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David Bernstein Profile picture
@ProfDBernstein
Oct 14 • 3 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
Leftist Democrats are going to persuade themselves to run AOC for president in 2028 on the strength of a Mamdani candidacy that still doesn't have a majority (according to the most recent polling) in a city that's 80% Democrats. 1/
Yes, Mamdani shows that a young telegenic unapologetic progressive can beat a more moderate party hack beset by scandal in one of the most left-wing jurisdictions in the country. So? 2/
This is like saying that if a far-right insurgent beat a scandal ridden incumbent governor in Oklahoma, this would mean that far-right insurgency is the key to Republican victory in 2028. (Actually, dumber, because Oklahoma is only 2-1 Republican, whereas NYC is 6-1 Democrat). /end

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More from @ProfDBernstein

David Bernstein Profile picture
Oct 5
Since Petti showed up in my feed, I want to take the opportunity to note that every single article he writes for @reason on anything to do with Jews and Israel is consistently terrible, the kind of stuff you might find @mises. I even wrote up a critique of one article: 1/
It was about supposed hysteria when Hamas declared a "Day of Rage" for 10/13/2023:
(1) You would never know from this article that there have, in fact, been attacks on Jews in the US from Islamists. The most recent one before 10/7 was in 2022, when Malik Faisal Akram took worshippers hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel of Colleyville, a Jewish synagogue. The history of such violence, again never mentioned by Petty, makes the hysteria look a lot less hysterical. As would a mention of vandalism and threats against Jewish institutions and individuals since 10/7, including the killing of a Jewish man at a pro-Israel rally by an anti-Israel protestor less than a month later. 2/
(2) Petti makes it seem like the main fear on 10/13 was that someone acting on Hamas's orders would try to harm Jewish Americans. Having been in touch with local Jewish community leaders around that time, I can attest that the underlying fear was that a "lone nut" would hear all the talk about the "day of rage" (not "day of jihad" I don't recall hearing that phrase at the time) that Hamas was promoting, and act on it. 3/
Read 6 tweets
David Bernstein Profile picture
Oct 4
For new Washington Post poll on Jewish opinion, it includes 24% "with no religious affiliation but Jewish ethnically, culturally or through their family background — and either were raised Jewish or have a parent who is Jewish." Some of this group are legit "secular" Jews. But someone with one Jewish parent, wasn't raised in anything, doesn't do anything Jewish but says, "yeah I'm half-Jewish" (and thus identifies as Jewish ethnically)--nope, they aren't part of the Jewish community, they shouldn't be part of a survey on Jewish opinion. 1/
The not-really-Jewish Jews are concentrated among younger people. So that. how you get statistics like this: "While 56 percent of Jewish Americans overall say they are emotionally attached to Israel, among those ages 18 to 34, that drops to 36 percent." Well, that and 2/
the fact that these surveys routinely under-poll Orthodox Jews (Haredim in particular are unlikely to answer telephone polls), and Israeli, Latin American, and Russian American immigrants (less likely to speak English, more suspicious of polls). 3/
Read 8 tweets
David Bernstein Profile picture
Oct 4
There is a tremendous amount of ideologically motivated/distorted scholarship by academic historians, and it's funny, but also very much not unfunny. Because it's when normies learn that you can't trust "mainstream" history that they become susceptible to conspiracy theory, Holocaust denial, and so on. 1/
Consider the debate I participated in over Nancy MacLean's ridiculous book on economist James Buchanan, filled with speculation, invention, tendentiousness, and incorrect statements of fact. 2/
When some of us pointed to these flaws, with documentation, the reaction of most prominent historians was "she's a chaired Duke University historian," so that's that. So you can say any nonsense you want, and it will be accepted as strongly presumptively true so long as /2
Read 8 tweets
David Bernstein Profile picture
Sep 27
More on Iraqi-British historian Avi Shlaim: One of his major contributions to Israeli history was to question the notion that Israel always faced implacable hostility from its Arab neighbors. Shlaim showed that various players in the Arab world showed some willingness 1/
to accommodate first Zionism than Israel, and in his opinion Israel often blew these opportunities by being overly suspicious or otherwise uninterested in peace overtures from the other side. 2/
Others argue that he exaggerates these missed opportunities, a debate I am not qualified to referee. However, the irony is that while Shlaim has gone from "critic of Israeli policy" to open Hamasnik, his research actually undermines "antizionism" in its current form. 3/
Read 7 tweets
David Bernstein Profile picture
Sep 26
The most influential libertarians of mid-century when libertarianism took off were Ayn Rand (Jewish), Ludwig von Mises (Jewish), Milton Friedman (Jewish), and FA Hayek (not Jewish). None of them called himself a libertarian. 1/
The primary organizers of what became the libertarian movement were Nathaniel Branden (Jewish, via his work spreading Objectivism) and Murray Rothbard (Jewish, though something of an antisemite). 2/
The person who gave libertarianism academic respectability was Robert Nozick (Jewish). In my field of law, the most influential libertarians are Richard Epstein (Jewish) and Randy Barnett (Jewish). 3/
Read 4 tweets
David Bernstein Profile picture
Sep 26
A historical lesson for those who want Israel to be less "belligerent": Why did Israel risk Oslo in 1993? Because (a) the USSR was dead; and (b) The PLO had lost much of its support in the world after backing Saddam Hussein in 1991.
The combination made Israel feel secure. A secure Israel is an Israel willing to "take risks" (including foolish ones like Oslo). 1/
A threatened Israel, however, is going to be less accommodating. You have to remember that almost every Israeli adult is just one to three generations removed from genocidal violence against Jews in their homeland, plus have been subject to genocidal rhetoric from Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc. 2/
Trying to squeeze Israel as much as possible won't force Israel to capitulate if it thinks it's risking genocide. It might encourage the most mobile and liberal-minded Israel to flee abroad, but the vast majority will stay and fight. 3/
Read 4 tweets

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