Letter #210: "Debate Me, Bro!"
Even the Devil has his Reasons
Spong.
Well, your lovable old father seems once again to have turned over a rock and let the caterpillars come swarming out, and by caterpillars I mean people who have boiled their souls in hatred until all the flavor has gone out of them. Jew haters, in this case, specifically. Whose sickness — which has nothing to do with history, Israel, or wise American foreign policy — I diagnosed here.
I had noticed decent folks on X “debating” these pitiless yet pitiful creatures. The decents would appeal plaintively to morality, facts and reason. The haters would snarl epithets and lies. I amiably suggested the decent folks should stop debating because antisemites are “as stupid as bricks.” Not that they have low IQ’s, mind, but the Enemy has lured those IQ’s into a maze of hatred in which every path leads to the same dead end.
My post was greeted by the haters’ fury. What other emotion have they got? And along with the usual sniggering cruelty (which, I swear, is Satan’s trademark), there was the demanding refrain, “Debate me, bro!” Meaning that I should debate the more popular mongers of this foulness.
Now, I don’t debate anyone. I’m an artist not a politician. I discuss ideas, try them on for size, note discrepancies, see where it all leads. I have friends I love who hold opinions and take actions I neither accept nor condone — bigotry, say, or self-protective silence in the face of wickedness. I’ve heard their arguments and understand them. I love them still. But I’m not convinced.
Why would I be? I always knew they had their reasons. But reason is not going to win me over to hatred or moral cowardice. Of course it won’t. You can construct a logical argument for anything. In my upcoming book, The Kingdom of Cain, I discuss murderers who argue convincingly that they killed because society is unfair. And it is unfair. So what? If you don’t know in your heart that murder is wrong, no reason can help you. If I were to debate you and lose the argument, you would still be 100 percent incorrect — and I might have given you a platform from which to entice fools into evil.
If you read Jonathan Haidt or Iain McGilchrist — or simply live life with your eyes open — you know that much of what we know we know by intuition, then supply the “reasons” afterward. This is why God became incarnate as man: to teach us how to use our intuitions rightly.
Our old pal St. Paul summed up those teachings eloquently in First Corinthians 13. Know all, do all, say all the right things, but have no agape love, you’re nothing.
All races and all individuals are steeped neck-deep in sin. You can choose any one of them to hate and blame with good reason. But if you do, nothing will avail you when you shout out “Debate me, bro!” before the throne of your maker and judge.
Love, Dad
Andrew, I am so thankful for you every day. My family are all artists in one form or another who have spent long lives learning their art. I dabble but am not proficient in any creative art but I need to be creative to survive. I was super liberal, growing up during the hippie years and buying into being a hippie. Then I went got my college degree in Social work in Minnesota!!! I was brainwashed in leftist thinking without knowing it. My family now live in LA and MN. Only one sibling out of many is conservative as I am. My sister and I have such a hard time staying in relationship with them because they treat us like we are idiots. They are rude and disrespectful about politics. Even though I am the oldest sibling, and they all learned their damn liberal BS from me in the first place (ugh), they believe that suddenly I have lost my ability to think logically! My one sister and I are Christians. I am sure this is what informed our growing conservatism over the years. (besides both being married to conservative men, thank God)
You can see why your words mean so much to me. I have a similar history to yours. Some of my family work in the movie industry in LA even. And all my life I have been obsessed with analyzing the culture and the arts and how they intersect. At the same time I am a pretty concrete thinker so your words open up issues to me so I can see them clearly.
The issue of the day is antisemitism. I totally agree with you that it's the devil and as simple as that. Any true Christian loves the Jews. I wanted to be Jewish as a kid so badly. My mom was Episcopalian and my dad was a jazz guitar player professionally. My dad's friend were all either black or jewish! LOL! And I made friends with jewish girls and slept over at their houses and that made me wish I was jewish since childhood. My family was chaotic and my dad was an alcoholic and my jewish friends, their dad could play jazz and still not drink too much. Plus they got to drink soda with dinner instead of milk like we had to drink...Anyway, I just wanted to thank you and Spencer for your substack and Daily Wire, where I see your podcasts.
It’s the same with TDS. If someone hates the president, there is nothing you can say about one of his good policy decisions because they are already emotionally aligned against him. With antisemitism it is mostly envy and resentment at Jewish success. How can this tiny tribe be so influential? The antisemites explain it with conspiracy theories. How about intelligence, family-centeredness, ethical focus, historical awareness? Imo, one should start there trying to understand Jewish success and influence, not conspiracy theories.