The analogies between what Horowitz is describing and the current moment are striking.

Vietnam protests = pro-Hamas protests

Black Panthers = the BLM. Back then, it was just as fashionable to find some black gangster and worship him as a martyr for revolution

AIDS = COVID. A virus that was dangerous to a very specific group was presented as equally dangerous to everybody causing many unnecessary deaths.

Gay men being physically eliminated through a concerted campaign of ideological lies = transing away the gay.

The same slogans, the same bizarre ideas. The same Anthony Fauci, even. The only difference is that back then the state apparatus wasn’t as completely coopted (and the business world was very marginally coopted) by left-wing radicals as they are now.

Mind you, Horowitz wrote Radical Son a quarter of a century ago. He wasn’t trying to make analogies with 2020-24. Time made them.

Another quote from Horowitz regarding the place of the Jews in radical leftism:

In all my efforts on behalf of black people, I had never thought to ask: Would my black comrades extend themselves to gain justice for me? More than half the freedom riders who had gone to the southern states were Jews, although Jews constituted only 3 percent of the population. It was an unprecedented show of solidarity from one people to another. Jews had put their resources and lives on the line to support the black struggle for civil rights, and indeed two of their sons—Schwerner and Goodman—had been murdered for their efforts. But, even while these tragic events were still fresh, the black leaders of the movement had unceremoniously expelled the Jews from their ranks. When Israel was attacked in 1967 by a coalition of Arab states calling for its anniMore than half the freedom riders who had gone to the southern states were Jews, although Jews constituted only 3 percent of the population. It was an unprecedented show of solidarity from one people to another. Jews had put their resources and lives on the line to support the black struggle for civil rights, and indeed two of their sons—Schwerner and Goodman—had been murdered for their efforts. But, even while these tragic events were still fresh, the black leaders of the movement had unceremoniously expelled the Jews from their ranks. When Israel was attacked in 1967 by a coalition of Arab states calling for its annihilation, the same black leaders threw their support to the Arab aggressors, denouncing Zionism (the Jewish liberation movement) as racism. Rarely had a betrayal of one people by another been as total or as swift.

Of course, nobody except Horowitz learned anything and we are exactly where we are right now.

People are really losing it:

Here’s another quote from Horowitz that is very relevant today. Horowitz is talking about the Black Panthers with whom he worked closely:

A strain of anti-Semitism had developed in the Party during the years [Huey Newton, the founder of BP] was in prison. Of course, the Panthers were not alone among black radicals in their attacks on Jews. In 1966, Stokeley Carmichael and the leaders of SNCC had expelled whites from the civil-rights organization, accusing them of being a fifth column inside the movement. Since Jews were a near majority of the whites in these organizations, and had played a strategic role in organizing and funding the struggle, it was clear to everyone that they were the primary target of the assault.

First, Jewish intellectuals create these organizations and then they are shocked, just shocked that their own creations invariably want to destroy them.

Whoever recommended the book did the right thing.