The liars are winning, the genie is out of the bottle

Sometimes we need to face sad facts before we could find solutions

I need you to keep hope because the news I’m bringing is bad, bad, bad.

For honest people, the contrast between reality and make-believe has never been starker. Fake it until you make it gets a whole new meaning.

Chronologically

A con artist became US President. You can fool some people all the time, all people some of the time, but not all people all of the time. So, he lost his reelection bid. But it was a close call. Now, he’s finally finished, as I blogged before, but it has cost us dearly. It brought us Russians invading Ukraine, and while I write, they’re only stepping up their war crime efforts.

He fought climate change disaster prevention and a pandemic by calling it fake news and declaring war on facts, science, and objectivity.

I told you we entered a new Era though no one else seems to notice. The new Evil spirit is being dishonest. Turns out, we ain’t seen anything yet.

Not so long ago, I blogged about cheating accusations setting the whole chess world upside down. The mess is not yet settled.

I shared recently all my puzzlement about what to think of the value of machine-produced, creativity-like, fake great Art.

The crypto Ponzi scheme is crashing, as I warned 5 years ago, while big investors, saying all is fine, still try to get out what they stole. One of the pack’s leaders failed miserably at doing just that and was detained, broke. When the whole make-believe market goes down, mostly poor people will go hungry, and no one in Capitalist society cared about them anyway.

In the past couple of days, just after the election, a winning candidate’s bubble burst. He allegedly falsified his resumé, his roots, and who knows what else. There are simply no laws to undo his election. In any other job, he would be sacked in one second flat. This brazenness has never been tried by someone standing for national politics, besides by Trump, and no one checked because no one would dare to lie so much—in the past.

And just today, it’s far worse than ever before. A new free app has made it easier for some people to cheat on tests while being harder to catch. The news is never so bad or it could be worse. This bot self-improves. So, whatever paper it writes in a year will be more sophisticated than today.

Coping

So, why bother with honesty? It’s unpopular. It makes you a loser. Why not join the white-liars and the con artists? Let’s call truth and facts obsolete?

This world of fake is based on Hollywood, on religions that lie, on the prominence we give to politics where lying is state of the art, and on physics that works with models that no one can follow.

Humans have only one future and that’s based on facts, reality, justice, findings, honesty, integrity, openness, decency, truth, accountability, etc.

Honest people and everyone are heading for the Dark Ages II.

Yet, eventually, the light will shine through.

If we can’t win from the lies now, at least, let’s honestly document how bad it became so future generations can learn from this—if we’d survive.

***

Very Fine People—on Both Sides of the Table

Tromp entered a new era, and he doesn’t know it.

It used to be that the more scandalously he talked, the more he got free publicity.

Since he caused many of his favorites to lose at the midterms, his revolting tongue registers. This includes anti-abortion, pro-Putin, and pro-insurrection.

It used to be that Jews are naïve and take anything revolting he says with a grain of salt.

Those times are gone. After his clear association with antisemites for his January 6 coup attempt, Jews got cautious.

To dine with one of the leading antisemites of the hour, and afterward to say only ‘Never heard of him’ opened many eyes. Why not: ‘How gross’?

Jews have a memory. We’re the only People with a recall. Trump is done.

What I like best is that Gentile Americans stand up against this. And not even to help the Jews. But, because they understand the role of a non-Jew is to stand whole-heartedly with the Jews period. Good for them!

***

The Tea Party is over

Populist right-wing baseless intolerance must not be an option for Jews

It behooves everyone in US politics, and in the GOP in particular, to denounce any bigotry and hatred that is spread in their name.

Therefore, as an Orthodox Jew, it behooves me to condemn Orthodox Jews who, in the name of Orthodox Judaism, align themselves with the over-privileged and populist, neo-fascist fringes of US politics.

I can even go broader and say: Not for nothing, most US Jews vote left-wing. Emulating G^d about Whom we say on Chanukah: “You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak.” Concern for the socially weak is just up Moses’ alley. Jews should always be against untethered Free Speech and maximally small government. These are ‘ideals’ of those who ignore the weak and want the most ‘freedom’ to exploit and oppress.

Some Orthodox-Jewish opinion makers seem scared of liberalism, progressiveness, modernity, newness, etc. Not consistently, of course, or they would never appear on TV or the Internet. But, when it suits them, they align themselves with ultra-conservative Christians and Republicans, and so reduce Judaism for all to see to some sort of anachronistic cult. Why then not join the Pennsylvania Dutch or Amish? This is a degradation of Judaism. (I’m not belittling the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish here. I’m just saying that Judaism’s Calling is much broader than that.)

I write all of the above mostly to draw attention to this excellent analysis of the cold-heartedness and unfounded hatred coming from a US Orthodox-Jewish neo-conservative populist who dirties the airwaves with his intolerance and snap opinions based solely on a mean-spirited animus. Please go read this breakdown. It is a storm of fresh air.

We also see Orthodox Jews cozying up to anti-social GOP extremists like Trump, but who are less mean and more naïve. But, they also muddy the good name of Judaism that expects us to be part of the most compassionate Movement on earth. Yes, they may speak out for LGBTQ rights and against genocide, and this is important, but that cannot whitewash their warm and close association with reactionary bigots.

And, of course, we need to reject most those Republican politicians who claim to be Jew-ish who have no connection with the Chosen People at all.

The silent majority of Jews in the US needs to distance itself more loudly from these anti-compassionate Orthodox-Jewish opinion makers. Conservatism is not our goal or god. Our Creator taught us differently than letting self-interests prevail. Let’s stand for kindness more brazenly and not be too tolerant of the intolerant. As the Sages tell us: Those who are nice to the mean will end up being mean to the nice.

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