Saul Williams & Abby Martin: a bit too much of an echo chamber

I’d never heard of Saul Williams before, but I very much like Abby Martin’s work. I recently published an article called From their mouths to God’s ear, about a video of hers from 2016, where she interviews Israelis in the streets of Jerusalem.

In this video, there was some interesting stuff, but I felt that they accompanied each other down the rabbit hole a bit too much.

Saul Williams & Abby Martin: Israel's High-Tech Barbarism by Empire Files (YouTube)

They formed their own little echo chamber. It was a fine discussion, but no progress made to figure out how to reach people who don’t already think the way that they do. They just laughed about how stupid everyone else is. I get how frustrating it can be when you see that people are literally denying a holocaust and then claim that they have no idea what’s going on, that you’re the crazy one for even believing something so horrible. Being gaslit is no fun.

But, man, you’ve got to stop cutting off friends who don’t already think right. You’ve got to stop thinking that people are evil rather than ignorant. That’s not the way to get your minority to be a majority.

Maybe they know much worse people than I do. Maybe they have much more contact with people who don’t think like them.

At one point, Saul says,

“Israel is a safe space for sexual predators.”

Um, ok. You sure about that? Or are you just believing anything that your silo publishes?

I looked it up and found the article With pedophiles seeking sanctuary in Israel, one way parents can protect kids by Melanie Kidman (The Times of Israel), which writes,

“According to Jewish Community Watch, at least 34 pedophiles in their sex offender database have moved to Israel in the past decade under the Law of Return, one of the Israel’s founding pieces of legislation, which guarantees every Jew a place in the country. An additional 12 pedophiles have moved to countries other than Israel.”

Ah, OK. 34 people over 10 years. And the “right of return” applies to everyone Jewish, regardless of your criminal record. That’s their law. How could the Jewish state have been founded on a law that rejects the right of return to Jews who’ve been judged by the societies that they are ostensibly fleeing?

I mean, can we conceive of a situation in which a society accuses a Jew of pedophilia in order to arrest them? You know, Saul, as a black man, should be able to conceive of a situation in which an ostracized minority has false charges thrown against them. But, instead, he laughs about how awesome it is that Israel turns out to be utterly evil. You really can’t give in to that temptation.

They’re veering very close to objectifying all Israelis as their country. What would they think of people who did the same to them, as Americans?