Identity politics and cancel culture w/Norm Finkelstein | The Chris Hedges Report

1. Actually why wouldn’t Angela Davis ask for 35k from Harvard? Anyone SHOULD. That needs to be spun into a more radical notion of extraction, of course meaning that kind of money paid would have to be distributed back into the masses who need it. Though some antiquated ethics or a certain moral make up rooted in a working class existence that doesnt disregard say Black life but has as micro aggressive tendencies like any typical euro-amerikan which essentially only adds to the anti-black slurry of the global makeup. Maybe a kind of 1960s middle class business owner conservatism that sees Black voice and basic representation as too much of an eclipse on all civil liberties and rights. Inherited especially American paranoia of black people. I am not saying this is Finkelstein exactly but hues and shades which i think a general basic Leftist would have a difficult time analyzing and extracting from his work. Controversial Nonetheless Finkelstein will be relevant way past his lifetime and really raises questions about origins of popular media outlets and relations to genocide. His dismantling of Israel is rare from his ilk and is a valuable weapon for those against oppression and genocidal tendencies. He stays in his lane until the lane crosses his (israeli influence over the mass population in subtle and obvious ways). He has proven he will risk his livelihood and professional wellbeing for truth and justice in the post WW2 Jewish existence. Unlike other non melanated white figures and Jewish figures Finkelstein is committed to self criticism of the culture and heritage he is from and apart of – White intellectuals and citizens BARELY can swallow self criticality.

2. The Two State Solution is possible if we bring enough pressure on Israel to end apartheid. If we made the West Bank and Gaza No Fly Zones, protected the Palestinian borders, and gave illegal Israeli “settlers” the choice to become Palestinian citizens but not to retain stolen property or return to Israel — We would have a lasting peace.

   We went to war with Iraq because we refused to allow a nation to keep territory taken by military force. If we marshaled the majority of nations under the UN Security Council apartheid we can end Apartheid just as it ended in South Africa.

   Liberating people from occupation and apartheid is a choice we can make.

   We should ask ourselves why we have not done this years ago? That would have saved Israeli and Palestinian lives.

3. So many colonial, imperial and apartheid political entities have established themselves in foreign lands throughout history only to witness different outcomes. The vast majority of them ultimately failed because they couldn’t establish roots necessary for their sustenance. Roman provinces in the Levant, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during the crusades, the many European posts in Africa, the European outposts in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Macao and the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the new world are few just examples. The latest example is apartheid South Africa. The American example had a different outcome because of the overwhelming superiority of the occupier compared to the occupied. It is time for the occupiers of Palestine to realize this fact and spare us the anguish of this perpetual war what has been going on for a full century and acknowledge that God is not a real-estate agent. Delivering them from bondage of ancient Egypt to the Promised Land doesn’t mean taking lands that belong to others.
   
   It is not what you know, it is what you could have known if you wanted to find out. Please search for the truth. It is very easy to find it and once you do, you will be liberated from all biases and prejudice. There was peace and security in Palestine until the Zionist European invaders stole the land from the natives. Advice them to go back to their countries and leave the poor people alone.
   
   The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story hard to understand and even harder to solve.

4. This guy is such a boring speaker, I can’t listen to him.

5. Dr. Finkelstein seemed more relaxed than a year or two ago. I find him more articulate and easier to follow now. Impressed by him.

6. thanks norm…

7. Norman embodies and exudes open minded integrity and even handed intellectual prowess, with a desire to approach the truth in all it's awkward complexity, like few others have ever come close to. I could listen to him for hours.

8. Thanks

9. "they show their true colors"

   YES! These communal narcissists expose themselves when at the crossroads of selfishville and solidarityville–and when somebody shows you who they are BELIEVE THEM!

10. Hopefully you’ll have norm back on to talk about the situation in Gaza. The US media is going out of its way to push the pro Israel propaganda

11. I find it terrifying the way opposing activists pick and choose what they see as aberrations of the other side in an attempt, frequently successful, at discrediting everything about the other side's claims and demands.
    It's like radicalism is simply erasing huge chunks of real and complex problems from societies' observation and analysis.
    There's no nuance and all we see is maliciously placed snippets of reality aimed at fomenting negative and over-simplistic views.

12. Ultimately, when it came down to it, Bernie Sander betrayed his supposed self and his trusting supporters and voters.

13. As the truth comes to light , always suspected , thats why I do not watch or support never mind the highly overpaid and commercialism

14. Sorry, you LOST me when you equated an all white class to "a junior version of the KKK." (Demonstrates some unhinged thinking that I care not to indulge.)

15. Affirmative action was never about representation. It was about off setting racial injustice. About creating pathways out of poverty for an oppressed group.

16. A superior mind who deserves being read and listened to.

17. Divide and conquer economy

18. In a world of banal, populist crap this interview shines like a jewel….. I remember when there were current affairs programs on Tv (yes remmber when we watched tv!??) that were of this quality….. but now its so rare to get honest academic debate that one feels it's a special and rare treat. MORE PLEASE- we need hope.

19. Although I thought Finkelstein shared some very valuable information and made some good points in the final 1/3 of this interview, I thought it was tragically flawed in too many ways. The worst flaw, for me, was his use of the word "woke". Even from so-called leftists, liberals, progressives, or anyone claiming to be against corruption and hate, it still comes off as undefined and a bit of a dog whistle. Most attempts at remedies are flawed. Some flaws are mistakes, and some have been designed into them over time. Affirmative Action is flawed, but so is the ill that most proponents of it seek to treat.

    What I ultimately find most disturbing about Finkelstein is that his arguments come off as "Black people bad. Black people bad. Black people bad." The way he lays out his biased arguments, you'd think Obama ran against Sanders, and America chose "the Black guy". A corrupt political system got behind "the Black guy", because he was wildly more popular than the corrupt White woman they had planned to support. Finkelstein makes it sound like Obama and Black people defeated Bernie Sanders. That's ridiculous and inaccurate. It was the corrupt political system – financed in part by their corrupt White woman – who conspired to steal the nominations from Bernie Sanders. Twice.

    Finkelstein left a lot of speciousness to address in this 30 minutes of speciousness. Ultimately – though my politics may be similar to his in some ways – we differ in that while he's armed with enough "facts" to try and discredit Black historical figures, and any kind of "Black identity", he clearly ignores the necessities involved in navigating and surviving the racist minefield of America, for People of Color.

    In different ways, Finkelstein is yet another fake ally supposedly on the left, like the Clintons. Deadly forked tongue. But he doesn't stab us in the back with it. He clearly and smoothly stabs us right in our faces.

20. I don’t comprehend exactly how or why non-exclusive non-heterosexuals began to characterize themselves as Woke? What is Woke definition meaning to them? Such as how were they previously nonWoke? I skip nonsexual acquaintance details indicating what they are like, because one was politely openminded while 3 others were sneaky inverted farts. Some ok some not. Vaguely saying some are not troubling spies which also exploit nonsexual vulnerabilities for nefarious misuses. Anyhow that was before Woke, as the polite one only had mentioned New Paradigm: for describing his self-acceptance and coping adjustments into feeling securely promiscuous. What his viewpoint about New Paradigm means to him is understandable.

    It aggravates me every time some group relabels itself with new mystifying code words. Rhetorically speaking, how does Woke label help anyones’ understanding, If Woke secretly means the same old Qs but most are adjusted happily? I mistook their happier majority as feeling Gay! If accurate, then their viewpoint about being Gays is understandable.

    So this mystery term Woke is not understandable even after much News involves their same old protest activities? Does anyone understand my inquiry?

21. Proff Finkelstein my teacher with my other teacher! Yay!!

22. Identity politics is peak narcissism.

23. There is a fundamental humanitarian impulse in all that Norman argues so cogently and urgently. To all who listen in good faith, what is so compelling is the utterly common sense of it all . He explodes the platitudes with surgical precision, rouses the drowsy with his passion, and endures with the knowing grin of a heretic in his bonfire the usual ankle biting, whimpers and growls of our privileged pygmies who, lacking intellect, hate him at a visceral level. They vaguely feel some sort of menace posed by his iron logic that like a freight train loaded with the truth's necessary radical vocabulary , runs to their absolute criminal conviction. I do treasure this man, a true voice in our Western wilderness, during this "age of exhausted whoredom."

24. Finkelstein is just another faux-leftist who wants to throw vulnerable people under the bus in order to pander to the bigotry of the whyte working class. He needs to just admit he’s a Strasserite and be done with it.

25. Finklestein analysis is fundamentally flawed because he does not account for European and Euro-American colonialism and its continuing affects on African and indigenous people in America and globally.

26. Norman is so well read and so well versed that it's mind boggling.
    Another half hour would have been great.
    Thank you Chris Hedges for doing this interview.

27. Homophobes are self-loathing, repressed, homo or bi sexuals. This carries over into transphobia in certain ways.
    Queer people are the visual, real life representation of what they fear/hate in themselves. "When we hate someone, we hate something in them that is also in us. What isn't in us doesn't disturb us."
    – Hermann Hesse –

28. What is identity politics? Is it "Black Lives Matter"?

29. Identity politics MUST END AND END NOW!!!!! ADIOS MOOOCHAAACHAAA!!!!

30. This discussion could be used to argue against the Australian Government's call for a referendum on 14th October to change the Australian Constitution to "incorporate" an elitist group of indigenous representatives that will "speak for" all of 152 diverse nations of Indigenous people within Australia. Calling their campaign "The Voice", Government is pouring millions of dollars into a "Yes" vote, that appeals to people's view of themselves as "kind and considerate". In actuality, it reverses a 1967 referendum that successfully outlawed racist behaviors. This "Voice" is foolish idea that will create division not harmony. One could ask "but why?"

31. Norm Finkelstein should have tenure. He's a GREAT professor.

32. 'I'll Burn That Bridge When I get to it'.
    I like that.

33. I always appreciate Norman's frank messaging. A true scholar.

34. Working class freedom fighters never stop fighting the smug spoilt middle class lefties taliban NO RETREAT NO COMPROMISE NEVER NEVER SURRENDER

35. Professor Gabriel Rockhill has written and has been interviewed on how, starting in the 1960s, the CIA started weaponizing identity politics by funding Humanities departments to steer away from real Leftism. So the CIA, along with corporations, brought anti-Left European intellectuals to the USA – like Michel Foucault, among others – and promoted them as “leftists.” We now know about the boom of these departments – Women’s (now Gender) Studies, Queer Studies, African-American Studies, etc., and the effect they’ve had on the real Left. For the longest time I’ve thought that the hyper focus on identity politics was a COINTELPRO-like operation to try and put the final death knell on the Left in America, and professor Rockhill confirmed it with the evidence he’s presented.

36. Why did you cut him off at the point he mentioned Angela Davis?

37. Love it – just when Finkelstein was talking about Angela Davis' demand for $35K to speak at Harvard's Palestine Solidarity event – Hedges ends the interview.

    Kinda shows you who is the boss…

38. I don't think "defund the police" is unpopular in the black community where is Norman Finkelstein getting his information?!

39. Nothing like true leftists who are helping set the stage for a 2nd trump term and a total fascist takeover…but hey, at least Putin will be saved in the process….smh

40. This guy on Curb your enthusiasm would be hilarious! Arguing with Larry! LOL

41. I love the way how Chris Hedges articulate.

42. I love Professor Finkelstein: he has definitely become surly with time and now not only is he a great intellectual but also hilariously grumpy

43. what is the blues title and singer please?????

44. Rich White kids talking about how to help the oppressed? Weird.

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