The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, But It Will Be On Tik Tok:

What Ten Years of Revolutionary Rhetoric Has Done to a Generation of Downwardly Mobile Americans

“I don’t want to talk about the conflict right now, it’s just very complicated.” 

“What makes it complicated? It’s about good guys and bad guys, and I think it’s pretty clear who’s who.”

Over the weekend, I met a very impressive Jewish artist who had the misfortune of working with an idiot. It is a misfortune that seems to have befallen many of us of late. 

With a confidence only possessed by the ignorant, he challenged her to discuss the Israel/Palestine Conflict. 

Knowing this was a trap, she extended an olive branch by allowing for them to both settle on “it’s complicated.” 

Personally, I actually agree with him. I think that the current conflict is pretty simple: it’s about good guys and bad guys, and I think it’s pretty clear who’s who. 

Once upon a time, I think most Americans would have agreed. Most Americans would have agreed that, in a conflict between monsters and mothers, the good guys are the ones protecting the mothers. 

But, according to our emboldened idiot, the good guys are always the revolutionaries, and the bad guys are always the oppressors. 

The problem with his argument, well, one of the many, is that there is nothing inherently moral about revolution. 

Since 1960, the idea of “revolution” has taken root in the ideology of American progressives, and for good reason: Revolution is cool. 

In fact, revolution is the coolest thing that a person could ever do. 

That may sound facetious, but it is a historical fact. There is no higher position in the historical consciousness than “Revolutionary.” 

In America, we call the revolutionaries our “Founding Fathers.” We have cities and states named after them. We carved their faces into a mountain. 

In Russia, they have Lenin’s embalmed body on display for all to see – because real revolutionaries never die. 

In China, six hundred million people read Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book every year. 

Revolution is cool, and revolution is sexy. 

Just think about how many people you have seen wearing Che Guevara T-shirts.

The problem with this narrative is that the idea of revolution and the reality of revolution are very different things. 

The idea of revolution is that all of the people in a country spontaneously rise up in united arms against the oppressive powers that be and, by taking up arms against them, end them. 

However, the reality of revolution is that they are neither spontaneous nor unifying events. 

Revolutions are planned by groups of extremely dogmatic and passionate individuals who have the exact same passions and pitfalls as the rest of us.

Generally speaking, revolutionaries are megalomaniacal men who would let millions of people die for the opportunity to etch their name into the bedrock of history. 

If you need any proof, just listen to any one song in the Hamilton soundtrack.

There is no greater historical honor than to be the founding revolutionary of a great nation.  Men who think of themselves as great will always seek an opportunity to prove themselves to be greater than their forebears, like Caesar when he wept at Alexander’s statue.  

For these people, nothing is more noxious than peace and tranquility, for in peace there can be no glory. 

So, for an ambitious young revolutionary born at the turn of the 21st century, America has nothing to offer. Most especially if he is a white man. 

We all know that white men have dominated American politics forever, and we all know that all of America’s revolutionary heroes were white men. 

However, for the first time in American history, a generation of white men grew up being told that they had to take a backseat in the revolution because the 21st century revolution would be a revolution for everyone else. 

But revolutionaries do not like sitting in the backseat, and somehow they always find their way to the front. 

Some would-be-white-male-revolutionary decided to take the opposition side. Rather than join the intersectional revolution, they joined the conservative counter-revolution. Although they do not use the word “revolution” as much as their progressive foils, they are no less dogmatic and open to violence. 

Although we rarely think of conservative politics as revolutionary, we ought to understand it as such. 

Both the American Confederacy and Nazi Germany were revolutionary states. The American Confederacy openly declared that they were the true inheritors of the American Revolution when they declared the Declaration of Independence to be a “self-evident lie.” 

The true revolutionary ideal of America, as they claimed, was not freedom, but slavery. The southern revolutionaries thought they were the true progressives who understood that race-based slavery was the way the world ought to be ordered. 

It was a revolutionary idea at the time because so few people accepted it, even many in the south did not agree with the Confederate leadership on this. Still, when war comes, even if it is only brought by a handful of individuals, it comes for all. 

The same is true for Hitler and the Nazis. The Nazis believed that the Jews were the true enemies of the world. By eradicating the world of Jewish bankers and bolsheviks, the people could finally throw off the yoke of oppression and live free lives.

Most Germans did not believe that before 1933. Contrary to popular belief, Hitler never won a majority of support in an election – he just won enough votes to be able to maneuver himself into power.

Once he did, he and his revolutionary guard began a course of action that would set the world on fire and destroy everything that Germans had ever built. 

The two great revolutionary movements of the 20th century were Communism and Fascism, and neither of them proved to be successful. 

But the heart of the young revolutionary still yearns for greatness, so, rather than abandon the revolution altogether, they just changed the names. 

In America, there are two quiet revolutions happening: one on the alt-right, and one on the progressive left. 

For self-important white men seeking glory, of which this country has many, they must choose between the two if they wish to seek their fortune. 

Our friend who knows the difference between good guys and bad chose the left. But how can a white man, with no intersectional victim status, ever hope to have any kind of influence in that revolution? 

By hating Jews. 

While white men occupy a very low rung on the intersectional totem pole, there is still one group that is lower: the Zionists. 

Revolutions are always obsessed with counterrevolutionaries, and who better to frame as the counterrevolutionary to progressive intersectionality than the religious ethno-state of Israel.

Of course, Zionism is a very big ideology that encompasses people who were as liberal as David Ben-Gurion to as conservative as Benjamin Netanyahu.

In order to avoid any confusion from inconvenient nuances, the progressive revolutionaries just tossed out Zionists all together. 

The argument, as I understand it, is that Zionism==Racism, and Racism is always bad. Therefore, Zionism is always bad.  

There is no room in the revolution for nuance. 

You are either with us or against us. 

And anyone who is against us is a counterrevolutionary who must be stopped for the good of the revolution. 

Generally speaking, counterrevolutionaries are any individuals who do not buy into the revolutionary program. 

In France, they called them Royalists. 

In Germany, they called them Communists.

In Russia, they called them Fascists.

In China, they called them Capitalists.

In America, we called them Redcoats.

Today, we call them Canceled. 

What we call “cancel culture” in America is really just an old-fashioned political purge. 

The revolutionary movement of the progressive left has been removing anyone who poses an obstacle to their revolutionary program from the inside out. 

By ensuring financial and social repercussions for thoughtcrime, the revolutionaries can ensure that they will not face intellectual opposition from within. 

It is similar to Lenin’s purge of the Mensheviks or Robespierre’s purge of the Girondins or Hitler’s purge of the SA.   

The power of a purge is that you do not need to purge everyone; you just need to purge enough people to convince the rest of the country that no one is safe. 

Generally, the best way to do that is to purge someone who had formerly been an untouchable national treasure. By destroying someone with such a well-respected reputation, the revolutionaries send a message to everyone downstream that they could be next.

That is why no one criticizes any transgender policy anymore. 

If they could crucify J.K. Rowling, the world’s first woman billionaire, they could certainly crucify you. 

No western thinker had as much influence and respect as Rowling did, and no western thinker has tried to stand against the revolutionary tide since. 

J.K. Rowling was canceled, in part, for raising concerns about women’s safety given the revolutionary demand for transgender prisoners in women’s prisons.

Rowling, once a leading feminist, was labeled a transphobe and an enemy of the people. 

(In addition to being the first woman billionaire, she also became the first writer billionaire, which is why I decided to get into Zionist poetry… for the money)

The revolutionaries who canceled her for her stance on women’s safety are the same ones who are saying that this conflict is about good guys and bad guys, and the good guys are the rapists and the bad guys are the people who got raped. 

That is the party line, and anyone who deviates from it might be a counterrevolutionary. 

Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that this is wrong, but the social violence of the revolutionary program is so powerful that no one is willing to say it publicly for fear of being purged. 

One can be purged for anything, but Zionism is a capital offense. There seems to be nothing more antithetical to the revolution than Zionism.

Therefore, one way that a revolutionary white man can move up in the ranks of the revolutionary guard is to be a vehement antizionist. 

By punching down on the Jews, the white man proves his commitment to the revolution. 

He demonstrates that he knows the dogma – he knows who the good guys are, and he knows who the bad guys are. And he is not afraid to say it, even if it means he will be called antisemitic.  

He may know that he is not currently considered one of the good guys – but that does not matter. He can make up for his racial failings with his revolutionary action. 

How else could we have white American men criticizing Israel for being a settler-colony? 

Men whose families annihilated the Native American population say this to Israelis with a straight face.

However, I think the saddest casualty of this revolution have been the antizionist Jews. 

Every Jew gets asked a question when they get to college: do you support the state of Israel? 

The question is not free-response; it is yes or no. 

If you say yes, you are socially ostracized from any progressive space on campus. 

If you say no, you are welcomed with open arms. 

There is no secret third thing. 

As a loud-mouthed Jewish contrarian, I could never keep my mouth shut, so I never really had a choice. 

But, for my friends who did, I can understand why they said no. 

It is lonely to be a counterrevolutionary on a college campus. Everyone treats you like a Boomer.

But better to be a Boomer than a traitor! I would tell myself, as I sat alone at lunch watching the Students for Justice in Palestine having an enthusiastic discussion about what the revolution needed to do next. 

Some of them were only passing as antizionists at first. 

They maintained their friendships with me in secret for a time, but, as is always the case, there came a time when they were told to present their revolutionary credentials, and that meant purging me from their lives. 

They never said anything; they just stopped inviting me over. And then they unfollowed me. 

And if it ever came time to name names, I know I would be the first one on their list. 

Because I am an enemy of the people, a man who wants nothing more than for the subjugation of the oppressed. I am an imperialist. I am a capitalist pig. I am a member of the Israeli-American ruling class. 

If there were anything in my life worth canceling besides a Netflix subscription, believe me they would do it. 

~~~

We are still in the early days of this revolution. It has not yet become violent. However, there are some very bad omens ahead of us. 

There are, in every revolution, three categories of revolutionaries. There are the leaders, there are the enthusiastic followers, and then there are the mildly enthusiastic followers. 

Generally speaking, the lines separating these groups are based on their tolerance for violence. 

The most mild followers do not support the use of violence. They have been convinced that, since revolution is the most benevolent human endeavor, their revolution will be an entirely peaceful one.  

These are the “Cease Fire Now” protestors. They genuinely do believe that a ceasefire in Gaza would bring peace to the region, and they are generally opposed to the use of violence in any situation.

They are the last to learn about the violence, and, by the time they do, it is too late for them to change course.  

The more enthusiastic followers tend to believe that the revolution must be achieved “by any means necessary.” They do not necessarily support the use of violence, but they accept that one cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. 

These are the people tearing down posters and publicly antagonizing Jewish people. 

They are not actively attacking anyone. However, they are creating an unstable situation in which violence could occur. Then, once the violence does occur, they fall back to their propaganda machines and blame the people they antagonized. 

A historical example of this is the “Boston Massacre,” which, hopefully we all know, was not a massacre. 

Around 100 Bostonians gathered to antagonize British soldiers by pelting them with rocks and snowballs. The soldiers eventually fired and killed five people. That same day, all of the revolutionary newspapers ran massive headlines about the “Boston Massacre” and the violent repression of innocent hooligans by the oppressive colonial power.  

Sound familiar? 

The third group of people, the leadership, are actively involved in planning violent actions. They are so convinced of the righteousness of their cause that they are ready, willing, and able to do whatever it takes to succeed. Generally, this will require subverting the very values of the revolution they allegedly represent. 

Herman Goering was illegally stocking and training paramilitaries in Germany years before the Beer Hall Putsch. 

Joseph Stalin earned his revolutionary credentials in the Tbilisi bank robbery of 1907, when he proved that the best way to finance the revolution was through crime. 

I do not know who the leaders of the progressive revolution or conservative counterrevolution are, but I do know that these groups have been skirmishing since 2017. 

The Charlottesville showdown was just a precursor to what is to come. 

Especially since the progressives have disincentivized good policing, we can expect to see more and more violent clashes between these two groups, especially in the summer months, and we can expect to see less and less police involvement. 

If you get most of your news from traditional news sources like a newspaper or TV station, you are probably not seeing this. However, if you are on social media, you certainly have.

Young people, downwardly mobile for the first time in American history, are feeling left out of the American Dream. We have many grievances, as does everyone at the moment. Meanwhile, our government and social institutions provide us with no hope of a better future. 

The Jews, as always, are caught between the Fascists who think we are communist dogs, and the Marxists who think we are capitalist pigs. 

The only way out is through a revolution of our own. A revolution of Zionism the likes of which this world has never seen. A revolution in liberal democracy, a revolution in free speech – a revolution in truth.

No longer can we hide in the caves of someone else’s ideology; we must build a political home for ourselves. 

There is no place for a Jew on the Marxist Left or the Fascist Right – we must find a place for ourselves, as we have always done, in the center.   

We must remember that Judaism, despite what our enemies might say, is a revolutionary philosophy, one that is as universal in its outlook as Marxism while as obsessed with the sacred centrality of the individual as Liberalism. It is a philosophy that taught about the dignity of labor 3000 years before Das Kapital. 

And, more than anything, Judaism is a revolutionary philosophy in diversity. It is an ideology that supports Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Ethiopian Jews, Orthodox Jews, Secular Jews, and much, much more. 

The 20th century was a struggle between the great European political philosophies. Both the Communists and the Fascists lost, and they took hundreds of millions of lives with them. The only 20th century political movement that had any staying power was Zionism. 

It has been 127 years since the First Zionist Congress. In that time, the Jews survived the Pogroms, the first World War, the Holocaust, the Second World War, the Israeli War for Independence, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and October 7th, and much, much more. 

The evidence of the staying power and strength of a revolution is the longevity of the nation it created. 

The American Revolution created the United States, which is going on 248 years old. 

The French Revolution, by contrast, created the French Republic, which lasted less than a decade before it was taken over by Napoleon.  

Nazi Germany lasted for 12 years. The Soviet Union lasted for 74. Israel has eclipsed them both.

As much as these new-fangled progressive revolutionaries want to cast Zionists as hateful counterrevolutionaries, the truth is actually the opposite. 

Zionism is the real revolution, and antisemitism is the hateful counterrevolution. 

When the dust all settles, that will become clear once again. But, until then, keep your eyes on Tik Tok, because that is where the modern-day revolutionaries are gathering in secret. 

It will not be long now before the Tik Tok revolutionaries take their movement out of the screens and into the streets.  

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