Israel Palestine and Groupthink

I've noticed this interesting pattern, this cycle that's taken place over the last almost a decade now. And it follows the same pattern in trying to assess who's generally on the right side of an issue and who's generally on the wrong side of an issue. And a lot of it comes down to group think, being emotionally charged or activated by an issue, losing all sense of critical thinking capacity and rationality, and joining a sort of mob mentality. We can trace this all the way back to Trump, right? Remember when Trump was on the rise back in 2016? And in the peak of woke leftism in the culture, it became impossible to discuss Trump rationally. His flaws, his virtues, the good things he was saying, the problematic things he was saying, that didn't matter. You couldn't discuss it rationally because the people opposed to him were so activated, so emotional, so irrational. that to say anything that was off from the group think about him, you were considered a monster. Years later, with Trump getting elected for a second term, looking back on it, it seemed like rational minds prevailed. We realized we had made some mistakes. Collectively, same thing happened during co remember it became unacceptable to not accept the dogma that was co had to accept lockdowns. You had to accept the narrative that was coming from the government. You couldn't discuss the origins of the disease without being called a racist. You couldn't discuss alternative treatments without being considered harmful to society. You had to accept everything. And that was the emotional group think. Years later, looking back on CO, it seems like rational minds have prevailed. were able to discuss more rationally vaccines, the co origins, all of these emotionally charged issues, trans issues, BLM, they all had this element of group think, and everyone had to suspend their rationality, hold back on expressing doubt or skepticism or honest conversation. Fast forward to today, Israel Palestine. We're almost 2 years since October 7th. Ask yourself honestly, where is the group think? On which side of this conflict does there exist a mob mentality of people getting on board, not using critical thinking or rationality, but looking at images, looking at headlines, and just becoming emotionally charged and to become completely hostile to the other side, to demonize the other side. I come from the pro-Israel side. I'm a Zionist. I'm a Jew. And I can tell you that a lot of people on my side are very engaged with this issue, are fairly educated on this issue. We've been to Israel many times. We have family members and friends that live in Israel, and we have formed our opinions about this issue based on both education and experience in talking to people firsthand in seeing things firsthand. Contrast that with the pro Palestinian side. Ask yourself, have a lot of these people formed their opinions based on education and experience, or have they formed these opinions because of things that have been repeated to them in the same way many people formed opinions about Trump because of things that were repeated to them or they formed opinions about co because of things that were repeated to them. So too, many people are forming opinions about Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East because of things that are repeated to them. What it means to be rational is to look at a situation and not just simply be emotionally activated by it. Not just look at images or headlines, but actually try to evaluate what's going on beneath the surface and not be manipulated by propaganda. When you look at the other side, I see group think. I see a mob mentality. I see people burning flags, destroying property, and when you ask them why, they can't tell you. They just use the same buzzwords, the same kind of buzzwords they threw at Trump that proved to be false or they used during COVID that proved to be false. And I think when it comes to this issue of Israel Palestine, while my side might feel like we're increasingly lonely and isolated, in a few years time, we're going to look back and recognize where the group think, where the brain rot, where the irrationality truly was. Just like during Trump or CO or any of these highly charged issues on Israel Palestine, ask yourself, who's doing the group think? Who's a part of the mob mentality? Which side is being manipulated by propaganda? The people talk about public opinion turning on Israel. Well, ask yourself in the last decade, has public opinion been right? Was public opinion right about Trump? Was public opinion right about COVID? Is public opinion right about Israel, Palestine?