A Radical Reset
Our Republic has been converted into a democracy which is just another name for mob rule. The mob is getting what it wants, to paraphrase H.L. Mencken, good and hard. One day soon, the entire edifice is going to collapse under its own weight and what takes its place historically will be tyranny. A Radical Reset is the alternative and the system is called Antipolitism. It calls for a new republic based upon merit and not ambition. No parties, no money in politics, no careers in politics, and only serving the public good.
A Radical Reset
Jews are still here: A candid look at persecution, resilience, and cultural misunderstandings
What happens when a self-described "Spiritual Agnostic" decides to tackle anti-Semitism head-on? After an unsettling encounter with anti-Semitic comments online, I felt compelled to address the questions many non-Jews have always wondered but rarely ask directly: Why are Jews constantly persecuted throughout history? Do Jewish people bear any responsibility for the stereotypes they face?
Taking you on a deeply personal journey through Jewish identity, I break down the three branches of Judaism—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform—with candor and occasional humor. As a Reform or "Jew-ish" person myself, I offer an insider's perspective on what makes Jewish culture distinctive, from our approach to education and success to our characteristically fatalistic sense of humor (there's a reason so many comedians are Jewish!).
The podcast explores the concept of Jews as a "middleman culture"—similar to Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia or Armenians in various regions—and how economic success often breeds resentment. Through personal anecdotes and historical insights, I address misconceptions about Jewish beliefs, including the often-misunderstood concept of "chosen people" and our relationship with religious texts.
Perhaps most poignantly, I share what economist Thomas Sowell (who isn't Jewish) said when asked what Jews could do to end anti-Semitism. His one-word answer—"fail"—reveals a profound truth about prejudice and success. This episode isn't just for those curious about Judaism; it's for anyone interested in how cultural identity shapes our experiences in a world that often misunderstands difference.
Whether you're Jewish, curious about Judaism, or simply interested in cultural understanding, this unfiltered conversation offers insights into a complex identity that has survived millennia of persecution while maintaining its distinctive character and contributions. As we navigate increasingly polarized times, perhaps understanding one another's perspectives is more important than ever.
Howdy partners, it's me, herbie, your host at the Spiritual Agnostic and today, which I'm actually recording on Thursday instead of my customary Friday, even though I'm not going to post it until Friday because I'm going to discuss anti-Semitism. And the reason that I'm recording it a day early is because my buttons got pushed while I was for lack of a better term doing a little trolling on X. Anyway, on X, some guy said what was the biggest mistake Hitler made in World War II and why did he lose the war. And I said kicking out, exiling and otherwise killing the Jews, because that included Einstein and Oppenheimer. And I hate to break it to you, but that's how the United States got nuclear weapons and Germany never had a chance in the war from the beginning because of the enormous industrial might of the United States and the world's largest merchant and military navy of Great Britain, which people never talk about. But it's true, germany never had a chance From the very beginning. Hitler's biggest mistake was starting the war. But you know that all said and put aside, that somehow brought out the anti-Semites and suddenly I was being attacked by anti-Semites and you know the next thing? I knew I was responding and then I decided you know what I'm going to disengage because this relates to the last podcast I did on stupidity and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and then it started getting my wheels turning.
Speaker 1:So I thought for those of you who are Gentile and have always wondered, what is it? Okay? A, why are the Jews constantly persecuted from the dawn of time? That's number one. Constantly persecuted from the dawn of time? That's number one and number two. What is it about us that attracts I don't know, caricaturization? Is that a right word? That's a long word, I'm glad I got it out of my mouth. But are there behaviors, are there characteristics of Jews that are just somehow trigger people into believing the worst possible things and going stupid? Do we bear some culpability for our own ruin? So I'm going to have an adult conversation as a Jew.
Speaker 1:So to give you a little background, I am what is called a Reform Jew. Now, there are breakdowns within it, but basically in Judaism, just like in Christianity, you have Catholicism and then you have Protestantism and then within Protestantism, you've got a gajillion different Protestant groups, subgroups, religion, religious I hate to use the word sect, I'm not sure what Christians call it, but various churches. I guess I'll just use the word yeah, that's the word. I always hear churches. You have a lot of different churches within Protestantism.
Speaker 1:So in Judaism there are three basic outlines of Jews. There's the Orthodox, and the subgroup within the Orthodox are the Hasidic, and those are the ones that people always associate with Jews when they're anti-Semites, because somehow it's easy to caricaturize Jews as having, you know, black hats and long black coats and big beards and you know schlepping along with their wives behind them, wearing wigs. You know pushing strollers with 5,000 children, and that is Hasidim or, as they're called in Israel, haredim. But that's a very small subgroup of Jews that come from Poland and the little villages called shtetls and I'm not going to go into. I'm going to stop translating Yiddish backwards and forwards if I use Yiddish, just take it out of context and you're probably right about what it means.
Speaker 1:So as I go down. So that's a subgroup, but Orthodox in general will always wear a yarmulke. So if you've ever gone to, like Trader Joe's, for example, in my part of the country has a very good kosher foods department and they have kosher meats, which is very important. That's a long story. I'm not going down that road, but you'll see Orthodox Jews in there all the time with their families and the little boys wear yarmulkes and the wives' heads are covered, usually with a scarf, and little girls don't have to bother with that nonsense. They're not off the deep end, aside from the yarmulkes and head coverings, you wouldn't know them from anybody else. But they strictly observe the Sabbath, they strictly keep kosher and they follow Judaism in its most orthodox, that is to say Catholic, form. Okay, you know, the most Latin mass Catholics would be very close to what an orthodox Jew would be, if we're going to use a broad analogy. So that's probably not accurate. Please don't pick me apart. I'm just trying to make people understand. I'm sure you get the drift of what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1:Then you go to the conservatives, which the conservatives to the Orthodox are like the Anglicans to the Catholics. So basically all the ceremony, but without a lot of the really strict, strict, strict, strict rules. I separate the Episcopals from the Anglicans because the United States, the Anglican Church, which is the Episcopal Church, has gone off the deep end of Woken, so I'm just going to leave that off there in its own little land. But people who identify themselves as either traditionally Episcopal in the United States or Anglican in the Catholic Church, you get what I mean. You know, basically there's no pope and there's the Archbishop of Canterbury, but he's not nearly in the same position and the church has a lot of ritual and you know the same kind of trappings and if you walk into an Anglican church or a Catholic church in Europe they're very, very similar. It's just sort of. You know, it's optional if you want to go completely off the deep end.
Speaker 1:So my brother, who's my half-brother but I'm not going down that road either is a conservative Jew. He does keep kosher that's a choice but he does not wear yarmulke in public, he does not wear tefillin under his shirt. You know, I'm so tempted. You know I can go from tefillin to Mormons. You know my mind goes flying off into space, but I've got to stay on track. Anyway, mo is my, his name is Morris, but I call him Mo. Mo, my brother and his wife Adora, they don't how his mother, how her mother named her after a hat is beyond me. But anyway, there you go. So they're, and they and their children, they actively practice, they keep the Sabbath. They do keep kosher, but they're not crazy about it. They're not like glot kosher. So there's different kinds of kosher.
Speaker 1:So there's the Orthodox Jews who it has to. They don't eat in a restaurant that isn't kosher because they know they're not maintaining separate sets of plates for dairy and meat, as would be strictly kosher. Whereas they'll go, my brother and Fedora will go to a pizzeria. I've been with them and I'm not kosher. I'm reformed. We'll get to me in a minute, but I'll order a pepperoni pizza. They'll order a cheese, close enough. Okay, they don't mix meat and dairy, but they're not off the deep end of oh my God. They made this pizza in an oven where a pizza with meat on it touched the hot stone or whatever it is. That's conservative.
Speaker 1:And then there's what I am, which is reform, and a lot of reformed Jews are secular Jews, just like I am. They're Jew-ish. I'm very, very proud of being a Jew, but the religious part to me is almost secondary to the cultural experience which is, believe me. There are Orthodox Jews who, when they hear me say this in this podcast, they are absolutely wanting to slap the crap out of me for being so stupid, and I do understand. So maybe that makes me not so much stupid as clueless. But I'll have that discussion with them. The cousins can argue with each other. I'm just sharing with you that Reform Jews are the.
Speaker 1:If they were asked if they were Jewish, americans or American Jews to a toddler, it would be American Jews. Our first and foremost allegiance, for most American Jews, is America. Um, we're also fierce zionists. We see no conflict in that. Um, we don't wear yarmulkes in public. We don't even wear. Yarmulkes are completely optional, even in synagogue, which we attend rarely.
Speaker 1:Most reformed jews are what are the equivalent of christmas christians. They show up for rosh hashanah, which is jewish new year, and yom kippur, the day of atonement, where we all pretend that we're fasting when we're sneaking candy bars in the men's room, and then the rest of the year, you know pretty much do as we please, and you know you want to meet a lot of Reform Jews. You want to meet a lot of Jews in general. The best day to meet Jews if you live in a city and if you're saying to yourself I don't know any Jews, just go to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day and you're going to meet Jews and Buddhists two groups you have no experience with Jews. View Chinese food as the next thing to pastrami. It's Jewish soul food.
Speaker 1:I can go into the reasons why that is true, but it is true. So anyway, now you understand the three groups of Jews and what kind of Jew I am. So I am Jew-ish as opposed to Jewish. And there you have it. But the commonality of all three groups are, when it comes right down to it, an Orthodox Jew, most Orthodox Jews, not the Hasidim. They view Reform Jews as something less than pond scum and prefer Gentiles to us. But that's another story. But most Jews will generally prefer to do business with Jews, would prefer their children marry a Jew, regardless of which part of Judaism they come from. It's very interchangeable.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of Reform Jews, particularly of this most recent generation, who feel spiritually bereft. This is a healthy thing. And there's a large modern Orthodox movement that's taking place which is large by Jewish standards. That's another thing that you all need to understand. Large by Jewish standards. That's another thing that you all need to understand.
Speaker 1:If you're ever wondering why there are so few Jews in the world where there are so many Christians, yet we predate you times three we've been around 300% longer than Christianity has been roughly since Abraham the answer is Jews don't proselytize. It's the Jewish religion, it is literally. There's no such thing as a Jewish missionary. We've never tried to convert anybody to Judaism. What chosen people means has nothing to do with you have to be Jewish. I'll get into that in just one second. But what being we don't? We just don't.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you a quick story. When I was in college my brief college career, very brief I, at the Hillel Center there was a Passover Seder and I had nowhere else to go. So I went to the Passover Seder at the Hillel. It was lovely, we had a great time and there was a young rabbi who worked there and he was a great guy and we're all hanging out and having a good time. We went through the Seder and then we were doing what Jews do best, which is eat.
Speaker 1:Jews, as a group, we have the lowest incidence of alcoholism, but we are fat and that's because Jews much prefer to chew our calories. We don't get the drinking thing. By and large. It's not that there aren't such a thing as a Jewish alcoholic, there's just not that many of them, as compared to Gentile alcoholics. Again, don't know why, just is. But Jews, we're big into food, big, big, big into food. So we're having a great time. We're eating all kinds of good food brought in by various people in the community, in the Jewish community in Tucson. This is at the University of Arizona Having a great time.
Speaker 1:Anyway, this girl walks into this Seder and when I say girl, clearly Gentile, the minute you took one look at her you knew that from a Jewish point of view because of her little butt and shicks and nose. And she walked into the room and she literally says loudly I mean, I'll just never forget this. This is literally true. I'm not embellishing this. She says to the rabbi who, I don't know how, you didn't figure out he was the rabbi because he was reform and not wearing a yarmulke. But anyway, she says, rabbi, I want to be Jewish. And his reply was priceless and it just explains why Judaism is so small. He turned to her and said what you don't have enough problems, see the term chosen people. Okay, by the way, as you can tell, jews have a fatalistic sense of humor.
Speaker 1:We know the world's going to one more quick story about this is just a family story. So I have a first cousin. His name is Marty. He's a wonderful guy, he's an attorney and he's now retired. But he was a returnee, was an attorney. I am so silly. Sometimes I talk to my dog like that, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So Marty and I were on the phone. I was in my office. He was evidently in his office. It was just one day. We were just talking to each other. We kept in touch. We're going back and forth How's your family Good, how's your wife Good, how are your children Good. Back and forth, good, good, good. How's business Good, how's your practice? Good, everything was good.
Speaker 1:It Suddenly both of us became silent, literally silent, and it was like one of those uncomfortable silences, like if I went silent right now for 30 seconds you start to wonder if you were having a malfunction in your device that you're listening to this on. So it was one of those 30 second uncomfortable, really not that long, but it seemed like an hour silences. And then Marty says to me you're waiting for the Cossacks, aren't you? Now, that's a very Jewish thing to say and I don't know if you would understand that, but what it means is to be Jewish is to understand that the Cossacks, who were basically the killers of the Tsar okay, the Tsar was a bad guy in Jewish life, very bad guy. No, jews were crying when the czar fell Let me just share and they didn't know what was coming, but they knew it couldn't be any worse than the czar. From a Jewish point of view, stalin was a mass murderer, but he was an equal opportunity murderer, if that means anything at all. At least the Jews didn't feel particularly picked upon. You know, lots of Jews were killed by Stalin, but so were lots of everybody else. But for the Tsar we were it. I mean to this day we're cursed.
Speaker 1:His secret police, the Cheka, wrote that. Was it the Cheka? Or was that the communist secret police early on? That was the communist secret police. Who were the Tsars? No, that was the NKVD, was still communist, I think. Anyway, the czar had his. Maybe it was the Czech. Anyway, the czar had his own secret police and they were the ones who wrote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was just a piece of crap that they put out as propaganda so the czar could kill more Jews with Cossacks. And it's still hanging out to this day.
Speaker 1:People cite it. Anti cited, anti-semites love that book. You know they think there's a secret protocol. You know the elders of Zion that secretly control the world, the lie of which is made evident by the fact that the world continually shits on our head. And if we were that powerful, how could that possibly happen? So anyway, moving right along.
Speaker 1:So Jews, because of being, you know, murdered through the centuries, the Holocaust, october the 7th, was the latest of a long line of Jewish slaughters. You know, to Jews there's nothing new about being slaughtered. We've been slaughtered by every group there is. But you know the Jewish attitude is they come and they go, but we're still here. You know like we were chosen by God, not because we were special and we were the only ones going to heaven.
Speaker 1:Here's an interesting side note of the Jewish religion. The whole heaven thing is very nebulous. There are a lot of Jews, including Orthodox Jews, that literally don't discuss it at all in any more than you know an afterthought term, the afterlife is not a big thing in Judaism, it just isn't. And there's no hell in Judaism and I know that's hard for a lot of people to put their hands around. That was all Christianity wove all that in from Roman mythology, but in Judaism there's none of that stuff. Greek and Roman mythology, I should say, but there's none of that stuff in Judaism. We're just not. We don't think there's like you have to be Jewish to get the reward. That's not what's in the books for Jews. So you know, the bottom line is we don't think you need to be Jewish.
Speaker 1:We were chosen by God to bring his law to the world. That's it and we did it. The world has laws, for better or for worse. Judaism, from our point of view, we are the ones who brought ethical, god-based law to the world. That's it. That's our gift. That's what we were chosen to do, and for that we have been paying the price for a really, really long time.
Speaker 1:You know, like what was that joke? Something like being the chosen people, god, could you choose someone else for a while? It's like oh my God. Anyway, I'm laughing through it because I have a very, very Jewish sense of humor. There's nothing unusual about my sense of humor among Jewish people. That's why so many comedians are Jewish. You have to be kind of fatalistic to be a good comedian, I think. Anyway, at least by my definition of what's funny. And, you know, have a certain amount of self-loathing and recognition.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, why do Jews seem clannish to you? Because Jews are clannish? Because, truthfully, we'd much rather that our kids marry Jewish people. Now, none of my kids married a Jew, to be honest with you, but that's okay. I mean, it was my preference. I'm a Reformed Jew, remember? See, this is what the Orthodox would hate about me. I'm okay with it. If I were conservative or Orthodox I would not be okay with it. So that can seem very, very clannish. And you know what? The older I get, the more I realize how much stress I would have saved myself and my children, who are very Jewish and they identify as Jewish personally, which was an election in our family, which is another discussion for another day. But anyway, we would say to ourselves a lot of heartache if we would have married within our own culture. Only because we understand each other. It's like my kids have noticed.
Speaker 1:I have a. I'm a very gregarious person, I have a lot of friends, but my closest, closest, closest, closest closest friends are Jews. Why is that? Because we understand each other, because we understand each other. You know, my dearest, I have two very dear Jewish men, friends for nearly life. And you know, like there's an unspoken language, there's a certain fatalism. Just like Marty understood, I was waiting for the Cossacks. There's a certain and you know, here's the thing about being Jewish You're relieved when the Cossacks show up because at least you know what direction they're coming from. That's why my ex-wife, who was a Midwestern Lutheran or Methodist, I don't know, I can never remember, but anyway her attitude was like she used to tell me you are the calmest person I've ever met.
Speaker 1:When things are really bad and that's always been a characteristic of mine when things really turn to complete and total crap, I become almost preternaturally calm and can see what needs to be done. And here's the weird part of that. That is not unusual among Jewish people. We are great when the world turns to shit because we expect it to, and when you have a certain fatalism in your outlook in life, you become that way. But you also become a little clannish. There's no doubt about it. You have a natural predisposition to trust Jews more. It's a bias, it's a prejudice, but it's one born in a way that you'll understand, I think. And plenty of groups all feel the same way, I'm sure, about the group that they're in, I don't know, and I know Jews take a lot of heat for it, but that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1:The other thing that is is that Jews tend to be successful. That's because Judaism has a study ethic, not a work ethic. Those of you who are Christian, take the Christian work ethic, replace every time you hear the word work with study and you'll understand why Jews are doctors and lawyers and engineers, and the other part of it is just genetics. You know, when a very, very studious people marry other very, very studious people, they tend to have very, very studious children, and those children marry. You know, when you marry with another reason that, when I look back on it, it would anyway.
Speaker 1:But if you're coming from a group of, by the way, collectively let me be very clear on this, in case you think that I'm displaying Jewish arrogance the smartest people in the world by IQ are not Jews. We're the second smartest group of race call it what you want of people. Asians are the smartest group of people in the world. So I would have been thrilled if any of my children came home with, you know, a nice Indian girl you know what can I say? Or a nice Japanese girl. I would be totally thrilled Because they would have almost undoubtedly had intelligent children, also beautiful children. But I could go right down the child rabbit hole fast, because my number one passion in life is children and grandchildren. So anyway, but I'm coming back. I'm coming back to explain Judaism. So anyway, you get my drift. Jews are going to be successful and the other thing is is that Jews don't misread the Bible.
Speaker 1:So you Christians out there I know you've all read this, you know, you've all heard about it it's easier for a camel to crawl through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven. That thing from the gospel you guys are all you don't understand what you're reading. The eye of the needle was the smaller door next to the big gate in these walled cities back in biblical times, and at nighttime they would shut the great big doors of the city. You know, because obviously you know people have to go to bed, they want to put on the night guard, they don't want the whole army to have to be on the wall all day long regulating the traffic coming in and out. So they shut it all down. But there's a smaller door so in case a traveler or someone important shows up at night and they need to get into the city but the main gate is closed, they could basically knock, or however they make themselves known, on that door and then that door would be opened up.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing it was called the Eye of the Needle and that's the camel. To get through the eye of the needle in these desert countries, had to get on its knees. Any of you who have been around camels know that camels can walk on their knees essentially, so you know they don't have to be on their feet. So anyway, long story short, the story is that a rich man needs only to get on his knees and thank God for being rich. He doesn't have to give up his money. You're completely misreading this. You know, going to heaven just means thank you, god for giving me. And that's the other thing.
Speaker 1:When Jews, jewish prayers and Christian prayers are very, very different and I'm painting a huge broad brush. But to where Christians and maybe Muslims? I'm ignorant on Islam, so I don't want to go down that road. I'll let you guys write me and make me clear on this. But Jews don't have an intimate relationship with God. We don't think that God talks with us every day. We don't believe in the Holy Ghost, so we don't believe in the Trinity. So therefore, jewish prayers go something, are all a version of basically thank you for giving me the brains to figure this out for myself. Thank you God.
Speaker 1:The Jewish view of God, since we don't have revelation and we don't believe in the end of times that we're inevitably going to end up in a lake of fire. All of that is all. Christian Jews, on the other hand, think that God gave us the brains to operate, gave us laws, told the Jews pass it out among everybody else, set the world a spinning and said good luck. And he's there and he cares. But it's ours to make or break and that's why Jews tend to survive, because we're not looking for divine intervention and we don't think necessarily God's on or off our side. It's our world and ours to make and ours to break. But we don't have any problem with making money and we don't feel guilty about it. But Judaism does have, and any of you that have known Jews and have been the beneficiaries of Jewish largesse know this Jews habitually give away more money than anybody else because we have mitzvah. It's the obligation of every Jew to perform mitzvot, which are the plural of mitzvah, which is our acts of charity. So Jews are incredibly charitable people. We're just private about it. You know it's anyway.
Speaker 1:And these are broad characterizations and there are plenty of loud and obnoxious and. But you know, in every stereotype there lies a seed of truth. Okay, I'm going to. I'm going to sum it up. So, jews and by the way, we got labeled with the whole Christ killer thing, you know, the Christian church. I'm going to digress for like three or four minutes. The Christian church would not be the Christian church were it not for Paul. Okay, jesus is not the key figure, from a Jewish point at least for no. No, let me rephrase there is no Jewish point of view because there is no head Jew. Okay, there's no Jew Pope. There's nothing like that. There's no central authority, there's no one handing down doctrine, it's every man for himself in Judaism.
Speaker 1:Use your brains. That's why the old joke goes you put two Jews in a room, you get five, six, seven, eight, nine opinions. You never know. Me too, you can tell by the way I talk. My mind is all over the place, so I can see different. I think it's that's why Jews, I think, have a healthy view of the world that I'd like to share with you, which is the world is gray, not black and white. It just goes from light gray to dark gray, and you have to just understand the gradations and live within it. It's a realistic view, I think, anyway, from my point of view, a realistic point of view. But again, I'm open to discussion because I'm Jewish. And that's how Jews are, you know, like, bring up a good point and we'll listen. That's why, by and large, jews are smart. Not that's why, by and large, jews are smart, not to say intellectually, but smart in the sense that we'll at least listen to what you have to say.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, moving right along, what was I about to talk about? I don't know, I just lost my train of thought. Look at that, derailed just like that. Oh, I was going to talk about Paul. Okay, so Paul was the great villain of Christian anti-Semitism. Paul thought that Christianity was at first. He didn't want to go talk to the Gentiles about it. You know, jesus dies and it's 100 years later and they write the Gospels after he's been dead a long time. And they're another sect, and at the time there were a lot of Messianic sects. So what made Christianity different than all the other Messianic sects? That had their own heroes and their own Jesus figures, and so on and so forth. How did it all come together, paul?
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not going to go into all the historical relevance of that, and it might have been all divinely led, and who only knows, and you know. His revelation on the road to Damascus or from Damascus or wherever he was going out there might have been very, very, very sincere and good for him and you know, live long and prosper. But he thought he had a brand of Messianic, a group that he could sell to the Jews and the Jews we're a tough sell man, we're just a tough sell. So they turned him down and he turned on them and that's where all that Christ killer crap comes from. And it sat there festering in the Catholic church until 1964, when Pope I think it was 64, when Pope Paul finally said the Jews did not kill Jesus.
Speaker 1:You know I could go into the whole Pharisee and Sadducee and Roman relationship and who was Herod and all that other stuff, and I'm a great student of Christian theology as history and I think it's really, really interesting. And, yes, I think Jesus was a real guy and I'll share just one insight with you guys just on this. I know it has nothing to do with what I'm talking about, but this is how I know Jesus was a real guy. You know there is no contemporary history of Jesus, so there is an insertion by one Roman historian at the time. I forget who it was, it'll come to me in a minute, but anyway.
Speaker 1:But it's clearly a forgery and an assertion later trying to have something that mentions Jesus, you would think a guy that has a movement so important that he has to be sold over to the Romans by the Pharisees and then crucified. There'd be some written record of him by a people that were writing down everything. There are tons. There's tons and tons and tons of history from that era written down. There's tons of written history. We know a lot about that era because the Romans and the Jews both were literate people and were writing things down like crazy, as were the Greeks. So there's plenty of written history. There's just nothing about Jesus.
Speaker 1:So how do I know he's a real guy? And the answer is from the story of Matthew and that whole book of my about him being born in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, and ends up in Bethlehem and born in the manger. See, in order to fulfill prophecy for who the Messiah is going to be, the Messiah evidently has to be born in Bethlehem. I say evidently because I am not a student of prophecy, but I believe this is true. Feel free to contradict me biblical scholars out there. So anyway. He had to be born in Bethlehem, but he was born in Nazareth.
Speaker 1:So they go through this whole bubba-mice about going through the desert and the stars and the wise men and all that dreck, anyway, that's a lot. And they had to make up the baby slaughter and the whole thing because there was never any such thing. That's another thing. There was never any slaughter of Jewish children by Herod. That never happened. Never took place. He did lots of things, some of them good, some of them bad. He was a complicated guy, old Herod, and his son Herod Antipas. But I'll tell you what they weren't. They were not mass murderers of their own people. So that just didn't happen, never took place.
Speaker 1:Total bubba misa. Bubba misa, by the way, is the Yiddish word for old wives tale. It's just a story. It got written into gospel but there's. No, it certainly didn't happen.
Speaker 1:So how am I still convinced that he's the real guy? Because why go through the whole bubba misa to fulfill the prophecy? If you could have just said he was born in Bethlehem, as prophesied? Why go through the whole song and dance of the hovering stars and the wise men crossing the desert and the whole thing and the mass murder? That never happened and all that and schlepping and ending up in a manger and the whole story. You wouldn't have to go through that if he wasn't a real guy. That's all I'm saying. Okay, so I think he was a real guy. Now that's again Jewish reasoning. You now have an example of how Jews' minds work. What else could it be? Why would you go through this problem? Now, I'm sure there's an answer to that question, and I'm sure somebody who's an atheist.
Speaker 1:And, as I have said when I started this podcast, I believe that religion is by and large, including Christianity, a good thing, not a bad thing. I think, to the extent that we've lost it in this country, we've melted down our society thing, not a bad thing. I think, to the extent that we've lost it in this country, we've melted down our society, and I think that and I envy the faith of people of faith but where faith at one time was believing, there was a God that created everything and controlled everything. Now, thanks to science, we know that none of that is true. Probably what is true is that in order to have faith now, you have to believe in something that can't be true and just believe that the supernatural is real, and for an increasing number of people, that just doesn't compute. And so there is an ever-expanding group of people that identify themselves as non-believers of one flavor or another. But I use the word agnostic because, a I could be wrong and, b I'm not an asshole, and atheists are assholes who walk around with their own religion only as one, absent any kind of redemption or satisfaction, where they have to tell everybody that they're wrong because they know they're right and on the side of good, which is the classic sign of stupidity. As I discussed in my prior podcast, and you can listen to it. It is certainly on whatever site you are streaming this on right now. Anyway, that to it. It is certainly on whatever site you are streaming this on right now. Anyway, that's it.
Speaker 1:I've covered the whole history of Jews and our behaviors and, by the way, the last thing I'll say is we're a middleman culture. That's the other thing. Middlemen culture are always hated. So because the Jews are in diaspora and we're spread all over the world, and we were invited into Europe but that's another long story for another day. And we were invited into Europe, that's another long story for another day. And to come to keep the books of the medieval royalty because they were illiterate and the people were illiterate and the only people that could read and write were churchmen. But churchmen weren't allowed to handle money because of some Christian stuff. So they invited the Jews in and we became the merchant class. And then, when the people got tired of the nobles, the nobles did what any good person does who's in big, big trouble? They found a scapegoat and who else but the Jews? Because those guys are Christ killers. So that's exactly how it all started this long stream of anti-Semitism that has just snowballed into craziness to this day because it suits the rulers to go after a small group of highly successful people.
Speaker 1:However, the reason I go through all of that is there are other middlemen cultures in the world who have taken a similar licking to Jews. I start with the Chinese in Asia, who Chinese people, as anyone knows, who knows Chinese Americans on a personal level level, are a lot like Jews. I mean really, you know, value family over all, respect of elders, very, very strong cultural ties. But most of all, they're a middleman culture, chinese wherever they have gone, whether it's in Vietnam or it's in Cambodia or Laos or Thailand or Singapore or the Philippines or wherever they've gone, and the United States. A lot of them were dragged here as coolies which was a fancy name for slave really and ended up making a life for themselves. And some of them were even exiled to Mexico and they made a life for themselves there as a middleman culture. And they're hated like Jews, everywhere they are, especially in Asia, hated, hated, hated, hated and persecuted all the time. And why? Because they dared to do well in a foreign culture. And why are Jews and Chinese and other lands middleman cultures? And I think Armenians I think, if I had to name another group Armenians have taken a licking like this around the world. But there are other groups as well. I'm missing others. Believe me, I know I am.
Speaker 1:Thomas Sowell wrote a really good book on this, by the way, that I am searching for the title, but it won't be hard for you to find it anyway, and that's where I'm drawing a lot of my knowledge from. But again, we go into these. Why are there a lot of Jewish doctors and lawyers? Because we weren't allowed to become bankers. I know that's contrary to what the propaganda is, we own all the banks. But let's think about it long and hard the biggest banker in the world is Jamie Dimon. He is not a Jew. I'd just like to point that out. I have years thought he was, but he's not. Anyway, um, jewish Jewish bankers there's like one Jewish banker family, the Rothschilds, and of course you know that. You know what. Another, another rabbit hole, I'm not going down.
Speaker 1:We ended up doing what we're doing and the Chinese ended up doing what they're doing because the Gentiles aren't doing it. So we do it. Then we make a lot of money doing it and the next thing, you know, we're hated for being successful. And I will leave all of this with Thomas Sowell, who, I've said before and I'll say it again, is my hero and the greatest living American economist and scholar, and I love him with all my heart. Even though I've never met him, I could just tell I'd like him, although he'd probably think I was a complete and total nutcase moron. But that's okay because I know better than me when I see it. But anyway, thomas Sowell, when asked about it and Thomas Sowell is not Jewish, by the way, he's black, but that's just as an aside when Thomas Sowell was asked what could the Jews do to help end anti-Semitism, he had a one word answer fail. And Jews aren't going to fail. So there you are. That's just the way it goes. So I hope you learned a lot.
Speaker 1:That was a long doctoral dissertation on an ugly subject, but it certainly falls in the realm of ethics, and it's such a hot topic today with what's going on politically and the Harvard story and the administration and the anti-Semitism and the Haas, and I didn't go down any of those roads because there are plenty of podcasts that do that and they bore me, so I'm not going to bore you with any more of it. And that's it. Have a beautiful, beautiful day, a beautiful weekend ahead. Love your children, love your family, love your culture, love your country and, most of all, love yourself. Take care.