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Margaret's avatar

This is a rather generous characterization of Gessen’s writing. Gessen is a grotesque parody of an intellectual in service to a fascist regime whose writing is more facile and yet hateful with each article. One of the reasons I no longer subscribe to the New Yorker.

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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

I know it's unfair and even cheap to meet someone's arguments with a crack about their appearance, but sometimes it's relevant, and as they say, A picture is worth a thousand words: Take one look at Masha "M." Gessen and you can see a deeply unhappy person whose misshapen soul peers out through a misshapen body.

As the author points out, misshapen Masha refutes her entire prior career by suddenly becoming a cynical skeptic about rape claims, which I thought were sacrosanct when it comes to tearing down the "patriarchy", but become disputed when made by a Jew on the receiving end of Hamas brutality; then she also mocks Jewish students about their safety concerns, when of course "Safety" has been the paramount value of academia for at least the past decade, evoked when black or gay kids feel threatened (even by an essay), but now suddenly scrutinized when done on behalf of Jews.

But really the most repulsive thing about Masha by far (besides her hatred for her own people) is her grotesque comparison of Israel and Nazi Germany, a foul performance of moral inversion practiced by all Islamo-Leftists in their deranged campaign to erase the evil Zionist entity.

Why make this grotesque comparison, which can be unraveled in a moment's thought? (Hamas could surrender and end all violence but for the Jewish victims of the Nazis there was no escape from death, Israel is trying to protect its people from terrorists but the Nazis had a total monopoly on violence, and it's not Jews who have genocidal dreams but the Palestinians etc etc) Because the goal here isn't reasoned debate, compromise, trying to find some path toward peaceful coexistence, it's to incite total hatred for Israel in the reader, render it as the epitome of all evil and to strip Jews of all claims to deserving of protection and to living safely in their own homeland.

Something uglier than any face happens to Jewish intellectuals when they renounce their birth faith to be baptized in the Leftist faith (Communism, Socialism etc): they suddenly become the most vociferous enemies of their own people, they feel the need to prove their moral supreriority and devotion to universal humanitarianism by denoucing Jews for parochialism, tribalism, and they hate Israel even more than Hamas does.

The psychology of the Leftist Jew is too twisted to explore here, but if I had to sum it up quickly I'd say: they prefer their Jews weak, helpless, homeless, a strong proud Jew fills them with shame, their real devotion is to their self-image as Defenders of the Oppressed Victim, and they're happy to support the murder of their own people to maintain this self-image.

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