One of the successes of Western secularism is that, when a person of a faith goes through doubts (for any reason), they default back onto secular values and culture, as though that is the standard “neutral” practice.

It’s not like most Arabs who leave Islam return to Jahili idolatry. They just put on skinny jeans and call themselves Moe. Even though the Persians who leave Islam may reclaim some Zoroastrian artifacts, they still dress, behave, and believe as Anglo-Franco people do.

Even the average Chinese, Korean, and Japanese person is barely Buddhist or Shinto. At the UN, most countries wear suits too. Most new cities are modelled after New York, London, etc.

The default global religion is naturalist, utilitarian, humanist, and vaguely Western, with a differing mix of pop culture and folkways. This is ironically even the case in “decolonial” circles. We are all pushed in this direction, gently or violently, unless we are actively resisting it. Even many religious people, when you scratch beneath the surface, are just following this global religion.

“A pleased eye overlooks all blemishes, while a displeased eye highlights all flaws”

عين الرضا عن كل عيب كليلة وعين السخط تبدي المساوئ

When you’re infatuated with someone, you don’t see their defects. But when you hate someone, all you see are their flaws.

Too much conflicting information. Is that Imane fighter a biological female? Intersex? Some kind of chromosomal abnormality? Or is there no reliable information - and if so, is that because they may be hiding it? Is it "Russian misinformation" and "racism"? When I look and listen to her I actually have no idea.

PS: I'm not watching the Olympics. The little I've seen is basically softcore porn.

PPS: Sports that involve hitting humans (or animals) on the face are abominable.

PPPS: Cover yourself, ladies, don't take uncovered girls as role models.

PPPPS: Arab women are tough, and North African women can beat up most men - that's certain, regardless of this story.

I think that after Haniyeh was assassinated, Israel is probably more inclined to a potential ceasefire deal than before the assassination. Renewed talks slated for next week seem to indicate that.

Any deal might be contingent on the nature of Iran’s response. The final result might be more symbolic exchanges between Iran and Israel, in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, there is the possibility that Israel is still averse to a ceasefire deal, and wants to kill more leaders first to give them a more symbolic victory in Gaza to appease the Israeli population.

If Israel is still averse to a ceasefire even now, then the Iranian response will be heavier. Iran’s last attack did not kill any Israelis, but it was still unprecedented, as no government has hit Israel directly from their own soil since the first Gulf War.

Iran is under pressure to respond, because otherwise, it’ll look like Israel can assassinate their allies in their capital during an official visit for an inauguration. The question is, will Iran’s response resemble the last attack or will it look different?

Any good summary of what is happening in Bangladesh?

Even I think immigration is a mess in West, I just wish they weren’t attacking random Browns and were brave enough to face the real music. These Browns are, for the most part, scapegoats of a falling civilization that is corrupted by atheism, lobbies, wars, degenerate activists and industries, and a failing economic system.

One caveat is that we are seeing a religious revival in Israel today, with the rise of the Hasidic population (they have more kids than secularists), and with the resurgence of messianic expectations and Temple-rebuilding fervour. There is a growing shift between Israeli Jews and American Jews, where predominantly Ashkenazi Americans are secular, and the growing number of Mizrahi Israelis are religious.

But still, for all of the half-baked anti-religion arguments, and arguments for atheism, liberalism, materialism, and utilitarianism, it is heavily understated how much is actually motivated by Sabbatai's failure. Eschatology can't be played around with.

Many don't know that the non-religious and anti-religious push in early modern Western intelligentsia can be partially attributed to a failed messianic movement in the 1600s.

In 1648, a man named Sabbatai Zevi claimed to be the Messiah in Ottoman Turkey. He based his calculations on the Zohar, a medieval mystical commentary of the Hebrew Bible. He was even accepted by the majority of Jews worldwide.

Zevi's messianism was built on turning Jewish law upside down. He turned fast days into feast days, he ate forbidden foods, he married a prostitute, his followers were involved in orgies, and he was known for his beautiful and sometimes erotic singing. Basically, the Law no longer applied in the messianic era, and all was permissible - and in order to drive that point, Zevi would partake in outrageous sins.

However, the Ottomans considered Zevi a seditious figure, and ordered his execution. After all, if he was really the Messiah, the Sultan would not be able to kill him.

Zevi decided in that moment to convert to Islam. The Sultan changed his name to Mehmed Effendi, and married him to one of the queen's slaves. This shocked his followers. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, this was the biggest upset since the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Jews literally burned down their own synagogues and literature, and Kabbalistic Judaism (which was too tied up with Zevi at the time) virtually died out for a century. See the works of historians Gershom Scholem and David Sorkin.

Zevi's conversion was only outward, and some families decided to follow Zevi - these became known as the Donmeh in Turkey. Zevi eventually died a pretty unceremonious death. It is likely that Kemal Ataturk was a Donmeh, as he is from a Donmeh neighbourhood in Thessaloniki. Many Young Turks were in fact Donmeh, who were militant secularists by the 20th century.

Now think about it - if you believed in a lawless messiah, who ended up failing you, and you already have a history of going against your own faith, and in some cases you acted like a part of a faith that you didn't belong to, you might have a preference for secularism too.

This early modern faith crisis directly led to disillusionment, a rise in rationalism and legalism among practicing Jews, and most importantly, the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah). This 1700s movement emphasized secular studies, a formal adoption of European Enlightenment values, and religious skepticism. You can read about this socio-cultural shift in "Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah" by Scholem, "Tradition and Crisis," by Jacob Katz, "History of the Jews" by Heinrich Graetz, and "The Berlin Haskalah and German Religious Thought" by Sorkin.

There was also an even more radical Sabbatean movement called the Frankists. Jacob Frank founded a sub-movement that was prominent in the 18th and 19th centuries, claiming to be a reincarnation of Sabbatai. They followed antinomianism, father-daughter incest, and they believed that religion should just be worn like an empty shell. He believed in purposeful integration into society for the purpose of eventually overthrowing it. In the 1750s, the Frankists organized a mass conversion Catholicism in Poland and Lithuania with this purpose in mind. Louis Brandeis was a Frankist.

But we can see how movements ranging from Bolshevism to New Atheism disproportionately attracted the Jewish community. Zionism was also founded as a secular movement (Herzl and Ben Gurion were non-religious), and early Israel was very much on the political left. It may be surprising to some to know that, according to Pew in 2021, only 26% of American Jews believe in the God of the Bible, yet 50% believe in "spiritual forces". Compare these numbers to any other ethnic group, coming from Europe or elsewhere.

In terms of New Atheists, think Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Fry, David Silverman, Bill Maher, Yuval Harari, Lawrence Krauss. In terms of atheist intellectuals, think Marx, Freud, Trotsky (and partly Lenin), Durkheim, Derrida, Oppenheimer, Ayn Rand, Carl Sagan, Milton Friedman, etc.

Missiles landing on Majdal Shams, occupied Golan Heights killed a number of people, including children. Israel blames Hezbollah, Hezbollah denies responsibility.

It is unclear if this was a failed attack, an iron dome malfunction, or a false flag attack. But Majdal Shams consists almost entirely of Arab Druze. It has never been attacked in this war.

Netanyahu is expected to return immediately to Israel, and it looks like the Israeli military is prepping for an attack on Lebanon.

This comes as Israel is in ceasefire talks with Gaza.