Back when I was in the opening push to promote Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative, New York Times columnist Pamela Paul wrote a very positive piece discussing me and the book.
Fascinating to hear about Glenn's memoir and life; I would have like to hear more from LaJuan, but how can Glenn and his interviewers deplore Israel's devastation of Gaza and Gazans without discussing Hamas and its tactics and strategy so harmful to Palestinians? Israel may be an ethno-state--liberal democracy on the U.S. multiethnic model is relatively rare (as a writer below pointed out. Does it count for nothing that 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab (Muslim and Druze and other Christians) or Palestinian, and a considerable if not a majority of those claim Israel as their nationality as well as their state of citizenship?
It’s maddening that Weiss and others can say with a straight face that the war in Gaza is a result of a denigration of Islamic values by Israel and the West.
What other country would be expected to tolerate the existence of an explicitly genocidal regime next door firing rockets at their civilians? What’s, in Weiss’s mind, is the appropriate response to the invasion we saw and the continued holding of hostages?
So…that Glenn Loury Due Dissidence podcast made me angry. It was upsetting. I cannot stand these leftists, so sympathetic to the Arab world as people ‘of color’ that they’ll rationalize rape and murder and forget about the burning of whole families and kidnapping of literal toddlers and babies as long as they are Jews. (No ‘Save Our Girls’ for Jewish women & children, right Michelle?)
Here we go again:
On the campus protests:
1- Double standards - after 10 years of watching profs like Nikolas Christakis being attacked over his wife’s letter regarding Halloween costumes, students needing safe spaces if they get misgendered and the absurd sensitivity of leftist BIPOC communities, to see these same people suddenly re-discover their commitment to free speech when it comes to protests against Israel/Jews on campus is transparent and cynical in the extreme. The slightest offence (or non offence) against Black students requires safe spaces, firings and suspensions, but it’s perfectly okay to shout at Jewish students to “globalize the intifada” and obstruct their way to class for 7 months. Imagined offences against Black students necessitate struggle sessions, but actual offences against Jews are perfectly fine and an expression of free speech. Glenn is proud of the students taking over campus who suddenly discovered their commitment to free speech when it involved attacking the Zionist entity! Oh - and It matters not one iota that some of these little fuckers are ignorant leftist Jewish student; making specific mention of it as though that cleanses and justifies the behavior is offensive and revealing. I remind you: 90% of Jews are Zionists.
2- I wonder what LaJuan would have said if there were encampments by students sympathetic to white supremacists protesting the outsized violent crime committed by Blacks. Would she have been proud of their peaceful protests? Would it have warmed her heart to see that? I doubt it.
3- Acknowledge that these campus protests began on October 8th - well before Israel even responded to the atrocities committed by Hamas. “What did you think resistance would look like?”, “Globalize the Intifada”, “Down with Zionists”, and other vile chanting was heard long before the Israeli response. I’m betting LaJuan and her favorite podcasters were supportive of the peaceful protesters shouting “Intifada” even on October 8. Truly, truly disgusting.
4- so much sympathy for Palestinians, no sympathy for Jews that were raped and murdered and kidnapped and burned alive. I wonder why that is. So saddened by Palestinian oppression but little to no thought about Jewish suffering. Rape. Murder. Kidnapping babies and the elderly and dead bodies! Scenes of civilians spitting on the bodies of murdered Israeli women. What the fuck is wrong with these leftists?
5- Peaceful protest is a right. But in that two-word phrase you’ve overlooked the word “peaceful”. Many of these protests were not peaceful. They took over campus for months on end. Face coverings, blocking passage, people dressed up and cosplaying like Hamas terrorists, shouting aggressive language and making Israeli students and Zionistic students (ie 90% of Jews) feel under siege is not peaceful. Again, in all the sensitivity for Halloween costumes, why is it okay for everyone to dress up as Hamas terrorists with kafias wrapped around their faces 3 hours after Hamas butchered and burned Jewish families in Israel? Where’s your fucking sensitivity now?
6- again, all this about innocent Palestinians killed by the IDF. The IDF has done and is doing more than any army in world history to avoid non combatant casualties. Experts in urban warfare have pointed out the extreme measures taken (and invented) by the IDF to limit casualties of civilians. But this is a war. News flash: people die in war, and yes, tragically even children - especially when the adversary that attacked has a specific policy of using children and civilians as human shields. A war that is being fought in a territory in which the enemy has spent 17 years and billions of dollars of international aid money to construct hundreds of miles of tunnels beneath schools and hospitals and mosques, and is committed to sacrificing its own civilians and children as human shields, yet somehow the ratio of civilian casualties to combatants is lower than any other urban conflict? Just say “thank you” to Israel for taking greater risks with the lives of their sons and daughters to limit Palestinian casualties and STFU.
7- And these civilians elected Hamas and supported Hamas and continue to support Hamas. Do you think that hundreds of miles of tunnels were built under their homes and schools without the population knowing this? IDF reports that signs of Hamas exist in every house. Guns, tunnels, antisemitic literature is everywhere. This is a death cult being fought and you are on the side of the murderous cult. I wonder why that is.
8- Final note: Glenn goes on Ben Shapiro’s Sunday special to talk about his book (I’m halfway through it and it’s really good!). And then Noam Dworman’s podcast to talk about his book. But you have Norman Finkelstein and other Israel-hating leftists on to talk about Israeli and October 7th? Any thought given to discussing Israel with Ben? John Spencer? Sam Harris? Coleman Hughes? I mean, if you really want to get to the bottom of it, understand the Jewish/Zionist (NOT A BAD WORD) perspective, can’t you find a better person to talk to than Finkelstein, Dobular, Bartov?
Glenn I continue to be surprised that you have come to a position where you criticize how Israel is conducting war against Hamas without ever pointing out that the war was started by Hamas massacre, rapes and hostage taking of Israeli civilians.
Are you criticizing Israel because in your opinion and others you disagree with the response to the Hamas attack? Is your criticism that it will not be effective? Or as your hosts seem to be stating that Israel has no right to defend itself because as they state and the student protests agree—the state of Israel has no right to exist because it is a settler colonial state?
In general with few exceptions ethno-states are the norm— not the exception. What does it mean to be French or Italian or Danish? It is to embrace the national identity of being French, Italian or Danish. Would you now argue that these nations are not democracies? As a non Jew I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable that arguments are being used against Israel that are not used against any other democracy or even other authoritarian ruled nations.
I also note that your hosts and you accepted the critique that Israel has escaped criticism this is objectively false—the criticism of Israel began even before the IDF entered Gaza. The campus protests stand in sharp contrast to university enforced rules that do not allow even mild criticism of certain favored identity groups but that have allowed the most obnoxious racist comments and behavior directed at Jews with no or little consequence.
Indeed I think your hosts speculation that Israel escapes criticism because they buy support and silence can only be understood as anti Jewish—particularly since the charge that Israel is not criticized for their supposedly murderous response to October 7 is objectively false.
One final point how can anyone in good faith criticize Israel without mentioning that Hamas continues to hold over 100 Israeli civilians as hostages?
So, Keaton wants it both ways. Extreme Palestinian homophobia is just a cultural difference, but Westerners wanting to kill Palestinians is wrong in an absolute sense. If Arab homophobia it just a cultural difference, then please stop with your moralizing about how bad the Israelis are.
Glenn - Is Israel an ethno-state? The answer isn't black & white. They do want to remain a Jewish majority state. But Israel has a 20% Arab minority, with an Arab party in the Knesset. OTOH, what's the demographics of every other state in the region? They're almost all 100% muslim/arab states. If Israel completely opened it borders to "Palestinian Arabs", I suspect it would quickly become a Arab ethno-state. I don't know any examples of American-style multiethnic states in the region.
there are very few multiethnic states in the WORLD, in the post imperial, current "nation-state" stage. U.S. is one of the rare exceptions, to the rule.
this was a very engaging and interesting convo, Professor. Keaton Weiss is a simple Marxist like your historian friend Daniel Bessner. Dobular far more interesting, and he came extremely well prepared. I really liked this podcast, wide ranging, appropriately LONG and with a personal touch
We were predicatably disappointed with LaJuan Loury and Keaton Weiss. Their political and economic opinions are founded on sand. If we can agree with John Rawls about the basic structure of a well-ordered society, and assuming it applies on a global basis, then at what point does personal responsibility and accounbtability kick in.
Russell Babulor is interesting because he's a clever cunning devil.
Glenn Loury is his usual brilliant self. He occupies the high-ground and confesses his enjoyment of the low-ground. He juggles the hot issues but only holds the cold one's.
On Oct 7, 2023 HAMAS took the cloves off and Israel acted in its own national interest.
In February 2014 the USA/NATO inspired Maidan 'Revolution of Dignity' was orchestrated, and Russia acted in it's own national interests. US citizens like LaJaun, Russell and Keaton don't understand the 'REAL world' and that in times of NATIONAL emergency, the cloves come off.
I've been an animal of the left my whole life. I was fairly apolitical until I was about 40, and it was George W Bush's presidency that made me realize that I was a lib. And I went further to the left as the 2000s and 2010s went by. I used to listen to NPR and PBS Newshour, and watched liberal evening news (NBC mostly).
As time went along, I realized that I was too far to the left, and made a conscious decision to move towards the center. It took me perhaps seven or so years to get to where I am now. Glenn Loury is part of the reason why I am where I am on the spectrum. I'm still on the left, but I am no progressive. And I am firmly anti-WOKE.
Prof Loury and John McWhorter have made an impression on me these past few years. They give me additional perspective to much of the other perspectives I get in podcastistan, youtube, and via essays and articles written by intelligent people. I no longer listen to "news" programs, and I never watched CNN or MSNBC (except for occasional clips via youtube. And as for the likes of FOX, I have always hated it, but I do sometimes watch clips so long as it's not Hannity or Ingraham. And forget about Carlson.
Finding good content takes work, but it's worth it. I listen to plenty of conservatives, but generallly only those who are sharp. Same for libs or centrists. But progressive or far left talking heads? I put them in the same camp as the far right: they are extremists.
I think that part of the reason I moved to the right (though I am still a moderate lib), is because I finally saw the world as it is. That goes for people, too.
Thanks, Glenn, for doing what you do. And your wife is a doll.
I wish there were more of us. I've gotten into disagreements as often with friends on the Left as I have with people on the Right. It feels lonely and discomfiting not being a member of a large team (Dems/liberals versus Repubs/conservatives). But I refuse to be beholden to a team playbook. So, I accept being lonely. Although, there may be far more people in the middle than I realize. I honestly don't know.
People seem to naturally gravitate towards one team or the other, being subject to that pull that our binary brains naturally creates for us. It's almost unnatural to resist that natural impulse, and it takes a lot more work. Eschewing CNN or FOX would be like leaving their religion, I suspect, for many people. We all want to be told what to think, and gravitate towards the narrative that we, by virtue of in-born preferences, find more appealing. It's just easier.
I would suggest paying more attention to Douglas Murray, Coleman Hughes, "The Goodfellows" (Hoover Institute), Bari Weiss and several others (Centrists, old fashioned Liberals, Middle Conservatives). Actually most of the faculty of the new University of Austin. Read their books or watch some podcasts, lectures & especially group debates on YouTube and you won't be quite so lonely.
I'm way ahead of you. Been following these people, and plenty of others, for years now.
It's the people I know--neighbors, friends, acquaintances--that I feel so little connection with. They are knowingly or unknowingly hard Left or hard Right. Even if I make comments on youtbube or on yahoo following an article, I get attacked for my views more often than I get agreement. They either watch FOX or CNN and MSNBC and accept that what they are hearing is the truth and is reasonable reporting and opinion.
"I don't even know what WOKE is!", one close friend has exclaimed to me, while I prattled on about something that WOKE has damaged in society. It's always his way of saying that I am crazy, and that WOKE is simply a fabrication of the Right.
And the few times I have made a feeble and fruitless attempt to explain the phenomenon in the context of our conversation, he never accepts what I say. He and his wife believe that they are good liberals for accepting the new orthodoxy spewed by modern liberal (leftist) print and TV media. They don't know what they don't know.
It's incredibly frustrating. And at times, I even doubt myself on my own beliefs and conclusions--which are evolving all the time as I learn new information about some new crisis or other. I start to wonder that maybe I am the one who is wrong, and that the throngs of those who do accept the orthodoxy of their tribe are the ones who have it correct.
It's tough going it alone is what I have learned. By "alone", I mean no longer being a part of a tribe, per se. No longer having that certainty that you're correct and righteous and pure. That you're on "the good team".
I feel your pain. I have similar problems with those I associate with. Either they can see the subtleties or are too entrenched. Usually it's "this is why we don't talk politics". Most don't have the time or inclination to even try out those we mentioned above. I go long periods without posting a comment.
Certainly, I have considered that most people don't want to spend hours each day or week reading or listening to different views on relevant or salient cultural and political phenomena. And to be fair, most people don't have the time, as you have pointed out.
Not talking politics is probably the best approach. I have neighbors in my new neighborhood (two years this September) who are so inclined. I have only ever had one politically themed discussion with any of them, and it was the day after the attempted assassination of Trump. Most of them avoid politics--even at the recent neighborhood party we had some weeks ago.
In my old neighborhood, it was mostly made up of libs, and they were very vocal given any opportunity to be so. And years ago, I used to be one of them. But over some four to five year while living there, I came to see many of them as too far to the left, and too acting too much like tribe members. It was the coronavirus that brought that to the fore the most. And it was over mask wearing, initially, that made me aware of how contagious behavior can be. For example, I was chided by a neighbor while in the midst of an outdoor neighborhood activity for not wearing a mask. Everyone else was dutifully showing their party affiliation by wearing their masks. We were all keeping our distances from each other (typically 20' or more), and we were OUTSIDE. And this was fall of 2020 when there was more known about the virus than in the early spring. By the fall, if you were paying attention to the latest information, you knew that being outside was the safest place to be to avoid catching COVID. But no matter. If you were a proper liberal, you wore a mask even if you were alone in your car!
So, I'd become ever more disenfranchised by people too proudly on the left-- that, and the BLM signs in their yards to further reinforce their team loyalty. It became too much. I'm happier where I am now, because the people here keep their politics, mostly, to themselves. One guy a few houses down has a political style sign hanging in his garage that states, "F*ck Biden!" At least it's not in his front yard. And he is a renter. The rest of use own our homes.
I’ve heard this story for 64 years, that’s a long time to negotiate a 2 state solution, all while pumping billions of tax dollars into building a terrorist tunnel complex, that feeds not a single Gazan. Forive me, but there is no solution short of destroying muslim terrorists, and their poisonous ideology, utterly.
I fully agree. The thing never really address what Israel realistically should do to remove a terrorist organization on the door step or why it was ok with the world funding organizations for the tunnel complex and anti-Israel rhetoric. To those Jews, LGBTetc for Palestine, where were the Palestinian protests for "gays" when someone shoots up a gay bar or when Jews (or blacks for that matter) are murdered in their houses of worship or all those victims of suicide bombings?
Why, we don't treat Israel like a racist state is THE HOLOCAUST. I don't see what is so hard to understand here. Six or seven million Jews surrounded by hundreds of millions of Muslims who hate them and would like to see them eradicated from the face of the earth.
Fascinating to hear about Glenn's memoir and life; I would have like to hear more from LaJuan, but how can Glenn and his interviewers deplore Israel's devastation of Gaza and Gazans without discussing Hamas and its tactics and strategy so harmful to Palestinians? Israel may be an ethno-state--liberal democracy on the U.S. multiethnic model is relatively rare (as a writer below pointed out. Does it count for nothing that 20% of Israeli citizens are Arab (Muslim and Druze and other Christians) or Palestinian, and a considerable if not a majority of those claim Israel as their nationality as well as their state of citizenship?
Is there any way to download this episode? I can't find a link. Thanks!
It’s maddening that Weiss and others can say with a straight face that the war in Gaza is a result of a denigration of Islamic values by Israel and the West.
What other country would be expected to tolerate the existence of an explicitly genocidal regime next door firing rockets at their civilians? What’s, in Weiss’s mind, is the appropriate response to the invasion we saw and the continued holding of hostages?
So…that Glenn Loury Due Dissidence podcast made me angry. It was upsetting. I cannot stand these leftists, so sympathetic to the Arab world as people ‘of color’ that they’ll rationalize rape and murder and forget about the burning of whole families and kidnapping of literal toddlers and babies as long as they are Jews. (No ‘Save Our Girls’ for Jewish women & children, right Michelle?)
Here we go again:
On the campus protests:
1- Double standards - after 10 years of watching profs like Nikolas Christakis being attacked over his wife’s letter regarding Halloween costumes, students needing safe spaces if they get misgendered and the absurd sensitivity of leftist BIPOC communities, to see these same people suddenly re-discover their commitment to free speech when it comes to protests against Israel/Jews on campus is transparent and cynical in the extreme. The slightest offence (or non offence) against Black students requires safe spaces, firings and suspensions, but it’s perfectly okay to shout at Jewish students to “globalize the intifada” and obstruct their way to class for 7 months. Imagined offences against Black students necessitate struggle sessions, but actual offences against Jews are perfectly fine and an expression of free speech. Glenn is proud of the students taking over campus who suddenly discovered their commitment to free speech when it involved attacking the Zionist entity! Oh - and It matters not one iota that some of these little fuckers are ignorant leftist Jewish student; making specific mention of it as though that cleanses and justifies the behavior is offensive and revealing. I remind you: 90% of Jews are Zionists.
2- I wonder what LaJuan would have said if there were encampments by students sympathetic to white supremacists protesting the outsized violent crime committed by Blacks. Would she have been proud of their peaceful protests? Would it have warmed her heart to see that? I doubt it.
3- Acknowledge that these campus protests began on October 8th - well before Israel even responded to the atrocities committed by Hamas. “What did you think resistance would look like?”, “Globalize the Intifada”, “Down with Zionists”, and other vile chanting was heard long before the Israeli response. I’m betting LaJuan and her favorite podcasters were supportive of the peaceful protesters shouting “Intifada” even on October 8. Truly, truly disgusting.
4- so much sympathy for Palestinians, no sympathy for Jews that were raped and murdered and kidnapped and burned alive. I wonder why that is. So saddened by Palestinian oppression but little to no thought about Jewish suffering. Rape. Murder. Kidnapping babies and the elderly and dead bodies! Scenes of civilians spitting on the bodies of murdered Israeli women. What the fuck is wrong with these leftists?
5- Peaceful protest is a right. But in that two-word phrase you’ve overlooked the word “peaceful”. Many of these protests were not peaceful. They took over campus for months on end. Face coverings, blocking passage, people dressed up and cosplaying like Hamas terrorists, shouting aggressive language and making Israeli students and Zionistic students (ie 90% of Jews) feel under siege is not peaceful. Again, in all the sensitivity for Halloween costumes, why is it okay for everyone to dress up as Hamas terrorists with kafias wrapped around their faces 3 hours after Hamas butchered and burned Jewish families in Israel? Where’s your fucking sensitivity now?
6- again, all this about innocent Palestinians killed by the IDF. The IDF has done and is doing more than any army in world history to avoid non combatant casualties. Experts in urban warfare have pointed out the extreme measures taken (and invented) by the IDF to limit casualties of civilians. But this is a war. News flash: people die in war, and yes, tragically even children - especially when the adversary that attacked has a specific policy of using children and civilians as human shields. A war that is being fought in a territory in which the enemy has spent 17 years and billions of dollars of international aid money to construct hundreds of miles of tunnels beneath schools and hospitals and mosques, and is committed to sacrificing its own civilians and children as human shields, yet somehow the ratio of civilian casualties to combatants is lower than any other urban conflict? Just say “thank you” to Israel for taking greater risks with the lives of their sons and daughters to limit Palestinian casualties and STFU.
7- And these civilians elected Hamas and supported Hamas and continue to support Hamas. Do you think that hundreds of miles of tunnels were built under their homes and schools without the population knowing this? IDF reports that signs of Hamas exist in every house. Guns, tunnels, antisemitic literature is everywhere. This is a death cult being fought and you are on the side of the murderous cult. I wonder why that is.
8- Final note: Glenn goes on Ben Shapiro’s Sunday special to talk about his book (I’m halfway through it and it’s really good!). And then Noam Dworman’s podcast to talk about his book. But you have Norman Finkelstein and other Israel-hating leftists on to talk about Israeli and October 7th? Any thought given to discussing Israel with Ben? John Spencer? Sam Harris? Coleman Hughes? I mean, if you really want to get to the bottom of it, understand the Jewish/Zionist (NOT A BAD WORD) perspective, can’t you find a better person to talk to than Finkelstein, Dobular, Bartov?
I think I’m done.
Great discussion that covered a lot of ground! John McWhorter should have been present to defend himself!
Glenn I continue to be surprised that you have come to a position where you criticize how Israel is conducting war against Hamas without ever pointing out that the war was started by Hamas massacre, rapes and hostage taking of Israeli civilians.
Are you criticizing Israel because in your opinion and others you disagree with the response to the Hamas attack? Is your criticism that it will not be effective? Or as your hosts seem to be stating that Israel has no right to defend itself because as they state and the student protests agree—the state of Israel has no right to exist because it is a settler colonial state?
In general with few exceptions ethno-states are the norm— not the exception. What does it mean to be French or Italian or Danish? It is to embrace the national identity of being French, Italian or Danish. Would you now argue that these nations are not democracies? As a non Jew I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable that arguments are being used against Israel that are not used against any other democracy or even other authoritarian ruled nations.
I also note that your hosts and you accepted the critique that Israel has escaped criticism this is objectively false—the criticism of Israel began even before the IDF entered Gaza. The campus protests stand in sharp contrast to university enforced rules that do not allow even mild criticism of certain favored identity groups but that have allowed the most obnoxious racist comments and behavior directed at Jews with no or little consequence.
Indeed I think your hosts speculation that Israel escapes criticism because they buy support and silence can only be understood as anti Jewish—particularly since the charge that Israel is not criticized for their supposedly murderous response to October 7 is objectively false.
One final point how can anyone in good faith criticize Israel without mentioning that Hamas continues to hold over 100 Israeli civilians as hostages?
So, Keaton wants it both ways. Extreme Palestinian homophobia is just a cultural difference, but Westerners wanting to kill Palestinians is wrong in an absolute sense. If Arab homophobia it just a cultural difference, then please stop with your moralizing about how bad the Israelis are.
Glenn - Is Israel an ethno-state? The answer isn't black & white. They do want to remain a Jewish majority state. But Israel has a 20% Arab minority, with an Arab party in the Knesset. OTOH, what's the demographics of every other state in the region? They're almost all 100% muslim/arab states. If Israel completely opened it borders to "Palestinian Arabs", I suspect it would quickly become a Arab ethno-state. I don't know any examples of American-style multiethnic states in the region.
there are very few multiethnic states in the WORLD, in the post imperial, current "nation-state" stage. U.S. is one of the rare exceptions, to the rule.
this was a very engaging and interesting convo, Professor. Keaton Weiss is a simple Marxist like your historian friend Daniel Bessner. Dobular far more interesting, and he came extremely well prepared. I really liked this podcast, wide ranging, appropriately LONG and with a personal touch
We were predicatably disappointed with LaJuan Loury and Keaton Weiss. Their political and economic opinions are founded on sand. If we can agree with John Rawls about the basic structure of a well-ordered society, and assuming it applies on a global basis, then at what point does personal responsibility and accounbtability kick in.
Russell Babulor is interesting because he's a clever cunning devil.
Glenn Loury is his usual brilliant self. He occupies the high-ground and confesses his enjoyment of the low-ground. He juggles the hot issues but only holds the cold one's.
On Oct 7, 2023 HAMAS took the cloves off and Israel acted in its own national interest.
In February 2014 the USA/NATO inspired Maidan 'Revolution of Dignity' was orchestrated, and Russia acted in it's own national interests. US citizens like LaJaun, Russell and Keaton don't understand the 'REAL world' and that in times of NATIONAL emergency, the cloves come off.
I've been an animal of the left my whole life. I was fairly apolitical until I was about 40, and it was George W Bush's presidency that made me realize that I was a lib. And I went further to the left as the 2000s and 2010s went by. I used to listen to NPR and PBS Newshour, and watched liberal evening news (NBC mostly).
As time went along, I realized that I was too far to the left, and made a conscious decision to move towards the center. It took me perhaps seven or so years to get to where I am now. Glenn Loury is part of the reason why I am where I am on the spectrum. I'm still on the left, but I am no progressive. And I am firmly anti-WOKE.
Prof Loury and John McWhorter have made an impression on me these past few years. They give me additional perspective to much of the other perspectives I get in podcastistan, youtube, and via essays and articles written by intelligent people. I no longer listen to "news" programs, and I never watched CNN or MSNBC (except for occasional clips via youtube. And as for the likes of FOX, I have always hated it, but I do sometimes watch clips so long as it's not Hannity or Ingraham. And forget about Carlson.
Finding good content takes work, but it's worth it. I listen to plenty of conservatives, but generallly only those who are sharp. Same for libs or centrists. But progressive or far left talking heads? I put them in the same camp as the far right: they are extremists.
I think that part of the reason I moved to the right (though I am still a moderate lib), is because I finally saw the world as it is. That goes for people, too.
Thanks, Glenn, for doing what you do. And your wife is a doll.
It seems that we've had a similar journey. Thank you for your post 👍🏻
I wish there were more of us. I've gotten into disagreements as often with friends on the Left as I have with people on the Right. It feels lonely and discomfiting not being a member of a large team (Dems/liberals versus Repubs/conservatives). But I refuse to be beholden to a team playbook. So, I accept being lonely. Although, there may be far more people in the middle than I realize. I honestly don't know.
People seem to naturally gravitate towards one team or the other, being subject to that pull that our binary brains naturally creates for us. It's almost unnatural to resist that natural impulse, and it takes a lot more work. Eschewing CNN or FOX would be like leaving their religion, I suspect, for many people. We all want to be told what to think, and gravitate towards the narrative that we, by virtue of in-born preferences, find more appealing. It's just easier.
I would suggest paying more attention to Douglas Murray, Coleman Hughes, "The Goodfellows" (Hoover Institute), Bari Weiss and several others (Centrists, old fashioned Liberals, Middle Conservatives). Actually most of the faculty of the new University of Austin. Read their books or watch some podcasts, lectures & especially group debates on YouTube and you won't be quite so lonely.
I'm way ahead of you. Been following these people, and plenty of others, for years now.
It's the people I know--neighbors, friends, acquaintances--that I feel so little connection with. They are knowingly or unknowingly hard Left or hard Right. Even if I make comments on youtbube or on yahoo following an article, I get attacked for my views more often than I get agreement. They either watch FOX or CNN and MSNBC and accept that what they are hearing is the truth and is reasonable reporting and opinion.
"I don't even know what WOKE is!", one close friend has exclaimed to me, while I prattled on about something that WOKE has damaged in society. It's always his way of saying that I am crazy, and that WOKE is simply a fabrication of the Right.
And the few times I have made a feeble and fruitless attempt to explain the phenomenon in the context of our conversation, he never accepts what I say. He and his wife believe that they are good liberals for accepting the new orthodoxy spewed by modern liberal (leftist) print and TV media. They don't know what they don't know.
It's incredibly frustrating. And at times, I even doubt myself on my own beliefs and conclusions--which are evolving all the time as I learn new information about some new crisis or other. I start to wonder that maybe I am the one who is wrong, and that the throngs of those who do accept the orthodoxy of their tribe are the ones who have it correct.
It's tough going it alone is what I have learned. By "alone", I mean no longer being a part of a tribe, per se. No longer having that certainty that you're correct and righteous and pure. That you're on "the good team".
I feel your pain. I have similar problems with those I associate with. Either they can see the subtleties or are too entrenched. Usually it's "this is why we don't talk politics". Most don't have the time or inclination to even try out those we mentioned above. I go long periods without posting a comment.
Certainly, I have considered that most people don't want to spend hours each day or week reading or listening to different views on relevant or salient cultural and political phenomena. And to be fair, most people don't have the time, as you have pointed out.
Not talking politics is probably the best approach. I have neighbors in my new neighborhood (two years this September) who are so inclined. I have only ever had one politically themed discussion with any of them, and it was the day after the attempted assassination of Trump. Most of them avoid politics--even at the recent neighborhood party we had some weeks ago.
In my old neighborhood, it was mostly made up of libs, and they were very vocal given any opportunity to be so. And years ago, I used to be one of them. But over some four to five year while living there, I came to see many of them as too far to the left, and too acting too much like tribe members. It was the coronavirus that brought that to the fore the most. And it was over mask wearing, initially, that made me aware of how contagious behavior can be. For example, I was chided by a neighbor while in the midst of an outdoor neighborhood activity for not wearing a mask. Everyone else was dutifully showing their party affiliation by wearing their masks. We were all keeping our distances from each other (typically 20' or more), and we were OUTSIDE. And this was fall of 2020 when there was more known about the virus than in the early spring. By the fall, if you were paying attention to the latest information, you knew that being outside was the safest place to be to avoid catching COVID. But no matter. If you were a proper liberal, you wore a mask even if you were alone in your car!
So, I'd become ever more disenfranchised by people too proudly on the left-- that, and the BLM signs in their yards to further reinforce their team loyalty. It became too much. I'm happier where I am now, because the people here keep their politics, mostly, to themselves. One guy a few houses down has a political style sign hanging in his garage that states, "F*ck Biden!" At least it's not in his front yard. And he is a renter. The rest of use own our homes.
OK, my fingers are sore. Over and out.
I’ve heard this story for 64 years, that’s a long time to negotiate a 2 state solution, all while pumping billions of tax dollars into building a terrorist tunnel complex, that feeds not a single Gazan. Forive me, but there is no solution short of destroying muslim terrorists, and their poisonous ideology, utterly.
I fully agree. The thing never really address what Israel realistically should do to remove a terrorist organization on the door step or why it was ok with the world funding organizations for the tunnel complex and anti-Israel rhetoric. To those Jews, LGBTetc for Palestine, where were the Palestinian protests for "gays" when someone shoots up a gay bar or when Jews (or blacks for that matter) are murdered in their houses of worship or all those victims of suicide bombings?
Fantastic episode, and thoroughly revealing and enjoyable.
Great part when Glennis put on the spot re: Israel.
Kudos to LaJuan, since these guys (and Jimmy Dore) are the REAL LEFT, not the fake "progressives."
at 55' Keaton's "No, no" sounds just like John's : ). (McWhorter) Also his last phrase. : )
Wonderful interview. Incredibly in-spots laugh out loud entertaining.
This was a barn burner!
Why, we don't treat Israel like a racist state is THE HOLOCAUST. I don't see what is so hard to understand here. Six or seven million Jews surrounded by hundreds of millions of Muslims who hate them and would like to see them eradicated from the face of the earth.
Yes.