*****
If politics is influenced by culture, let’s examine culture in New York.
There’s a lot of hate right now. Hate crimes overall in New York State are up 44% and up 100% in New York City year to date all under Democrat leadership. The NYPD's latest crime statistics show reported hate crimes against Asians are up 150% and against Jews are up 275% year to date. The startling discovery is the absence of hate crimes towards Blacks according to statistical data. New York City Mayor Adams has said, “We have a serious problem with white supremacy.” This is a dangerous lie; it may contribute to the senseless violence towards non-Blacks and it diminishes the real victims of hate crimes - Asians and Jews.
If New York is so diverse, why are Asians and Jews imperiled? Mayor Adams promised a “zero tolerance” policy for hate crimes while campaigning. Manhattan District Attorney Bragg made combating hate crimes a linchpin of his platform. Their failures are becoming too many to count. Since Blacks are not victims of white supremacy (and we should take a collective sigh of relief because this is a great thing), why on earth do we have CRT (critical race theory) and DEI (diversity equity inclusion) in schools, businesses, government, legal interpretations, and entertainment and culture, with the sole purpose of favoring the only race statistically not hated in New York? How did we get to a place of electing politicians and empowering unelected bureaucrats so consumed with misery, hate, racism, and antisemitic viewpoints?
This brings us to culture. Political scientist Lucian Pye said, "Political culture is the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments, which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system" Voters take their cues from culture. The problem is, we have a deficit of “culture.” We’re no longer making heroes out of those with intellectual heft, renaissance men, high level scientists, physicists, or mathematicians - in fact, we cancel them. Those we take advice from and emulate are nihilistic, unhinged, shallow, and one dimensional. The result of the vanguard’s lack of restraint amplified by social media is a loose lipped and unrepentant following voting in largely sub-par politicians.
At the zeitgeist of culture is the narrative that the application of Left-wing theories is a cure all for everything. One can have dedicated antisemites within the Democrat caucus and Congress and they have a constituency. The despicable anti-Jewish remarks of Kanye West offer a rare opportunity for celebrities to pile on to someone who doesn’t read from the same script. The spark that ignited the celebrities was that West wore a shirt saying "White Lives Matter." It undermines the last two years of a narrative they supported which uses racism that doesn’t exist to transform America. Vogue editor Karefa-Johnson called the White Lives Matter shirt "pure violence." Supermodel Gigi Hadid jumped into the fray telling West, “You wish u had a percentage of her intellect,” in defense of Karefa-Johnson. Then Hadid called West a “bully” and a “joke.”
Attacking West turned into an opportunity to nail him to the cross in the most antisemitic way: using Jews for political expediency. Hadid was loud when she thought she’d score points for defending one group but was silent when it came to the defense of a less trendy group to protect.
Many failing to condemn Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, and AOC have suddenly gone postal over West’s Jew hatred. Where have they been? These people that have made common cause with the most vicious antisemites and racists in government should get no credit for burnishing credentials against West. In the same vein as New York having a white supremacy problem, pretending New York leaders and unelected bureaucrats (see CUNY and NYU) care about Jews is another lie we must reject. The real antisemitism is that West’s detractors are silent provided Jew hatred comes from Jew haters on the Left.
West isn’t alone. Countless other celebrities spew antisemitism without the worry of getting canceled as opposed to if they said something racist towards Blacks. Whoopi Goldberg, Ice Cube, DeSean Jackson, Bella Hadid, Dua Lipa have massive reach and a record of either antisemitic speech or the more evasive accusation that Israel is an apartheid state. Whether they’re led into making some weak-kneed apology doesn’t take away from the fact that those at the forefront of culture, appealing to a youth made schizophrenic by two years of missing school, lockdowns, drugs, and BLM terror. The same celebrities have helped elevate racist and antisemitic BLM, which bore the poison fruit of CRT.
CRT’s rise has likely led to the rise of hate crimes but there’s been no study on the correlation. It stands to reason that manipulating and priming a group of people to be hateful, resentful, and made to feel like victims, reinforced by celebrities, creates the uptick in hate crimes and the leaders making them prevalent.
Politicians misguidedly take endorsements from shallow and emotionally charged celebrities with an amorphous outlook on bigotry. Reality stars weigh in on bail reform, musicians and actors champion anything having to do with the Green New Deal and illegals, and athletes hijacked a season of games to ensure their perception of social justice was adopted by elected officials, voted in by the hypnotized.
