Gil

One Struggle

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It’s all one struggle.

For Jewish rights. For Palestinian rights. For Black rights. For immigrants’ rights. For women’s rights. For the rights of every oppressed, disenfranchised, and/or persecuted group of human beings.

Not because those people are all the same or their exact challenges are identical.

But because the social system of wicked injustice that keeps each of them down is the same system.

Across all divides.

The same system presents us with the same struggle.

So we can post funny memes and baby pictures and inspiring quotes on Facebook, and we absolutely should, because life is more than just struggle.

Life is about creation, joy, love, the transformation of darkness into deeper light.

But alongside all that, don’t ever forget that it’s all one struggle.

The Name of Rambam’s Wife

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We know the names of Rambam’s father, brother, son, nephew, father-in-law, and brother-in-law (twice over).

We have a letter congratulating Rambam on his marriage.

We do not know the name of Rambam’s wife.

(Or sister. Or mother.)

Not because there was anything wrong with her or because she had no impact on Rambam or their son, or because she played no role in enabling him to engage in so much exemplary study or shoulder so much communal responsibility.

Not because she had had no name.

But because no one cared to remember it.

I believe that casual erasure reflects so much that is wrong with how we relate to great rabbis, Jewish history, and Jewish women, then and today.

A major corrective is needed, and formally opening the national rabbinate to women is just the first step.

PS: You’re kidding yourself if you think this isn’t connected to the statements about women from some of the classical sages that Rambam promoted in his works.

Binary Thinking Returns

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Maybe it’s part of the romanticization of the past, but I really feel like critical theory had made its point about the inherent incoherence of binary thinking, by the end of the Nineties.

Over the past twenty years, it really seems like the situation has regressed, with binary thinking resurging and this time mobilizing the terminology of critical theory.

There’s a lesson there.

American Fascism Taxonomy

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I guess I still got #TDS. After much back and forth with ChatGPT, eliminating Eurocentric biases, ensuring it was operating from an updated knowledge base, and requesting elaboration on points raised, I found this to be a helpful taxonomy and summary of the uniquely American variant of fascism. There’s no hope for me, friends. It seems my TDS is a lifelong case.

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PART 1 — A Full Taxonomy of MAGA’s Fascist Features and Its Distinctively American Variants

1. Palingenetic Myth (National Rebirth)

Fascist Feature: A narrative of national decay + promised restoration to mythic greatness.

MAGA Expression (general):

– “Make America Great Again” as a rebirth promise.

– Claims that the nation has been “taken,” “corrupted,” or “infected” by traitors.

American Variant:

– The imagined peak is the racialized mid-20th-century order (1950s), with white Christian patriarchal dominance.

– The idea of a “sacred Constitution” needing to be restored to its “true” form—fascism expressed through constitutional fetishism rather than constitutional destruction.

2. Ethno-Religious Peoplehood (“The Real Americans”)

Fascist Feature: The nation is defined as a purified in-group opposed to internal enemies.

MAGA Expression (general):

– Migrants = “invaders.”

– Liberals = “vermin,” “poison,” “traitors.”

– Muslims = security threats.

– Minorities = portrayed as illegitimate beneficiaries of “rigged” democracy.

American Variant:

– White Christian nationalism as the core: to be American is to be white, Christian, culturally conservative.

– Historical racial scripts (Jim Crow, “real America” mythology) embedded in the movement’s identity.

– Evangelical eschatology mapped onto national politics.

3. Leader Cult (Caesarism)

Fascist Feature: One charismatic leader embodies the will of the nation.

MAGA Expression (general):

– Trump positioned as the singular savior.

– Personal loyalty valued over institutions or laws.

American Variant:

– Leader worship expressed through celebrity culture, reality TV aesthetics, and “prosperity gospel” theologies.

– A uniquely American “CEO-leader” archetype blending authoritarianism with business mythology.

4. Anti-Pluralism and Destruction of Democratic Constraints

Fascist Feature: Courts, media, opposition parties seen as illegitimate obstacles.

MAGA Expression (general):

– Attacks on courts, civil service, “deep state,” and independent agencies.

– Efforts to criminalize political opposition.

American Variant:

– Use of federalism to punish blue states.

– Jurisdiction stripping and weaponized administrative purges rather than formal abolition of courts.

– Elections still held but structurally rigged (gerrymandering, voter suppression, election board controls).

5. Normalization of Political Violence

Fascist Feature: Violence (or threat of violence) is treated as legitimate political action.

MAGA Expression (general):

– Praise for attackers.

– Encouragement of mob intimidation.

– Threats against opponents and protesters.

American Variant:

– Violence outsourced to decentralized militias, sheriffs, extremist individuals, and stochastic actors—mirroring American traditions of vigilantism (slave patrols, KKK, lynch mobs), not European party militias.

– Second Amendment mythology as ideological justification.

6. Epistemic Warfare (Reality Control)

Fascist Feature: Propaganda replaces shared truth.

MAGA Expression (general):

– “Big Lie” about elections.

– Delegitimizing science, journalism, academia.

American Variant:

– Use of digital media ecosystems (Fox, OANN, Telegram, etc.).

– Pastoral authority fused with political authority (pastors as political influencers).

– Conspiracy culture (QAnon, apocalyptic evangelism) functioning as a decentralized propaganda engine.

7. Institutional Capture and Long-Term State Transformation

Fascist Feature: Capture of cultural, legal, and administrative institutions in service of the movement.

MAGA Expression (general):

– Turning agencies into tools of personal loyalty.

– Politicized judges.

– Purges of disloyal bureaucrats.

American Variant:

– Use of presidential appointment powers + Senate confirmations to build an ideologically aligned judiciary.

– Christian-nationalist reconstruction of education, museums, and curriculum—using public funding battles instead of a “Ministry of Culture.”

– Expansion of emergency powers using preexisting U.S. statutes (PATRIOT Act logic, Insurrection Act, etc.).

8. Economic Order: Authoritarian Neoliberalism, Not Classical Corporatism

Fascist Feature: Fusion of state and business elites for national projects (in Europe = corporatism).

MAGA Expression (general):

– Favor-trading with aligned corporations.

– Attacks on disloyal firms.

– Protectionism and tariffs.

American Variant:

– No formal corporatist syndicates (Italian style).

Instead: regulatory capture + billionaire alliances + selective state coercion.

– Economic nationalism within a neoliberal framework (unique to U.S. political economy).

9. Sacralization of the State and Nation

Fascist Feature: Politics becomes a quasi-religious project.

MAGA Expression (general):

– Movement symbols, rituals, and mythic narratives.

– Leader as messianic figure.

American Variant:

Fusion with evangelical Christianity.

– The leader portrayed as God’s instrument.

– American exceptionalism repurposed as a nationalist theology.

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PART 2 — Genealogy of American Fascism (Colonial Period → Jim Crow → MAGA)

This traces the organic roots—showing MAGA not as an anomaly but the latest mutation of a deep American lineage.

1. Settler Colonialism and Early Racial Hierarchy (1600s–1800s)

Foundational features:

– Hierarchy between “civilized” settlers and racialized out-groups.

– State-sanctioned paramilitary violence (Indian Wars, militias, slave patrols).

– A mythology of divine mission (“City on a Hill”).

Fascist DNA:
Ethno-religious nationhood + violence as civic duty + mythic destiny.

2. Slavery and the Slave Patrol State (1700s–1865)

– Legal racial caste system.

– Surveillance, policing, and terror built into everyday governance.

– Plantations as proto-totalitarian micro-states.

Fascist DNA:
A racialized police state embedded directly into the structure of “democracy.”

3. Post-Reconstruction “Redemption” (1877–1910s)

After Reconstruction:

– Violent overthrow of multiracial democracy in the South.

– Massive voter suppression.

– Lynching as political/social control.

– “Solid South” = one-party authoritarian system.

Fascist DNA:
Herrenvolk democracy: democracy for the in-group, authoritarianism for the rest.

4. Jim Crow (1890s–1960s)

– Segregation = legal apartheid.

– State-backed racial terror (KKK, sheriffs, police).

– Education, courts, infrastructure explicitly racialized.

Fascist DNA:
Institutionalized ethno-national hierarchy + political violence + state/religious justification.

5. Cold War Anti-Communism (1940s–1960s)

– National Security State expands dramatically.

– Loyalty oaths, surveillance, suppression of dissent.

– McCarthyism models ideological purges in liberal-democratic form.

Fascist DNA:
Ideological purification and state-driven persecution of perceived enemies.

6. Southern Strategy & Christian Nationalism (1968–2000s)

– Fusion of white identity politics with conservative religion.

– Demonization of civil rights, feminism, and multiculturalism.

– Pastors as political mobilizers.

– Replacement-level fears (“white decline,” “losing our country”).

Fascist DNA:
Race + religion + nationalism + apocalyptic moral panic.

7. Post-9/11 Security Structures (2001–2010s)

– Expansion of executive authority.

– Normalization of emergency powers.

– Militarization of police.

– Islam as civilizational enemy.

Fascist DNA:
Permanent emergency logic; domestic militarized control; suspension norms.

8. MAGA (2015–present)

MAGA is not an alien ideology:
It is the crystallization of all these lineages into a single mass-movement form, amplified by digital media and personality cult.

It unites:

– Settler-colonial hierarchy

– Jim Crow racial politics

– Cold War anti-dissident repression

– Evangelical political theology

– Neoliberal oligarchy

– Post-9/11 emergency powers

– A charismatic leader’s personal image

into a coherent American fascism, distinct from but structurally analogous to 20th-century European version

I Am Dry, They Are Wet

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The land needs the rain. I’m grateful for it.

I’m also grateful to live in a safe, dry home, with a heater.

And not in a tent on a rubble-strewn mudslide of a street running between the ruins of bombed-out stores and apartment buildings, struggling to keep the freezing wind and downpour away from my children.

As a religious Zionist, who believes in building a golden city on a hill of justice and righteousness, who believes that we came back home to build a country based on our values, I can not get the thought of those other families out of my mind.

I am dry.

They are wet.

That is not right.

I dream of a Zion where all are safe, dry, and warm.

I hope that dream is infectious.

Not a Religion

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As a child, my parents taught me that Judaism is not a religion, it’s a way of life.

Now, as an adult, I understand why the distinction is so important – and what it means for identity, culture, and covenant.

Atheistic Explanation of Jewish Survival

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Allahu Akbar. But also:

“A strong atheistic explanation has to work without invoking chosenness, providence, metaphysics, or teleology, while still accounting for the extraordinary empirical fact-pattern: a tiny, dispersed, repeatedly targeted ethnocultural group not only survives but regenerates political autonomy, cultural creativity, and demographic continuity over multiple millennia.

The best explanation in secular scholarship combines four interacting forces:

1. Covenantal Ethno-Textual Identity (Self-Reinforcing Structure)

From a secular standpoint, the “covenant” is not metaphysical but a uniquely durable cultural technology.

Key features:

– A portable constitution: Torah + halakha function like a constitution that does not depend on land or state structure.
– A text-centered identity: Identity is encoded in textual mastery, not political territory.
– A distributed, ritualized pedagogy: Every household is a micro-school; literacy is a norm.

Why this matters:
Most ancient peoples tied identity to local cults, temples, territorial kingship. Once displaced, they disappeared. Judaism reengineered identity into portable, duplicable, home-scaled institutions.

This is a sociological survival innovation, not a miracle.

2. Decentralized Communal Networks (Horizontal Resilience)

Jewish communities operated as non-state micro-polities: qehilloth, batté din, charitable systems, standardized rituals, and normative law.

Characteristics:

– Leaderless-by-design robustness: No single authority’s destruction could collapse the system.
– Rapid institutional reconstruction in diaspora: A minyan + a scroll = immediate restoration of structure.
– Highly networked long-distance trade and correspondence: This strengthened international solidarity and resource pooling.

Think of it as a resilient “fractal” system: every fragment regenerates the whole.

No divine design needed—just a uniquely adaptive communal architecture producing long-term continuity.

3. Strong Boundary Maintenance Paired with Permeability

From an atheist perspective, Jewish survival requires maintaining identity yet also allowing controlled integration.

Judaism manages this through:

– Clear endogamy norms → slows assimilation.
– Clear ritual boundaries → makes identity legible and persistent.
– Naturalization allowed but regulated → refreshes the population without dissolving coherence.
– High retention under persecution → increases internal solidarity.

Most groups collapse because either:

– identity becomes too loose (assimilates), or
– identity becomes too rigid (cannot replenish members).

Judaism found a rare equilibrium: cohesive but permeable.

4. Cultural Hyper-Adaptability Under Extreme Pressure

Historically measurable traits:

– Literacy rates far above surrounding populations.
– Economic niche flexibility (trade, finance, crafts, scholarship, administration).
– Mastery of local languages + maintenance of Hebrew/Judeo-languages.
– Continuous reinterpretation of law and tradition.
– Intellectual productivity disproportionate to population size.

None of these require divine intervention. They reflect long-term cultural selection pressures: groups that adapted survived; those that didn’t vanished.

Judaism is one of the rare cultures that evolved adaptive plasticity as a core identity trait.

The Emergence of the Jewish State

A secular analysis sees the Jewish state as emerging from:

– Zionist political ideology (a modern nationalism).
– European nationalism and decolonization patterns.
– Hebrew revival as a cultural modernist project.
– Global geopolitical shifts post-WWII.
– Exceptional diasporic resource networks supporting state-building.

The state of Israel, from this view, is not a miracle but the convergence of:

– a people that maintained identity & literacy for millennia
– modern nationalism and colonial retreat
– mass-mobilizing trauma
– global political opportunity windows
– extraordinary diaspora capital (intellectual, financial, relational)

The simplest atheistic explanation at the highest level:

Judaism as a cultural system was repeatedly tested by extreme pressures; the only communities that survived were those with traits that made survival possible. Those traits—literacy, law, communal solidarity, adaptability—compounded over time.

In other words, Judaism is a culturally selected system optimized for long-term endurance.

This does not reduce Jews to biology—it describes memetic, institutional, and cultural selection, not genetic superiority or mystical destiny.

A strong atheistic explanation combines:

1. Portable textual identity and law
2. Decentralized, regenerative communal structures
3. Cohesive-but-permeable boundaries
4. High cultural adaptability to hostile environments
5. Modern political opportunity windows
6. Cultural selection over millennia

None of these require supernatural claims. Yet together, they explain why Judaism—unlike most ancient civilizations—remains alive, coherent, creative, and politically reconstituted.”

Barukh Hashem, who has planted eternal life in our midst and gave us the Torah as a gift of love. Those who embraced and lived the Torah and its culture as a way of life, survived – if not them (genocide, after all), then their descendants. Those who didn’t, remain only as chapters and footnotes in history books.

עם ישראל חי

AI Is Dumb

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Those of us who use AI daily are not worried about it taking over anything soon. 😂

We’re worried about the people who have already taken over using AI. 😬

This tech is DUMB. Like, it may be the best tech ever invented, but it’s still DUMB.

And people make life or death, hire or fire, fund or cut decisions based on AI output.

One River Many Streams

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What ties together all Hasidim across time and space?

Look to the root, not the branches

There is one river with many streams

You can research the thing in the academy if you want, but set your scope to maximum scale

Otherwise you’ll spend your life in the tide pool not even knowing of the ocean