Seeing this terrifies me. The fact that people get so deep into some crazy mental model about Jews on both the left and the right shows how our societies are going through a very serious mental health (existential?) crisis. But how does one solve this? Better living conditions? More jobs? Banning social media?
It sounds anti-semitic, anti-Israel, and also anti-American. And anti-white European ? Is he pro-replacement theory ? Personally, I think it’s to bait you.
Garry. I have to be honest, I don’t think the old “Right v. Left” single-variable approach works any more in any meaningful sense. We are entering a phase of profound epistemic entropy as a global society. If you are going to choose one variable (do so at your own risk!) to sum it all up “Bayesians v. Post-Modernists v. Pastoralists” is the best taxonomy IMO. I will write an essay about this soon. DM me or subscribe to my Substack if you wish to see it when it comes out.
Bayesian? Bayesian statistics depends on conditional probability. It would help if you defined your terms here. Not all of us are political scientists, although some of us with other expertise try to keep up.
However, I agree that the “Right” vs. Left” approach is too simplistic. A clear example is the large number of people who believe any autocrat or dictator who isn’t communist is fascist by definition. That set also believes fascism is always White racist while communism isn’t. I consider both beliefs false. Fascism, like communism, dictates a forced binding of a country’s business and government and other forced collectivism. At least a couple of the dictatorships in the Cone of South America in the 1979s were truly fascist.
Also, in at the very least Argentina, Jews and other minorities were part of the government. By contrast, a fact little known in the west, after WW II Stalin ordered the construction of concentration camps for Jews, Roma, and probably others on Novaya Zyemlya, an island that straddles the Arctic Circle. _One month before_ the camps were completed, Stalin died, but that doesn’t negate the evidence of racism.
I do believe Trump is at least autocratic and probably dictatorial, but I don’t regard him as fascist. “Trickle-down” economics, at least his version, is self-serving neo-feudalism. Thiel seems to subscribe to that idea as well. Keep the billionaires with “lacunae in their superegos” happy then they’ll help keep Trump in power. It’s really despotism without the political and economic ideologies either of fascism or of communism.
Hi Wales. I appreciate the engagement. As I note above, I intend to write an essay on this topic. I understand that this taxonomy is novel and potentially confusing: the purpose of the essay will be to clarify. I have a backlog of essays on my list, but it will be published in the next few months. In the meantime I do recommend reading my "Escape Velocity" series for context. https://theliminallens.substack.com/p/escape-velocity-part-i?r=dvftt
That was an insane rant! It’s as if this person was writing a bi- polar message! Get out of here!
AND no one should express a reason for inter marriage for any political reason. Who goes out saying I wanna find a cute Jew - object matrimony?! Or I want to find a cute black - object matrimony?!
If you find someone on your trail and enamored of your dna- watch out!!!!
I agree that he is not who he says he is. I dont think that he can be classified on the right/left spectrum. The desire to ghettoize Jews in Israel by making them the minority, prohibiting them from working in lucrative jobs in America, depriving them of political power, and breeding the Judaism out of them shows that the prime motivator for this person is anti-semitism. His use of the term "good Jews" only describes a people powerless and obediant to control.
My suspicion is that he is Palestinian, Iranian, or muslim and I say this because of his emphasis on immigration as a way to minimize and control Jews in America. Immigration from muslim countries would support his anti-zionist agenda. In Europe muslim immigration has been mostly from younger people who are more likely to marry and have families than the aging indigenous populations (not unlike America). As such, their percentage in each country is growing as well as their political influence. I dont believe there is an organized plan for any of this to happen except in his hatefilled fever dreams.
In full disclosure, I have no issue with Muslims immigrating to America. I believe the state of Israel has a right to exist while I condemn their behavior in Gaza. I am Jewish by birth but an atheist by choice. I believe in our constitution and the freedoms it grants to every citizen and I believe in Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms.
I have long believed in Horseshoe Theory long before Trump, Gabbard, RFK Jr. , etc made it into our collective political consciousness. To me, the minor differences between communists and fascists proved the point. Both extremes are antithetical to a liberal democratic society with the rule of law and individual rights.
Honestly, Garry, while the obsessiveness of Bernie Bros drives me crazy, I don't think it's a perfect U. Maybe a J? The issue is that we as a body politic have moved to the right since Reagan. So now, what used to be a moderate Republican is considered a lefty Democrat. What we used to see as Republican NEOCONs are currently centrist Democrats. We need to move to a society that takes care of the most vulnerable, and doesn't have such a huge wealth gap, and is in touch with how people feel. That's where the obsessive/racist/sexist tendencies of the right and left merge. They both feel left behind.
So, since he, not being a Jew, can tell the difference between a "Good Jew" and a "Bad Jew,'", should we start wearing a yellow "Star of David" patch if he determines our goodness, so there can be a differentiation? I don't know that he is far left. I do know that he is a rabid antisemite.
Your article points toward what I heard a political science/history provessor say in class. Politics is not linear (left and right) but more circular, like a horseshoe where the two ends are almost touching. That was over 50 years ago.
And what he and yoy say makes more sense the older I get. Extremist demigogs seem quite capbable of switching allegiances without missing a beat or being held accountable by anyone.
Yes, and that also describes Trump, the leader of a political party whose opposition party was long ago Trump’s party. It seems that Trump entered the Presidential fray as a Republican because it was the easier of the two to unite and not because of any core ideology.
The Republican party chose Trump because they had been sliding into fascism for the past few decades. They had devolved into a warring factions over a handful of issues and become rabble rousers not taken seriously in Washington or anywhere else. They desperately needed someone to energize it and make it relevant on the national and international stage. Party leaders weren't cutting it.
Trump saw an opportunity to bring bickering factions together - Militant anti-government militia, virulent racists, committed anti-semites, anti-immigrants, devout Evangelical Christians could be united against their common enemy: Anyone who wasn't like them.
He made fun of government, made jokes about it's "inadequicies", created a litany of cute pet names for the people he didn't like, all the wihile validating the scornful image of "gubment workers" they all shared.
He was perfect, so the Party of Lincoln became the Party of Trump.
He was selected by the party leaders because he more closely reflected the thoughts and views of the party faithful. Forget that they were promoting ideas that are the anthesis of what the country was founded on.
The problem with Trump? His narcissism. He's a social and political chameleon, changing his rhetoric and attitude to reflect the his current audience.
The media, for their part, has deferred to him, failing to call him out (or hold him accountable) because he's "rich and famous" and we need his audience. His audiences buy into the act. They don't care if he lies, cheats on his wife, slept with 14 year-olds, or never paid taxes. He's been announted and he talks about fixing all the things they think are wrong with the US.
I've done the math: How many are there? It comes to about 35% of the people in every poll describing themselves as die-hard Trump loyalists. Even people standing in line to vote.
They're convinced Trump has the answers to whatever "wrongs" they see: Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, gay men, lesbian women, Spanish speaking brown people, foreign companies replacing made in the USA are going to be taught a lesson by Donald J. Trump and they are ecstatic.
And angry that there are people out there who are not even 10% committed to Trump and his plan for America. That anger is being manifested at the local and state level with new laws affecting everyone, including the Trump Loyalists.
MAGA/QAnon is the latest mutation of a monster that has existed since the first slaves were shipped to North America. That monster has previously been the Confederacy, KKK, Jim Crow laws, Southern Strategy, Tea Party, Unite the Right - you name it. It's not unlike the stab-in-the-back myth that prevailed in interwar Germany.
Both your response and Joe’s 7/29 response are spot on and support Churchill’s well-worn aphorism that those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Trump, the MAGA Godfather, is cut from the same cloth as fascists like Hitler, Mussolini, Putin, Orban or Erdogan.
You are correct about antisemitism on the extreme left and extreme right horseshoeing, and both right-wing and left-wing extreme extremists being equally nefarious in terms of ideology. And sometimes very similar in the antisemitic dog whistles they use.
And the email you shared in this issue is obviously a prank. And the low-rent, third-rate, smack-talking, conspiracy spewing pundits that you mentioned in this piece are a disgrace to humanity itself.
But I think the extremists in the U.S. on the extreme right are far more dangerous than the ones on the extreme left, at this point. I say this because of their sheer numbers, there are literally tens of millions of them. There are far fewer extremists on the far-left in the U.S.
And the extremists on the far-right tend to wrap themselves in American flags and carry crosses. This deception leads some Americans to conclude that they are G_d-fearing patriots when in actuality they are false patriots masquerading as real patriots and “Angel(s) of Death” masquerading as “pro-life” Christians.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz wrapped themselves in the American flag during the 2024 presidential campaign but I am skeptical that it actually won them any votes.
Somehow, Democrats are going to have to figure out a way to reach out to a lot more Americans of faith, particularly Christians, because most Americans identify as Christian.
There is a Texas state representative by the name of James Talarico who is a “deeply religious” Christian and may decide to run for the U.S. Senate in Texas in 2026. And who may be able to communicate with people of faith in a way that Democrats were unable to in 2024.
Being that yesterday was the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s (also a Texan) signing of Medicare and Medicaid into law and Trump and Republicans just voted to gut those programs in order to finance huge tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, I was thinking that he should run for President on a Medicare for platform in 2028. If he is elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas in 2026.
I mean, if he could carry Texas, he would be unbeatable. And he is someone who truly cares about people and has good character, according to mucho popular podcaster Joe Rogan.
I almost think this is a right wing attempt to make the left wing seem more crazy and more common than it is. Not that there isn’t a fringe. But I don’t think we need to worry about Mamdani doing anything in New York that threatens democracy or freedom. Maybe I’m wrong, but Mamdani isn’t going to ignore hate crimes or otherwise Jewish New Yorkers unprotected. Mamdani isn’t a physical manifestation of immigrants (or minorities) moving US politics to the left either. I’ve heard his arguments and ideas from plenty of native born white people.
The two great opposing forces from WWII also illustrate the horseshoe theory: in so many ways, the policies of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union were similar. It is in fact one of the tropes of the right to claim that Hitler was a left-wing socialist. I don't agree, but the parallels are there.
On a different topic, the guy's a nut job for sure (if serious), but I do recommend that you dissociate yourself from Netanyahu's Israel, which is getting more and more putrid all the time. I'd say avoid the subject if possible.
Oh mine! Before I say anything about Diego Sanchez’s “policies” on Israel, I must point out that last year, 48% Hispanic voters voted for Donald Trump, who campaigned on letting Netanyahu do whatever he wants. Non white voters, except for African American women, all shifted toward him. So the premise that the country becoming less white will help defeat Israel is simply wrong.
this article sounds like it was written by a ruscian who doesn't speak english, who asked chatgpt to write a letter that was prompted by "let's write some politically extremist talking points and make it sound like i speak english".... next line will be i'm a deposed nigerian prince i just need your financial help to access the rest of my fortune so i can pay you back lol.
Seeing this terrifies me. The fact that people get so deep into some crazy mental model about Jews on both the left and the right shows how our societies are going through a very serious mental health (existential?) crisis. But how does one solve this? Better living conditions? More jobs? Banning social media?
It sounds anti-semitic, anti-Israel, and also anti-American. And anti-white European ? Is he pro-replacement theory ? Personally, I think it’s to bait you.
Garry. I have to be honest, I don’t think the old “Right v. Left” single-variable approach works any more in any meaningful sense. We are entering a phase of profound epistemic entropy as a global society. If you are going to choose one variable (do so at your own risk!) to sum it all up “Bayesians v. Post-Modernists v. Pastoralists” is the best taxonomy IMO. I will write an essay about this soon. DM me or subscribe to my Substack if you wish to see it when it comes out.
Bayesian? Bayesian statistics depends on conditional probability. It would help if you defined your terms here. Not all of us are political scientists, although some of us with other expertise try to keep up.
However, I agree that the “Right” vs. Left” approach is too simplistic. A clear example is the large number of people who believe any autocrat or dictator who isn’t communist is fascist by definition. That set also believes fascism is always White racist while communism isn’t. I consider both beliefs false. Fascism, like communism, dictates a forced binding of a country’s business and government and other forced collectivism. At least a couple of the dictatorships in the Cone of South America in the 1979s were truly fascist.
Also, in at the very least Argentina, Jews and other minorities were part of the government. By contrast, a fact little known in the west, after WW II Stalin ordered the construction of concentration camps for Jews, Roma, and probably others on Novaya Zyemlya, an island that straddles the Arctic Circle. _One month before_ the camps were completed, Stalin died, but that doesn’t negate the evidence of racism.
I do believe Trump is at least autocratic and probably dictatorial, but I don’t regard him as fascist. “Trickle-down” economics, at least his version, is self-serving neo-feudalism. Thiel seems to subscribe to that idea as well. Keep the billionaires with “lacunae in their superegos” happy then they’ll help keep Trump in power. It’s really despotism without the political and economic ideologies either of fascism or of communism.
I’m interested in how you see the situation.
Hi Wales. I appreciate the engagement. As I note above, I intend to write an essay on this topic. I understand that this taxonomy is novel and potentially confusing: the purpose of the essay will be to clarify. I have a backlog of essays on my list, but it will be published in the next few months. In the meantime I do recommend reading my "Escape Velocity" series for context. https://theliminallens.substack.com/p/escape-velocity-part-i?r=dvftt
That was an insane rant! It’s as if this person was writing a bi- polar message! Get out of here!
AND no one should express a reason for inter marriage for any political reason. Who goes out saying I wanna find a cute Jew - object matrimony?! Or I want to find a cute black - object matrimony?!
If you find someone on your trail and enamored of your dna- watch out!!!!
You're right it's a crazy email.
I agree that he is not who he says he is. I dont think that he can be classified on the right/left spectrum. The desire to ghettoize Jews in Israel by making them the minority, prohibiting them from working in lucrative jobs in America, depriving them of political power, and breeding the Judaism out of them shows that the prime motivator for this person is anti-semitism. His use of the term "good Jews" only describes a people powerless and obediant to control.
My suspicion is that he is Palestinian, Iranian, or muslim and I say this because of his emphasis on immigration as a way to minimize and control Jews in America. Immigration from muslim countries would support his anti-zionist agenda. In Europe muslim immigration has been mostly from younger people who are more likely to marry and have families than the aging indigenous populations (not unlike America). As such, their percentage in each country is growing as well as their political influence. I dont believe there is an organized plan for any of this to happen except in his hatefilled fever dreams.
In full disclosure, I have no issue with Muslims immigrating to America. I believe the state of Israel has a right to exist while I condemn their behavior in Gaza. I am Jewish by birth but an atheist by choice. I believe in our constitution and the freedoms it grants to every citizen and I believe in Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms.
I have long believed in Horseshoe Theory long before Trump, Gabbard, RFK Jr. , etc made it into our collective political consciousness. To me, the minor differences between communists and fascists proved the point. Both extremes are antithetical to a liberal democratic society with the rule of law and individual rights.
Honestly, Garry, while the obsessiveness of Bernie Bros drives me crazy, I don't think it's a perfect U. Maybe a J? The issue is that we as a body politic have moved to the right since Reagan. So now, what used to be a moderate Republican is considered a lefty Democrat. What we used to see as Republican NEOCONs are currently centrist Democrats. We need to move to a society that takes care of the most vulnerable, and doesn't have such a huge wealth gap, and is in touch with how people feel. That's where the obsessive/racist/sexist tendencies of the right and left merge. They both feel left behind.
So, since he, not being a Jew, can tell the difference between a "Good Jew" and a "Bad Jew,'", should we start wearing a yellow "Star of David" patch if he determines our goodness, so there can be a differentiation? I don't know that he is far left. I do know that he is a rabid antisemite.
Your article points toward what I heard a political science/history provessor say in class. Politics is not linear (left and right) but more circular, like a horseshoe where the two ends are almost touching. That was over 50 years ago.
And what he and yoy say makes more sense the older I get. Extremist demigogs seem quite capbable of switching allegiances without missing a beat or being held accountable by anyone.
Yes, and that also describes Trump, the leader of a political party whose opposition party was long ago Trump’s party. It seems that Trump entered the Presidential fray as a Republican because it was the easier of the two to unite and not because of any core ideology.
The Republican party chose Trump because they had been sliding into fascism for the past few decades. They had devolved into a warring factions over a handful of issues and become rabble rousers not taken seriously in Washington or anywhere else. They desperately needed someone to energize it and make it relevant on the national and international stage. Party leaders weren't cutting it.
Trump saw an opportunity to bring bickering factions together - Militant anti-government militia, virulent racists, committed anti-semites, anti-immigrants, devout Evangelical Christians could be united against their common enemy: Anyone who wasn't like them.
He made fun of government, made jokes about it's "inadequicies", created a litany of cute pet names for the people he didn't like, all the wihile validating the scornful image of "gubment workers" they all shared.
He was perfect, so the Party of Lincoln became the Party of Trump.
He was selected by the party leaders because he more closely reflected the thoughts and views of the party faithful. Forget that they were promoting ideas that are the anthesis of what the country was founded on.
The problem with Trump? His narcissism. He's a social and political chameleon, changing his rhetoric and attitude to reflect the his current audience.
The media, for their part, has deferred to him, failing to call him out (or hold him accountable) because he's "rich and famous" and we need his audience. His audiences buy into the act. They don't care if he lies, cheats on his wife, slept with 14 year-olds, or never paid taxes. He's been announted and he talks about fixing all the things they think are wrong with the US.
I've done the math: How many are there? It comes to about 35% of the people in every poll describing themselves as die-hard Trump loyalists. Even people standing in line to vote.
They're convinced Trump has the answers to whatever "wrongs" they see: Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, gay men, lesbian women, Spanish speaking brown people, foreign companies replacing made in the USA are going to be taught a lesson by Donald J. Trump and they are ecstatic.
And angry that there are people out there who are not even 10% committed to Trump and his plan for America. That anger is being manifested at the local and state level with new laws affecting everyone, including the Trump Loyalists.
Sad.
MAGA/QAnon is the latest mutation of a monster that has existed since the first slaves were shipped to North America. That monster has previously been the Confederacy, KKK, Jim Crow laws, Southern Strategy, Tea Party, Unite the Right - you name it. It's not unlike the stab-in-the-back myth that prevailed in interwar Germany.
Both your response and Joe’s 7/29 response are spot on and support Churchill’s well-worn aphorism that those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Trump, the MAGA Godfather, is cut from the same cloth as fascists like Hitler, Mussolini, Putin, Orban or Erdogan.
Garry,
You are correct about antisemitism on the extreme left and extreme right horseshoeing, and both right-wing and left-wing extreme extremists being equally nefarious in terms of ideology. And sometimes very similar in the antisemitic dog whistles they use.
And the email you shared in this issue is obviously a prank. And the low-rent, third-rate, smack-talking, conspiracy spewing pundits that you mentioned in this piece are a disgrace to humanity itself.
But I think the extremists in the U.S. on the extreme right are far more dangerous than the ones on the extreme left, at this point. I say this because of their sheer numbers, there are literally tens of millions of them. There are far fewer extremists on the far-left in the U.S.
And the extremists on the far-right tend to wrap themselves in American flags and carry crosses. This deception leads some Americans to conclude that they are G_d-fearing patriots when in actuality they are false patriots masquerading as real patriots and “Angel(s) of Death” masquerading as “pro-life” Christians.
Can we start efforts to reclaim the Stars & Stripes from the MAGAlomaniacs, and let them have the Confederate Flag?
Kumara,
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz wrapped themselves in the American flag during the 2024 presidential campaign but I am skeptical that it actually won them any votes.
Somehow, Democrats are going to have to figure out a way to reach out to a lot more Americans of faith, particularly Christians, because most Americans identify as Christian.
There is a Texas state representative by the name of James Talarico who is a “deeply religious” Christian and may decide to run for the U.S. Senate in Texas in 2026. And who may be able to communicate with people of faith in a way that Democrats were unable to in 2024.
Being that yesterday was the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s (also a Texan) signing of Medicare and Medicaid into law and Trump and Republicans just voted to gut those programs in order to finance huge tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, I was thinking that he should run for President on a Medicare for platform in 2028. If he is elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas in 2026.
I mean, if he could carry Texas, he would be unbeatable. And he is someone who truly cares about people and has good character, according to mucho popular podcaster Joe Rogan.
I almost think this is a right wing attempt to make the left wing seem more crazy and more common than it is. Not that there isn’t a fringe. But I don’t think we need to worry about Mamdani doing anything in New York that threatens democracy or freedom. Maybe I’m wrong, but Mamdani isn’t going to ignore hate crimes or otherwise Jewish New Yorkers unprotected. Mamdani isn’t a physical manifestation of immigrants (or minorities) moving US politics to the left either. I’ve heard his arguments and ideas from plenty of native born white people.
The two great opposing forces from WWII also illustrate the horseshoe theory: in so many ways, the policies of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union were similar. It is in fact one of the tropes of the right to claim that Hitler was a left-wing socialist. I don't agree, but the parallels are there.
On a different topic, the guy's a nut job for sure (if serious), but I do recommend that you dissociate yourself from Netanyahu's Israel, which is getting more and more putrid all the time. I'd say avoid the subject if possible.
Let me finish that for you: Shit
Oh mine! Before I say anything about Diego Sanchez’s “policies” on Israel, I must point out that last year, 48% Hispanic voters voted for Donald Trump, who campaigned on letting Netanyahu do whatever he wants. Non white voters, except for African American women, all shifted toward him. So the premise that the country becoming less white will help defeat Israel is simply wrong.
Many of these ethnic Trump voters think they're "the good ones who came to America legally"... until suddenly they're "illegals" in the eyes of ICE.
this article sounds like it was written by a ruscian who doesn't speak english, who asked chatgpt to write a letter that was prompted by "let's write some politically extremist talking points and make it sound like i speak english".... next line will be i'm a deposed nigerian prince i just need your financial help to access the rest of my fortune so i can pay you back lol.