In 2016 I saw half of my beloved country go insane. The orange man from Noo Yawk won, not the orange woman from New York. For some reason this difference was enough for half the country to have what deserves to be called a psychotic break with reality. I hope most you have recovered. Where are the concentration camps for Muslims? Where is World War Three? Where is the crashed economy Paul Krugman? The nightmare predictions for what would happen under a President from Noo Yawk rather than New York never came true. I hope most of you have healed from your psychotic break and are ready to live as adults again. But when I turn on the tv I become pessimistic, so many insane people, so little Thorazine. The insanity of my times is beyond anything I have ever seen. I am genuinely surprised by it all and I’m more than old enough that surprises are rare for me. In that way I should be grateful, this unprecedented level of insanity does make me feel young in some way. Thank God because I don’t want to feel boomer old. Never that.
But widespread insanity is the telling feature of our age. It is what future generations will remember us for. The ‘20s were Roaring, the ‘30s were Depressing, the ‘40s were Warring. The Teens were crazy. It is the distinctive feature of our age. The world has changed but our minds have not changed. Our minds do not match reality and it drives some of us crazy. This is happening in at least some way to all types of Americans. But there is a special emphasis on the Democrat supporters, the Freakout of 2016 was mostly a Democrat phenomenon and this gives the Freakout its special character. Their minds are currently the worst mismatch with reality, they are the most insane. But within this group of Democrat supporters are the Jews, and they are the most freaked out of all. They truly gave the Freakout of 2016 its special character. Because they were the most freaked out of all and because the signal was boosted from their predominance in the media. The Freakout of 2016 was mostly the Jewish Freakout. Jewish America plotzed and went completely meshuggeneh when the candidate from Noo Yawk beat the candidate from New York.
Let’s make one thing clear, the American Media is a Jewish institution. There is no reason to go through the statistics, you can find them all over the web. Newspapers are controlled by Jews but no one cares because no one reads them anymore. Television, that’s what matters, and that is also a Jewish institution. This predominance is no different from Jewish success in other fields. Jews are the most successful group in America and make 55% more than average. The reasons for this are obvious if you will give your mind permission to believe that culture influences success. What if you don’t give your mind permission for this? Then your mind will not match reality and insanity will ensue, you will have a psychotic break with reality of at least some degree. Because that is what happens when the description of the world inside your mind does not match reality. You have to choose, either choose to change your mind or to break from this reality that so disturbs you. In my experience most people make the wrong choice, they break from reality. So sad. At least in this one area I do not. Culture does influence success, I see this clearly.
A small amount of open minded research on the subject will easily reveals reasons why Jews are more successful and I will describe more of them in later writings as the relation between success and culture is my personal field of interest. In this writing I will mention only one, Jews hit their children less often than any other group in America. And Blacks hit their children the most. The results are predictable as research shows that hitting your children makes all the good numbers go down and all the bad numbers go up. If you hit them their IQ goes down and their incarceration rate goes up. Guess who is the highest in those two categories, you should be able to figure it out based on what I have told you. If Jews don’t hit their children how do they keep them in line? I’m glad you asked. In comparison to other groups Jews minimize the use of threats to promote obedience to rules among children and maximize the use of persuasive arguments. I don’t know this because I’m Jewish, I know it because I’m from New York which is the next best thing. Well, specifically I’m from Noo Yawk, but you know what I mean. This use of persuasive arguments to gain compliance becomes a life long habit with children raised this way and is a substantial cause of much of what is considered typical Jewish behavior. So there are explanations for why Jews make 55% more than average that make sense. There are explanations which will allow what is in your mind to match what is in the world allowing you to avoid a break with painful reality. But only if you accept that culture influences success, which I surely do.
So, right. Jews hate orange man bad and Jews run the tv. So now the tv hates orange man bad. Now the tv is going completely meshuggeneh. The Jewish freakout gives the great Freakout of 2016 its special character. It’s special character is Rachel Maddow spending an entire episode doing nothing but jabbing her finger at a picture of Putin. Did that really happen? In your heart you know it’s true. The Freakout of 2016 is about reality being too painful and the sufferers retreating from that pain into a comforting fantasy. Jews freaked out the most because they were in the most pain. Judaism is more than just a religion, it is an ethnicity, an enlarged family, a social club, an entire world. Thousands of years of restrictive marriage practices have given the entire religion a sense of being on big family and the Bible is the family scrapbook. No religion has more non believers seated in the pews because no religion has more of a social aspect to it. The Jewish identity is more encompassing than any other religion. And so when the value of that identity is threatened the Jews are more threatened, there is more of a mismatch between mind and reality, more of a freakout. The orange man from Noo Yawk won instead of the orange woman from New York, somebody is going to go completely meshuggeneh. I think Nadler is going to literally plotz.
The problem is Trump moved the target. Republicans are supposed to be a stationary target. They are not supposed to move or adapt or respond intelligently to what’s going on around them. They are not supposed to make any adjustments. This allows their behavior to be predicted decades in advance and plans spanning a lifetime can safely be made around the Republicans, as they are a stationary target. But Trump moved the target. The truth is he moved the target because he is not a true Republican, but he did move the target. He dropped Lazy Fairy economics to add union voters to his base. Trump’s voter base is the same as any other Republican except his includes union voters. And just like that the target moved. If your mind says one thing and the world says another the friction between the two will be painful and if the pain is too great you are going to freakout. Republicans are supposed to be a stationary target. They will never change their policies to expand their base. They will never drop Lazy Fairy economics and add union voters to their base. They will never make that change, they will never make any change. And just like that Trump dropped Lazy Fairy economics and added union voters to his base. Now what is in your mind and what is reality are two different things.
Where does it end? Will Trump make more changes? Any bright person who follows American politics knows that a party which supports free healthcare and opposes third world immigration will win 75% of the vote and run the country from one end to the other. These positions are split across two parties, unite the positions in one party and you will win the White House, Congress and every Governorship. If you’re a Democrat, don’t worry, the Republicans are a stationary target, they would never do such a thing. But Trump moved the target. He chose to lose the dozen votes of the bow tie conservatives at the National Review to get millions of union voters. This is an exchange no other Republican dared make, but Trump dared. What if he adds free healthcare to his platform? Any bright person who follows US politics knows the answer. As Jimmy Dore said, if he does that they will make him king.
If you’ve built your identity around the Republicans being the stupid party, the stationary party doomed to be wiped out by Latinx immigration then Trump moving the target means there is a difference between how reality is described in your mind and how reality is described by observing it. This is painful. This makes people freakout. The greater the threat to one’s self definition the greater the pain. The one hurting the most right now is Rob Reiner, I hope he doesn’t plotz. Judaism would not have survived so long and in so many countries and situations if it was not adaptable. Commonsense would say it is the most adaptable religion in the world. The current adaptation, or form, of American Judaism is Reform Judaism imported from Germany. Not all Jews belong but it is dominant and other forms such as Conservative Judaism are merely imitations of it. Even Jews who do not attend services are still fish swimming in the Reform Judaism sea. This form of Judaism is the defining feature of American Jewish life. Funny thing about Reform Judaism, it has never succeeded anywhere but a Protestant majority country. It was started in Protestant Germany and borrows the name Reform from Calvinism. It is so thoroughly Protestantized that even its name is Protestant. And it fails in any country that is not majority Protestant as it is the Jewish adaptation to life in a Protestant country. It has failed in Israel. How many Reform Jews are there in Israel? Probably as many as there are Protestants. Go anywhere outside the Protestant world and Reform Judaism is absent. Some try to claim Hungary is the exception by categorizing Neolog Judaism as a form of Reform. Don’t buy it. If it ain’t called Reform, it ain’t Reform.
What happens to Reform Judaism in America when the country stops being Protestant? What happens when America gets its first post Protestant President? What happens when an orange man from Noo Yawk is President and the rules change and Protestantism is no longer in charge? An entire way of life built as an adaptation to Protestant conditions is now a mismatch for reality. Now what is in the mind of Reform Judaism no longer matches the reality of post Protestant America. And now the Jews are completely meshuggeneh.
Judaism is most likely the most adaptable religion in the world and has always adapted to local conditions. The mania for gay marriage and trans rights and drag queen story time that Reform Jews show in America does not extend to Israel. This mania is adaption to local conditions, a way of setting the group apart to prevent assimilation and to justify claims to making a contribution that do not involve imitation. In countries with different local conditions the Jews will not support Drag Queen story time. But in America they will, as an adaptation to local conditions. But the conditions have changed. The man from Noo Yawk beat the woman from New York. The Jewish mind is no longer a match for American reality. The form of Judaism invented for no other purpose than to adapt to life in a Protestant majority country is no longer a match for the post Protestant country that America has become. The result of this mismatch between what your mind is telling you and reality results in what a doctor would call a psychotic break in an individual. In large groups of people I like to call it a freakout. Perhaps the technical term is plotzing.
Judaism is the most adaptable religion in the world. Judaism allows the breaking of every single Jewish rule to save a Jewish life. All rules are inferior to the rule of surviving. It is the most adaptable religion, the facts prove it. So many years in so many different countries and situations, this can only be done by adapting. American Jews will adapt. The Reform Judaism that was imported from nineteenth century Germany will disappear and be replaced by a new form which keeps the mind and reality close enough together to keep from plotzing. American Judaism will survive, but Reform Judaism will survive in name only. But until they’ve come with this new and improved version of Judaism expect our Jewish citizens to be completely meshuggeneh. The man from Noo Yawk did what no one thought could be done, he made the Republican Party a moving target. It will take time for the mind to adapt. Until then the freakout continues.