I was writing the following before I saw your post, and I totally agree with what you wrote.
~~~
For those of you who have a hard time understanding Peterson, or are disappointed by him, I have a little story.
Many years ago, when I was a student in New York, I had the opportunity to work/associate with two wonderful individuals who were considered “intellectuals” through their work and associations. Both took me “under their wings”, I felt intimidated by them, but really honored too to be allowed in their company. As I said, they were both wonderful individuals, kind, empathetic, curious, generous with their time and means, and I have no complaints whatsoever about their behavior towards me, quite the contrary, I felt grateful for their help as a foreign young student. The conversations with them were always exciting and stimulating, and they even listened to what I had to say.
Until it came to the subject of Israel. It was as if their entire lives were dedicated to the support of Israel and they could see no evil whatsoever in the actions of the government, ever. The Jewish people needed to be protected by the hordes of Muslim barbarians who lived only to be a threat to Israel. There was nothing to be said to them, ever, to change their minds. There were not enough images of dead children under rubble or historical facts of Israel’s crimes that would have made them doubt their made-up minds. They both knew Jewish people (one was one of them) whom they admired, and all they knew about Muslims and Palestinians was barefooted uncultured savages. Israel was the special promised land to a special group of people who had been persecuted and suffered throughout the eons. And I think that’s what JP sees too.
Because of who I am, where I was born, what I knew about the Israel/Palestine “conflict” at the time, I was shocked and greatly disappointed in my friends. But I soon realised that like me, they would never change their minds and hearts about this issue. For me, supporting the right of Palestinians for freedom has been a life long thing. It’s the bar through which I measure a person or a group. If for example, for any reason in 2006 SOTT had sided with Israel, I would cease my association with the group (I came upon Laura’s work in 2005). Right now, after everything I have learned through the years as an ex SOTT editor and member of this group, all the history that I was not even aware of before, all the atrocities Israel has committed against the indigenous Palestinian population since then, now even more than ever, there’s nothing anyone can say or do to make me change my stance, my point of view. And I think for people who support the Israeli government so vehemently still, up to this day, they have their line too and they won’t cross it. And, like my friends from years ago, they might too be wonderful individuals in other ways. But there’s no point of association for me and them anymore. I can understand believing the covid lies, I can understand believing the official 911 line, but my line is crossed here on political subjects (also pedophilia, genital mutilation of children for the LGBTLwhatever agenda, etc).
Having said all that, I was very glad to see on X/twitter videos by youngsters of Jewish/Israeli origin, who have gone through indoctrination/schooling/army service and on their own, find out the truth and end up supporting the Palestinian people. I don’t know what is the difference between them (and other Jews/Israelis that support Palestinians) and the likes of Shapiro or Peterson. I don’t know if it’s something internal, an inner love for truth no matter the consequences of the ugliness it might reveal about ourselves or the world, or something external, the way one views oneself in relation to the people and community/status/caste/political-social affiliations he or she belongs to, that accounts for this difference. The moral endoskeleton/exoskeleton question. But I do know that right now, what is happening, this real holocaust of thousands of Palestinians is not hidden, it's in plain sight, documented, posted, reposted, photographed, videoed, shared... And no wonderful person, to me, has any excuse to say: I did not know, I did not see, I did not hear.
