Wanted to post this too. Needs the classic New Yorker personal_history tag. posted by kmt at 2:13 AM on September 19 [2 favorites]
I wanted to comment that this is an incredible piece, but incredible is exactly the wrong word. It is painstakingly credulous. posted by ftrtts at 2:20 AM on September 19 [7 favorites]
I feel seen. And not in a good way. Although I would rather be known as an N+1 reader, The New Yorker is the magazine I've been reading for sixty years, and those staffers he writes about are my friends and family. posted by kozad at 5:18 AM on September 19 [5 favorites]
literally any sequence of words that might help him feel less complicit posted by seanmpuckett at 5:57 AM on September 19 [12 favorites]
Presumably the disavowal, the rote one you see in every article, with even more fervency as Westerners have come to realize just how evil Israel is. The more boundaries of human rights and justice the occupier violates, the more necessary it is to affirm that it was some irrational outside entity, Hamas, that truly holds the blame. posted by jy4m at 6:21 AM on September 19 [9 favorites]
More of his writing, and in the NYer posted by Dashy at 7:31 AM on September 19 [3 favorites]
as Westerners have come to realize just how evil Israel is
Isn't that particularly just an American thing, not a Western one? I recall seeing polling showing that it's basically only in the US that Israel is not viewed in a negative light. posted by star gentle uterus at 7:43 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]
Really enjoyed this piece. I think any outsider with a modicum of self-awareness working in prestigious liberal media outlets would. posted by Borborygmus at 7:53 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]
Capitalism and colonialism wouldn't work if they didn't mobilize cruelty and sadism. It is cruel and sadistic to expect someone to come in and make nice and tend to others' feelings and fact check an Israeli lawyer when it's their fellow Arabs getting massacred on worldwide video. It is an enjoyment of power. It is an enjoyment of power to treat an increasingly obvious genocide as a subject for the same kind of work that you'd employ in an article on Sharon Stone.
Normally, of course, someone doing detailed interviews with victims of torture and witnesses to executions would be, like, a nonprofit investigator. Even if a person like that weren't well-supported by their org, there would at least be a recognition that this is traumatizing and difficult work.
Love of cruelty and hatred of weakness, that's what is mobilized to get ordinary people to go along with all this. From bullying the weird/queer/disabled kid at school to stealing homeless people's belongings and harrying them from pillar to post to bombing and burning helpless people in a refugee camp, it's all the same psychological process. The very mental process of "oh it is so HARD for me and so TRAGIC that I must create your suffering" is an enjoyable thing, the feeling of being forced, oh forced to bomb and kill and hate. Love of the very disavowal itself.
~~
From my background, that's what Christianity was supposed to be against in the very, very early days of the church. It's all this very elementary "DON'T hurt the vulnerable, whether they are children or foreigners or prisoners or poor people or sick people, when someone is vulnerable they have a CLAIM on you for HELP" - someone seeing this recurring problem of cruelty and hate and trying to stop it. Naturally, this has been perverted into just another way to enjoy sadistic pleasures. posted by Frowner at 7:54 AM on September 19 [17 favorites]
I read this yesterday and it's really good. great writing, very interesting topic. Painfully honest and somewhat discouraging, but only to the extent it paints such a stark picture of reality (and a perspective I cannot have through direct experience). posted by supermedusa at 9:01 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]
> star gentle uterus:"Isn't that particularly just an American thing, not a Western one? I recall seeing polling showing that it's basically only in the US that Israel is not viewed in a negative light."
My casual, layperson's observation of the news suggests that the UK and Germany seem, at least institutionally, as pro-Israel as the US. I'm unclear if this translates to or correlates with popular sentiment but it seems to me that organizations like political parties, the press, academia, etc... in those countries are largely aligned with Israel's orientation. posted by mhum at 10:10 AM on September 19 [4 favorites]
I've been waiting 25 years for a piece like this. Remnick is a mediocre journalist and a phony who turned a once great magazine into a relentless drumbeat for war. It¡¯s just so sad, he said. The glee these people feel about killing."
It¡¯s so sad. I don¡¯t understand. Why would Hamas do this?
He's so full of shit I can hardly stand thinking about the author having to listen to it. posted by mygraycatbongo at 11:26 AM on September 19 [13 favorites]
My casual, layperson's observation of the news suggests that the UK and Germany seem, at least institutionally, as pro-Israel as the US.
i agree with this. my anecdotal experience here in the UK, which might be unrepresentative in many ways but which is consistent with various bits of polling IIRC, is that the UK (especially the current government) is institutionally staunchly pro-israel (to an extent that's actually simply hard to understand), while public support for israel is way lower than in the US, and this tension is a genuine strain on the democratic legitimacy of the UK government at the moment (see e.g. the Palestine Action ban/arrests, etc.).
I was thinking specifically of the US, UK, Germany, and the US' settler-colonial kid brother Canada. But point taken that there are many European nations where the public opinion has been with Palestinian liberation for a long time. posted by jy4m at 2:02 PM on September 19 [2 favorites]
This is a very disappointing peek inside the New Yorker, but a very good article. Thank you for sharing. posted by postcommunism at 6:07 AM on September 23 [2 favorites]
« Older All of these things and none of them at the same... | Drunk bats and garlic-flavoured breast milk... Newer »
¡°Why?¡± asked Larry, in his practical way. "Sergeant," admonished the Lieutenant, "you mustn't use such language to your men." "Yes," accorded Shorty; "we'll git some rations from camp by this evenin'. Cap will look out for that. Meanwhile, I'll take out two or three o' the boys on a scout into the country, to see if we can't pick up something to eat." Marvor, however, didn't seem satisfied. "The masters always speak truth," he said. "Is this what you tell me?" MRS. B.: Why are they let, then? My song is short. I am near the dead. So Albert's letter remained unanswered¡ªCaro felt that Reuben was unjust. She had grown very critical of him lately, and a smarting dislike coloured her [Pg 337]judgments. After all, it was he who had driven everybody to whatever it was that had disgraced him. He was to blame for Robert's theft, for Albert's treachery, for Richard's base dependence on the Bardons, for George's death, for Benjamin's disappearance, for Tilly's marriage, for Rose's elopement¡ªit was a heavy load, but Caro put the whole of it on Reuben's shoulders, and added, moreover, the tragedy of her own warped life. He was a tyrant, who sucked his children's blood, and cursed them when they succeeded in breaking free. "Tell my lord," said Calverley, "I will attend him instantly." HoME²Ô¾®¿Õ·¬ºÅѸÀ×Á´½Ó
ENTER NUMBET 0017 sishe.net.cn deju2.net.cn tuidongla.com.cn tiedai.com.cn www.tsigu.com.cn mayan3.com.cn www.gesu8.net.cn juman6.net.cn www.zhiwo6.net.cn 61tr.com.cn
posted by kmt at 2:13 AM on September 19 [2 favorites]