As a conservative Christian, I thank the Lord that a talented former New York Times liberal has decided to take on the evils of wokeism!😀😀😀 You go girl!
Thank YOU Bari! I have to say you are my most favorite person in the world that I've never met =) and I'm thrilled to subscribe and do a tiny part to help out. It is truly incredible what you've been able to accomplish through pure grit and incredible journalism. Your ability to dig into difficult issues and communicate in such an eloquent and easily absorbed way is inspiring and quite moving.
I was losing hope for the future of this country, watching the culture being ripped apart by false narratives and corrupted media despite being the most progressive and inclusive and free country in the history of the world (as my brother loves to say "its too good here"). But seeing you and Taibbi and Greenwald and Coleman Hughes and Chatterton Williams, etc. take a stand for the common sense moderates (who I believe are still the majority) has given me true hope for change. I believe that to save us from this downward spiral we need to be able to speak to the center-right and center-left majority in a way that is inviting, open-minded, informed and free-thinking. Where folks can bring different perspectives without being attacked or forced to agree and where disagreement is encouraged and makes us all better. Solving the complex problems America faces today cannot be done with the current overreach and corruption in our government and mainstream media or by mob rule. It needs to come from the people in the middle. I encourage you to do more long form discussions and Clubhouse looks like the new place where that may be happening. Perhaps a podcast as well and be sure to have conservatives join you as well.
And lastly, thank you for your work highlighting the discrimination and concerning shift impacting American Jews. It is outrageous how little is reported or discussed about Jews in this country under the guise of being too low on the victim hood scale. It's also absurd that Jews on the left seem fine ignoring all of this in the name of so called racial justice or because they hate Trump or republicans or whatever the excuse is this year. Your discussion with Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove was an amazing summation of the current situation and I've shared it with many friends who needed to hear it. You touched on many of the points discussed over the last few years in one sit down and again did so beautifully.
So thank you for your bravery and hard work. I hope to be able to join the fight in my own way soon but for now I have hope that we can right the ship and look forward to what comes next for you. Happy early Pesach!
Your four-legged friend looks a lot like our late Tibetan Terrier, Sadie. Your writing gives me hope that there may be a way out of the mess that we are in.
Bari: One topic you might write about soon is the recent oil spill off the coast of Israel that may have been sponsored by Iran as an act of ecoterrorism. For some reason, it has not gotten much press here, and I don't know why. Doesn't it (1) tug at the heartstrings in any event (I've seen the pictures of IDF soldiers holding birds covered in crude), and of greater relevance to you perhaps, (2) become a big political story affecting the overall standing of Iran in the West, and therefore the status of talks, if Iran was in fact responsible? It wouldn't shock me if the actual destruction of Israeli waterfowl would upset the Biden team far more than the prospect of Iran having nukes aimed at Tel Aviv. You presumably have some serious contacts in Israel, so maybe you could sort out the current state of play among the different branches of the Israeli government (I gather there are some differences of view), or at least highlight the story enough so that it becomes better known in the US, and then we can all see how it develops. Thanks.
Here's a tip: If Bari sells shares in her enterprise, buy the stock! Why? Because any place that provides a refuge of clear thinking and reasonableness, as this newsletter does, will only grow in popularity. The majority of people in this country do not buy into the hard left mindset and at some point, hopefully very soon, the Pushback will occur.
The Rabbi is very nice decent man but after watching him over the last few months seems to be a bit of a wokster. But as always you are so careful and thoughtful in presenting this very complicated issue. My guess is that he like many aligned with the progressive left are struggling to acknowledge their silence. Your using the word insidious to describe the activities of the extreme left is necessary and I hope the Rabbi will think carefully about what that means and what he must now do.
I'm a more generous to him. He's questioning, and is willing to listen to someone who brings up things differently. Initially, the first questions will be in the jargon he's used to and has up to this point assumed was the best way to talk about these topics, but he was sincere in his questions and committed to justice. A wokester would have reacted to Weiss' commentary with hostility, but he was interested and showed willingness to be challenged.
Think of it this way: we're all coming at the truth from a different direction. Someone who starts on one side of the issue is going to be different from someone coming at the issue from the opposite side, but they're still converging on the same point. I found his questions and attitude encouraging.
Thank you for your courage Bari! I’m a new paying subscriber and huge fan. I hope everyone pays, and you double your old salary! Keep up the amazing work. I will keep on reading and sharing everything you write.
As a brand new paying subscriber, I am pleased to hear that your newsletter is paying your old salary at The Times, "and more." It is worth reflecting again on the power and importance of a free marketplace for commerce, as well as ideas. Digital media allows thoughtful and independent thinkers like yourself to be free of the bullying orthodoxy of places like The Times, and to thrive financially by providing a public good through journalism that stimulates curiosity and goes against the grain. Hurrah Bari Weiss. Hurray Adam Smith.
I thoroughly enjoyed your thought provoking and wonderful commentary in the discussion with the Rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue. I am long in years and thus can only wish you well in your endeavors to perpetuate our tribe amidst this storm and the unapologetic defense of the American creed as embodied in our founding documents. It is truly a said time when the ideal spoken by MLK during the Civil Rights era of judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin has been has been converted to the opposite.
Staunchly religious Jewish 23 yr old girl here...uncomfortably watching on the sidelines as the language of these progressives sound awkwardly close to religious teachings, with the creation of adherents and heretics, without any penchant for understanding or forgiveness, and plenty of excommunications. The ultimate reward? Political power. What happened to the separation between church and state? This is wrong - this isn't what America was created for, or any nation, and it's dangerous for religion, individuality and classical liberalism everywhere. The catholic church is back with their inquisitions.
Good luck Bari, you rock! Give a sensible voice to the voiceless. Also, I'm against the tokenization of Jews in the culture war and appreciate your stance on this.
Yours and John McWhorter’s are my first two substack subscriptions, and your voices have brought me a measure of clarity I have not felt in decades. Your perspective is particularly sanity reintroducing for this fellow queer, classically liberal Jew at a time when I have felt the only remaining bastions of reason remaining were sprinkled throughout the likes of Reason, CATO and National Review. I suppose I have a few more small l libertarian leanings than conservative ones, but I am at heart and remain the small l liberal of my upbringing in the 80s and 90s, as inculcated by Roddenberry as I was by Locke or Mill. I am grateful for the refuge, but still feel like a refugee amongst conservatives. To see so much as a glimmer that there could be a liberalism that is not leftism to belong to again someday gives me a genuine sense of hope. I look forward to following your writing closely over the coming months.
For many reasons, I hope this venture succeeds. I have two questions about the NYT. I was pleased the article on Smith appeared not only in the newspaper but also on its front page. But I was also surprised since it contradicts the structural racism narrative the paper has done so much to promote. Why do you think the article made its way into the paper? Second, I noticed that Parul Sehgal is no longer Book Review editor. Why? And who is now the editor of that section? Thanks for all you do and for your courage.
Keep up the good work. I read your book on antisemitism and found it well done. I couldn't vote for Trump in 2016 so did a write in. In 2020 I made my deal with the devil and voted for Trump. Trump's behavior since the election leaves much to be desired. Biden's behavior since taking office is every bit as bad as I feared. The fight against CRT, wokeism, cancel culture and the "Elect" as John McWhorter calls them has been joined. I am glad we are on the same side on this one.
One of the real pluses of Substack is the ability to dialog with the person who owns the site (you in this case). Greenwald and Taibbi do a great job in this regard even though I disagree with a lot of what they say (particularly Matt). John McWhorter takes a different approach but also interacts with subscribers. I hope you will as well.
As a conservative Christian, I thank the Lord that a talented former New York Times liberal has decided to take on the evils of wokeism!😀😀😀 You go girl!
Viewed your Heritage Foundation talk panel. And I learnt a lot from you and others. More please!
How do I contact you? samprince0824@gmail.com
Thank YOU Bari! I have to say you are my most favorite person in the world that I've never met =) and I'm thrilled to subscribe and do a tiny part to help out. It is truly incredible what you've been able to accomplish through pure grit and incredible journalism. Your ability to dig into difficult issues and communicate in such an eloquent and easily absorbed way is inspiring and quite moving.
I was losing hope for the future of this country, watching the culture being ripped apart by false narratives and corrupted media despite being the most progressive and inclusive and free country in the history of the world (as my brother loves to say "its too good here"). But seeing you and Taibbi and Greenwald and Coleman Hughes and Chatterton Williams, etc. take a stand for the common sense moderates (who I believe are still the majority) has given me true hope for change. I believe that to save us from this downward spiral we need to be able to speak to the center-right and center-left majority in a way that is inviting, open-minded, informed and free-thinking. Where folks can bring different perspectives without being attacked or forced to agree and where disagreement is encouraged and makes us all better. Solving the complex problems America faces today cannot be done with the current overreach and corruption in our government and mainstream media or by mob rule. It needs to come from the people in the middle. I encourage you to do more long form discussions and Clubhouse looks like the new place where that may be happening. Perhaps a podcast as well and be sure to have conservatives join you as well.
And lastly, thank you for your work highlighting the discrimination and concerning shift impacting American Jews. It is outrageous how little is reported or discussed about Jews in this country under the guise of being too low on the victim hood scale. It's also absurd that Jews on the left seem fine ignoring all of this in the name of so called racial justice or because they hate Trump or republicans or whatever the excuse is this year. Your discussion with Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove was an amazing summation of the current situation and I've shared it with many friends who needed to hear it. You touched on many of the points discussed over the last few years in one sit down and again did so beautifully.
So thank you for your bravery and hard work. I hope to be able to join the fight in my own way soon but for now I have hope that we can right the ship and look forward to what comes next for you. Happy early Pesach!
Your four-legged friend looks a lot like our late Tibetan Terrier, Sadie. Your writing gives me hope that there may be a way out of the mess that we are in.
NEW TOPICS, ECOTERRORISM.
Bari: One topic you might write about soon is the recent oil spill off the coast of Israel that may have been sponsored by Iran as an act of ecoterrorism. For some reason, it has not gotten much press here, and I don't know why. Doesn't it (1) tug at the heartstrings in any event (I've seen the pictures of IDF soldiers holding birds covered in crude), and of greater relevance to you perhaps, (2) become a big political story affecting the overall standing of Iran in the West, and therefore the status of talks, if Iran was in fact responsible? It wouldn't shock me if the actual destruction of Israeli waterfowl would upset the Biden team far more than the prospect of Iran having nukes aimed at Tel Aviv. You presumably have some serious contacts in Israel, so maybe you could sort out the current state of play among the different branches of the Israeli government (I gather there are some differences of view), or at least highlight the story enough so that it becomes better known in the US, and then we can all see how it develops. Thanks.
Here's a tip: If Bari sells shares in her enterprise, buy the stock! Why? Because any place that provides a refuge of clear thinking and reasonableness, as this newsletter does, will only grow in popularity. The majority of people in this country do not buy into the hard left mindset and at some point, hopefully very soon, the Pushback will occur.
I think the Pushback is starting...https://arcdigital.media/the-new-war-on-woke-ced9fd3699b.
The Rabbi is very nice decent man but after watching him over the last few months seems to be a bit of a wokster. But as always you are so careful and thoughtful in presenting this very complicated issue. My guess is that he like many aligned with the progressive left are struggling to acknowledge their silence. Your using the word insidious to describe the activities of the extreme left is necessary and I hope the Rabbi will think carefully about what that means and what he must now do.
I'm a more generous to him. He's questioning, and is willing to listen to someone who brings up things differently. Initially, the first questions will be in the jargon he's used to and has up to this point assumed was the best way to talk about these topics, but he was sincere in his questions and committed to justice. A wokester would have reacted to Weiss' commentary with hostility, but he was interested and showed willingness to be challenged.
Think of it this way: we're all coming at the truth from a different direction. Someone who starts on one side of the issue is going to be different from someone coming at the issue from the opposite side, but they're still converging on the same point. I found his questions and attitude encouraging.
Thank you for your courage Bari! I’m a new paying subscriber and huge fan. I hope everyone pays, and you double your old salary! Keep up the amazing work. I will keep on reading and sharing everything you write.
As a brand new paying subscriber, I am pleased to hear that your newsletter is paying your old salary at The Times, "and more." It is worth reflecting again on the power and importance of a free marketplace for commerce, as well as ideas. Digital media allows thoughtful and independent thinkers like yourself to be free of the bullying orthodoxy of places like The Times, and to thrive financially by providing a public good through journalism that stimulates curiosity and goes against the grain. Hurrah Bari Weiss. Hurray Adam Smith.
I thoroughly enjoyed your thought provoking and wonderful commentary in the discussion with the Rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue. I am long in years and thus can only wish you well in your endeavors to perpetuate our tribe amidst this storm and the unapologetic defense of the American creed as embodied in our founding documents. It is truly a said time when the ideal spoken by MLK during the Civil Rights era of judging people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin has been has been converted to the opposite.
Staunchly religious Jewish 23 yr old girl here...uncomfortably watching on the sidelines as the language of these progressives sound awkwardly close to religious teachings, with the creation of adherents and heretics, without any penchant for understanding or forgiveness, and plenty of excommunications. The ultimate reward? Political power. What happened to the separation between church and state? This is wrong - this isn't what America was created for, or any nation, and it's dangerous for religion, individuality and classical liberalism everywhere. The catholic church is back with their inquisitions.
Good luck Bari, you rock! Give a sensible voice to the voiceless. Also, I'm against the tokenization of Jews in the culture war and appreciate your stance on this.
Yours and John McWhorter’s are my first two substack subscriptions, and your voices have brought me a measure of clarity I have not felt in decades. Your perspective is particularly sanity reintroducing for this fellow queer, classically liberal Jew at a time when I have felt the only remaining bastions of reason remaining were sprinkled throughout the likes of Reason, CATO and National Review. I suppose I have a few more small l libertarian leanings than conservative ones, but I am at heart and remain the small l liberal of my upbringing in the 80s and 90s, as inculcated by Roddenberry as I was by Locke or Mill. I am grateful for the refuge, but still feel like a refugee amongst conservatives. To see so much as a glimmer that there could be a liberalism that is not leftism to belong to again someday gives me a genuine sense of hope. I look forward to following your writing closely over the coming months.
For many reasons, I hope this venture succeeds. I have two questions about the NYT. I was pleased the article on Smith appeared not only in the newspaper but also on its front page. But I was also surprised since it contradicts the structural racism narrative the paper has done so much to promote. Why do you think the article made its way into the paper? Second, I noticed that Parul Sehgal is no longer Book Review editor. Why? And who is now the editor of that section? Thanks for all you do and for your courage.
So I guess you are fulfilling the Mitzvah of being happy in the Jewish month of Adar😎
Keep up the good work. I read your book on antisemitism and found it well done. I couldn't vote for Trump in 2016 so did a write in. In 2020 I made my deal with the devil and voted for Trump. Trump's behavior since the election leaves much to be desired. Biden's behavior since taking office is every bit as bad as I feared. The fight against CRT, wokeism, cancel culture and the "Elect" as John McWhorter calls them has been joined. I am glad we are on the same side on this one.
One of the real pluses of Substack is the ability to dialog with the person who owns the site (you in this case). Greenwald and Taibbi do a great job in this regard even though I disagree with a lot of what they say (particularly Matt). John McWhorter takes a different approach but also interacts with subscribers. I hope you will as well.