On 2026-07-14 1:08 p.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
I read this article about a dinner party and was immensely proud of the
writer for his powerful defence of his position in the face of so much
sheer but stubborn ignorance about Israel:
https://open.substack.com/pub/moralclaritynewsletter/p/the-people-who-know-nothing-know?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7xsprv
He didn't win. No one listened to him. His evening was ruined and the
sea bass went cold before he had eaten it. His hostess was exhibiting
her one Israeli friend to her other friends, all of whom were shocked
that he could make an argument.
I agree: he didn't win unless one of them heard something in his words
to make them start thinking for themselves. But I'm not holding my
breath on that. They are the definition of blissful ignorance: they're
so sure they have the right angle on things that they're unlikely to
ever back away from it.
He sat there for hours being insulted by people who were willfully
ignorant.
It was an utter waste of two hours for him, of that there is no doubt. I
can't imagine how depressed that would make him; it's clear it made him
angry.
This seems like exactly the right way to respond to the sort of
accusations people like this make. I'm amazed that he didn't leave long
before he did or completely lose his cool; I don't think I could have
kept as calm as he did and I'm not even Jewish.
It's a little hard to believe that he thought the hostess was his friend before he received the invitation.
When I read the article the first time, it felt almost too good to be
true: they were ALL completely ignorant in every possible way. I found
myself wondering if this was more in the nature of an imagined
conversation. I could picture him being in such a situation and being so stunned that he just left immediately and then, in replaying the
situation, picturing what he *should* have said, then writing it all
down in that article. I'm sure we've all looked back at incidents and
wished we'd said or done X instead of Y so maybe this is an expression
of that. But even if it is, I don't care. We know that people DO say all
those things and what he said is exactly what should have been said to
such remarks.
If this is what it has become like to be Jewish, I can well understand
why some/many Jews are considering relocating to safer environs.
Where is there safety from STOOPID?
That's the worst part: this ignorance seems to be everywhere. The only
country that seems immune to it is Israel itself. But it's a tiny
country that's already crowded and is almost constantly under grave
threats from most of its neighbours so that doesn't make it attractive
as a refuge for many people.
It used to be the Canada and the USA were safe for Jews but that seems
to be withering away as so many people decide that the Palestinians are
the righteous ones now, which boggles the mind. Meanwhile, we import
large numbers of people who violently despise Jews....
I've really had my eyes opened to the enduring scourge of anti-semitism
by Oct 7 and its aftermath. I genuinely thought that anti-semitism was
confined to a smallish number of poorly-educated people but it has
somehow been whipped up into a firestorm by an event that should have
done a great deal to UNDERMINE anti-semitism. It must have been there,
bubbling away, the entire time and only suppressed for a time because it
was thought unfashionable. What a horrible thing to have to live with!
I don't worry about it too much. Liberty doesn't mean freedom from
opinion stated in ignorance, nor cold sea bass.
It saddens me that you have to live in this environment. This is why I
avidly wish to see regime change in Iran. They are the ones that are the primary funders of Hamas, Hizbollah, etc. and with a new regime in
power, those proxies may finally wither away into relative
insignificance....
The pendulum HAS to swing back towards sanity. It just has to!
--
Rhino
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