Can we send multiple, copies and copies of this piece to Mr. Coates...inundate him, and maybe a copy or two to Mr. Stewart, and Mr. Noah, and Mr. Klein...who fawned all over Coates. Thank you as always Elissa for your well stated posts; they are a comfort because they are articulate and intelligent and substantive. And I too cannot live without the passion of the "f" word!
Great piece. I don’t want to read Coates because I don’t have the mental energy for garbage. He walked around Israel without seeing a Black Israeli? I guess when someone’s existence doesn’t fit your narrative (directed to Coates) it’s easy not to see them
One of the most idiotic aspects of Coates’ vicious book is the idea that a nation state is the same thing as an ethnocentric state. Almost every country in the world (with the possible exception of the US) is a nation state. The reason why Ukraine is fighting Russia is that they want to preserve their new nation state which they never had before except for a brief period in the 17th century. Would Coates claim that the Ukrainian attempt to revive their language and culture (pretty similar to what Jews did with Hebrew) is immoral? The simple answer is that he is not against national states in general. He is against a nation state for the Jews.
I’ve read everything he has ever written so I know his work well. It’s the stunning hypocrisy I can’t get over. But also: the oversimplification. The near blindness to history. After learning more about him this week because of this article, I’m questioning how someone with as few qualifications as him ever rose to become the patron saint of the progressive left. It says a lot about the movement and the shallow way everything is approached, IMO. But also: this book was number two on the times bestseller list. It’s dangerous.
Mein Kampf was also a bestseller. Doesn’t mean that a book isn’t trash, and as you pointed out Coates is dangerous, but he’s just one member of the genocidal Free Palestine cult.
i've said it before and I'll say it again louder for those in the back --Israel is the only place where ALL of my intersectionalities are safe from governmental harm and intrusion. This is what happens when these youngsters "study history "instead of living it; this is what happens when they stop listening to their elders talking while going about the daily domestic routine.
This is what happens when you don't sit on the porch with your grandmother snapping peas; this foolishness is what happens when you don't accompany your grandfather fishing.
This is what happens when you read about history instead of living it and learning it firsthand from our from eyewitnesses.
My mother would have only needed 10 minutes with this man to disabuse him of all those foolish notions he has rattling around in his head.
First, the F-bomb don’t cross my eyes none. In the course of my 28-year US Army career, I heard it so often that soon it ceased to register. Indeed, I knew some old soldiers who couldn’t say three words without inserting it into their soliloquies.
Second, if the case of Ta-Nehisi Coates boiled down to the fact that he’s a gigantic asshole, it wouldn’t matter. But as it happens, he’s a gigantic asshole who is also an anointed sage of postmodern progressivism—which means that his adolescent blather has the status of holy writ, not to be questioned, engraved you might say on stone tablets. Progressivism is irreligious, but that doesn’t mean that its devotees are relieved of the all-too-human need to believe. Coates and others like him fulfill that need by preaching the gospel of antiracism. And as it turns out, antiracism is antisemitism.
My God, Elissa! I don’t know how you do it day after day, but I appreciate you so much! Thank you for your uplifting and encouraging words. It’s so hard to feel optimistic these days. I had to stop using profanity because I always worked with kids, but I am not offended by your use of whatever words you choose to express your/our feelings about the shit that is going on now. ❤️
Elissa, thank you for this. History matters. Accurate history matters even more. It's mind-boggling to me that someone who has been on the receiving end of the willful distortion and suppression of Black history in the US would turn right around and inflict that kind of erasure on another marginalized group.
This book was so fucking predictable. He’s such a joke. What was much more depressing was watching Trevor Noah discuss feeling angry (for Coates) while watching the CBS interview. However, the most infuriating, was watching John Stewart’s fawning, obsequiousness during his interview with Coates. It was so gross 🤢 🤮.
Elissa, I'm a paying subscriber and I must also be getting old, and for at least the first of these if not for both, I get my say. None of these imbecile anti-Semites is going to come to the truth. We've seen it over and over: Once bitten by the bug, the anti-Semite will double-down forever, all the way down to hell. So the question becomes: Why do we write? My answer is that we write for Jewish posterity. You may have a different answer. I believe that there will come a time, after the Good prevails, that there will be great interest in this period, specifically in learning about those who stood for the Good. Because as you well know, everyone is taking a stand today, and it is being documented as nothing has been documented before, and that documentation is critical. For that reason, because we are writing for posterity, please think twice before you sully your otherwise excellent rhetoric and prose. It will seem puerile to future readers, and it adds nothing of value to your writing. If I sound like an old fart it's because I seem to have become one.
Can we send multiple, copies and copies of this piece to Mr. Coates...inundate him, and maybe a copy or two to Mr. Stewart, and Mr. Noah, and Mr. Klein...who fawned all over Coates. Thank you as always Elissa for your well stated posts; they are a comfort because they are articulate and intelligent and substantive. And I too cannot live without the passion of the "f" word!
Especially Mr. Stewart!
Great piece. I don’t want to read Coates because I don’t have the mental energy for garbage. He walked around Israel without seeing a Black Israeli? I guess when someone’s existence doesn’t fit your narrative (directed to Coates) it’s easy not to see them
I couldn't agree more. Disgusting the way the liberal media is slavering over this racist anti,-Semite.
One of the most idiotic aspects of Coates’ vicious book is the idea that a nation state is the same thing as an ethnocentric state. Almost every country in the world (with the possible exception of the US) is a nation state. The reason why Ukraine is fighting Russia is that they want to preserve their new nation state which they never had before except for a brief period in the 17th century. Would Coates claim that the Ukrainian attempt to revive their language and culture (pretty similar to what Jews did with Hebrew) is immoral? The simple answer is that he is not against national states in general. He is against a nation state for the Jews.
I’ve read everything he has ever written so I know his work well. It’s the stunning hypocrisy I can’t get over. But also: the oversimplification. The near blindness to history. After learning more about him this week because of this article, I’m questioning how someone with as few qualifications as him ever rose to become the patron saint of the progressive left. It says a lot about the movement and the shallow way everything is approached, IMO. But also: this book was number two on the times bestseller list. It’s dangerous.
Mein Kampf was also a bestseller. Doesn’t mean that a book isn’t trash, and as you pointed out Coates is dangerous, but he’s just one member of the genocidal Free Palestine cult.
Well said, Elissa. Swear your ass off, as far as this old lady is concerned.
i've said it before and I'll say it again louder for those in the back --Israel is the only place where ALL of my intersectionalities are safe from governmental harm and intrusion. This is what happens when these youngsters "study history "instead of living it; this is what happens when they stop listening to their elders talking while going about the daily domestic routine.
This is what happens when you don't sit on the porch with your grandmother snapping peas; this foolishness is what happens when you don't accompany your grandfather fishing.
This is what happens when you read about history instead of living it and learning it firsthand from our from eyewitnesses.
My mother would have only needed 10 minutes with this man to disabuse him of all those foolish notions he has rattling around in his head.
First, the F-bomb don’t cross my eyes none. In the course of my 28-year US Army career, I heard it so often that soon it ceased to register. Indeed, I knew some old soldiers who couldn’t say three words without inserting it into their soliloquies.
Second, if the case of Ta-Nehisi Coates boiled down to the fact that he’s a gigantic asshole, it wouldn’t matter. But as it happens, he’s a gigantic asshole who is also an anointed sage of postmodern progressivism—which means that his adolescent blather has the status of holy writ, not to be questioned, engraved you might say on stone tablets. Progressivism is irreligious, but that doesn’t mean that its devotees are relieved of the all-too-human need to believe. Coates and others like him fulfill that need by preaching the gospel of antiracism. And as it turns out, antiracism is antisemitism.
https://unwokeindianaag.substack.com/p/quick-take-antiracism-is-antisemitism
My God, Elissa! I don’t know how you do it day after day, but I appreciate you so much! Thank you for your uplifting and encouraging words. It’s so hard to feel optimistic these days. I had to stop using profanity because I always worked with kids, but I am not offended by your use of whatever words you choose to express your/our feelings about the shit that is going on now. ❤️
Elissa, thank you for this. History matters. Accurate history matters even more. It's mind-boggling to me that someone who has been on the receiving end of the willful distortion and suppression of Black history in the US would turn right around and inflict that kind of erasure on another marginalized group.
Fuck yeah. Onward, warrior Jewess sister!
This is so bad. Everything is so bad. It’s unfathomable, yet here we are.
They apologized for the questions in an interview?!
This book was so fucking predictable. He’s such a joke. What was much more depressing was watching Trevor Noah discuss feeling angry (for Coates) while watching the CBS interview. However, the most infuriating, was watching John Stewart’s fawning, obsequiousness during his interview with Coates. It was so gross 🤢 🤮.
You write great columns. This one is superb. TY, very helpful.
Elissa, I'm a paying subscriber and I must also be getting old, and for at least the first of these if not for both, I get my say. None of these imbecile anti-Semites is going to come to the truth. We've seen it over and over: Once bitten by the bug, the anti-Semite will double-down forever, all the way down to hell. So the question becomes: Why do we write? My answer is that we write for Jewish posterity. You may have a different answer. I believe that there will come a time, after the Good prevails, that there will be great interest in this period, specifically in learning about those who stood for the Good. Because as you well know, everyone is taking a stand today, and it is being documented as nothing has been documented before, and that documentation is critical. For that reason, because we are writing for posterity, please think twice before you sully your otherwise excellent rhetoric and prose. It will seem puerile to future readers, and it adds nothing of value to your writing. If I sound like an old fart it's because I seem to have become one.
Okay, Dad. ;-)
That’s a good girl.
My father would say: “Their mind’s made up, don’t confuse them with the facts.”
Yowza, Elissa! You go.