Is the Overton Window Moving to the Right?
It seems ok to criticize the social justice movement; will it become ok to criticize Islam?
I have been reminded a lot recently of the novel Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro. The narrator is a butler who was loyal to his lord. The butler idolized his employer. But as the novel unfolds, the lord he so fondly and faithfully served turns out to have been a foolish Nazi sympathizer in the years leading up to WWII. Imagine spending decades of your life serving someone you admire, and then having to face up to the reality that the man was a knave.
I can think of so many Jewish friends who in recent years loyally sympathized with progressive causes. And now these causes seem, among other things, to be riddled with anti-semitic leanings. I think that it will take many years for erstwhile progressive Jews to come to terms with the extent to which 21st-century Progressive causes are fraudulent.
By fraudulent, I mean that they do not help the people that they purport to help. BLM does not help black people. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion does not help achieve any of those goals. The champions of the Palestinian cause do not help Palestinians. The climate alarmists probably do not help the climate. The various gender ideologues probably do not help people who are struggling with the psychological problems that accompany their gender identity issues.
Recently, Tablet published a symposium called What Now? It was an opportunity for Jews to offer opinions that they probably would not have articulated prior to the October 7 Hamas pogrom. Titles of the essays include:
What has shocked Jews much more than the atrocities of Hamas are the atrocities committed by Progressives. It turns out that Progressives support a Palestinian cause that seeks not peace and dignity for all but to drive Jews out of the Middle East completely. Progressives say that the “context” justifies rape, murder and kidnapping of innocent people. Under the doctrine of intersectionality, Progressives manage to link support for Islamic theocrats to LGBTQ rights.
The Overton Window has clearly moved for many American Jews. The Ivy League is now disgraced. Imagine if on college campuses there were students marching around in Ku Klux Klan hoods shouting racist slogans. And imagine they were doing this right after the death of George Floyd. That is what the pro-Hamas demonstrations feel like to Jewish students.
The same Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices that supposedly are there to make minorities feel comfortable on campus are actively promoting Jew-hatred. Going forward, Jews are not going to regard DEI as benevolent.
What about non-Jews?
Is the Overton Window also shifting for non-Jews? Are there non-Jewish liberal Democrats who are now horrified by the social justice radicals? I cannot tell, but there are hints of turmoil in this story from The Hill about divisions among House Democrats resulting from the fighting in Gaza.
A real Overton Window shift would see non-Jews
blaming Hamas for the deaths of Palestinian civilians, rather than rewarding Hamas by calling for an Israeli cease fire.
talking about how to handle Iran, with a more negative outlook on the nuclear deal and a more positive outlook on promoting regime change.
talking about having the FBI look at pro-Palestinian groups to see whether they are planning terrorist attacks here and/or funding terrorist groups in the Middle East.
supporting the Supreme Court’s ruling against racial preferences in college admissions rather than supporting colleges’ attempts at evading the ruling.
supporting restoring order at the border.
talking about America’s past with pride, not shame.
resisting rather than appeasing radical young leftists
If some of these changes happen, then the Overton Window will have definitely moved. But the most dramatic movement of the Overton Window would concern
Islamophobia
Colloquially, the term Islamophobia has come to mean a blind, indiscriminate hatred of all Muslims. This is the way that the term Islamophobia is commonly understood—and I don’t think that we can change that. Accordingly, as decent people we must condemn Islamophobia.
But the term “phobia” actually means fear. And one can argue that fear of Islam is justified. Around the world, the views that many devout Muslims embrace are frightening.
The history of other religions is hardly pure. The Hebrew Bible has many tales of violence committed by Jews. Christianity has had its religious wars. But in modern times, Jews and Christians no longer use religion to justify or to sanctify violence. Muslims still do.
Instead of Islamophobia, I propose we use the term Islamo-skepticism to describe the view that Islam is not a religion of peace. Islamo-skepticism also faces up to the reality that many followers of Islam embrace values that are profoundly illiberal.
Matt Goodwin sees this problem as acute in Britain.
The increasingly visible threat from radical Islamism is partly the result of years of mass and uncontrolled immigration into Britain, which has left too many of our communities dangerously segregated and ideal breeding grounds for extremists.
Combined with the failure of our so-called “leaders” to integrate newcomers into our wider society is why Britain, like other Western democracies, has imported and failed to dilute tribal grievances from abroad.
It is also why many British Muslims now say they would like to lead separate Islamic lives, either fully or partly, from the non-Muslim majority.
And it is why, as we can see around us today, whenever a conflict flares up in the Middle East it now also flares up here, on the streets of Britain.
Of all of the ways that the Overton Window might move in the months and years following October 7, the most important will be a movement toward Islamo-skepticism.
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“What has shocked Jews much more than the atrocities of Hamas are the atrocities committed by Progressives.”
Sorry, but this essay is far too optimistic about a wake up call for progressive Jews, or, indeed, Progressives in general. If you live and believe in the world as described by The NY Times, MSNBC, and NPR, then it’s all Netanyahu’s fault, or perhaps Trump’s fault. It may not be a scientific study, but among my friends and relatives I see no sign at all of doubt about their blind loyalty to Progressivism.
I see no reason for optimism here at all. The people who think like you, Arnold, are mostly over the age 50 and will be almost completely gone inside of 40 years, and their political power is already waning rapidly and will gone completely within a decade. The Israelis will be on their own by early next year as the political pressure builds on the Biden Administration to stop supporting them.