Horowitz mentions how when he became a conservative he noticed that people on the Right were unexpectedly tolerant of divergent viewpoints within conservatism. I’ve noticed this, too. I’ve disagreed with people in my signature intense way about all sorts of things. Trump, abortion, Israel, higher education. And people disagreed in return. Also very passionately. But that was it. The disagreement didn’t go any further. Nobody condemned me as a human being. Nobody accused me of wanting to murder anybody. Nobody diagnosed me with a something-phobia. Nobody said I can’t be a good person if I believe whatever it is I believe.

Also, something I noticed back when I was very much on the Left is that the more conservative people are, the likelier they are to ask questions. They are more curious about people because they accept that there’s more to a person than her political beliefs.

It feels deeply embarrassing, that’s how it feels. Over there, people are heroically fighting a war for national sovereignty while here crowds of pampered babies are throwing a tantrum and the whole world is trying to get them to take a pacifier and go beddie bye-bye.

The people I know who effectuated a rightward political turn recently did it for the following reasons:

– public school closures during COVID;

– lies during COVID;

– gender activism (the teaching of ‘genderbread person’ and ‘sex assigned at birth’) in schools;

– Kavanaugh (like me);

– being called “racist” at work.

I don’t know anybody who turned leftwards but that’s only because everybody I know is already on the Left.

If you changed your political beliefs in any direction in recent years, please share the reason in the comments.

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.

Substitute “Vietnam” with “Palestine” and this exact speech can be made today:

My speech illustrated the real importance of Vietnam to the radical cause, which was not ultimately about Vietnam but about our own antagonism to America, our desire for revolution. Vietnam served to justify the desire; we needed the war and its violent images to vindicate our destructive intentions. That was why the victory of our “anti-war” movement seemed so hollow when it came. The peace killed the very energies that gave our movement life. When it was ratified, there was no dancing in the streets by massive crowds of antiwar activists, no celebrations to match the protests that had made the Communists’ triumph possible.

This is from David Horowitz’s Radical Son. Written in 1996, and still as relevant as ever.

I had no idea it existed, so thank you most kindly for the recommendation.

Now is a strange time to be reading Horowitz’s autobiography because everything he describes about 1968-1975 is happening right now. Unhinged liberals obsessed with a foreign conflict they don’t understand or really care about, occupying campuses and dreaming of “liberated zones” around the country where they would be able to run free. Guilty Jews, lionizing black criminals to expiate their “white skin privilege.” Excusing atrocities overseas by advancing a claim that the US is guilty of worse atrocities.

This is disturbing because it means that the exact same ideas expressed in an almost identical way have dominated the intellectual space in this country for half a century. I didn’t really know how identical it all was. If people were bashing each other’s heads on campuses over “white privilege” 50 years ago and they are doing it now, this is evidence of a complete intellectual stalemate. This is not good news.

I’ll have a lot more to say about the book but I’m only at 37% at the moment. Sincere thanks to whoever recommended. I have the best readers.