afford a car payment and insurance and upkeep. If you wanted to live by your own rules instead of mom and dad's, you needed a job that paid well enough for you to afford rent or a house payment.
Now teens and tweens get to do everything they want without growing up or taking responsibility. They don't need or want to drive, because mom or dad will take them anywhere they want to go. They don't need a job, because mom or dad will buy anything they want. Rules? They are entitled to live by their own rules, and entitled to make mom and dad's lives hell if they don't agree. And if they really want to move out, a girl can have a baby and get free housing, food, and some cash, and her boyfriends can alternate between mom's house and hers.
Just so, Celia. Although eventually that will change. Ask the Uighurs or, if that is too extreme, ask ordinary residents of China living in the age of Social Scoring. Run a couple of lights and your ability to purchase a plane ticket is revoked. Accumulate too many points and you’re off to re-education camp. A brilliant future awaits.
I'm beginning to think a majority of our colleges are teaching students to hate this country and wallow in perceived victimhood instead of being resilient. It's funny they never see the connection to the high cost of college with the absurd amount of bureaucrats and almost a million dollar salary to fraudulent professors like the recent one in the news.
We have to outlaw contributions to our educational system. Contributors are just buying the right to determine the curriculum.
Absolutely right. Public schools should not accept money from foreign sources. It only buys influence. I wouldn't be surprised if a law has been contravened here, but incompetent monitoring combined with the yearning for more funding has allowed it to continue, quietly.
So, the NYPD has enough slack in its schedule to send a tactical team into a synagogue and arrest a bunch of bearded Jews for digging tunnels without a permit, yet can’t do anything about retail looting, arson, car theft, robberies, and criminal gangs hanging out on street corners.
“It’s a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there!”
Why is a New York elementary school teaching a class in Arab Culture Arts? Those children should be studying math, science, American history and civics, literature in English. No wonder our students do so poorly on standardized tests of essential skills.
So what that Dean Phillips is challenging Biden. Sure Biden is dangerously deranged and a senile imbecile but if you believe that Biden is the problem with Democrats you have a big problem, yourself. The Democrat Party of today is ridden with socialists and other leftist lunatics who support open borders, benefits for illegals, Frankenstein gender transformation for children, unregulated abortions, the release of violent criminals, tribal quotas and slavery reparations for people who were never enslaved and a host of other ideas that would have gotten a person committed to a lunatic asylum only a decade ago. If, as some people say, we are divided 50/50 on these things then we are in way more trouble than any of us believe. The Democrat Party is the party of lunacy.
Clearly Dean Phillips hasn't been let in on the secret plan to replace Biden at the last minute. Probably because he's not the Chosen One.
I didn't listen to him on this podcast but did listen to his interview with Megyn Kelly. I found myself agreeing with him and then vehemently disagreeing with him. Either way, he has a very interesting back story....dad died in Viet Nam when he was 6 months old. His mother remarried and he was adopted. His grandmother was Dear Abby and aunt was Ann Landers.