Intersectional DEI – Opiate of the Masses  

How do intelligent and compassionate people, spread libels that encourage hatred and violence?

Case Presentation

Someone called me distraught about a psychiatrist friend who was repeatedly posting vitriolic libels about Israel. The social media posts depicted Israel as a genocidal apartheid colonial state that intentionally murders babies, destroys healthcare and starves whole populations. She called for River to the Sea and Global Intifada. After what he felt was a warm informative discussion about his concerns, the psychiatrist advised him that she was sorry to have caused him pain. He was shocked and demoralized the next week,  when he discovered similar demonizing posts. How does an educated health care professional, suspend their empathy and interest in truth,  and become obsessed and consumed with hatred?

How does a beloved children’s author start disseminating blood libels about Israelis murdering Palestinians for organ trafficking? Why would LGBTQ activists support Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Islamic Republic of Iran, societies where they would be murdered, beaten or jailed? Why would Black Lives Matter leaders celebrate the Oct 7^th hang-glider attacks and brutal massacres of  Israeli civilians? Why would an international indigenous organization remove Israel from their world map and condemn it as a settler colonial regime, despite Israel’s successful restoration of sovereignty for an indigenous group, the Jews, when they returned to their ancestral homeland? Why do academics and students chant for genocide (River to the Sea) or call for violence against Jews (Global Intifada)? How can mobs, in their modern masked keffiyeh uniforms, reminiscent of fascist student groups,  take over a building at an Ivy league campus, threaten to expel Zionists on the NYC subway, or hunt down Israelis in Amsterdam?

These are the profound, painful and vexing questions that world Jewry has asked itself since Oct 7^th 2023. In order to comprehend what drives the attraction to a divisive hateful theory, masquerading as social justice, I have found it helpful to use a framework of understanding, based on the model of substance abuse. Full disclosure:  I am a physician, but not a psychiatrist nor an addictions specialist.

Intersectional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (I-DEI)

The psychiatrist and many of these groups subscribe to I-DEI ideology. It views the world as a cosmic struggle between privileged evil oppressors, defined by their immutable race, gender and ethnicity,  pitted against righteous victims, who courageously “resist” persecution. Jews are depicted as  White, privileged and Zionists, supporters of the world’s apex colonial oppressor – the State of Israel.  Using jargon and euphemisms, I-DEI insulates itself against criticism. Only a racist or bigot could possibly argue against I-DEI’s message of diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-colonialism.

Intersectionality was initially coined to describe the compounding impact of multiple prejudices- e.g. the discrimination against someone who is Black, gay and female. I-DEI has weaponized intersectionality as an expression of solidarity, to compel all victim groups to unite against any designated oppressor. Truth, nuance and complexity are irrelevant.  People are encouraged to “be on the right side of history” and fight oppression together,  wherever they are told it exists.

I-DEI may be like an Addiction

Like psychoactive drugs, I-DEI distorts thoughts, feelings, behaviors and reality.

People drink alcohol and take sedatives (e.g. Ativan and Valium) to reduce anxiety, slow thinking and numb cognitive dissonance.

Like opiates (e.g. morphine and fentanyl) , I-DEI can reduce internal pain and negative emotions, including feelings of grievance, loss,  anger, shame and guilt.   I-DEI falsely identifies an external cause for their pain, a scapegoat, and advises about the individual and collective actions needed to alleviate it.

I-DEI acts like stimulants (e.g. cocaine and amphetamines) replacing fatigue with energy, fear with courage, and hesitancy and indecision with impulsive actions.  Like MDMA, I-DEI can also intensify pleasurable emotions, love and connectedness, alleviating loneliness and enhancing solidarity.

Like Hallucinogens ( e.g. LSD and psilocybin -magic mushrooms),  I-DEI can alter perception and thoughts, creating new cultural realities. It may even induce delusional thinking characterized by fixed-false beliefs, impervious to truth.  Delusions may include conspiracies like organ trafficking or intentional  killing of children,  aka blood libels.

These altered thoughts and reality, together with feelings of solidarity,  may  elevate people to a state of euphoria, exaltation and power that is seen at mass rallies.

Unfortunately, like psychoactive drugs, these positive effects may not last.  When the rallies and meetings are over, people  may feel deflated, with return of the negative feelings, emptiness, and  dysphoria that led to pursuit of a higher cause.  Our brains often develop tolerance to the effects of psychoactive drugs, leading users to seek more intense exposure, to obtain the same experience. This may be analogous to obsessive viewing,  of increasingly extreme social media, or compulsion to intimidate “the evil enemy”,  or to commit acts of vandalism and violence.

Treatment of I-DEI Addiction

Similar to the treatment for other addictions,  countering the effects of I-DEI requires a multi pronged approach. It starts with education.  Excellent and non-strident writers about the history and dynamics of I-DEI include: Yascha Mounk,  Coleman Hughes, Jonathan Sachs, Adam Kirsch and Gad Saad .

It is not possible to reason with someone in the throes of intoxication.  Some people may be amenable to an “intervention” or conversation  when done by peers with compassion, empathy, honesty and humility.  Unfortunately, this was not successful with the psychiatrist described at the beginning. Like Al-Anon, support groups may help loved ones, friends and victims.

Not unlike actions against drug cartels, administrative and legal measures may need to be implemented to stop the dissemination of hateful propaganda calling for harassment and violence.

Can Institutional  I-DEI be Repaired?

We must never stop fighting against racism, misogyny, homophobia and other forms of discrimination. We need to continue to strive for a tolerant society, that supports equal opportunity, raises the standard of living for all citizens and cares for its most vulnerable members.

Unfortunately, I-DEI substitutes one form of discrimination with another.  I do not believe that I-DEI is fixable.  Its fundamental binary narrative of oppressor/oppressed oversimplifies complex realities and focuses on reverse discrimination which is both unfair and divisive. Denying that “all lives matter”,  is the opposite of humanism. Teaching a society to hate itself for past sins will damage cohesion and lead to its unraveling.  Discarding history and  suppressing the truth for “the greater good” , or denying that truth exists at all,  undermines reality and hinders social and scientific progress.  Enforcing politically correct speech, intolerance of heterodox opinions, and  cancelling and shunning  dissenters, are cruel and totalitarian tools for control. Using mobs to disrupt speakers and shut down dissent is what fascists did last century. Silencing bystanders  eventually leads to intolerable individual and collective social shame.

Recognizing antisemitism or adding Jews to its catalogue of victims, will not stop these corrosive effects.

The foundational planks of I-DEI are similar to other radical utopian movements.  The English translation for the Greek word utopia, is “no place”.

Conclusion

As with the psychiatrist, I-DEI ideology has captured schools,  universities,  medical associations , and other social institutions. Its current intersectional focus on anti-Zionism, and anti-colonialism, have led to the largest outbreak of marginalization, harassment and violence against the international Jewish community, since the Second World War.

I-DEI has become the modern secular religion of the West. Ironically,  Marx, one of its ideological mentors, warned that religion is the opiate of the masses. It is time to fight this new religion with its social addiction. We need to replace I-DEI with liberal structures and policies that truly tolerate and respect diversity of opinion, equality of opportunity, and inclusion of all groups, including Jews and Zionists.