I’m probably not going to watch Glenn talk with Tucker Carlson, whose principles seem to be money and attention (no matter how much he degrades himself in their service).
That said, I have some sympathy for Glenn’s position on the Gaza war. Israel has certainly wanted this war to be maximally hard on the Gazan population. Whether that is a war crime or a bold and necessary strategy is probably in the eye of the beholder.
However, I find his sympathy with Gazans and his dismissal of the Ukranian cause to be massively discordant. Ukrainians are much more sympathetic than Gazans, they were simply on the wrong side of Putin’s border and wanted something better than his scraps. Many many Gazans facilitated the problems caused by Hamas. Glenn’s opinion about these two conflicts and how the US should approach them is not intellectually consistent.
I can only attribute that to his lack of much in the way of FP insight and his being too easily influenced by a group of “thinkers” (Carlson, Greenwald, Tabibi, Sachs) who seem to find more fault with the USA than they do obvious bad actors. Not sure why he’s gone down this path, but it doesn’t diminish his insight into matters he knows a lot about. It just makes him more human than he should be on the ones where he’s less knowledgeable.
Taking solace in public acknowledgements from Greenwald, Hasan and Yglesias is like being an isolationist in '39 and grateful that Goering, Himmler and Charles Lindbergh are on your side. Glenn, as smart as you are, you still don't get it. Your view of "collective punishment" is not a simple disagreement with MI. Rather, it suggests that Israel intentionally targets civilians. This baseless, libelous and morally reprehensible accusation tars Israel with the actual war crime tactics proudly employed by the Hamas terrorists. If Israel were interested in collective punishment, it would not take the extraordinary measures to give civilians warnings be dropping dummy warning bombs and literally millions of leaflets and hundreds of thousands of phone calls and text messages in Arabic warning civilians to evacuate before striking a target. It would not have the lowest combatant to civilian death ratio of any urban war. And it certainly would not be sending its brave IDF soldiers, whose lives are sacred, into an urban door to door war zone where hundreds of Israeli soldiers have perished. In fact, many missions that would have taken out Hamas terrorists were aborted due to the presence of civilians. The world loves to hold the IDF to a higher standard than any other military is held to.
Glenn…..imagine a gang from a neighboring apartment building attacks your building, going floor by floor raping women, hammering nails into their vaginas, cutting off their breasts, beheading men, burning babies alive, and murdering your neighbors by the hundreds while filming their attacks with glee and barbaric ecstasy. Then they take women and children hostage and retreat to their building and vow to come back and repeat the attack on your building again and again. After killing hostages, they shoot rockets by the thousands at your building from the windows of their children's bedrooms. You are in charge of your apartment building. What would you do?
It is plain to anyone who cares to pay attention that Hamas intentionally and strategically uses women and children as human shields as a PR marketing campaign because they know that dead Palestinians will produce sympathy from useful idiots around the globe. Indeed, Hamas's now dead leader, Sinwar, proudly proclaimed that civilian deaths are a necessary sacrifice and boasted that, with this strategy, Hamas has Israel right where they want them. He knew what many fail to understand: Israel is in a no win situation. Either it doesn't defend itself and capitulates to terrorism and repeated October 7th attacks, or it reacts to the existential and barbaric threat and once and for all tries to defeat Hamas. By choosing the second (and only) option, Hamas hoped and knew Israel would get sucked into the PR trap: a war where the terrorist enemy combatants appear indistinguishable from civilians and where they hide behind women and children so that many innocent Palestinians will die and dangerous knuckleheads the world over will end up sympathizing with Hamas. Israel loses either way. And that was the whole point of October 7th. So, we get college professors and student-activists and Susan Sarandon and Greta Thunberg and Mark Ruffalo and Samantha Power and the Dem Squad and the Black/Palestinian solidarity camp of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Angela Davis and millions of other useful idiots who have abandoned their moral compass and shout genocide and starvation like trained seals. They are victims of an ideological cult (or just plain anti-Semitic) who see the conflict as evil white colonialists against a virtuous indigenous brown-skinned population. In reality, of course, only Hamas is to blame for the tragic deaths of innocent Palestinians. The killing would stop tomorrow if Hamas returned the hostages and laid down their arms and decided to live in peace. But living in peace isn’t their goal.
Wow, Glenn is so brave shilling for terrorists. Poor Glenn lost his job at the Manhattan Institute, I suppose he's been canceled by the (((Zionists))). We indeed control the word. 🤣
To all who read, liked and subscribed, I offer thanks. Proof again that sometimes the offhanded note connects as well or better than the deeply felt (and maybe contrived) essay post. I should mention as well the the unnamed colleague who dug up the arrangement between the Times and Sid Korshak was Dennis McDougal, who passed away last month. Dennis was an amazing reporter and writer. We could all do well to emulate him.
I’ve written for the City Journal a few times. I get, obviously, that magazines are not free-for-alls. They have identities and agenda. But I worked hard for them on an essay that I successfully pitched. Then they killed it, because I said (maybe incorrectly, in hindsight) that I thought the Woke Era was receding. (This was about seven months ago.) I think conservatives also need to demonstrate some support for viewpoint diversity. (I recall David Frum being canned from
AEI for saying that the Affordable Care Act might not be a hill for Republicans to die on.)
I watched the entire discussion with Tucker on YouTube. When you discussed your experience at MIT, noting the relatively large number of Jewish faculty and students, it reminded me of the story of how that came to be. Paul Samuelson could not find a job after he got his doctoral degree at Harvard. Normally, Harvard would have been able to place him at a top school or would have offered such a brilliant scholar a place at Harvard, but they did not because he was Jewish. Although there was no antisemitism at MIT during the 1940’s, its economics program became excellent because it did not participate in the antisemitism elsewhere.
There was widespread antisemitism in academia at that time. Whoever it was, I don’t remember the name, was charged with developing the economics program at MIT decided to hire the top young Jewish scholars, so it became a top program. It is also not well known that Milton Friedman ended up at Chicago only because Wisconsin denied him tenure because he was Jewish. ( Wisconsin finally reversed their decision but Friedman left on principle.). I got the impression from a faculty member of mine (who told me these things) that Jewish intellectuals had an informal network about what colleges treated Jewish students well. When I told him I was offered a job at Alabama in 1982, he told me that Alabama had a reputation of treating Jewish students well. (Not being Jewish I had not known this was an issue.) This guy’s father had been the target of KKK demonstrations at some point in the 1930’s because he had fired his secretary who, unbeknownst to him, was the wife of the local KKK grand dragon. The only way the department store could stop the protests was to move his father to a store in Mobile. Since there was no Jew to protest, it was over even though the woman was not rehired.
I'm late listening to this, but I must say I'm dismayed that the Manhattan Institute would cease to support you over a political difference of opinion. It's the way the times are going, unfortunately, and people or organizations who genuinely believe in free speech are few and far between. You have been gracious, as always, Glenn, in your dealings with the Manhattan Institute. I'm very happy you can keep the show going thru subscribers! Thank you for persisting!
I just listened to youerbshow nterview Riley. Seems to rehash previous discussions. Solutions for equity in at least early childhood through ninth grade have not been solved
I have read section on Lincoln and Douglass in Cory Bretscneifers book, “ presidents and the people” and am in a Substack philosophy group reading and discussing the founders and what they read with Massimo Pigliucci, I enjoyed your lecture on BOoker T a while ago. Douglass a bit unknown, not a topic in Bren 60: plus years ago. Just got the heavy time Pulitzer Prize bio. As a ten year old we all read about Booker or his books inspiring. Rosen noted when Frederick being taught to read his master told his wife, don’t teach them to read. That he learned to orate , stufpdy the constitution and at the start of the second term became Lincoln’s friend, and avoided his assaination are marvelous. Glenn, has your opinion of Douglas’s changed.?
Glenn has definitely figured out how to innoculate himself against audience capture. Look how angry some of you are that the guy makes a point of standing up for women and children tragically dying as collateral damage in a sad and terrible (though I would say necessary) war. His position should absolutely not make you that upset and if it causes you to re-evaluate your esteem and respect for him, you are in fact the problem.
"Aren't you an American? Very strange how people like you and Mark Silbert constantly fawn over foreign nationals and a foreign government while not caring all that much about your Chinese American or Black American fellow countrymen. I guess that must be why they say that blood is thicker than water."
on the substack though I received it by email. Maybe you deleted it after posting it perhaps realizing how asinine, shallow, and ethnically identitarian this comment is. Yes, I'm an American, and proud of it. To suggest my concern with Israel being demonized is fawning over a foreign government and an indication I don't care about Asian or Black Americans (btw, if I only cared about Israel would that not include white Americans?) is not only a non sequitur but silly and identitarian. You clearly are more interested in people's ethnicity than I am so I find your "blood is thicker than water" comment not only shallow and inappropriate but also humourous.
I see you are not a good faith actor or even a serious person. I'm done with this.
I deleted my comment not because it's asinine, but because I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt rather than lump you in with Mark Silbert. I was specifically referring to his constant references to his "Jewish brothers and sisters", while crapping all over people like Glenn and myself.
Contrary to your suggestion, I'm not particularly interested in other people's ethnicity. But clearly there are numerous commenters here who seem deeply interested in the well being of foreign nationals rather than that of their own countrymen. I wonder why.
Can't wait to listen. Seeing all of the backlash in the comments has me wanting to change my heart and re-sub. I suppose I could choose to skip the episodes with JM...
Glenn, I'm sorry to hear that the Manhattan Institute decided to part ways with you based on your views over Israel.
There's quite a bit of obfuscation in the comments section these days regarding the woke right. The real woke right are the individuals who try to cancel and deport people because of their views on Israel. They had seemingly co-opted the current Trump administration, as evidenced by the recent attempts to deport permanent residents based on an invocation of the Immigration Act of 1952 that allows the secretary of state to deport any individuals deemed to be acting contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States. However, the recent firing of neo-con Mike Waltz from the position of national security advisor, ostensibly for working in tandem with Israel to push the Trump administration towards war with Iran and possibly for having orchestrated the Signal fiasco as a way to force out Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, makes me cautiously optimistic that unbridled Israeli influence in American politics can shift towards a saner middle ground. Supposedly Trump and Bibi are currently on the outs, which gives me just a tiny sliver of hope.
In my opinion, there are 3 major pillars of wokeism in American society. First and foremost, there's the identitarian left that heterodox publications oftentimes focus on. We've all seen the destructive impact of the left's obsession with identity politics, which culminated in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots. Less talked about are the two other major pillars of wokeism in American society. There's an undeniable strain of Israel first wokeism on the right that's manifested itself in the aftermath of October 7th. In my opinion, the most radical of these individuals are every bit as dangerous and misguided as the people they denounce on the other side. John Mearsheimer was right in his book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. The sooner America treats Israel as a normal ally, the better both America and Israel can restore the health of their body politic.
Lastly, both the left and the right exhibit wokeness with respect to America's current geopolitical contest with China. In a prior comment, I pointed out that China is frequently trotted out as a bogeyman for America's economic and technological woes and that anti-Chinese sentiment such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis banning DJI drones despite their importance among police and fire departments in the state and despite a lack of clear cut American alternatives eerily paralleled the Art Institute of Chicago's axing of their nice white lady docents despite a lack of qualified minority substitutes.
Many individuals who comment in this Substack and follow well known publications such as The Free Press exhibit a clear myopia when it comes to the non-identitarian pillars of wokeness. I'm glad that intellectually honest individuals like Glenn are at least able to contemplate the important issues of the day without the blatant biases the afflict so many of the rest of us. You're a real mensch, Glenn!
I recall that Mickey Kaus quit the Daily Caller because Tucker removed his column criticizing Fox News. I am glad that Glenn has the courage of his convictions and is not afraid of intelligent disagreement. I disagree with Glenn (most of the time from the left) about half of the time, but he is consistently brilliant, even if he has been mercurial in his opinions.
Hi Glenn, I am a subscriber of yours. While I tend to agree with you on many (most?) issues, I too find your position on the Israel-Gaza conflict puzzling.
A year ago I asked John McWhorter, who I know a little bit personally, to pass you the interview below hoping it would add some clarity to issues you had expressed concerns about. Not sure if he did or did not. Despite it being now almost a year old, I think it still might be worthwhile to watch, given the person being interviewed here isn’t some opinion maker, but an expert on urban warfare.
Hello Yan. I'm listening to the gentleman in the link. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Context of why and how Israel is involved in urban warfare is completely lacking.
He seems unaware that Hamas has no artillery, tanks, aircraft or naval craft. Their missiles are low tech. They breached Israel's much vaunted billion dollar wall with old bull dozers, old pickup trucks and cheap drones.
Gaza is about 26 miles long, 10 miles wide and is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.
The old "Hamas uses human shields" line is purposefully repeated because Israel knows no one will think it through. Given its huge disadvantage in hardware, tech and training why would Hamas fight out in the open?
And more importantly *THERE IS LITERALLY NO SPACE TO WAGE WAR AWAY FROM PEOPLE*.
Israel knew this going in so it's no surprise. It's prepared for *decades* for urban warfare.
Nonetheless, it has *targeted* journalists, civilians and UN workers.
It has killed and bombed indiscriminately.
It has killed Gazan *Christians* not only during this war but *for decades*. Are we to believe Gazan Christians are also Islamic Jihadists?
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about”? Now, please look up his credentials related to waging urban warfare and tell this audience how they compare to yours.
I continued my subscription despite finding no real substance to what passes for conservative arguments. I see gaslighting. Conservatives criticize Blacks for ignoring the importance of family and fidelity. They then elect an adulterer, conman, and felon President. The only issue is power. I’ll continue to look for rationales.
It is clear that Conservatives do not believe in free speech. They hate free speech so much that they are removing Black history from government institutions. They are intolerant of dissent. They also use their warped interpretation of DEI as a means to remove qualified Blacks from prominent positions. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress is the latest example.
Dr. Loury interviewed Shermichael Singleton in the past. When asked why he was a Conservative, Singleton cited family, discipline, structure, customs, and behavior as reasons. This is laughable given the adulterous President and his advisor with multiple baby mamas, the haphazard nature of DOGE,etc. Conservatives bungled the brand so much that they have no moral authority.
If one thinks of Conservative values, Malcolm X is a much better example than prominent current Conservatives. Given the suppression of free speech, one is given license to read Ibrim X Kendi’s new book “Malcolm Lives”
I can’t watch the Tucker Carlson interview. Having recently viewed the movie “Sinners” with its suggestion that you have to invite evil into your life, I will avoid Tucker Carlson. Tucker said he was scratched by demons while he slept. (There were dogs in the bed). Not going to let a guy who attracts demons to enter my house via my IPad. (snark).
The left cries about racism daily and yet supported the biggest racist in government! You ain’t black Biden - racial jungle joe . See how silly you sound !
Your rant is disconnected from reality. Trump was sued for not renting to Black people. He called for the death penalty for men who were proven innocent and never apologized. Donald said Haitians ate pets despite being proven wrong.
Black voters are not presented with true Conservative policies, but the policies of reactionaries. Qualified Blacks are fired and replaced by incompetent whites. Trump is ignoring the Constitution and his cult cheers.
Trump said he was going to receive an Air Force One replacement from Qatar. He says he will use the jet as private aircraft if he ever decides to leave the Presidency. You support a racist grifter. Your argument only works on other cult members. The rest of us realize the danger Trump poses to the country.
Kamala Harris was the obvious best option. To be honest, Joe Biden surrounded by competent cabinet staff would be a better option than Trump.
I’m probably not going to watch Glenn talk with Tucker Carlson, whose principles seem to be money and attention (no matter how much he degrades himself in their service).
That said, I have some sympathy for Glenn’s position on the Gaza war. Israel has certainly wanted this war to be maximally hard on the Gazan population. Whether that is a war crime or a bold and necessary strategy is probably in the eye of the beholder.
However, I find his sympathy with Gazans and his dismissal of the Ukranian cause to be massively discordant. Ukrainians are much more sympathetic than Gazans, they were simply on the wrong side of Putin’s border and wanted something better than his scraps. Many many Gazans facilitated the problems caused by Hamas. Glenn’s opinion about these two conflicts and how the US should approach them is not intellectually consistent.
I can only attribute that to his lack of much in the way of FP insight and his being too easily influenced by a group of “thinkers” (Carlson, Greenwald, Tabibi, Sachs) who seem to find more fault with the USA than they do obvious bad actors. Not sure why he’s gone down this path, but it doesn’t diminish his insight into matters he knows a lot about. It just makes him more human than he should be on the ones where he’s less knowledgeable.
Taking solace in public acknowledgements from Greenwald, Hasan and Yglesias is like being an isolationist in '39 and grateful that Goering, Himmler and Charles Lindbergh are on your side. Glenn, as smart as you are, you still don't get it. Your view of "collective punishment" is not a simple disagreement with MI. Rather, it suggests that Israel intentionally targets civilians. This baseless, libelous and morally reprehensible accusation tars Israel with the actual war crime tactics proudly employed by the Hamas terrorists. If Israel were interested in collective punishment, it would not take the extraordinary measures to give civilians warnings be dropping dummy warning bombs and literally millions of leaflets and hundreds of thousands of phone calls and text messages in Arabic warning civilians to evacuate before striking a target. It would not have the lowest combatant to civilian death ratio of any urban war. And it certainly would not be sending its brave IDF soldiers, whose lives are sacred, into an urban door to door war zone where hundreds of Israeli soldiers have perished. In fact, many missions that would have taken out Hamas terrorists were aborted due to the presence of civilians. The world loves to hold the IDF to a higher standard than any other military is held to.
Glenn…..imagine a gang from a neighboring apartment building attacks your building, going floor by floor raping women, hammering nails into their vaginas, cutting off their breasts, beheading men, burning babies alive, and murdering your neighbors by the hundreds while filming their attacks with glee and barbaric ecstasy. Then they take women and children hostage and retreat to their building and vow to come back and repeat the attack on your building again and again. After killing hostages, they shoot rockets by the thousands at your building from the windows of their children's bedrooms. You are in charge of your apartment building. What would you do?
It is plain to anyone who cares to pay attention that Hamas intentionally and strategically uses women and children as human shields as a PR marketing campaign because they know that dead Palestinians will produce sympathy from useful idiots around the globe. Indeed, Hamas's now dead leader, Sinwar, proudly proclaimed that civilian deaths are a necessary sacrifice and boasted that, with this strategy, Hamas has Israel right where they want them. He knew what many fail to understand: Israel is in a no win situation. Either it doesn't defend itself and capitulates to terrorism and repeated October 7th attacks, or it reacts to the existential and barbaric threat and once and for all tries to defeat Hamas. By choosing the second (and only) option, Hamas hoped and knew Israel would get sucked into the PR trap: a war where the terrorist enemy combatants appear indistinguishable from civilians and where they hide behind women and children so that many innocent Palestinians will die and dangerous knuckleheads the world over will end up sympathizing with Hamas. Israel loses either way. And that was the whole point of October 7th. So, we get college professors and student-activists and Susan Sarandon and Greta Thunberg and Mark Ruffalo and Samantha Power and the Dem Squad and the Black/Palestinian solidarity camp of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Angela Davis and millions of other useful idiots who have abandoned their moral compass and shout genocide and starvation like trained seals. They are victims of an ideological cult (or just plain anti-Semitic) who see the conflict as evil white colonialists against a virtuous indigenous brown-skinned population. In reality, of course, only Hamas is to blame for the tragic deaths of innocent Palestinians. The killing would stop tomorrow if Hamas returned the hostages and laid down their arms and decided to live in peace. But living in peace isn’t their goal.
Wow, Glenn is so brave shilling for terrorists. Poor Glenn lost his job at the Manhattan Institute, I suppose he's been canceled by the (((Zionists))). We indeed control the word. 🤣
To all who read, liked and subscribed, I offer thanks. Proof again that sometimes the offhanded note connects as well or better than the deeply felt (and maybe contrived) essay post. I should mention as well the the unnamed colleague who dug up the arrangement between the Times and Sid Korshak was Dennis McDougal, who passed away last month. Dennis was an amazing reporter and writer. We could all do well to emulate him.
I’ve written for the City Journal a few times. I get, obviously, that magazines are not free-for-alls. They have identities and agenda. But I worked hard for them on an essay that I successfully pitched. Then they killed it, because I said (maybe incorrectly, in hindsight) that I thought the Woke Era was receding. (This was about seven months ago.) I think conservatives also need to demonstrate some support for viewpoint diversity. (I recall David Frum being canned from
AEI for saying that the Affordable Care Act might not be a hill for Republicans to die on.)
I watched the entire discussion with Tucker on YouTube. When you discussed your experience at MIT, noting the relatively large number of Jewish faculty and students, it reminded me of the story of how that came to be. Paul Samuelson could not find a job after he got his doctoral degree at Harvard. Normally, Harvard would have been able to place him at a top school or would have offered such a brilliant scholar a place at Harvard, but they did not because he was Jewish. Although there was no antisemitism at MIT during the 1940’s, its economics program became excellent because it did not participate in the antisemitism elsewhere.
There was widespread antisemitism in academia at that time. Whoever it was, I don’t remember the name, was charged with developing the economics program at MIT decided to hire the top young Jewish scholars, so it became a top program. It is also not well known that Milton Friedman ended up at Chicago only because Wisconsin denied him tenure because he was Jewish. ( Wisconsin finally reversed their decision but Friedman left on principle.). I got the impression from a faculty member of mine (who told me these things) that Jewish intellectuals had an informal network about what colleges treated Jewish students well. When I told him I was offered a job at Alabama in 1982, he told me that Alabama had a reputation of treating Jewish students well. (Not being Jewish I had not known this was an issue.) This guy’s father had been the target of KKK demonstrations at some point in the 1930’s because he had fired his secretary who, unbeknownst to him, was the wife of the local KKK grand dragon. The only way the department store could stop the protests was to move his father to a store in Mobile. Since there was no Jew to protest, it was over even though the woman was not rehired.
I'm late listening to this, but I must say I'm dismayed that the Manhattan Institute would cease to support you over a political difference of opinion. It's the way the times are going, unfortunately, and people or organizations who genuinely believe in free speech are few and far between. You have been gracious, as always, Glenn, in your dealings with the Manhattan Institute. I'm very happy you can keep the show going thru subscribers! Thank you for persisting!
I just listened to youerbshow nterview Riley. Seems to rehash previous discussions. Solutions for equity in at least early childhood through ninth grade have not been solved
I have read section on Lincoln and Douglass in Cory Bretscneifers book, “ presidents and the people” and am in a Substack philosophy group reading and discussing the founders and what they read with Massimo Pigliucci, I enjoyed your lecture on BOoker T a while ago. Douglass a bit unknown, not a topic in Bren 60: plus years ago. Just got the heavy time Pulitzer Prize bio. As a ten year old we all read about Booker or his books inspiring. Rosen noted when Frederick being taught to read his master told his wife, don’t teach them to read. That he learned to orate , stufpdy the constitution and at the start of the second term became Lincoln’s friend, and avoided his assaination are marvelous. Glenn, has your opinion of Douglas’s changed.?
Glenn has definitely figured out how to innoculate himself against audience capture. Look how angry some of you are that the guy makes a point of standing up for women and children tragically dying as collateral damage in a sad and terrible (though I would say necessary) war. His position should absolutely not make you that upset and if it causes you to re-evaluate your esteem and respect for him, you are in fact the problem.
Yan Shen:
I can't find your comment:
"Aren't you an American? Very strange how people like you and Mark Silbert constantly fawn over foreign nationals and a foreign government while not caring all that much about your Chinese American or Black American fellow countrymen. I guess that must be why they say that blood is thicker than water."
on the substack though I received it by email. Maybe you deleted it after posting it perhaps realizing how asinine, shallow, and ethnically identitarian this comment is. Yes, I'm an American, and proud of it. To suggest my concern with Israel being demonized is fawning over a foreign government and an indication I don't care about Asian or Black Americans (btw, if I only cared about Israel would that not include white Americans?) is not only a non sequitur but silly and identitarian. You clearly are more interested in people's ethnicity than I am so I find your "blood is thicker than water" comment not only shallow and inappropriate but also humourous.
I see you are not a good faith actor or even a serious person. I'm done with this.
I deleted my comment not because it's asinine, but because I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt rather than lump you in with Mark Silbert. I was specifically referring to his constant references to his "Jewish brothers and sisters", while crapping all over people like Glenn and myself.
Contrary to your suggestion, I'm not particularly interested in other people's ethnicity. But clearly there are numerous commenters here who seem deeply interested in the well being of foreign nationals rather than that of their own countrymen. I wonder why.
How many times are you going to be "done with this" before we don't have to read new comments from you?
Pretty sure this is my first on this show and I was referring specifically to Yan Shen. Nice to know you're counting though.
Can't wait to listen. Seeing all of the backlash in the comments has me wanting to change my heart and re-sub. I suppose I could choose to skip the episodes with JM...
Glenn, I'm sorry to hear that the Manhattan Institute decided to part ways with you based on your views over Israel.
There's quite a bit of obfuscation in the comments section these days regarding the woke right. The real woke right are the individuals who try to cancel and deport people because of their views on Israel. They had seemingly co-opted the current Trump administration, as evidenced by the recent attempts to deport permanent residents based on an invocation of the Immigration Act of 1952 that allows the secretary of state to deport any individuals deemed to be acting contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States. However, the recent firing of neo-con Mike Waltz from the position of national security advisor, ostensibly for working in tandem with Israel to push the Trump administration towards war with Iran and possibly for having orchestrated the Signal fiasco as a way to force out Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, makes me cautiously optimistic that unbridled Israeli influence in American politics can shift towards a saner middle ground. Supposedly Trump and Bibi are currently on the outs, which gives me just a tiny sliver of hope.
In my opinion, there are 3 major pillars of wokeism in American society. First and foremost, there's the identitarian left that heterodox publications oftentimes focus on. We've all seen the destructive impact of the left's obsession with identity politics, which culminated in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots. Less talked about are the two other major pillars of wokeism in American society. There's an undeniable strain of Israel first wokeism on the right that's manifested itself in the aftermath of October 7th. In my opinion, the most radical of these individuals are every bit as dangerous and misguided as the people they denounce on the other side. John Mearsheimer was right in his book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. The sooner America treats Israel as a normal ally, the better both America and Israel can restore the health of their body politic.
Lastly, both the left and the right exhibit wokeness with respect to America's current geopolitical contest with China. In a prior comment, I pointed out that China is frequently trotted out as a bogeyman for America's economic and technological woes and that anti-Chinese sentiment such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis banning DJI drones despite their importance among police and fire departments in the state and despite a lack of clear cut American alternatives eerily paralleled the Art Institute of Chicago's axing of their nice white lady docents despite a lack of qualified minority substitutes.
Many individuals who comment in this Substack and follow well known publications such as The Free Press exhibit a clear myopia when it comes to the non-identitarian pillars of wokeness. I'm glad that intellectually honest individuals like Glenn are at least able to contemplate the important issues of the day without the blatant biases the afflict so many of the rest of us. You're a real mensch, Glenn!
I recall that Mickey Kaus quit the Daily Caller because Tucker removed his column criticizing Fox News. I am glad that Glenn has the courage of his convictions and is not afraid of intelligent disagreement. I disagree with Glenn (most of the time from the left) about half of the time, but he is consistently brilliant, even if he has been mercurial in his opinions.
The MH's credibility with me is now zip.
Not sure they care.
Hi Glenn, I am a subscriber of yours. While I tend to agree with you on many (most?) issues, I too find your position on the Israel-Gaza conflict puzzling.
A year ago I asked John McWhorter, who I know a little bit personally, to pass you the interview below hoping it would add some clarity to issues you had expressed concerns about. Not sure if he did or did not. Despite it being now almost a year old, I think it still might be worthwhile to watch, given the person being interviewed here isn’t some opinion maker, but an expert on urban warfare.
https://youtu.be/sP5JHNDZqbQ?si=9iC-V-CbSQB1wop6
Hello Yan. I'm listening to the gentleman in the link. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Context of why and how Israel is involved in urban warfare is completely lacking.
He seems unaware that Hamas has no artillery, tanks, aircraft or naval craft. Their missiles are low tech. They breached Israel's much vaunted billion dollar wall with old bull dozers, old pickup trucks and cheap drones.
Gaza is about 26 miles long, 10 miles wide and is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.
The old "Hamas uses human shields" line is purposefully repeated because Israel knows no one will think it through. Given its huge disadvantage in hardware, tech and training why would Hamas fight out in the open?
And more importantly *THERE IS LITERALLY NO SPACE TO WAGE WAR AWAY FROM PEOPLE*.
Israel knew this going in so it's no surprise. It's prepared for *decades* for urban warfare.
Nonetheless, it has *targeted* journalists, civilians and UN workers.
It has killed and bombed indiscriminately.
It has killed Gazan *Christians* not only during this war but *for decades*. Are we to believe Gazan Christians are also Islamic Jihadists?
The old human shields line? Hamas admit they use human shields. Apparently you are the only one who thinks they don't.
It targeted civilians but also bombed indiscriminately. Trying to get it all in are we. 🙄
Yes, kiddo. It targeted journalists, medical staff and even aid workers. That's not even in dispute.
Neither is the indiscriminate bombing of civilians.
"Two things can be true at once" seems like a bit of a recent discovery but isn't.
You know who uses Palestinians as human shields? Israel. That too isn't in dispute.
How do you not know any of this?
What did Hamas big shot say when asked why they don’t allow the civilians to shelter in their tunnels?
- Civilians are not our problem…
But keep believing in Israel being the evil side here, rather than Hamas.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about”? Now, please look up his credentials related to waging urban warfare and tell this audience how they compare to yours.
"Look up his credentials" doesn't refute a single point.
I don’t need to. He’s an expert. Neither myself nor, presumably, you are. In this case I’ll stick with an expert opinion.
Hanas put military installations in schools and next to hospitals. Hence, shields.
Sorry, Glenn is wrong this time.
Gee, given how small Gaza is and the fact they're a resistance movement where do you think Hamas should place it military installations? In the open?
I continued my subscription despite finding no real substance to what passes for conservative arguments. I see gaslighting. Conservatives criticize Blacks for ignoring the importance of family and fidelity. They then elect an adulterer, conman, and felon President. The only issue is power. I’ll continue to look for rationales.
It is clear that Conservatives do not believe in free speech. They hate free speech so much that they are removing Black history from government institutions. They are intolerant of dissent. They also use their warped interpretation of DEI as a means to remove qualified Blacks from prominent positions. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress is the latest example.
Dr. Loury interviewed Shermichael Singleton in the past. When asked why he was a Conservative, Singleton cited family, discipline, structure, customs, and behavior as reasons. This is laughable given the adulterous President and his advisor with multiple baby mamas, the haphazard nature of DOGE,etc. Conservatives bungled the brand so much that they have no moral authority.
If one thinks of Conservative values, Malcolm X is a much better example than prominent current Conservatives. Given the suppression of free speech, one is given license to read Ibrim X Kendi’s new book “Malcolm Lives”
I can’t watch the Tucker Carlson interview. Having recently viewed the movie “Sinners” with its suggestion that you have to invite evil into your life, I will avoid Tucker Carlson. Tucker said he was scratched by demons while he slept. (There were dogs in the bed). Not going to let a guy who attracts demons to enter my house via my IPad. (snark).
The left cries about racism daily and yet supported the biggest racist in government! You ain’t black Biden - racial jungle joe . See how silly you sound !
“Jungle Joe” speaks volumes.
Your rant is disconnected from reality. Trump was sued for not renting to Black people. He called for the death penalty for men who were proven innocent and never apologized. Donald said Haitians ate pets despite being proven wrong.
Black voters are not presented with true Conservative policies, but the policies of reactionaries. Qualified Blacks are fired and replaced by incompetent whites. Trump is ignoring the Constitution and his cult cheers.
Trump said he was going to receive an Air Force One replacement from Qatar. He says he will use the jet as private aircraft if he ever decides to leave the Presidency. You support a racist grifter. Your argument only works on other cult members. The rest of us realize the danger Trump poses to the country.
Kamala Harris was the obvious best option. To be honest, Joe Biden surrounded by competent cabinet staff would be a better option than Trump.