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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 29, 2024

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The campus protests are run directly by the propaganda arm of Hamas?

Spicy lawsuit just dropped: https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/National-Jewish-Advocacy-Center-the-Schoen-Law-Firm-and-the-Holtzman-Vogel-law-firm-vs-1.pdf

The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) are accused of providing substantial assistance to Hamas. The plaintiffs, who are survivors and victims of Hamas's October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, are alleging that AMP and NSJP are Hamas's propaganda wing in the United States

Summary:

  • AMP and NSJP are successor organizations to groups that were previously shut down or held liable for providing material support to Hamas.
  • Within hours of the October 7 attack, AMP and NSJP allegedly disseminated a "toolkit" that identified them as "part of" Hamas's "Unity Intifada" and called for "confrontation by any means necessary," including "armed struggle."
  • The groups allegedly instigated riots, violence, and chaos on American college campuses, recruiting students as "foot soldiers" to support Hamas through intimidation and fear tactics.
  • AMP and NSJP are accused of providing crucial communication services to Hamas, which cannot legally hire American PR firms due to its terrorist designation.
  • Hamas and other terrorist groups have publicly recognized and expressed appreciation for the support provided by AMP, NSJP, and their campus allies.

I can't exactly tell how much of this is BS and how much of it is real just from the claim but it is definitely going to be an interesting argument. I cannot wait for discoveries.

Even if the lawsuit is successful though, I can't see the US government really clamping down on campus protests. The whole situation has been an interesting case study for the rest of the world as to how to infiltrate/affect US political sentiment and public unrest though.

One of my thoughts on this issue is it highlights I am not a free speech absolutists. A quote from Godfather 2 highlights my view on this:

“Michael: The soldiers are paid to fight, the rebels aren't.

Hyman: What does that tell you?

Michael: They can win.“

When we had campus protests a decade ago I did not care. College kids being silly and they will grow up and take the corporate job and pop out a couple kids. Now I watch the protests and I see a future Supreme Court Judge, the executive team at Disney, and at worse a future HR executive whose rules I need to follow or I end up unemployed.

I do not care about your speech when I think it will just stay in academic circles or in fringe communities. Today I am increasingly pessimistic that it will stay only speech and instead fear that it will become the government. How does a liberal Democracy protect itself if it’s very values allow it to be attacked? Pacifism seems cool until the Mongol horde is outside your door.

It’s also made me greatly admire the Jewish community which seems capable of defending themselves while white people seem to just rollover when their interests are attacked. Judaism at its core is a people while White America’s core is the slave morality of Christianity. Conversion to Judaism in Christian white spaces is starting to become a small thing. Antonio Martínez García converted. There are rumors Milei wants to convert but has not for political reasons as the leader of a Catholic nation. If I was not a believer in Christ I would convert.

Nietzsche also considered Judaism slave morality, I just think that innate tribalism acts as a safeguard against the worst excesses thereof, in the same way there have been plenty of nativist Christian groups over the millennia with high levels of in-group loyalty.

And there are failure states. If Israel is doomed, it is because the secularized elite have completely failed to forcibly secularize and integrate the ultra-orthodox, who are feckless, work-shy, subsidized by the rest of the population, do not serve in the military and consider the highest occupational calling in life to be studying torah and talmud commentary for 70+ years until they die. Ethnic loyalty often leads to a failure to hold your own people to account.

One can fairly reply that unlike the Swedes with the Somalis and Syrians, at least the welfare users the Jews in Israel are subsidizing are actual co-ethnics.

But that does not change the fact that Israel is surrounded by ethnic and religious enemies and always will be (even if accommodation with the Arab elites is secured, common Arab Muslims will never like Israel or Jews) and will scarcely be able afford to stay ahead of them when 40/50/60% of the population are ultra-Orthodox in a few decades.

I mean it seems like it has to be pointed out- ultra-orthodox Jewry can in fact do productive work, even with the incredibly annoying religious rules governing their lives. They’re less productive than an equivalent gentile, sure, but ultra-orthodox Jews in the USA don’t live entirely off of welfare fraud. Israel can push to make workplaces more accommodating for the Hasidism and have counter part of the problem by getting them to work.

Okay. So it is not 100.0% parasitism. But are they economically net positive? The US East coast ultra orthodox communities that I'm vaguely aware of are net negative if I understand correctly. As you say, they subsist on welfare fraud and have large families of severely inbred special needs children.

It doesn’t have to be net positive. Getting the haredim to pay full freight and become Mormons is probably not doable; being able to take them from economically nonproductive to borderline productive is a much smaller and more achievable goal.