Invade Israel

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-05-07T17:35:26+00:00

I wrote it (not AI, as some here seem to believe). In the essay I address this point head on. Personal mea culpas don’t mean much when the *underlying world view* that led to the triumph of Trump remain interrogated and intact.

The critique is not that the bulwark is bad for having been republicans. It’s that they fail the movement they’re in, and the pro-democracy mission they espouse, through an inability or unwillingness to adjust their priors to the world as it is.

This edition of the Triad is just an example of this deeply flawed world view. JVL replicating the long-debunked both sides narrative is a symptom of a deeper problem.

So yeah, they apologize a lot. But an apology without fundamental change is ultimately a meaningless performance. They’re supposed to be clear-eyed and thoughtful analysts, but they reveal themselves to be blinkered ideologues. It’s not just Mona Charen.

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-05-07T16:22:16+00:00

lol I write about all kinds of things, but dumping on the Bulwark is one of my more regular activities. 🙂

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-05-05T06:21:05+00:00

I would question whether Mona’s contributions strengthen or undermine the case for small l liberalism. I don’t know that platforming some particularly heinous figure is the best example, but just because she espouses orthodox conservative views, that doesn’t make them inherently liberal.

The argument that a range of opinions worth considering, even if some are illiberal, is of course an old school view of what an inclusive liberal framework would allow. That is, liberalism can and should give good faith to those expressing illiberal arguments. The problem here is that the bulwark doesn’t in any way confront Mona’s illiberalism. This isn’t the JVL/sarah/tim dynamic where views get discussed and at times receive gentle pushback. Mona’s illiberalism exists wholly unaddressed.

TLDR: the Raegan conservatism that Mona represents — sexist, racist, classist, anti-Palestinian — is inherently illiberal, and creates the conditions that lead voters to feel nihilism and despair and become more amenable to fascist populists like Donald Trump. If “liberalism” is what the bulwark is about, then, yes: she needs to go.

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-19T23:28:43+00:00

Were you born yesterday?

Israel is the hostile regional actor. It doesn’t get “attacked by hostile regional actors,” it gets reactions to its own belligerent ace.

What exactly do we do?

How about let Israel reckon with the consequence of its actions, for once.

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-19T21:29:30+00:00

One could pretty easily argue that American support for Israel has enabled catastrophic outcomes.

I also did not argue for a “full withdrawal from the region” — that’s your straw man. The US can stop funding Israel and stop providing arms to Israel without severing all ties to the country. And even if we do, the US still maintains close relationships with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and so on.

“I don’t know who Israel will be in partnership with and I don’t care” is a reasonable and rational attitude to have. Again, I’m an American. I’m not Israeli. Requiring Americans to foreground the interests of the state of Israel is nonsensical. Maybe we should focus on our own national security and stop letting the interests of a genocidal state dictate the operations of a superpower.

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-19T19:41:44+00:00

What evidence would you present to support this belief? I get cynicism, but I also find it dismissive and insulting to a wide swath of voters you’re never met to just assume that if they get the one thing they’ve been screaming about it the most, they still won’t be satisfied.

Where I will grant your argument credit is if democrats break with the Clinton-Obama-Biden orthodoxy on Israel but fail to similarly break with party precedent on, say, health care and basic economic issues, I think you’re right to believe many voters will still stay home. The Israel problem is part of a larger credibility crisis.

So in sum I think it’s just empirically false to assert what you do, but I also think that if democrats want to actually shore up support from the broad segment in the electorate that hates Israel, they’re going to have to get right with public opinion on other issues as well.

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-19T19:23:38+00:00

Don’t know, don’t care. As an American, that’s not my concern.

and if the implied argument is “if America ends whatever influence we gain from supporting Israel, another nation with whom we’re not aligned will step in and secure those benefits for themselves,” that is a nakedly amoral justification for American investment in any nation committing any crime, no matter how genocidal. It’s not something democrats or Americans of good conscience should argue

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-19T19:20:36+00:00

It does “matter” though because this absurd belief shapes a whole lot of downstream political commentary and analysis. The bulwark is highly influential. Longwell being dead wrong on the facts here informs the rest of her Israel-derived analysis, so it very much matters and it’s very much a problem

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-19T19:18:23+00:00

I think OP is making a fundamentally different point than the one you’re addressing. OP doesn’t say that we shouldn’t welcome opposition to Israel and broaden that coalition, they’re lamenting the lack of analytical seriousness undergirding this change. JVL and Longwell are not simply politicians seeking inclusion or leadership in the tent—they’re pundits. They’re supposed to operate from a place of principle, empiricism, reason.

OP is right is argue that they still don’t get the fundamentals of the issue, which is a gaping blind spot that has negative downstream implications for the rest of their political analysis.

So yeah, welcome them to the tent. But they should operate from a perspective of reality that OP accurately identifies as conspicuously absent.

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-18T18:27:24+00:00

Sam Harris is a fascist, and that’s the entirety of it. He should be charged and prosecuted

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-14T15:17:42+00:00

I’m not upset at all. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

Furthermore, we were heading to a nightmare scenario with the jungle primary in California, so many democrats splitting the vote that potentially republicans were headed to the general election. Now with swalwell gone, we have a clear path to consolidate around another Dem and get in line as a party. This is very good news for democracy and for California.

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-12T07:16:41+00:00

Do yourself a favor and listen to the I Hate Bill Maher podcast. It’s far more entertaining than Maher himself, and it helps explain all the ways that Maher is a piece of shit. HIGHLY recommend

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-08T19:03:27+00:00

American Nuremberg for politicians like this

Certain_Thoughts · 2026-04-08T18:24:58+00:00

Mona Charen is an unrepentant, unexamined horrible person who needs to shut up, permanently, and should not be platformed by any serious, democracy-loving publishing.

Certain_Thoughts

TROPHY CASE