Sharri is an excellent boadcaster, daring to present evidence that "Gas the Jews" was shouted repeatedly at the Sydney Opera House. The fact that Antoinette Lattouf can still deny that the epithets were yelled out over and over, merely demonstrates the extent of her Jew hatred. Bronwyn Bishop is to be commended for her forthright condemnation of the Jew hatred that pervades the Left in Australia.
And let’s remember that Gas the Jews was one day after the October 7 massacre. Before Israel have fired one single bullet. They were still counting their dead.
“The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority, it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind, it is the appeaser’s intellectual abdication that invites them to take over.”
Altruism and honourable conduct are valid - but can only work when the counterparty shares the same values. When the counterparty does not reciprocate, offering these civilizational values to them is suicidal. This unfortunately is what the West has been doing toward the Arab/Islamic culture since the latter 20C.
Altruism is not valid, period. That is the point of Rand’s article.
It is precisely the code of self sacrifice that has brought us to where we are presently.
It is only the revolutionary (and true) morality of rational self-interest set forth in detail in “Objectivism, the Philosophy of Ayn Rand”, that will get us out.
For a short cut, I direct your attention to the cited article.
My mother (1920-2001) always told me that the world was like this. From about 1950-2000 we lived in a golden age. Well, that’s over. Turns out Mom is right.
It's more frightening than anything I ever thought I would live to see. And more and more it seems we are in the grip of great powers beyond our comprehension. (Ephesians 3:10))
I'm reduced to meditating on the simplest things, the Sermon on the Mount and the two great commandments, so at least I have an idea where to start.
Yes. I’m a 76 year old vaguely lefty Catholic, far too sophisticated to believe in an actual Evil One. But after October 8th I’m finding it harder and harder to maintain that. What other explanation is there!
I always have had a difficult time believing in a "personal devil" despite the description of it/him in the Gospels and despite my reverence for Chesterton who described his own experience with Evil through the Ouija board.
There is something fundamentally wrong in the Middle East. Even if you take out the proximate issue of Israel vs Arab conflict, it is a basket-case of tyranny, internecine conflict, repression against women and barbarism - and also of poverty with the singular exception of oil, whose discovery allowed the previously primitive local elites to live in luxury and spread their influence. Worst of all buy clout within the developed world by holding it to petro-ransom.
For a long time I conjectured that the cause of all this dysfunction was the particular combination of underlying Arab culture, social structure and Islam (since many other Muslim cultures do not share such pathologies). I found a much more in-depth explanation of the region's issues in fellow Australian Substacker Lorenzo Warby... If anyone here hasn't yet discovered him I strongly urge you to read his articles.
Lorenzo theorises that the underlying issues are a combination of a pastoralist/nomadic culture which demanded strong male/clan connections and control of women, combined with a basis of law in revelatory religion rather than the Western agreement-based legalism. This article is a good example:
Backed by a solid bibliography too! There are many other really enlightening posts as well, its been one of my best discoveries on this platform. Highly recommended to anyone following the current culture war.
The biggest evils have always been perpetrated in pursuit of some ideology. And the ideological generally think they're doing the right thing.
Even while being upset by some of what they're being asked to do, the majority justify it based on their ideology: regrettable, but it just needs to be done
Mao, Lenin and so many others, started as ideologues. If you'd asked them about their early motivation, they'd explain it in terms of the greater good.
This is very powerful. I have planned a post of my own on radical evil, which I haven't written yet. I hadn't really considered evil as a category before 7 October. Jewish theology doesn't really deal with it. Evil is seen as bad choices made by human beings. But what happened on 7 October and, in the West, afterwards, can not be adequately described as "bad choices made by human beings," but only as radical evil.
Exactly. The barbarity of Hamas was to be expected but the barbarity of the rest of the world that wished they had done it was far worse. As the Caliphate spreads to Europe and Canada, I know people are not keeping in mind that once a land comes under Muslim control, it becomes Muslim in perpetuity. If the Caliphate is not nipped in the bud, are we looking forward to institutions like the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to wrest control away? Barbarism fighting barbarism. Are we looking at society being controlled by a Muslim government that would make the Nazis look compassionate? I think so. And the West won’t know what hit it until it’s too late.
"Authorities say he does not fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. The man described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam and in many posts on social media expressed support for the far-right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party."
And:
"'This perpetrator acted in an unbelievably cruel and brutal manner — like an Islamist terrorist, although he was obviously ideologically an Islamophobe," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Sunday."
And
"The Central Council of Ex-Muslims said in a statement that the suspect had 'terrorized' them for years as it expressed shock at the attack.
'He apparently shared beliefs from the far-right spectrum of the AfD and believed in a large-scale conspiracy aimed at Islamizing Germany. His delusional ideas went so far that he assumed that even organizations critical of Islamism were part of the Islamist conspiracy,' said the statement.
The group’s chairwoman, Mina Ahadi, said in the same statement: 'At first we suspected that he might be a mole in the Islamist movement. But now I think he is a psychopath who adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies.'”
As a psychologist, I would describe him as both psychopathic and psychotic. There is clearly something wrong with his brain. "Evil" is not a term in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but it is an understandably common non-medical label for a psychotic psychopath. How this person came to be so crazy and antisocial, who knows?
Kelli, there was an image with the notification of your reply about his tweet, but when I went to your reply itself the image was gone. Could you repost?
Thank you for this perspective. My hearing isn't the greatest, so it is difficult for me to make out exactly what the terrorist is saying. Assuming that people who can hear better than I are correct about him yelling allahu-akbar, I still have questions. Has he been secretly pro-Islam since 2006, hiding this by claiming that he is an ex-Muslim? If so, Pamela Geller is right on the money with her X comment, "This is one crazy psy-op for sure." The fact that the Central Council of Ex-Muslims claims he has been terrorizing them for years supports that idea.
Or, has he been genuinely confused and out-of-touch with reality, not really knowing if he was pro- or anti-Islam, cycling back and forth between states of mind (like a bipolar individual), with his worst side coming out during the attack? Either way, he is, to use a non-technical term, one sick f*ck.
By the way, although I support what Pamela Geller is doing, I object to her X comment, "Islamic terror is almost always euphemistically referred to as 'mental illness.' " Mental illness is not a euphemism. It is a serious problem, and nobody consciously decides that they want to be mentally ill. I get the sense that Geller believes that labeling someone as mentally ill is the same as excusing their behavior, but I do not. From my perspective, terrorists are by definition mentally ill and need to be removed from society so they will not continue to harm others.
The Devil's Greatest Trick Was Convincing The World He Didn't Exist.
100%!!
What you said. I live in the middle of it and I am afraid. With you and the Jewish community all the way. No. Matter. What.
Anyone who can read the place should be afraid. We will get through though. 🤍
Sharri is an excellent boadcaster, daring to present evidence that "Gas the Jews" was shouted repeatedly at the Sydney Opera House. The fact that Antoinette Lattouf can still deny that the epithets were yelled out over and over, merely demonstrates the extent of her Jew hatred. Bronwyn Bishop is to be commended for her forthright condemnation of the Jew hatred that pervades the Left in Australia.
And let’s remember that Gas the Jews was one day after the October 7 massacre. Before Israel have fired one single bullet. They were still counting their dead.
“The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority, it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind, it is the appeaser’s intellectual abdication that invites them to take over.”
“ALTRUISM AS APPEASEMENT”
First published in “THE OBJECTIVIST”
—- AYN RAND
Altruism and honourable conduct are valid - but can only work when the counterparty shares the same values. When the counterparty does not reciprocate, offering these civilizational values to them is suicidal. This unfortunately is what the West has been doing toward the Arab/Islamic culture since the latter 20C.
Very good point.
Altruism is not valid, period. That is the point of Rand’s article.
It is precisely the code of self sacrifice that has brought us to where we are presently.
It is only the revolutionary (and true) morality of rational self-interest set forth in detail in “Objectivism, the Philosophy of Ayn Rand”, that will get us out.
For a short cut, I direct your attention to the cited article.
Thank you for your interest.
Thank you, Kelli.
Feminists Against Rape Victims. ™
Who would have thought we were living through this Nancy.
My mother (1920-2001) always told me that the world was like this. From about 1950-2000 we lived in a golden age. Well, that’s over. Turns out Mom is right.
Seems about right.
It's more frightening than anything I ever thought I would live to see. And more and more it seems we are in the grip of great powers beyond our comprehension. (Ephesians 3:10))
I'm reduced to meditating on the simplest things, the Sermon on the Mount and the two great commandments, so at least I have an idea where to start.
I agree with you Michael. Very End of Days stuff.
Yes. I’m a 76 year old vaguely lefty Catholic, far too sophisticated to believe in an actual Evil One. But after October 8th I’m finding it harder and harder to maintain that. What other explanation is there!
I always have had a difficult time believing in a "personal devil" despite the description of it/him in the Gospels and despite my reverence for Chesterton who described his own experience with Evil through the Ouija board.
But October 7 solidified things for me.
You get so much right and see things clearly. Your posts are refreshing reminders there is sanity, clarity, and good in the world.
Thank you so much Steve. I’m so glad I’m not alone in my thinking 🙏🏻
😢😢😢😢
There is something fundamentally wrong in the Middle East. Even if you take out the proximate issue of Israel vs Arab conflict, it is a basket-case of tyranny, internecine conflict, repression against women and barbarism - and also of poverty with the singular exception of oil, whose discovery allowed the previously primitive local elites to live in luxury and spread their influence. Worst of all buy clout within the developed world by holding it to petro-ransom.
For a long time I conjectured that the cause of all this dysfunction was the particular combination of underlying Arab culture, social structure and Islam (since many other Muslim cultures do not share such pathologies). I found a much more in-depth explanation of the region's issues in fellow Australian Substacker Lorenzo Warby... If anyone here hasn't yet discovered him I strongly urge you to read his articles.
Lorenzo theorises that the underlying issues are a combination of a pastoralist/nomadic culture which demanded strong male/clan connections and control of women, combined with a basis of law in revelatory religion rather than the Western agreement-based legalism. This article is a good example:
https://www.lorenzofromoz.net/p/hamas-displays-a-muslim-way-of-war?utm_source=publication-search
Backed by a solid bibliography too! There are many other really enlightening posts as well, its been one of my best discoveries on this platform. Highly recommended to anyone following the current culture war.
That’s great! Thank you.
This. 🙏
The biggest evils have always been perpetrated in pursuit of some ideology. And the ideological generally think they're doing the right thing.
Even while being upset by some of what they're being asked to do, the majority justify it based on their ideology: regrettable, but it just needs to be done
Mao, Lenin and so many others, started as ideologues. If you'd asked them about their early motivation, they'd explain it in terms of the greater good.
This is very powerful. I have planned a post of my own on radical evil, which I haven't written yet. I hadn't really considered evil as a category before 7 October. Jewish theology doesn't really deal with it. Evil is seen as bad choices made by human beings. But what happened on 7 October and, in the West, afterwards, can not be adequately described as "bad choices made by human beings," but only as radical evil.
I agree with you. It was quite difficult to capture what I was trying to say. I hope it came through Daniel.
Exactly. The barbarity of Hamas was to be expected but the barbarity of the rest of the world that wished they had done it was far worse. As the Caliphate spreads to Europe and Canada, I know people are not keeping in mind that once a land comes under Muslim control, it becomes Muslim in perpetuity. If the Caliphate is not nipped in the bud, are we looking forward to institutions like the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to wrest control away? Barbarism fighting barbarism. Are we looking at society being controlled by a Muslim government that would make the Nazis look compassionate? I think so. And the West won’t know what hit it until it’s too late.
You should have a look at the illustrations done for Paradise Lost by William Blake, they're remarkable.
The paintings of Hieronymus Bosch are likely a good indicator of the hellscape you wish to portray.
https://open.substack.com/pub/andrewjonathanfine/p/my-first-five-fans-of-my-trilogy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=nynou
I find the case of the Saudi doctor suspected of the Magdeburg slaughter to be extremely bizarre. First, because he is a psychotherapist, one of the helping professions. Second, because he was anti-Muslim. From an article by the Associated Press, https://apnews.com/article/germany-christmas-market-attack-magdeburg-f14b036514e9ae2d4ca013cf45eac18f :
"Authorities say he does not fit the usual profile of perpetrators of extremist attacks. The man described himself as an ex-Muslim who was highly critical of Islam and in many posts on social media expressed support for the far-right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party."
And:
"'This perpetrator acted in an unbelievably cruel and brutal manner — like an Islamist terrorist, although he was obviously ideologically an Islamophobe," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Sunday."
And
"The Central Council of Ex-Muslims said in a statement that the suspect had 'terrorized' them for years as it expressed shock at the attack.
'He apparently shared beliefs from the far-right spectrum of the AfD and believed in a large-scale conspiracy aimed at Islamizing Germany. His delusional ideas went so far that he assumed that even organizations critical of Islamism were part of the Islamist conspiracy,' said the statement.
The group’s chairwoman, Mina Ahadi, said in the same statement: 'At first we suspected that he might be a mole in the Islamist movement. But now I think he is a psychopath who adheres to ultra-right conspiracy ideologies.'”
As a psychologist, I would describe him as both psychopathic and psychotic. There is clearly something wrong with his brain. "Evil" is not a term in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but it is an understandably common non-medical label for a psychotic psychopath. How this person came to be so crazy and antisocial, who knows?
This is one of his tweets.
Kelli, there was an image with the notification of your reply about his tweet, but when I went to your reply itself the image was gone. Could you repost?
https://gellerreport.com/2024/12/watch-christmas-market-terrorist-shouts-allahu-akbar-during-his-arrest.html/
Thank you for this perspective. My hearing isn't the greatest, so it is difficult for me to make out exactly what the terrorist is saying. Assuming that people who can hear better than I are correct about him yelling allahu-akbar, I still have questions. Has he been secretly pro-Islam since 2006, hiding this by claiming that he is an ex-Muslim? If so, Pamela Geller is right on the money with her X comment, "This is one crazy psy-op for sure." The fact that the Central Council of Ex-Muslims claims he has been terrorizing them for years supports that idea.
Or, has he been genuinely confused and out-of-touch with reality, not really knowing if he was pro- or anti-Islam, cycling back and forth between states of mind (like a bipolar individual), with his worst side coming out during the attack? Either way, he is, to use a non-technical term, one sick f*ck.
By the way, although I support what Pamela Geller is doing, I object to her X comment, "Islamic terror is almost always euphemistically referred to as 'mental illness.' " Mental illness is not a euphemism. It is a serious problem, and nobody consciously decides that they want to be mentally ill. I get the sense that Geller believes that labeling someone as mentally ill is the same as excusing their behavior, but I do not. From my perspective, terrorists are by definition mentally ill and need to be removed from society so they will not continue to harm others.