The thing that gets me about these progressive hate-mongers, is that they accuse and accuse and accuse without quoting the person they are accusing. It is propaganda and deceit at its finest! And when they do quote a person, he or she is taken out of context and words are twisted out of their real meaning.
Truthfully, it is people like Coates who are creating an atmosphere very similar to 1930s Germany. They create a dehumanizing hatred, based in propaganda and lies, that is foundational to the justification of murder and mayhem, just as it was in German National Socialism.
Respect to Ezra Klein, I remember him inviting Larry Summers on his podcast sometime ago to essentially school Klein on MMT and inflation.
Coates is not worth engaging with, he's been sainted by the intellectual left for no other reason than to make them feel virtuous, however idiotic and ahistorical his positions are.
And surprise, surprise, he turned out to be an antisemite too.
Maybe the American left can turn around, I am not optimistic: the "omnicause", and considering anybody mildly conservative as fascist and white supremacist, has become a matter of identity and very few see the imbecility in being unable to decouple disparate causes such as climate, abortion, economics and the two causes that alarm me the most because they are literally insane: trans ideology and Palestinianism (and by extension Jew hatred).
If we’re talking about hate mongering, there’s ample evidence Coates’ father published hateful, homophobic, racist, antisemitic books under his press like “The Jewish Onslaught,” among others.
Like you say, Coates never directs his righteous lens at himself.
Coates has mastered the art of dressing up bigotry in highfalutin gobbledegook in order to appeal to dopey white leftist women, the type that dutifully buy the latest groupthink tract helpfully displayed in the local upscale bookseller's window. He's just another race grifter who has figured out that racism=cash.
Coates is not a midwit. He's a smart, stylish writer who has a small set of parochial, destructive ideas that appeal to a lot of people, basically because they have always appealed to a lot of people: the past is always present, we were wronged, the evil of my enemy is infinite, we are the good guys.
I've been avoiding Klein successfully since I saw his debate with Sam Harris. I'm glad to see he's gotten beyond the reflexive "you're a racist" debating point. But it also sounds like he could not confront St. Coates either.
In my view, you are far too generous to Klein. He had the opportunity and, most importantly, the responsibility to directly challenge Coates on his assertion that Kirk was a “hatemonger”; he epically failed in his obligation. He didn’t do his job. Charlie would have gone right at Coates and taken this ignorant, mean-spirited and babyish assertion to task. Mark Halperin had the best take on this interview:
The really sad part about this is that we shouldn't have to care about Coates. He's just another race hustling bigot. I mean, David Duke is still alive, but when was the last time you saw a Substack or NYT article about him, except as an analogy to his impotent ideological descendants?
The reality, as demonstrated by the Klein interview, Coates's Atlantic appointment, and his many awards and bestsellers, is that the Coates version of racism is flourishing in the United States. It's also driving some of the worst impulses that many of us have on violence, individual rights, and free expression, similar to the way that Coates's Black Panther father drove the worst impulses on the Left in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement.
I think this is what FIRE can position itself to fight for. We need a new Civil Rights movement in the United States that fights for free speech, individual rights, and against the sort of racism that Coates represents.
One of the reasons I find your writing and perspective so vital is exemplified in this piece.
I am among the people I've seen in the comments who stopped listening Ezra, which happened for me after the first Coates interview. Ezra is a brilliant guy and a thoughtful interviewer, but as a friend of mine put it, recently it increasingly felt like he was approaching things -- notably Israel and the pro-Pali movement -- with "suicidal empathy".
I was angry when I heard that Ezra gave air time again to Coates -- a performative, narcissistic, agenda fueled charlatan if there ever was one, and who has little to no tolerance any interpretation of the world outside of his own. Your analysis of this conversation forced me to re-evaluate Klein. In spite of my disappointment with Klein over the past 8 months or so, I both respect and appreciate how evolved he is -- and is willing to be -- even when he is "alientating his own". The bottom line is that our world needs more Ezra Kleins, and less Tanesi Coates if we have any hope of coexistance.
Though I agree that Coates has been riding the DEI wave, I found this article a helpful example of how to confront and expose the utter lack of wisdom in his argument/perspective. Thanks to reading this article, I am heartened that there are Democrats like Klein that understand the importance of good faith debate - especially in these fraught times.
I do not get this notion that Coates is smart. He produces no interesting or original or noteworthy ideas; he displays little erudition; he has no real analytical ability. Calling him a “midwit” strikes me as generous. In fact, I think the fact that he and his fellow race intellectual Ibram X Kendi are dim bulbs is part of their appeal. They allow leftists, particularly leftist women, to feel both virtuous and superior. Virtuous because “look at me; I am on the side of the oppressed!” Superior because deep down most affluent white leftists know they are smarter than Coates or Kendi.
It’s a bit worse than just the talking points of 95 IQ people I’m afraid. These are the talking points of much smarter people than that, but designed and weaponized to persuade nitwits, while remaining aggravatingly immune to reasoned argument. This is the poison of ideology: to spread, it must be able to incubate within the stupid.
"But if we didn’t have World War II, and the planet did not get a view of how horrific it can be when you decide you are going to eliminate people based on their traits — would the civil rights movement have happened? I don’t know. I think windows open and close."
He's trying to start a war because he thinks the chaos is the only way to advance the cause.
If the left thought leaders are contend to attribute their loss to Trump to that fact that America is a racist and sexist nation, so be it. They should either adjust their message accordingly or sit it out.
The thing that gets me about these progressive hate-mongers, is that they accuse and accuse and accuse without quoting the person they are accusing. It is propaganda and deceit at its finest! And when they do quote a person, he or she is taken out of context and words are twisted out of their real meaning.
Truthfully, it is people like Coates who are creating an atmosphere very similar to 1930s Germany. They create a dehumanizing hatred, based in propaganda and lies, that is foundational to the justification of murder and mayhem, just as it was in German National Socialism.
Yes
Respect to Ezra Klein, I remember him inviting Larry Summers on his podcast sometime ago to essentially school Klein on MMT and inflation.
Coates is not worth engaging with, he's been sainted by the intellectual left for no other reason than to make them feel virtuous, however idiotic and ahistorical his positions are.
And surprise, surprise, he turned out to be an antisemite too.
Maybe the American left can turn around, I am not optimistic: the "omnicause", and considering anybody mildly conservative as fascist and white supremacist, has become a matter of identity and very few see the imbecility in being unable to decouple disparate causes such as climate, abortion, economics and the two causes that alarm me the most because they are literally insane: trans ideology and Palestinianism (and by extension Jew hatred).
If we’re talking about hate mongering, there’s ample evidence Coates’ father published hateful, homophobic, racist, antisemitic books under his press like “The Jewish Onslaught,” among others.
Like you say, Coates never directs his righteous lens at himself.
https://arcmag.org/why-is-a-publisher-of-antisemitic-and-homophobic-authors-winning-a-national-book-award/
Coates has mastered the art of dressing up bigotry in highfalutin gobbledegook in order to appeal to dopey white leftist women, the type that dutifully buy the latest groupthink tract helpfully displayed in the local upscale bookseller's window. He's just another race grifter who has figured out that racism=cash.
Coates is not a midwit. He's a smart, stylish writer who has a small set of parochial, destructive ideas that appeal to a lot of people, basically because they have always appealed to a lot of people: the past is always present, we were wronged, the evil of my enemy is infinite, we are the good guys.
I've been avoiding Klein successfully since I saw his debate with Sam Harris. I'm glad to see he's gotten beyond the reflexive "you're a racist" debating point. But it also sounds like he could not confront St. Coates either.
In my view, you are far too generous to Klein. He had the opportunity and, most importantly, the responsibility to directly challenge Coates on his assertion that Kirk was a “hatemonger”; he epically failed in his obligation. He didn’t do his job. Charlie would have gone right at Coates and taken this ignorant, mean-spirited and babyish assertion to task. Mark Halperin had the best take on this interview:
https://youtu.be/EpjXI2XhJOg?si=QS3PVl-Hb60xIIkt
Similar to Klein's kid-glove interview (if it even rises to that level) of Mahmoud Khalil. Ezra Klein sucks.
The really sad part about this is that we shouldn't have to care about Coates. He's just another race hustling bigot. I mean, David Duke is still alive, but when was the last time you saw a Substack or NYT article about him, except as an analogy to his impotent ideological descendants?
The reality, as demonstrated by the Klein interview, Coates's Atlantic appointment, and his many awards and bestsellers, is that the Coates version of racism is flourishing in the United States. It's also driving some of the worst impulses that many of us have on violence, individual rights, and free expression, similar to the way that Coates's Black Panther father drove the worst impulses on the Left in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement.
I think this is what FIRE can position itself to fight for. We need a new Civil Rights movement in the United States that fights for free speech, individual rights, and against the sort of racism that Coates represents.
One of the reasons I find your writing and perspective so vital is exemplified in this piece.
I am among the people I've seen in the comments who stopped listening Ezra, which happened for me after the first Coates interview. Ezra is a brilliant guy and a thoughtful interviewer, but as a friend of mine put it, recently it increasingly felt like he was approaching things -- notably Israel and the pro-Pali movement -- with "suicidal empathy".
I was angry when I heard that Ezra gave air time again to Coates -- a performative, narcissistic, agenda fueled charlatan if there ever was one, and who has little to no tolerance any interpretation of the world outside of his own. Your analysis of this conversation forced me to re-evaluate Klein. In spite of my disappointment with Klein over the past 8 months or so, I both respect and appreciate how evolved he is -- and is willing to be -- even when he is "alientating his own". The bottom line is that our world needs more Ezra Kleins, and less Tanesi Coates if we have any hope of coexistance.
He's a midwit who has been riding the DEI wave. Not even worth spending the time to write or read this article.
Though I agree that Coates has been riding the DEI wave, I found this article a helpful example of how to confront and expose the utter lack of wisdom in his argument/perspective. Thanks to reading this article, I am heartened that there are Democrats like Klein that understand the importance of good faith debate - especially in these fraught times.
I do not get this notion that Coates is smart. He produces no interesting or original or noteworthy ideas; he displays little erudition; he has no real analytical ability. Calling him a “midwit” strikes me as generous. In fact, I think the fact that he and his fellow race intellectual Ibram X Kendi are dim bulbs is part of their appeal. They allow leftists, particularly leftist women, to feel both virtuous and superior. Virtuous because “look at me; I am on the side of the oppressed!” Superior because deep down most affluent white leftists know they are smarter than Coates or Kendi.
🎯
I have disliked T. Coates for quite some time. In fact, his very prominence killed an earlier ambition I thought might be saved, which was to become the next great black American writer. I'm not so sure anyone should chase such a Leni Riefenstahl prize. Here's a drilldown on that. https://open.substack.com/pub/mdcbowen/p/farewell-to-a-dream-of-baldwin-478?r=7br8e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
It’s a bit worse than just the talking points of 95 IQ people I’m afraid. These are the talking points of much smarter people than that, but designed and weaponized to persuade nitwits, while remaining aggravatingly immune to reasoned argument. This is the poison of ideology: to spread, it must be able to incubate within the stupid.
I always liked Leo Terrell because his commitment is to truth, and not to a narrative or an agenda. He speaks the truth about the Jewish people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc2BBlok0wI
"But if we didn’t have World War II, and the planet did not get a view of how horrific it can be when you decide you are going to eliminate people based on their traits — would the civil rights movement have happened? I don’t know. I think windows open and close."
He's trying to start a war because he thinks the chaos is the only way to advance the cause.
Anyone else thought it weird how they kept mentioning trans without actually talking about any 'trans' issues?
If the left thought leaders are contend to attribute their loss to Trump to that fact that America is a racist and sexist nation, so be it. They should either adjust their message accordingly or sit it out.