From Marxist to Intersectionality to Woke, and the Jews

Concepts and consciousness have shifted over time.

Marxism

Marxism roughly held that most people are oppressed. And, when misery would get bad enough, they would bond together, and throw off the yoke of Capitalist Society. It didn’t happen, but it was a nice idea theoretically.

It often—but not always and everywhere—portrayed Jews as oppressors.

Rejected by the antisemitic Working Class, Jews often flee for support to the Owning Class, which holds them hostage to do their dirty work visibly so that the Jews will be seen, blamed, and persecuted as ‘the oppressors.’

The Personal is Political

This comes from the Feminists. You’re not just telling your story as a woman. Your narrative is stronger than theories and abstract ideas.

Ironically, many leading feminists were Jews in the closet.

Critical Race Theory and White Privilege

Critical Race Theory teaches that Racism and White Privilege are systemic. It also prioritizes views by those targeted by Racism over bystander’ words.

It knows for sure that Jews are the Hyper-White. Never mind the following three facts. Most Israeli Jews are indigenous to Arabia. Many Caucasian Jews were persecuted for their ‘Race’ and are hated by Nazis until this day. Jews disproportionally led the fight against White Racism everywhere.

Jews in Middle-Aged Europe were blamed for the pest because of their better hygiene rules. Jews (and Asians) in the US now are blamed for their survival skills that make them climb higher on the Social ladder (so most of them still are not rich, but barely are scraping by as working-class).

Intersectionality

Then came Intersectionality. It held three things:

All oppressions jointly form the web of the Oppressive Society.
All oppressions have so much in common that the oppressed in different groups can empathize with the oppressed in all other groups.
All oppressed should be allies to all other oppressed and create the unity needed to end all oppression.

It often excluded Antisemitism as something to end too. This, especially by pitting Palestinian Muslims and Palestinian Jews against each other.

NB: Much international and local (Haaretz) Israel reporting is Fake News, and most of the time, blatantly antisemitic. Even many Jews believe the nonsense. Don’t read the news. Study it, to find out what’s really going on.

Woke

Woke means one is woken up to the bad in life and wants to become part of the solution rather than stay part of the problem. One needs to become an ally to all of it: landscapes, seas and oceans, beauty and diversity of plant and animal life, and equality for all humans.

This is new and has not yet embraced hatred of Jews so much. But, history teaches us that this is only a matter of time.

Jew

The only way for liberation movements for all to succeed eventually is by not being oppressive to some groups. Complicity with systematic stigmatization and intimidation of Jews will disable the loftiest goals. The really rich and powerful therefore push this bigotry. Trump no exception.

There have always been left-wing groups who embraced Jews, no questions asked. That needs to become the new international norm.

Then, the Left may demand from Christianity and Islam to drop all enmity against the Jews too and that all Jews’ hatred be outlawed everywhere.

Democracy

Everyone against equality-for-all should be outlawed from (ab)using democratic rights, from speaking freely, spreading oppressive myths and claims, standing and voting in elections, to gathering or demonstrating.

Ending all oppressions will give a better life to everyone and not exclude anyone. But, those who oppose this can’t be part of the dialogue.

If you insist on a ‘right’ to murder anyone who annoys you or to oppress anyone you deem inferior, you’re must be pushed out from society.

Being Woke should not be a private but a state religion!

***

The Right

Not only the Left is churning out theories.

Freedom

For decades, the Right has been harping on Liberalism. What they typically do not tell you is that this is a lack of protection of the socially weak, and approval of the Law of the Jungle (of the Strongest) to be selfish and win.

‘Objective’

For some random reason, anything personal is pushed aside as primitive, unsophisticated, ‘only’ subjective, as if without general relevance.

This gives value to all kinds of theories, though they might be all fake. And it looks down on personal stories by the oppressed. Exactly the place where all the details of the oppression explain the bigotry best.

‘Fake News’

People naively lock, stock, and barrel have fallen for paranoid myths and baseless conspiracy theories proceed to call Bonafide Science Fake News. Look who’s taking.

The best selling Right-wing theories are total drivel, believed by millions. There is not even an attempt anymore to appear telling the truth.

Antisemitism

Most of the Right does not need to infuse antisemitism into the party to maintain the bigotry.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1