David Pakman: Today’s Troubling Growth in Antisemitism on the Political Left

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David Pakman: Today’s Troubling Growth…

DAVID PAKMAN 2

David Pakman, 35, is the host of an eponymous, nationally syndicated radio, internet, and television program, The David Pakman Show. On it, he delivers liberal commentary on the political scene and other subjects. Pakman was born in Argentina but moved with his family to the U.S. when he was five; he’s a naturalized American citizen. Pakman says, “I’ve always been involved with my Jewish background, socially and culturally.”

Quote: “Let’s talk about antisemitism. I’ve talked about right-wing and left- wing antisemitism before, and many of us on the left are quick to admit that antisemitism on the right is a major problem. But we’re also seeing left-wing antisemitism, and it’s coming from different places…. The causes of left-wing antisemitism are different than the causes on the right.”

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube

Learn more about David Pakman on Wikipedia. >>

Watch David Pakman discussing the growth of left-wing antisemitism [5:41]. >>

Photo: rawstory.com

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Quotable

“[T]he foundations for extremism usually are held in check by various restraints. Societies are not liberal, moderate, progressive, and free because almost all their citizens – let alone their politicians — are liberal, moderate, progressive or committed to the freedoms of others.

“But societies consistently avoid extremism when the infrastructures of freedom are strong: when key institutions and norms encourage a more decent, rights-respective, lawful politics; when powerful social movements and independent media hold leaders to account, expose rather than reinforce political fantasies, and champion the rights of the vulnerable; and when information is produced and scrutinized by scholars, civil servants, and non-governmental organizations devoid of either government repression or vested interests.

“Yet no infrastructure is rigidly immovable, and once key components are eroded and weakened, once sections of the political and cultural elite attempt to mobilize the foundations of extremism, the system of restraints can swiftly collapse.

“While genocide on the scale of the Holocaust is historically exceptional, its central lesson is that the broader danger of extreme atrocities is not. In the words of the great historian Ian Kershaw, the Holocaust ‘lit a warning beacon that still burns brightly: it showed how a modern, advanced, cultured society can so rapidly sink into barbarity… It showed what we are capable of.’ Only by rejecting false narratives of conflict and polarization, and maintaining systems of rights and freedoms for all, can we hope to prevent that capability from once more becoming a reality.”

— Jonathan Leader Maynard in his incisive article “Could It Happen Here?: The Holocaust and Atrocities in the 21st Century” To read the entire article, click here.