Generated Summary Below:
Video Description:
Robinson’s Podcast #244 - Norman Finkelstein: Donald J. Trump, Mossad Conspiracies in Israel, and the Dying Left
Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine. In this episode, Norman and Robinson sit down for a discussion about Donald Trump, the latest from Israel, Palestine, and Gaza, and the dying Left. Norman also appeared on episode 192, where he and Robinson discussed allegations of genocide and apartheid, Hamas and Hezbollah, and connections between the war and the Holocaust. Norman was also featured on episode 218, where he addressed the facts and fictions generated by the Israel-Hamas War, and episode 228, which was all about October 6th. Norman and Robinson also discuss Mehdi Hassan, Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens, the Holocaust, Apartheid, Joan Peters, Julia Sebutinde, the Mossad, Sheryl Sandberg, Destiny, Lex Fridman, Bill Ackman, Alan Dershowitz, and more. Norman’s most recent book is I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023).
Generated Summary:
Main Topic: The lack of interest in the Holocaust among Jews in the post-war era and the subsequent rise of Holocaust awareness.
Key Points:
- Post-War Success and Forward Focus: Immediately following WWII, Jews were focused on rebuilding their lives and achieving success, leading to a lack of interest in dwelling on the past trauma of the Holocaust. The speaker uses his high school as an example, highlighting the significant achievements of its Jewish alumni, suggesting a collective focus on future success.
- Embarrassment and Stigma: The Holocaust was viewed as an embarrassment due to the perception that Jews went “like sheep to slaughter,” and the implication that survivors must have done something to deserve survival.
- Political Context and Cold War: In the early post-war years, discussing the Holocaust was politically sensitive due to the alliance between the West and West Germany, many of whose leaders were former Nazis. Mentioning the Holocaust was seen as undermining this alliance and potentially pro-communist.
- The Creation of the “Holocaust Industry”: The speaker discusses the relatively late emergence of widespread interest in the Holocaust, highlighting the few books available on the topic in the early 1960s and the political climate that initially suppressed discussion.
Highlights:
- Anecdotal evidence from the speaker’s personal experiences and observations about the lack of interest in the Holocaust among his peers and their families in the 1960s.
- The speaker’s account of the political climate that discouraged discussion of the Holocaust in the early post-war years.
- The speaker’s discussion of the relatively late development of Holocaust studies as an academic field.
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Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.