private

Simon and Jake,

A note about competition: You say this like it’s a universally bad thing.

Competition in the provision of goods and services in a marketplace makes for better quality of goods and services and it impels the competitors to better practices to produce these goods and services.

Also, Wafa Sultan noted that true civilizations do…[Read more]

@Strega – I feel less weird about it now 

I don’t think you have ever written anything that was not well reasoned and on point.

Simon,

You wrote, “All of that’s true. I’m just saying it’s a lot more relaxed to live in the UK right now than the polarised and aggressive USA.

I am not buying the competition and dominance notion.

The reason is that we don’t have a narcissist heading the country winding everything up as hard as he can.

People and groups either coopera…[Read more]

Enco,

Thanks for the Marley link.

Quoting that article, “He had eleven children with seven women, abused his wife, and hated gays.” So doing the lefty calculus being a noble savage and oppressed it means cultural relativism applies and he is an upstanding citizen.

I had a Jamaican gf and have spoken to other women in Jamaica and they confirm…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Regardless it is a woeful history. A history of classism. A history of exploitation. Native peoples divided and conquered. Their resources taken. White man’s burden and all of that, what? If that is not tribal, us and them, then what is it? Charley Dickens and exploitation of children… Having said that English are just human and…

[Read more]

Jake,

Who sings that song about Buffalo Soldier?

That was Bob Marley. Who not only sang in tribute to the Manifest Destiny-enforcing Buffalo Soldier, but he was also a misogynist, a homophobe, a rich Socialist hob-knobber, and just a crappy human being made worse by his Rastafarian religion.

The more I learn about celebrities, the less I am…[Read more]

Here is one article from today’s edition of JP. BTW it is also clear to me that Israel can’t trust the USA to sell it weapons if far left takes power again. I think i read other than USA after oct 7 only Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland or Serbia sold weapons to Israel. Other countries cancelled executory contracts. How fucked up is that? Israel…[Read more]

I am only half a moron. Yeah! I am a complete moron in terms of using the computer effectively. But your opening line is a strawman.

I never once boiled down antisemitism to left or right. Seemingly disparate interests can always share in hatred of Jews. When it is not manifest it is latent and liable to boil over as it has in so many…[Read more]

Boiling down antisemitism to “left or right” just tells me you are halfway to a moron. It’s like the guy living in a trailer on Social Security and Medicaid who votes for Trump because he hates Hispanics.

The betrayal of Trump voters happening in real time was totally predictable. The extra trillions added to the national debt, lower taxes for…[Read more]

Well said Enco. I like that-the oppression olympics. The cast of characters would be severely chopped by lefties.

I was gonna mention the Aztec, Inca and Maya. Just proves human nature in the impact of consolidation of power. Don’t forget how tough and brutal the Commanche were. I think the Cherokee had a lot of slaves if memory serves. You are…[Read more]

I know a guy who grew up in Utah and while the Mormons were not his friend he never heard any Jew hating rhetoric. Was surprised to learn how prevalent it is.

Here is Seinfeld on some of these issues and how it has touched his life. Interestingly Simon, he attributes extremism to i think he said consensus and the need for agreement as part of…[Read more]

Jake,

While i agree indigenous Americans which by the way the dating of their arrival keeps getting pushed back…i think latest i read is up to 40,000 yrs ago…engaged in slavery and war it was not nearly as systematic and degrading as the Atlantic slave trade which truly was an abomination and unspeakably horrible. But it is also true that sla…

[Read more]

I used the word ‘It’ as I knew from the tone of the question that I was just dealing with another one of ‘Them’. A useful idiot spewing “gotcha” type questions who had no comprehension of what had happened in Israel and did not even have the basic facts correct. I only bother speaking with ‘them’ for a few minutes when I can see that I am being…[Read more]

@Reg THANK YOU!! I feel less weird about it now 🙂

Reg,

The tip-off that you were dealing with an “It” was that “It” got the date wrong and called the horrors of October 7th a singular “kidnapping” instead of a pogrom.

And, as a side bar absurdity, “It” also downgraded September 11th, 2001 by calling it a singular “kidnapping” instead of an attack on civilization as a whole.

I wouldn’t have…[Read more]

He said it.

Ha ha.

Ok so i have not even read these but quick search and here are a few among many indicating the trajectory.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/02/british-jews-experience-more-antisemitism-as-middle-east-war-escalates

https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-details-terrible-normalized-antisemitism-at-uk-universities/

Just a few comments.

I’ve only really come across the singling out of Jews since I’ve been in the USA.

I can say the same Strega. I lived for a few years on the East End Road in East Finchley, London. The population was mainly English, Jewish (English and East EuropeanRussian), Indian and Irish. But nobody cared about that. To the point that it…[Read more]

History of England is immensely oppressive of native peoples. Sun did not set. Exploitation on steroids. Fucked over the Irish to a degree that is shameful. Not much freedom of expression in the star chamber. Ya did beat the Americans in outlawing slavery first. USA gave the vote to women a bit sooner.

Regardless it is a woeful history. A…[Read more]

Enco writes, What Jake has copiously said addresses this as a human condition, not exclusive to the U.S.A. But I might add that the indigenous tribes here warred and enslaved each other for centuries before Europeans arrived and Africans were dragooned along for the ride. And these Europeans and Africans brought along their own tribalist wars and…[Read more]

The UK isn’t all that tribal.  We have a long tradition of civility together with freedom of expression.  We seem to value people being themselves.  The extremists (left, right) are the most tribal, but then, we know why.  They just love competition and dominance.