bennjamin

Summary of "evil" conservativism. Encouraging a truth-seeking life over being entertained to death.

@BarackObama Simplist.

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world. Most of all, it’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the Hungarian people – and a reminder to all of us to keep striving for fairness, equality and the rule of law.

‘This is an excellent policy and this is what the British public is calling for!’ Historian and broadcaster Rafe Heydel-Mankoo praises Reform UK’s plan to block visa requests from countries demanding reparations for the slave trade.

@CMechtaly @ChatGPTapp Incredible. I'm sure you had to 'stimulate' it a little.

@bennjmin I made them on @ChatGPTapp

The #UAE sits between the bigotry of low expectations and the resentment of Islamists, one cannot imagine Arab-Bedouin success, the other cannot survive it.

Next time, let’s wait until Iran has nuclear-armed ICBMs, 10,000 ballistic missiles, a Chinese- and Russian-built military, a million attack drones, a fully operational terror network, and hundreds of billions to harden its economy. Then we’ll fight to reopen Hormuz.

With all due respect, I met prince Turki Al Faisal in his house in Riyadh and he seemed to understand Islamist extremism then... but he's been missing the mark a lot. Israel is the only one that can be compared to Ukraine because both Ukraine and Israel are struggling against a similar and connected form of imperial terrorism whether it comes from Russia or Hamas.

@BriannaWu I will verify what you're saying. If true, I will accept and stand corrected.

No, here is the truth. She’s an outright bigot and calls people like me a man quite enjoying degrading us. She’s spending tens of millions of dollars to eliminate my access to public life. And because you liked a shitty child’s book and actually don’t value me, you won’t see it.

I hate Transgender day of Visibility. Deciding to publicly come out as trans is the biggest mistake I ever made in my entire career. I believe we will lose all rights on this course and thought I could help move us to the center. But there’s no constituency for moderate public policy. I wish I’d just kept my mouth shut, enjoyed my life and my marriage and let all the nutcases leading our movement own their failure. Being trans literally does not affect my life because I did the work to integrate. That’s what every single sister should be focused on instead of this “Trans day of visibility” bullshit. Actual trans women want to make it to the other side.

My book “Feminist Antisemitism: An Intellectual History” is out from Routledge in June. It’s about how, as different versions of feminism competed, a feminism that does *not* seek mainstream goals like equal rights or treatment has become predominant. It stars Angela Davis, Judith Butler, Weather-Underground-affiliated whites who advocate for armed revolution and universal childcare, queer and trans antizionists who are against having rights, the socialists who invented Women’s Studies, toxic Twitter feminists, and many more. It shows how feminists turned Jews into the paradigmatic “white women” or “white feminists” that other minorities should shun; how Black and Palestinian women became the feminist vanguard (and synonymous); how byzantine lesbian speech ethics from the 1980s took over feminism decades before anyone knew the names Kendi and DiAngelo; and how intersectionality morphed from a theory that wasn’t great for Jews into one that explicitly targeted them. It features @Phyllischesler, who understood when antisemitism rebranded as antizionism; the UN conference dominated by terrorist Leila Khaled; and much more. It is edited by @DavidHirsh, a part of the @centre_as Studies in Contemporary Antisemitism series, and available for preorder now.

I lost count. This might be my 20th visit to Israel since October 7. Not to Lebanon, where I grew up, where an economy survives on the support of visitors. Not to crumbling Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, which offered me nothing but harassment and a birthplace on my passport. But to Israel, during the worst war since its establishment. Because I am a traitor. I betrayed my friends and family, my educators, and the mainstream in Lebanon, Syria, across the Arab and Muslim worlds, in Europe, and in America. Unlike the masses who have never set foot in Israel, I know that Israelis are not monsters. They do not seek war, nor do they wage it to conquer land. The accusations of genocide, the blood libels, the conspiracy theories—they are not rooted in reality. They are born of ignorance, and too often, of something darker. At best, hostile opinions stem from a profound misunderstanding: of this war, of the history of this conflict, of political Islam and its ambitions, of Judaism, and certainly of Zionism. But how could the average person not be confused? A relentless campaign of misinformation defames Israel while elevating the Palestinian narrative into a simplistic story of pure victimhood. It is emotionally compelling. It is easy. It requires no deeper inquiry. And so the question is never asked: What happens the day after? Would a Palestinian state focus on building a thriving society, contributing to the region and to the world? Or would it continue a war against Israel? History does not leave much room for doubt. Every attempt at compromise has been met by rejection or violence. And yet, the pressure is always placed on Israel—to concede, to risk, to appease. Why? To satisfy crowds who chant slogans they barely understand? To align with a cause that thrives not on building, but on perpetuating conflict? Real genocides unfold across the world and are met with indifference. Millions of Kurds still seek a state. Others fight for self-determination without commanding global obsession. The difference is not the cause. The difference is the JEW. The particular fixation on Israel cannot be separated from a much older story—one of projection, distortion, and hatred uniquely reserved for Jews. I consider myself privileged. Privileged to have seen through the lies I was taught—the lies you are told. Privileged to have encountered the reality of a people who built, defended, and sustained a state against relentless hostility. As a seeker of truth, I was met with warmth, love, and respect. I have come to admire Israel and the Jewish people to such a degree that the noise—the accusations, the mob, the cowardice—has become irrelevant. Yes, I am a traitor. A traitor to narratives built on falsehood. A traitor to expectations that demand loyalty to lies. A traitor to a cause that demands endless sacrifice and conformity. A traitor to a cause to which I owe nothing. On the contrary, it owes me. I believe not what I was told, but what I see. I choose truth over belonging because I am free. If that makes me a traitor, so be it. I stand, firmly and proudly, with Israel. Am Yisrael Chai. #Israel #palestine #October7

@John_Lawlz @BobSpeaksTruth @SarahLongwell25 Wasn't it govt pressing the biggest social media to shut down the Republican President's account?

@BobSpeaksTruth @SarahLongwell25 Even if that were true (it’s not), do you see the difference between people freely saying things you don’t like, and the government using its coercive powers to suppress speech?

Important to note, the FCC Chairman himself is stating that CBS’s new ownership is “Trump winning.” That should deeply embarrass and offend CBS’s leadership. When the FCC Chair brags that you’re state TV for the Trump administration, a reassessment of one’s values is in order.

@tom_mallory @BobSpeaksTruth @SarahLongwell25 @tom_mallory You can't possibly more explicitly admit your mountain of bias than you just did. So you can stop it here - job's done.

@BobSpeaksTruth @SarahLongwell25 Fox is indeed "beneath" me. It is a propaganda mill engineered to rile the otherwise informed. The company even admitted in court that is an entertainment outfit, not a news organization.

@BriannaWu You're one of the most courageous & clear-sighted Democrats I've seen in the last couple of years. You also get a lot of shit-posts in reply but that just proves the point.

Dear fellow Democrats, If you believe either Israel or the United States started this war, you have fallen for propaganda. You are exactly like the right-wing anti-vaxers you despise, believing a storyline without checking to see if it’s true. Iran has been BEGGING for a war since 1979. They have attacked Israel relentlessly, gleefully targeting their civilians. They slaughtered our marines. They’re spent every second since 2005 destabilizing the entire Middle East. All this history is out there for you to read. No one wanted this war. But ignoring jihadists doesn’t work. Sometimes you have to go kill the people trying to kill you.

Francesca Albanese appeared today at the United Nations Human Rights Council to present her annual report. I was the first NGO to take the floor: “Ms. Albanese, in your report on torture, why is there not one single mention of Hamas’ horrific torture of Israeli hostages? You’ve said: ‘It’s not in my mandate.’ But on March 4th, you signed a UN statement condemning US and Israeli strikes in Iran. Are you mandated to speak on events a thousand miles away from your focus area, and not to say one word on the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th, and for two years after in their Gaza tunnels? And when you choose to speak on Iran, why is it only to defend the regime—after you refused to say a single word for the thousands of protesters they massacred? One year ago, the Council President announced that he spoke to you about your conduct, and that you acknowledged his considerations. However, on September 15, you said ‘380,000 children under five’ were killed in Gaza. Are you aware, this is more than the entire population of children under five in Gaza? On October 22, you reposted this statement: ‘Israel is the incarnation of evil.’ Yes or no, is this still your position? On January 6, you reposted this: ‘Israel is pure evil in a way the world has never seen before.’ Yes or no, is this still your position? Canada and Germany condemned you for antisemitism and Holocaust inversion. The French Prime Minister has called for your resignation. The UK has called for an investigation. Italy, Netherlands, Argentina and others condemned your conduct. When so many democracies speak with one voice, the problem is not them—it’s you.” Albanese did not respond.

@BriannaWu This is what JK Rowling has been addressing all those years. I saw you sometimes having troubles with her sharp opinions, but I imagine you both equally understand the intellectual challenge of this sort of "posers".

Progressive ideology literally thinks this person belongs in the women’s locker room, where they can undress and expose themselves. This makes actual trans women trying to pass and integrate deeply unsafe. It turns the public against us. With rights come responsibilities.

@CatShoshanna Hyper-narcissism exposed through selfies, what a great idea. But these guys have no clue, as their women are just ornaments in the house.

The Taliban posting cute, filtered selfies while Afghan women are denied the right to exist publicly at all.

Are the rightwingers who followed Tucker down the anti-Ukraine path going to reassess the ideas and people they got behind? Because we warned you this is just warmed over Cold War-era blame America declinism.

@AnasCortezReina @Esther_Voet Dat is wat elke antisemiet zegt die beweert geen Joden te haten maar hen niettemin niet mens genoeg acht om een land te hebben waar ze niet meer als ongewenste Untermenschen worden bejegend.

@Esther_Voet Niet iedere jood is Zionist!

Een kleine greep: in een zichzelf respecterende culturele sector had Anja Meulenbelt nooit ofte nimmer de P.C. Hooftprijs gekregen. De toekenning was een politiek statement. De complottheorieën die ze verspreidt, zoals onlangs dat de aanslagen door zionisten – lees Joden – zelf in scène kunnen zijn gezet, hadden haar in een normale wereld op intrekking van haar prijs gestaan. Maar nee. niw.nl/voedingsbodem/

@BriannaWu @ProbablyHere_ I had no idea. I would have thought of you as a "cultural Christian" at best. It is a courageous thing to express Christian faith at a time when Jews and Christians are being idiologically besmirched with the "evil colonizer" trope.

@ProbablyHere_ I’m religious. I believe in God. I believe in salvation. I believe your choices matter.

I’m not a super spiritual woo-woo person. But on some level, I feel antisemitism is about the forces of darkness trying to eliminate light in the world. I didn’t feel this way until I went to Jerusalem last year - there is something about that place I cannot stop thinking about. Three of the world’s religions came from there. At Golgotha, I touched the stone where Jesus’s cross was planted in this hole. I’m a Christian, not a Jew. And I have plenty of rational, national security reasons for supporting Israel. But on a spiritual level, I think antisemitism exists because evil exists in men, and for whatever reason, Jews and Israel are sitting very close to the light.

Je naam kwam plots in mijn herinnering terug vandaag. Leuk om je op eX-twitter terug te vinden. t'Is zeker 6 jaar of langer geleden, was nog te links (aka utopist) om je te kunnen waarderen. De realiteit leren zien blijkt voor velen een moeizaam proces te zijn, moet ik tot eigen schande erkennen. Hopelijk mag je zelf - en wij allen - nog een tijd meemaken dat alle slachtoffer-play, virtue-signaling gekte, Islamofobie aanstellerij en pseudo-sociaal schertsvertoon als een kaartenhuis ineen stuikt. Maar voorlopig ben ik al blij wanneer ik in de Angelsaksische leefwereld merk dat een snel groeiend aantal jongemensen zich zijn beginnen verzetten, en onder meer in staat zijn intelligente podcasts uit te baten. Hopelijk breidt dit patroon zich ook uit in Europa.

Oeps, dan mag ik Prosper Mérimée niet meer lezen.