Horseshoe Theory and the 2024 Antisemite of the Year
Before October 7th, 2023, I often wondered how otherwise ordinary people—Germans, specifically—could get swept up in the monstrosity that was the NSDAP and eventually the Third Reich. The gradual process of dehumanization of the “other” was an incredibly devious play by Goebbels and Co; sometimes not immediately obvious. Surely, though, a good number of Germans must have seen through the lies pushed by ‘Völkischer Beobachter’ and ‘Der Stürmer’ and eventually the entire media empire of the Nazis. How did they end up goose-stepping along with the “true believers”?
I have been fascinated with World War II history for longer than I’ve been fascinated with history. It was the great cataclysmic event of the last hundred years. Its resolution shaped our modern world almost in its entirety. And the atrocities that were committed in the name of the Nazis, Mussolini, and the Empire of Japan will forever number among the worst actions ever taken by humanity against itself. They shaped our understanding of human psychology at its most reprehensible.
It is this puzzle which I contemplated for years after my undergraduate studies of the human mind. Even given massive amounts of racism and propaganda, how could Shirō Ishii do the things he did to Chinese civilians in Unit 731? They transcended cultural and moral boundaries. They defied all human decency everywhere.
And the same, of course, for Ishii’s German counterparts like Mengele. Past a certain threshold politics can no longer account for the actions these men took. They didn’t do it for a “love of their country” nor even a “love of their race”; part of them did it out of sheer hatred and contempt. They embodied the darkest parts of humanity—parts that we still contain today, and have always had. Evil that is as human as the good in us.
It is this aspect of ourselves which I am discussing today. The all-too-human desire to hurt, to dominate, even to kill—and it is shared among all of us. Perhaps there is somewhere in our history the one pure soul out of all of humanity. As for the rest of us, it is only a question of quantity. It need only find a sufficient outlet to manifest itself through us.
And so we come to the present day. Mere hours after learning of the horrific rape and massacre carried out by Hamas across southern Israel, we had crowds on streets across the world cheering and applauding. People were genuinely ecstatic to see Jews suffer and die in the cruelest ways imaginable. And not just Jews—Arabs that had chosen peace and coexistence were kidnapped and killed all the same.
The reality of what happened that day is impossible to deny. The perpetrators posted the evidence of their crimes themselves for the world to see. It has become the great moral litmus test of our era. Because from the same set of facts, we have derived two diametrically-opposed “sides”:
There is the side of Israel, and there is the side of Hamas. Nominally, the Hamas side claims to be “pro-Palestinian”—an absolute farce, as Hamas is the party that has endangered Palestinian civilians throughout the war and the past decades of their rule in Gaza. And nominally, the Israel side is painted as the “conservative” or “right wing” position. This is an absurdity, for reasons I will explain below. First, we must start with ‘Horseshoe Theory’.
What is such a concept?
Simply, it is the observation that the more extreme one goes on the political spectrum, the more one tends to resemble their supposed “opposite” on the other end. Nowhere is this idea more pronounced than in attitudes towards the Jewish state. It wasn’t so long ago that “very fine people” were chanting “Jews will not replace us” at a ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville. Compare that to “progressives” of today demanding a genocide of the Jewish people in Israel à la “from the river to the sea…”.
It is the same idea, just played to a different audience. The oldest hatred of humanity. A prejudice that has inspired countless generations to hate and violence against their Jewish neighbors. And today, it is a prejudice that 2023 Antisemite of the Year and United States Representative Rashida Tlaib shares with 2024 Antisemite of the Year and “journalist” Candace Owens as crowned by the nonprofit Stop Antisemitism.
If you are unfamiliar with either or both names, essentially both are supposed ‘exemplars’ of their political movements. Rashida Tlaib is a member of the “squad” of “progressives” that make the rounds on the news. Candace Owens is a shameless conservative pundit that has taken to antisemitic conspiracy theories and falsely accusing the Jewish state of “genocide” on live television. Two supposedly diametrically-opposed individuals that just happen to be advocating for the same exact side: the side of Hamas. The reasons for “progressives” and “conservatives” both to pursue this crusade against the Jewish state are not driven by moral or ideological reasons; not really. They are driven by something much more primal.
The most personally aggravating part of it all for me (besides the constant malignment of the character of anyone pro-Israel) are the milquetoast attempts to paint anyone who stands with the Jewish state as a “right-wing extremist”. I stand with Israel because I am a progressive. I value indigenous rights. I value personal freedom. I value democracy. The nation of Israel exemplifies all of my values. In the first ‘National Assembly’ of the French Revolution era from which ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ derive I almost certainly would have sat with the left; granted that I would have lacked foresight of the endless violence to come. I am not a conservative. I never have been. I enjoy history qua history; I don’t think we need to go back to it.
It is beyond time that we progress out of left- versus right- wing thinking. It is a metaphor that no longer applies to our present day. The battle lines of today are much simpler in a way: it is the moderates versus the extremists now. Ask the “progressives” of Iran how they could ally with neo-fascist, fundamentalist Islamist factions to get their precious “revolution” all those decades ago. We are up against a new threat now: the threat of Nazism in the 21st century. It has massively expanded by adding the “free Palestine” movement to its repertoire of white supremacists and other deplorables. And it must be stopped here, now. A coalition of sanity MUST PREVAIL.
Don’t like being called Nazis, dear formerly-progressive, formerly-friends of mine? Good. Stop acting like them. Not sure how much more simple it can get, really.
Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱
If you’ve been a follower of Candace and are angry at the fact that she has become 2024 Antisemite of the Year—good. That’s exactly how I felt at losing my progressive friends to Jew hate. Now do something about it. Save antisemites from themselves if you can. I couldn’t manage to find a way.
There is a spiritual component to this evil that cannot be ignored. Or it can, to the detriment of the ignorer (is that a word?). We have taken different paths to supporting Israel, and I learn from all of your postings. But I still believe this chaos is being caused by an unseen evil that can only be explained by deception and powers that transcend human understanding. Whether or not the source is recognized, it is comforting that there are people across the political and religious spectrums who are fighting for the right side.