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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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Current leading headline on Drudge Report-

MUSK: JEWS GETTING WHAT THEY DESERVE

Links to a tweet by Matt Yglesias, who happens to be Jewish. Yglesias in turn is quoting Musk, who in turn is quoting some Twitter rando (I think) saying that Jewish communities have pushed for the same sort of hatred against whites that they oppose when it's against Jews, and so he doesn't care when they come to the shocking discovery that many of the immigrants they support flooding the country with discover that these immigrants are antisemitic. Musk simply says that the rando speaks the truth.

Here's the actual Musk tweet: https://nitter.cz/elonmusk/status/1724908287471272299#m

So, uh, how did Yglesias's clearly uncharitable interpretation of things get blasted to the top of the most popular conservative leaning news aggregator? It feels like the Gina Carano situation all over again.

This, combined with Nikki Haley's recent bizarre "Israel doesn't need the US, we need them" nonsense makes me think the GOP is trying to make some sort of push regarding foreign policy towards Israel. Or maybe it really is all one big conspiracy lol?

Edit: Also to pre-empt any claims of antisemitism on my part, if Israel decided to turn Gaza into a parking lot tomorrow my reaction would be somewhere along the lines of "Eh, that's unfortunate."

I do not think there is any hidden agenda here. The Republican party, both the elite and the base, have a profound emotional attachment to Israel. So do Democrats to some degree but not as much. It is only in part a logic-driven attachment. There is an almost religious fervor about it. For some of the more devout Jews and Christians in the party, it actually is literally a religious fervor.

There is also the factor that many Republicans, on the subconscious though not necessarily the conscious level, view Israel as a bastion of Judeo-Christian/white/European culture in a sea of what they see as nondescript savage brown Muslim people. Israel to them is like a modern version of the old crusader kingdoms, it is an outpost of Western civilization in the middle of a region that is dominated by a religion that Christian European civilization has been fighting with for over a thousand years.

Republicans as a group deeply, deeply love Israel and many of them are genuinely obsessed with Israel. It is not a deception or a subterfuge. I personally find it to be off-putting and weird but it is what it is. I am sure that Jews' often-noted wealth and influence as an ethnic group doesn't hurt, but that alone would not even come close to explaining the profound love that Republicans have for Israel.

You are right about the Republican Party and perhaps even the Republican base (depending on how you define that). It would have described me 10 years ago when I considered myself a republican.

I don’t know if that is true of Republican voters though. I vote Republican out of necessity but loathe the party. I suspect you comments do not ring true to a significant portion of the MAGA voters out there. My parents will never give up on loving Israel. 60 years of propaganda is extremely sticky. Myself, my peers. There is no mystical allegiance there. They’re shitty allies and a waste of money.