May 07, 2018
Source: Bigstock
Mr. Sailer quips that “great-grandpa wasn’t trying to join a WASP golf club, he was instead blackballed by a German Jewish golf club.”
Or not.
My German Jewish great-great-grandfather fought for the Confederacy, made a fortune in real estate, and was refused entrance to the club, leading him and other wealthy Jews to found their own.
A former girlfriend’s father became a physician around 1950—thanks to winning one of the 2 Jewish slots annually available at University of Toronto.
So yeah, the Jews get a little touchy, based on a rational evaluation of history and the continuing drumbeat of anti-semitism, kept at merely a slow simmer on this blog, amped up considerably in France, say, or when Abbas starts talking.
And if this once “clever and successful strategy” is now wearing thin, that’s a good argument for refurbishing the ramparts.
Howard M. Isaacs
Brooklyn, NY
“It makes sense that a memorial dedicated to strange fruit would so carelessly mix apples and oranges.”
This was quite possibly my favorite thing I’ve ever read on this website. Besides the fact that two ape conservationists started a memorial to black lynchings. Cole has an incredible ability in sniffing out hilarious hypocrisy in all the right (and wrong, I guess) places. If it weren’t so infuriating, I’d laugh a little harder at it.
Cheers!
Chad Bradson
Dallas, TX
Why It Was So Easy to Nuke the White House Media Stuffed-Shirt Dinner
Thank you, Joe Bob, for pointing out how that kind of show should go. I have been attending Gridiron shows sponsored by the San Antonio Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists since the early ‘90’s. I have seen politicians in the audience who were under indictment and who ended up in jail weeks after, who laughed along with the rest of us at being lampooned by some reporter or anchorman onstage. There is always a “pan” awarded at some point in the show, to the city, state or county official who received the most pans in the media during the year.
At a recent Gridiron, following a mayoral race in which everyone “knew” a Hispanic state senator (D) would win out over an interim mayor (R), but lost by a huge margin, both women were in the audience to witness their “Bad Blood” mayoral race being lampooned. Afterward, in the lobby, the contenders posed with their stage avatars for a photo, arms around each other, while those of us watching applauded and – yes, at the risk of sounding soppy – after a Gridiron, we all like, even love, each other, and ourselves, a little more. Besides, we raise a pretty good chunk of money for J-school scholarships, and hand them out at celebration dinners.
Jackie Jordan
San Antonio, TX
First, I’m a big Joe Bob fan, however, in this case he made me watch 19+ minutes of a very bad routine by Michelle Wolf. I didn’t think she was funny. The reason for writing is about her comments to Sarah H. Sanders. Comedians are irreverent, everything is fair game. I found the remarks no more hurtful than those aimed at Trump, Ivanka, or Donald Jr. So, “Much ado about nothing”
Ulrich Sondermann
Reno, NV
Maxims for Life, an Antidote to Hope: Part Two
Dear Mr. DeGroot,
I just want to thank you for your thoughts.
It may seem odd, or frivolous to some, to confront our modern cultural consensus in art and literature when there are elections to be won but ultimately today’s disasters were intellectual movements that became cultural movements, and so the task unfolds before us.
I think there is more than one surface level literary leftist ready to break free and some of your mustard seeds will sprout. David Mamet is surely not a singularity.
Keep up the good work.
Next Year in Hagia Sophia,
Scott McArthur
Further to Bunky Mortimer’s article of 4th May: A Right Royal Farce, I think the monarchy has, since the abdication, been just that.
With the accession of the wife-ridden George VI, the descent into bourgeois inanity began. Then came the nonsense about Princess: ‘Meg’, a hard, selfish bitch, who nevertheless was cheated by a lying parliament, i.e. they told her she would have to give up her titles and her income if she married Townsend, out of her happiness.
To-day, the Royal Family are vulgar celebrities, evidently eager to make obvious their innate stupidity.
It is time to abolish the monarchy, for it provides neither a sense of unity nor pride in national identity. The Empire is gone, and the population of England is now a dog’s breakfast. I believe in the sovereignty of the individual, and when the English wake up, so will they. Let them look to themselves for inspiration – not to a thing which symbolises a flight from reality.
Carl-Edward Endicott
Los Angeles, CA
When one looks at the sky, one realizes there are limits as to how high one can jump. When staring at the (moral) abyss, however, one realizes that sinking is easy and without limit.
William Peters
Rochester, NY
Christians? I’m more reminded of Jews in pre-war Germany.
I’ve previously found it difficult to get my head around the mass anti-Jewish hysteria of pre-war Germany. Anti-Semitism was not a fashion unique to Germany at the time, having a long tradition throughout Europe, Russia and the United States. Germany however was in the grip of fascism, whose leaders had seized on the tactic of convincing Germans that they were the victims of betrayal and exploitation by the Jews.
The antecedent Italian Fascism was conceived as a political philosophy that focused on capitalists and banks as oppressors of the citizens and blight on the nation. It called for a socialist program of nationalization of industries, the confiscation of wealth, a minimum wage, shortened work week, universal suffrage, old age government pensions, and for government central planning of all aspects of society, from education to the arts to the press to labor. The fascists had Blackshirt thugs roaming the streets to stamp out dissent.
Germany’s modified form of fascism additionally decried degeneracy and employed the identity group of Jews as the reviled face of the Germanic/Aryan race’s oppressors in capital and finance, and as purveyors of pornography and decadent art. The press and cinema, then in lockstep with the race-baiting Nazi ideals, drove anti-Semitism with graphic portrayal of Jews as greedy immoral vermin that needed to be rooted out from their filthy nests in the German cities. Jews were made easily identifiable with their yellow Star of David, and persecution was encouraged as official policy of the Reich.
Now fast forward to present day and consider the parallel between mass anti-Semitic hysteria in pre-war Germany and the mass Trump Derangement Syndrome today.
Just browse Twitter or the comment section of any article on a left-leaning magazine, and regardless whether trump is the topic, you will see constant references by leftists to “Trumptards,” “Trump crime family,” “Trump cultists,” “corrupt scum,” and myriad other low-brow epithets. They congratulate one another on their mental and moral superiority to the stupid Trump voter whom they denounce as knuckle dragging white supremacists, neo-Nazis, KKK, fascists, racists, homophobes, etc. Each believes they have the ability to see into the minds of Trump and his supporters to identify well concealed bigotry or venal motives.
Tune in the late-night talk shows or award ceremonies and see the lockstep denigration of Trump and his supporters, with predictions that they will soon be rooted out and their leader imprisoned. The overwhelmingly leftist educators, news outlets, and social media repeat the same narrative day in and day out. Physical persecution of Trump supporters is carried out by modern day Blackshirts who chant, “punch a Nazi” and riot to shut down talks by conservatives. The Trump voter’s red MAGA hat is his Star of David, which if worn openly in a coastal city invites physical attack as bystanders cheer.
Substitute the Trump slurs with Jewish slurs. Substitute accusations of neo-Nazi or white supremacist with Christ Killer. Substitute “whiteness” or “toxic masculinity” with Jewishness. You are back in pre-war Germany.
George Applegate
Los Angeles, CA
To the Editor:
I pop in to read Taki’s Magazine online every two or three weeks. I very much enjoy the perspective of your writers. The one thing I did not enjoy, and which on many occasions kept me from sharing your articles on Facebook and Twitter, was the absolute ugly insanity of some of the comments people made to these articles. It was blight.
Thank you for your new policy. If you ask me, it makes this a better magazine. It certainly makes it one that is easier to share, and I look forward to doing so.
Regards,
Mario Diana
Poughquag, NY
