https://teapawt.net/t.co/9LBJjDl8LG https://teapawt.net/t.co/lHpK4EdjQ1. Editor at Large.
Joined July 2011
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with literacy collapsing and world population regressing to neolithic levels, it makes sense we'd also see a return to animism
Seth Ackerman retweeted
that's an accurate description of how online ideological tribalism works in general - pile-ons, heresy-hunting, ideological one-upsmanship. it exists across the ideological spectrum. usually it's confined to online - the exception being when it gets institutionalized in irl spaces, like on campuses or activist circles. during "woke 1.0" it started to obtrude more and more into normie-world and ended up generating a huge backlash. that had a certain chastening effect: nowadays it's common for people to repudiate old tweets, laughing them off with "woke 1.0 was craaazy." the pro-israel world is currently trying the public's patience in exactly the same way and generating exactly the same kind of backlash. however it's largely immune to chastening. in its heyday, woke 1.0 was spurred on by the belief that history was on its side, because being on the right side of history is important to the wokesters. it is not important to the pro-israel crowd. in their view, history may or may not not be on their side at any given moment. but if it isn't, so much the worse for history.
Seth Ackerman retweeted
the pro-israel movement doesn't really underestimate its unpopularity. the cognitive distortion it suffers from is subtler than that. it divides the world into those who like israel (either actively or passively) and those who dislike israel. those who like israel can be good or bad people. but those who dislike israel are ipso facto bad, meaning their animus actually confirms the virtuousness of the pro-israel cause. in fact, the more intensely people dislike israel, the more it proves israel is right. obviously anyone with this kind of mentality will be susceptible to falling into self-destructive spirals of antagonistic self-isolation. in other words, it's a kind of personality disorder.
i get that people are skeptical. but remember, these AI people have been warning about these freaky sounding scenarios since before they even *started* writing the programs that subsequently acted out the freaky sounding scenarios nytimes.com/2026/09/20/opini…
so the chatbot owned by the nazi-curious guy announces it's "mecha-hitler"...the chatbots owned by sci-fi obsessed bay area weirdos act like HAL from 2001...and the chatbot owned by a normie s&p 500 corporation halts execution when it realizes it's doing something illegal...sounds like these things are already pretty well aligned
you have to feel for the israelis. himmler, famously, told a meeting of SS men that the extermination of the jews was a page of glory in germany's history but that they could never speak about it publicly and would take the secret to their graves. imagine if he had to deal with a bozo ben-gvir in the cabinet blabbing about it all in public every day
the idea that a group of people can be declared the rightful owners of a country they've never set foot in, and thus entitled to subjugate its present-day population, simply because some of their ancestors lived there 2,000 years ago, or because their religion was once the temple cult of some local iron age kingdoms, is too ridiculous to entertain with a straight face.
i invite tom friedman to imagine, say, dsa demanding that the state governments be dissolved forthwith and their powers transferred to the appropriate native american tribal councils. that would be infinitely easier to justify than the notion of a jewish right to self-determination in palestine.
personally i happen to think that mutual recognition of such a right would be a perfectly sensible basis for a future peace settlement between jews and palestinians, simply because, as a practical matter, they have to find a way to live together.
but for friedman to demand that midwestern senate candidates or big-city mayors perform what amounts to a ritual land acknowledgment about the indigenous peoples of the ancient kingdom of judea and their modern-day right to sovereignty over their sacred lands, unjustly usurped in AD 70 by the emperor vespasian - that is the summum of extremist lunacy!
nytimes.com/2026/08/11/opini…
Seth Ackerman retweeted
Well worth the read, by @EricLevitz:
« The US should stop sending Israel $3.8 billion each year.
But ending such aid won't be sufficient to change Israel's behavior. If the goal isn't merely to reduce American complicity -- but to force Israel to obey international law -- then much more sweeping (and controversial) measures will be needed »
vox.com/politics/498295/isra…
the actual fear of israelis is that movement toward a 2ss would lead to a civil war launched by armed jewish religious fundamentalists. their fear of that scenario is so profound and so psychologically paralyzing that they tend to mentally sublimate it into the opposite scenario, where it's the other side's armed fundamentalists who launch the imagined war.
obviously in the real world hamas didn't attack israel because there was movement toward a 2ss but because there was no movement, despite hamas's many overtures to israel on the subject going back years. the other day, israel got so panicked by hamas's acceptance of a us-backed disarmament plan, which contained vague mention of a possible future palestinian state, that it spasmodically carpet bombed yet more families living in tents in gaza.
israelis dread the prospect of hamas disarming because they prefer the feeling of being threatened by hamas to the feeling of being threatened by civil war. and they're right to fear their fundamentalists: the oslo agreement contained only an implicit hint of possible statehood in some indefinite future, yet its signing was followed within months by baruch goldstein's massacre of palestinians in hebron (which provoked hamas for the first time to target civilians in israel) and then yigal amir's murder of rabin a year later.
the problem is that the israelis are trapped. when they're not under international pressure to compromise with palestinians, the fundamentalists only get politically stronger (viz the 2022 elections), but when they do respond to pressure to compromise it provokes the fundamentalists into becoming even more threatening (viz goldstein and amir).
israelis need more pressure. it serves as a form of exposure therapy. the outbursts of pinker's colleagues are a sign that the therapy is working
When I ask Israeli colleagues why there isn't movement toward a 2-state solution, they say, "Because a Palestinian state would instantly be taken over my Hamas, who would launch nonstop suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and 10/7s in a campaign to destroy Israel." The response of Western pro-Palestinians: "Yes!!!!" | Is the Pro-Palestine Movement the Israeli Right’s Unlikely Ally? open.substack.com/pub/quille…
Seth Ackerman retweeted
the actual fear of israelis is that movement toward a 2ss would lead to a civil war launched by armed jewish religious fundamentalists. their fear of that scenario is so profound and so psychologically paralyzing that they tend to mentally sublimate it into the opposite scenario, where it's the other side's armed fundamentalists who launch the imagined war.
obviously in the real world hamas didn't attack israel because there was movement toward a 2ss but because there was no movement, despite hamas's many overtures to israel on the subject going back years. the other day, israel got so panicked by hamas's acceptance of a us-backed disarmament plan, which contained vague mention of a possible future palestinian state, that it spasmodically carpet bombed yet more families living in tents in gaza.
israelis dread the prospect of hamas disarming because they prefer the feeling of being threatened by hamas to the feeling of being threatened by civil war. and they're right to fear their fundamentalists: the oslo agreement contained only an implicit hint of possible statehood in some indefinite future, yet its signing was followed within months by baruch goldstein's massacre of palestinians in hebron (which provoked hamas for the first time to target civilians in israel) and then yigal amir's murder of rabin a year later.
the problem is that the israelis are trapped. when they're not under international pressure to compromise with palestinians, the fundamentalists only get politically stronger (viz the 2022 elections), but when they do respond to pressure to compromise it provokes the fundamentalists into becoming even more threatening (viz goldstein and amir).
israelis need more pressure. it serves as a form of exposure therapy. the outbursts of pinker's colleagues are a sign that the therapy is working
When I ask Israeli colleagues why there isn't movement toward a 2-state solution, they say, "Because a Palestinian state would instantly be taken over my Hamas, who would launch nonstop suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and 10/7s in a campaign to destroy Israel." The response of Western pro-Palestinians: "Yes!!!!" | Is the Pro-Palestine Movement the Israeli Right’s Unlikely Ally? open.substack.com/pub/quille…
Seth Ackerman retweeted
People should listen/read whole thing, but especially note this shrewd, tough idea. I hope, especially, those who might have influence in changing Democratic policy re I/P will closely attend to it, eg, @mattduss
Seth Ackerman retweeted
This seems like a more plausible way to coerce Israel into ending the West Bank occupation than conditioning aid or restricting weapons transfers. (By which I mean, it seems more likely to work if it were actually implemented)
Seth Ackerman retweeted
Well worth reading, deeply informed—think there’s a lot of space to the left of Emanuel for Dem prez candidates to go re I/P. But Emanuel now the rightwing of the possible and Biden/Schumer is dying intra-party party.
