The fact that the same people who have been talking about "decolonization" in America, use the same word to refer to what just happened in Israel, combined with the fact that our nation's military and national security apparatus are *on their side*, is the most frightening thing to come out of this.
When I was active duty in the Marines, I trained with the IDF (this was back in March of 2017 or so). I've always had a deep respect for the Jewish people and those sentiments were solidified because of the time I spent in Israel and my conversion to Christianity (a couple years after that).
I would say that I'm pissed the hell off by what I'm seeing of the Left in our country, but it's too predictable for me to be pissed off. I saw a lot of this sort of Lefty/Woke radicalism during the 2020 riots in DC (when I was with the SC National Guard, but that's another story).
I'm interested in how this is going to play out in our culture; that is, how the Israeli-Palestinian war is going to be perceived in the US. I really hope you're right. If there is anything good that can come from Israel fighting for its existence, it would be to have a lot of people on the "Left" realize that they're also on the same side as virulent anti-Semites (that, and have the wrath of I AM descend upon Hamas in the form of the IDF).
Slightly unrelated: I don't know if you've read a lot of the Great Thomas Sowell, but I would be interested as hell to see what you think of some of his books (particularly "Basic Economics", but I'll admit I haven't read that one yet). Last time I checked, if you have an Audible account you can get a lot of his stuff for free.
Thank you! My "to read" list is a mile long (and I'm probably starting grad school in January) but reading at least one of his books over Christmas is the plan.
I will. It's not some thing that I have to make time for, except the special series on special topics. Writing is how I process big events in the world, so I'll always be writing about what's going on in the world. Sometimes I have to, in order to be able to focus on what actually makes me happy, which is mathematics. A lot of what I publish here is stuff that I write for myself and then lightly edit. 🤓
My liberal friends, who are always pointing to MAGA as the threat to democracy and our “safety”, have said nothing as liberals have screamed their support for the terrorists and their mission to eradicate all Jews (with Christians next in line). I would bet that those groups who sport their swastikas are waiting with open arms to welcome in all these new members.
I appreciate your insights, Holly. Unfortunately, I have seen none of my liberal friends think twice about their loyalties. I think they see this as a small aberration, a hiccup if you will, that they will conveniently forget come tomorrow.
I removed your other comment and put you in a 24 hour timeout. I know how emotional this whole situation is; I've struggled to keep my own self-control. But telling other commenters to shut up or otherwise being intensely rude is not ok to do here. Feel free to unsubscribe and get a refund.
Holly, I have gotten far worse but thank you. I do have other friends and family who are not as controlled by the”woke” but the friends and family I have who are in that sad place are still in need of my love. They are not so toxic that they affect me enough to always avoid them (although I do at times😝).
Thank you for those words, Holly. That helps me frame wisely chosen ones for what I'm trying to handle here on the home-front with the pressures involved, including how to respond locally to what's global and increasingly affecting what's local and snarky.
Oct 13, 2023·edited Oct 14, 2023Liked by Holly MathNerd
Late to the party...
Really reminds me of Rome's response to the conquering of the Byzantine empire starting around AD 650. Almost 450 years into the Caliphate which had taken over the eastern Med did Rome finally decide it needed to do something. Here we are 1500 years later still dealing with that mistake.
We don't have 450 years to decide what to do.
*************************************************
In case there is a misunderstanding...
Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem in either AD 637 or 638. In AD 711, the Umayyad caliphate invaded Spain, 14 years later the French were fighting them at Tours. The first Crusade started in 1096, nearly 450 years years after they had made their intentions known. It wasn't until the Battle of Vienna in 1683 that the Ottomans were finally sent packing, then the Treaty of Carlowitz between the Holy League (Austria, Poland, Venice, and Russia) in 1699 finally saw them out the door. In between those times, much of southern Europe was under control of varying Islamic rulers and kingdoms. Constantinople fell in 1453, much thanks to feckless leadership from Rome. We cannot afford to keep making the same mistakes.
The only times in the last 1400 years the Islamic principalities were not waging war against Jews and Christians was when they were too weak or too broke, as after Vienna and the Treaty of Carlowitz, and much of the time since.
Once again I extend massive respect both to your message and analysis and to your writing itself. I’m frankly amazed by your maturity at such a young age (I am assuming you were a traditional college student attending university directly after high school; if that’s an incorrect assumption I apologize.) And even more importantly you give hope when I often feel hope is in short supply.
Twitter is very bad for me, and I just don't want to go back to it at all. I'm afraid I've had to take the mental position that if it's good it'll end up getting spread around and probably end up there anyway. Thank you for the thought!!
I respect her for getting off of X (nee Twitter). Occasionally I look at it and the haranguing (autoresponder wants to type that word as "harassing") seems ongoing so I avoid that sludgepool.
I came across this link buried in the comments for another Substack and was awestruck. It may describe our way out of the awful mess in which we now find ourselves. Stunningly it is advice from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to his people in the Soviet Union. And yet it resonates deeply with our present moment. Perhaps we should share this widely.
Excellent analysis by Holly. This is why kids should study math.
Just as horrible as the terrorist attack on Israel is the genocidal attack now being perpetrated by Israel on Gaza. The venom coming from both sides is truly horrific. Senator Cory Booker says that there should be no debate, and that we should all just support Israel's actions.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
And in case you were wondering what countries enabled the attack by Hamas on Israel: It was the US, the UK, and Israel. It is truly Israel's 9/11.
Live by identitarianism, die by identitarianism. This is not meant to sound glib. I'm as opposed to it as anyone, but for different reasons than most, I feel. Whereas most people quote MLK at the core I find "as a ____...." utterly fking boring. Get to the point. This itself is informed by something I've only thought about in the last few years, that as someone who is mixed race I am unburdened by white western cultural guilt. No guilt about conquest, no bigotry of low expectations. The taboos don't apply to me. It could be that this is because I'm a hyper-pragmatist at heart but it's not insignificant that at one time I might have felt detached that I felt no strong kinship to any of my ethnicities, which probably helps me to be rather freed from ego. (Another reason idpol is boring, I am utterly uninterested in ego.) It's less painful to forge personality and character when belonging is not as important to me. "I am on no one's side because no one is on my side", as the saying goes. While my blood informs who I am I would hope that anyone who listens to me would do so on the substance. (I do enjoy using my racial status to troll though, that's one thing white people should be jealous of lol.)
Leaving my psyche aside it's understood that much of the non-western world is openly racist; in this context I define "racist" in contrast to "I don't see color." (Surely many a good leftist has walked on the other side of the street when they see a black or brown person on their side, or switched subway cars when a black or brown person enters theirs.) Not-PC might be a sufficient synonym. This is why there's a meme that a white person's greatest fear is not death but being called racist. Even right wingers are proof of this, though thankfully the last few years this has been eroded across the board. It's okay to be white! Damn the social consequences. Fear of social consequences has real-world consequences.
Another reason it's likely difficult for some is liberal default settings. There's something I call "but the right", which is an off-shoot of "of course we're right, we're the good guys." A lot, if not most, non-right-wingers don't want to admit that people on the right can be correct about something. While I considered myself nominally left 10-20 years ago I never felt moored to it. (Growing up in TX, I was for "the red team" even though I was half of voting age. I switched when I went off to college. I've never really bought into the team mentality.) But I lived in Seattle for almost twenty years, I have a good sense of the coastal mentality. I had a subtle yet conscious awareness of "we're right." It was not loud but it was always in the background. Thank goodness I shook everything off entirely after 2016. And the reason for this...
...is that, while this wasn't particularly relevant to the topic at hand, human psychology is the starting point for everything. The reason I'm politically independent is not just because I believe it's pragmatic (and empathetic) to keep an expansive Overton window but because all my opinions on issues tend to come back to human nature and human psych, and how I can't trust those things. And those things inform *everything*.
I'm very impressed. Truly. I've seen your posts come up here and there, probably have looked at them before. reading your article of today , I'm not about paying for many more subscriptions but you got me on this one. This article here, is possibly the most effective, synthesized, simple (not easy, but simple) breakdown of the state of affairs and is a breaker of narratives that I'll easily share with anyone who is now "asking questions." I've come to understand, and while I hate the term, the trap that's always laid from the left is "well... define woke?" you can't, easily, and often end up looking like a stammering idiot trying to do so. To me, I've come to understand that it's not definable. All it is is a forest fire. It's destruction. A friend asked me "how is it that the left LGBTQ+ people can rally with Hamas?" and when I define Woke that way, it's easy to answer. the common denominator that trumps it all, is that the hatred of all things west, white, capitalist. It literally trumps everything. the enemy of my enemy is my friend, etc. It's hate. It is, at the foundation of it all, is hate. It's been laid bare for so long now, and this week is just another chapter. It is hate. And hate wants to destroy. When I'm hating on something, I want to destroy. This is basic psychology. The nexus of it comes from fear, created by the authority, which is a primary emotion, which easily manipulated, spawns Anger and Hate. So here you've actually defined the whole thing. You write with the passion of someone who has been inside... you admit that... who has escaped. And you know, exactly, how dark and wrong it is, and you know how seductive and powerful it is, and you know how hypnotic it is. I am GenX.. I was never "in" it like today's youth, but I went along with so much of it until Covid broke us all. Once you're out... man... you are out forever. And you write with maturity that I could never have imagined in my 20's.. (I assume you're in that gen). Bravo and keep speaking truth to power. In GoT terminology, a la Khaleesi "mother of dragons", I'll anoint you as "Breaker of Narratives"
Thank you so much for your kind words. I was trying for exactly what you have described here, something to give people in the brief window before they start rationalizing their way into not changing.
Your generation has true causes to fight for... well, in truth we all do - I have kids in the 20's/30's , and a grandson... and the TRUE causes.. well.. they ain't the ones that are "as advertised". They are far more obscured in subversion. Keep writing. See some progress,, have your moments to be discouraged, accept some steps backward along the way, and keep writing no matter what. We are not at critical mass yet for the narrative to break, but we are certainly moving in that direction so you must keep going. I guarantee... once we hit critical mass.. the speed at which the narrative breaks will be mind-blowing.. this is how all things go in a fight when we are the underdog. Yet we have truth.. we know it, it lives within us, it is our agency, and it comes from nowhere else except god I suppose... our foes do not have this.. they have no agency of their own, and are demoralized slaves to a higher false ego-driven authority. My grandfather fought through WWII with this same sense of truth and agency. It always wins, and it is always VERY dark before the dawn.
The fact that the same people who have been talking about "decolonization" in America, use the same word to refer to what just happened in Israel, combined with the fact that our nation's military and national security apparatus are *on their side*, is the most frightening thing to come out of this.
Your fear is appropriate. They mean it.
And they want to limit our access to weapons. Israel did this to their citizens. Perhaps if they had not less Jewish lives would have been lost.
That frankly shocked me. I bet they never make that mistake again.
I hope you are right.
I think you're right.
Bravo, Holly! Another great piece.
When I was active duty in the Marines, I trained with the IDF (this was back in March of 2017 or so). I've always had a deep respect for the Jewish people and those sentiments were solidified because of the time I spent in Israel and my conversion to Christianity (a couple years after that).
I would say that I'm pissed the hell off by what I'm seeing of the Left in our country, but it's too predictable for me to be pissed off. I saw a lot of this sort of Lefty/Woke radicalism during the 2020 riots in DC (when I was with the SC National Guard, but that's another story).
I'm interested in how this is going to play out in our culture; that is, how the Israeli-Palestinian war is going to be perceived in the US. I really hope you're right. If there is anything good that can come from Israel fighting for its existence, it would be to have a lot of people on the "Left" realize that they're also on the same side as virulent anti-Semites (that, and have the wrath of I AM descend upon Hamas in the form of the IDF).
Slightly unrelated: I don't know if you've read a lot of the Great Thomas Sowell, but I would be interested as hell to see what you think of some of his books (particularly "Basic Economics", but I'll admit I haven't read that one yet). Last time I checked, if you have an Audible account you can get a lot of his stuff for free.
He also seems to really hit nails on the head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi0KJD0gVxU&ab_channel=HooverInstitution
Thank you! My "to read" list is a mile long (and I'm probably starting grad school in January) but reading at least one of his books over Christmas is the plan.
Get it, Holly! Best of luck to you.
Yeah, if you start grad school you’ll have 0 time for fun reading.
Hopefully you still have time for posts like these!
I will. It's not some thing that I have to make time for, except the special series on special topics. Writing is how I process big events in the world, so I'll always be writing about what's going on in the world. Sometimes I have to, in order to be able to focus on what actually makes me happy, which is mathematics. A lot of what I publish here is stuff that I write for myself and then lightly edit. 🤓
My liberal friends, who are always pointing to MAGA as the threat to democracy and our “safety”, have said nothing as liberals have screamed their support for the terrorists and their mission to eradicate all Jews (with Christians next in line). I would bet that those groups who sport their swastikas are waiting with open arms to welcome in all these new members.
I appreciate your insights, Holly. Unfortunately, I have seen none of my liberal friends think twice about their loyalties. I think they see this as a small aberration, a hiccup if you will, that they will conveniently forget come tomorrow.
I know it's hard to keep hoping, but people do change. I used to believe a lot of this Woke bullshit.
You need to find new friends; the ones you've got are lower than sewer rats.
I removed your other comment and put you in a 24 hour timeout. I know how emotional this whole situation is; I've struggled to keep my own self-control. But telling other commenters to shut up or otherwise being intensely rude is not ok to do here. Feel free to unsubscribe and get a refund.
Holly, I have gotten far worse but thank you. I do have other friends and family who are not as controlled by the”woke” but the friends and family I have who are in that sad place are still in need of my love. They are not so toxic that they affect me enough to always avoid them (although I do at times😝).
Thank you for those words, Holly. That helps me frame wisely chosen ones for what I'm trying to handle here on the home-front with the pressures involved, including how to respond locally to what's global and increasingly affecting what's local and snarky.
Late to the party...
Really reminds me of Rome's response to the conquering of the Byzantine empire starting around AD 650. Almost 450 years into the Caliphate which had taken over the eastern Med did Rome finally decide it needed to do something. Here we are 1500 years later still dealing with that mistake.
We don't have 450 years to decide what to do.
*************************************************
In case there is a misunderstanding...
Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem in either AD 637 or 638. In AD 711, the Umayyad caliphate invaded Spain, 14 years later the French were fighting them at Tours. The first Crusade started in 1096, nearly 450 years years after they had made their intentions known. It wasn't until the Battle of Vienna in 1683 that the Ottomans were finally sent packing, then the Treaty of Carlowitz between the Holy League (Austria, Poland, Venice, and Russia) in 1699 finally saw them out the door. In between those times, much of southern Europe was under control of varying Islamic rulers and kingdoms. Constantinople fell in 1453, much thanks to feckless leadership from Rome. We cannot afford to keep making the same mistakes.
The only times in the last 1400 years the Islamic principalities were not waging war against Jews and Christians was when they were too weak or too broke, as after Vienna and the Treaty of Carlowitz, and much of the time since.
Once again I extend massive respect both to your message and analysis and to your writing itself. I’m frankly amazed by your maturity at such a young age (I am assuming you were a traditional college student attending university directly after high school; if that’s an incorrect assumption I apologize.) And even more importantly you give hope when I often feel hope is in short supply.
I know you don't look at X anymore, but I think lots of people need to see this there. I know a lot of your target audience for this piece is.
Twitter is very bad for me, and I just don't want to go back to it at all. I'm afraid I've had to take the mental position that if it's good it'll end up getting spread around and probably end up there anyway. Thank you for the thought!!
Well understood. I had thought you had auto posts going out there still.
I respect her for getting off of X (nee Twitter). Occasionally I look at it and the haranguing (autoresponder wants to type that word as "harassing") seems ongoing so I avoid that sludgepool.
I came across this link buried in the comments for another Substack and was awestruck. It may describe our way out of the awful mess in which we now find ourselves. Stunningly it is advice from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to his people in the Soviet Union. And yet it resonates deeply with our present moment. Perhaps we should share this widely.
https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/live-not-by-lies
Excellent analysis by Holly. This is why kids should study math.
Just as horrible as the terrorist attack on Israel is the genocidal attack now being perpetrated by Israel on Gaza. The venom coming from both sides is truly horrific. Senator Cory Booker says that there should be no debate, and that we should all just support Israel's actions.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
And in case you were wondering what countries enabled the attack by Hamas on Israel: It was the US, the UK, and Israel. It is truly Israel's 9/11.
Live by identitarianism, die by identitarianism. This is not meant to sound glib. I'm as opposed to it as anyone, but for different reasons than most, I feel. Whereas most people quote MLK at the core I find "as a ____...." utterly fking boring. Get to the point. This itself is informed by something I've only thought about in the last few years, that as someone who is mixed race I am unburdened by white western cultural guilt. No guilt about conquest, no bigotry of low expectations. The taboos don't apply to me. It could be that this is because I'm a hyper-pragmatist at heart but it's not insignificant that at one time I might have felt detached that I felt no strong kinship to any of my ethnicities, which probably helps me to be rather freed from ego. (Another reason idpol is boring, I am utterly uninterested in ego.) It's less painful to forge personality and character when belonging is not as important to me. "I am on no one's side because no one is on my side", as the saying goes. While my blood informs who I am I would hope that anyone who listens to me would do so on the substance. (I do enjoy using my racial status to troll though, that's one thing white people should be jealous of lol.)
Leaving my psyche aside it's understood that much of the non-western world is openly racist; in this context I define "racist" in contrast to "I don't see color." (Surely many a good leftist has walked on the other side of the street when they see a black or brown person on their side, or switched subway cars when a black or brown person enters theirs.) Not-PC might be a sufficient synonym. This is why there's a meme that a white person's greatest fear is not death but being called racist. Even right wingers are proof of this, though thankfully the last few years this has been eroded across the board. It's okay to be white! Damn the social consequences. Fear of social consequences has real-world consequences.
Another reason it's likely difficult for some is liberal default settings. There's something I call "but the right", which is an off-shoot of "of course we're right, we're the good guys." A lot, if not most, non-right-wingers don't want to admit that people on the right can be correct about something. While I considered myself nominally left 10-20 years ago I never felt moored to it. (Growing up in TX, I was for "the red team" even though I was half of voting age. I switched when I went off to college. I've never really bought into the team mentality.) But I lived in Seattle for almost twenty years, I have a good sense of the coastal mentality. I had a subtle yet conscious awareness of "we're right." It was not loud but it was always in the background. Thank goodness I shook everything off entirely after 2016. And the reason for this...
...is that, while this wasn't particularly relevant to the topic at hand, human psychology is the starting point for everything. The reason I'm politically independent is not just because I believe it's pragmatic (and empathetic) to keep an expansive Overton window but because all my opinions on issues tend to come back to human nature and human psych, and how I can't trust those things. And those things inform *everything*.
I'm very impressed. Truly. I've seen your posts come up here and there, probably have looked at them before. reading your article of today , I'm not about paying for many more subscriptions but you got me on this one. This article here, is possibly the most effective, synthesized, simple (not easy, but simple) breakdown of the state of affairs and is a breaker of narratives that I'll easily share with anyone who is now "asking questions." I've come to understand, and while I hate the term, the trap that's always laid from the left is "well... define woke?" you can't, easily, and often end up looking like a stammering idiot trying to do so. To me, I've come to understand that it's not definable. All it is is a forest fire. It's destruction. A friend asked me "how is it that the left LGBTQ+ people can rally with Hamas?" and when I define Woke that way, it's easy to answer. the common denominator that trumps it all, is that the hatred of all things west, white, capitalist. It literally trumps everything. the enemy of my enemy is my friend, etc. It's hate. It is, at the foundation of it all, is hate. It's been laid bare for so long now, and this week is just another chapter. It is hate. And hate wants to destroy. When I'm hating on something, I want to destroy. This is basic psychology. The nexus of it comes from fear, created by the authority, which is a primary emotion, which easily manipulated, spawns Anger and Hate. So here you've actually defined the whole thing. You write with the passion of someone who has been inside... you admit that... who has escaped. And you know, exactly, how dark and wrong it is, and you know how seductive and powerful it is, and you know how hypnotic it is. I am GenX.. I was never "in" it like today's youth, but I went along with so much of it until Covid broke us all. Once you're out... man... you are out forever. And you write with maturity that I could never have imagined in my 20's.. (I assume you're in that gen). Bravo and keep speaking truth to power. In GoT terminology, a la Khaleesi "mother of dragons", I'll anoint you as "Breaker of Narratives"
Thank you so much for your kind words. I was trying for exactly what you have described here, something to give people in the brief window before they start rationalizing their way into not changing.
Your generation has true causes to fight for... well, in truth we all do - I have kids in the 20's/30's , and a grandson... and the TRUE causes.. well.. they ain't the ones that are "as advertised". They are far more obscured in subversion. Keep writing. See some progress,, have your moments to be discouraged, accept some steps backward along the way, and keep writing no matter what. We are not at critical mass yet for the narrative to break, but we are certainly moving in that direction so you must keep going. I guarantee... once we hit critical mass.. the speed at which the narrative breaks will be mind-blowing.. this is how all things go in a fight when we are the underdog. Yet we have truth.. we know it, it lives within us, it is our agency, and it comes from nowhere else except god I suppose... our foes do not have this.. they have no agency of their own, and are demoralized slaves to a higher false ego-driven authority. My grandfather fought through WWII with this same sense of truth and agency. It always wins, and it is always VERY dark before the dawn.