"I Just Couldn't Accept That That Was Something That Was Being Said": Contemplating Humanity & Inhumanity from "A Weird Place," with Joshua Leifer

"So now I'm in a weird place" is a sentiment many can relate to these days. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, following the latter's barbaric 10/7 torture-rape-massacre of 1400 Israelis, and kidnapping of 240 more, has provoked some of the most acute fissures of my generation, with implications that can't be fully predicted except to say we will be living with them for generations more. Joshua Leifer experienced what he describes as an acute awakening about the nature of left-politics in the wake of the massacre. "I reacted very personally to people I knew personally from the left-journalism milieu, reacting excitedly, triumphantly -- or just justifying the Hamas attacks."

"I was surprised by the controversy of the humane left piece...and even more surprised and kind of appalled by the published response to it."

"These were things that I thought were basically uncontroversial ideas."

"I don't think my fundamental analysis of what's happening has changed. but my sense of where i fit into the american political scene...has changed a little bit."

"That argument incensed me...I just couldn't accept that that was something that was being said. and it turned out to be the case that his sentiment was pretty widely shared among progressive Jews."

Toward a Humane Left - Dissent Magazine

Inhumane Times | Joshua Leifer | The New York Review of Books (nybooks.com)