Long Read of the Week: The Turn by Liel Leibovitz

by Vanderleun on December 9, 2021

For many years—most of my politically cognizant life, in fact—I felt secure in my politics. Truth and justice, I believed, leaned leftward. If you were some version of a decent human being, you cared about those less fortunate than you, which meant that you supported a whole host of measures designed to even the playing field a little. Sometimes, these measures had unintended consequences (see under: Stalin, Josef), but that wasn’t reason enough to despair of the long march to equality.

You might be living through The Turn if you ever found yourself feeling like free speech should stay free even if it offended some group or individual but now can’t admit it at dinner with friends because you are afraid of being thought a bigot. You are living through The Turn if you have questions about public health policies—including the effects of lockdowns and school closures on the poor and most vulnerable in our society—but can’t ask them out loud because you know you’ll be labeled an anti-vaxxer. You are living through The Turn if you think that burning down towns and looting stores isn’t the best way to promote social justice, but feel you can’t say so because you know you’ll be called a white supremacist. You are living through The Turn if you seethed watching a terrorist organization attack the world’s only Jewish state, but seethed silently because your colleagues were all on Twitter and Facebook sharing celebrity memes about ending Israeli apartheid while having little interest in American kids dying on the streets because of failed policies. If you’ve felt yourself unable to speak your mind, if you have a queasy feeling that your friends might disown you if you shared your most intimately held concerns, if you are feeling a bit breathless and a bit hopeless and entirely unsure what on earth is going on, I am sorry to inform you that The Turn is upon you.

The Turn hit me just a beat before it did you, so I know just how awful it feels. It’s been years now, but I still remember the time a dear friend and mentor took me to lunch and warned me, sternly and without any of the warmth you’d extend to someone you truly loved, to watch what I said about Israel. I still remember how confusing and painful it felt to know that my beliefs—beliefs, mind you, that, until very recently, were so obvious and banal and widely held on the left that they were hardly considered beliefs at all—now labeled me an outcast. The Turn brings with it the sort of pain most of us don’t feel as adults; you’d have to go all the way back to junior high, maybe, to recall a stabbing sensation quite as deep and confounding as watching your friends all turn on you and decide that you’re not worthy of their affection any more. It’s the kind of primal rejection that is devastating precisely because it forces you to rethink everything, not only your convictions about the world but also your idea of yourself, your values, and your priorities. We all want to be embraced. We all want the men and women we consider most swell to approve of us and confirm that we, too, are good and great. We all want the love and the laurels; The Turn takes both away.

But, having been there before, I have one important thing to tell you: If the left is going to make it “right wing” to simply be decent, then it’s OK to be right.

Why? Because, after 225 long and fruitful years of this terminology, “right” and “left” are now empty categories, meaning little more than “the blue team” and “the green team” in your summer camp’s color war. You don’t get to be “against the rich” if the richest people in the country fund your party in order to preserve their government-sponsored monopolies. You are not “a supporter of free speech” if you oppose free speech for people who disagree with you. You are not “for the people” if you pit most of them against each other based on the color of their skin, or force them out of their jobs because of personal choices related to their bodies. You are not “serious about economic inequality” when you happily order from Amazon without caring much for the devastating impact your purchases have on the small businesses that increasingly are either subjugated by Jeff Bezos’ behemoth or crushed by it altogether. You are not “for science” if you refuse to consider hypotheses that don’t conform to your political convictions and then try to ban critical thought and inquiry from the internet. You are not an “anti-racist” if you label—and sort!—people by race. You are not “against conformism” when you scare people out of voicing dissenting opinions.

When “the left” becomes the party of wealthy elites and state security agencies who preach racial division, state censorship, contempt for ordinary citizens and for the U.S. Constitution, and telling people what to do and think at every turn, then that’s the side you are on, if you are “on the left”—those are the policies and beliefs you stand for and have to defend. It doesn’t matter what good people “on the left” believed and did 60 or 70 years ago. Those people are dead now, mostly. They don’t define “the left” anymore than Abraham Lincoln defines the modern-day Republican Party or Jimi Hendrix defines Nickelback.

So look at the list of things supported by the left and ask yourself: Is that me? If the answer is yes, great. You’ve found a home. If the answer is no, don’t let yourself be defined by an empty word. Get out. And once you’re out, don’t let anyone else define you, either. Not being a left-wing racist or police state fan doesn’t make you a white supremacist or a Trump worshipper, either. Only small children, machines, and religious fanatics think in binaries.

Which isn’t to diminish the anger, hurt, and confusion you’re feeling just now. But it’s worth understanding that your story has a happy ending. The freedom you feel on the other side is so real it’s physical, like emerging from a long stretch underwater and taking that first deep breath in the cool afternoon air. None of it makes the lost friends or the lost career opportunities any less painful; but there’s no more potent source of renewable energy than liberty, and your capacity to reinvent—yourself, your group, your life—is greater than you realize.

So welcome to the right side, friend, and join us in laughing at all the idiotic name-calling that is applied, with increasing hysteria, to try and stop more and more normal Americans from joining our ranks. Fascists? Conspiracy theorists? Anti-science racist TERFs? Whatever. We have a better word to describe ourselves: free.

FROM The Turn – Tablet MagazineLiel Leibovitz is a senior writer for Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.

Comments on this entry are closed.

Gagdad Bob December 9, 2021, 9:06 AM

“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”

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James ONeil December 9, 2021, 9:40 AM

First you gotta understand, it ain’t right against left, it’s right against wrong.

Get that in your head, keep it there, and you’ll be right, mate.

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- james wilson December 10, 2021, 3:55 PM
  
  “Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing”. No one is on the right until he finally appreciates what Robert Conquest stated.
  
  In small d democratic politics it’s all left vs left. There is and cannot be a single actual right-wing politician in popular government which is afflicted with universal suffrage.
  
  You can’t debate with a narcissist, and it is the talented narcissist which is drawn to rule this collection of women, beggars, posers and the natural marks for which they live to control. The narcissist, give credit, at least recognize democracy for what it is and respond accordingly. It is my side that doesn’t understand.
  
  There is a right and a left, but there is no right in public politics.
  
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  - steveaz December 12, 2021, 6:59 AM
    
    Very very well said, James.
    
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walt December 9, 2021, 9:44 AM

On his Twitter feed this morning, Dr. Robert Malone, inventor of mRNA vaccines and RNA as a drug, linked to this article and wrote, “For me personally, this may be the most important article of the day.”

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Steve (retired/recovering lawyer) December 9, 2021, 10:01 AM

Earlier I came across a post outlining a survey somebody took, wherein it was observed that people on “the left,” (i.e., the “green team”) a/k/a The Woke a/k/a SJW’s, were far more likely to hate, revile, disdain, ostracize and persecute those whom they perceived to be on “the right” (“the blue team”), i.e., everybody who did not march in lockstep with their political and social beliefs. This seems to explain why it is so gut-wrenching for a former lefty to open his eyes and awaken to the world of reality that exists outside the left-wing bubble. For those of us on the blue team, it is usually the case that we have pity on friends or family who go over to the woke/SJW/leftist team, not hate or animosity. Whereas, the opposite seems to hold when a lefty leaves the fold. Guess it has something to do with becoming a heretic versus simply getting lost.

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Walter Sobchak December 9, 2021, 2:24 PM

Leibovitz may be the canary in the coal mine for liberal Jews. Many of them have begun to realize that they are the next target for the Party. First they came for the Catholics, then they came for the Jews.

Consider the following:

“AOC goes full Jeremy Corbyn” By Becket Adams on December 08, 2021
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/aoc-goes-full-jeremy-corbyn

“Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York went full Jeremy Corbyn this week in defense of a fellow New York House Representative, Jamaal Bowman, who has been targeted by the Democratic Socialists of America for being insufficiently committed to the cause of Palestine. …

“Bowman, the latest addition to the so-called “squad,” is in hot water with far-left agitators because he agreed to meet with Israeli leaders. The congressman, who won his election thanks to strong support from the DSA, has also irked left-wingers with his vote to fund the Iron Dome, a purely defensive system that blocks terrorists’ missiles from hitting civilian populations.

“Bowman’s recent praise for J Street, the liberal answer to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, did not win him any friends on the far Left, either. “For the Democratic Socialists of America, under whose banner Bowman launched his political career — knocking off a pro-Israel Democratic incumbent last year — it was three strikes and you’re out,” Politico reports .

“The report adds, “DSA’s working group on Palestine is now pushing for the broader organization to expel Bowman over Israel. On Thursday, DSA’s national political committee said it wouldn’t push Bowman out but chastised him and said it wouldn’t endorse his reelection absent certain conditions.”

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David December 9, 2021, 3:25 PM

Radical Son by David Horowitz

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Anonymous December 9, 2021, 5:36 PM

Dan Greenfield (Sultan Knish) is always a good read.

The Qalifornia Qahal who employ him (well the Horowitz Foundation, anyway) have realised that *they* face a real looming threat from the Silicon Valley Indian Ascendancy and have Dan banging out some brilliant hit pieces on Kamala Harris who was backed by the Dot Brigade.

Best to always look at these things in terms of personal and group interests rather than as broad over-arching principles and public-spiritedness. That way less likely to be disappointed. But any kind of Reaction is Good Reaction. People have to be hit by something that affects themselves before they change. From tiny mustard seeds…

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Mike Austin December 10, 2021, 6:06 AM

Leibovitz sure wrote a lot of words just to say his eyes were now opened. Too much anguish, hand-wringing, confessing and whining for my taste. He sounds like a Jewish intellectual living in New York. Which he is.

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gw December 10, 2021, 7:07 AM

At first glance, Mr. Leibovitz’ apologetic provides encouragement. In the end, it leaves me wondering if this is just a half-hearted, faux admission, by another leftist narcissist.

First, he seems out touch with reality when addressing the history of evil and death that the left has wrought on modern civilization. Stalin’s actions were horrendous and inexcusable. His reference is more than a bit understated to put it nicely.

“Sometimes, these measures had unintended consequences (see under: Stalin, Josef), but that wasn’t reason enough to despair of the long march to equality.”

Second, he can’t seem to admit that rights like free speech are integral to the existence of an open and democratic society, and not a convenience that one must leave at home so as not to offend your dinner companions.

“You might be living through The Turn if you ever found yourself feeling like free speech should stay free even if it offended some group or individual but now can’t admit it at dinner with friends because you are afraid of being thought a bigot.”

Third, this seems not to be a rebuke of his Faustian bargain, but more an appeal to his friends to follow him with the goal of luring the “others” to join on the trek to their utopia.

“So welcome to the right side, friend, and join us in laughing at all the idiotic name-calling that is applied, with increasing hysteria, to try and stop more and more normal Americans from joining our ranks.”

A most unconvincing turning.

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- Mike Austin December 10, 2021, 7:26 AM
  
  Summed up nicely. Leibovitz is just another New York City greasy weasel. He is desperate in his attempt to have it both ways so that people will still like him. I could not care less what this weak and sniveling Beta thinks about anything in the universe.
  
  ∞
SteveS December 10, 2021, 11:52 AM

I suspect that possibly 100%? of commentators here at AD have made a left to right political change and have their own story’s to tell. Isn’t that why we gravitate to Gerard and the community here? Another stellar blog is newneo.com. One of Neo’s
passions is the dynamics involved in political change
Changing usually takes place by degrees, one initiating event leading to another, yet to another. I say cut the “Big Leibovitz-owsky” some slack. It’s a process.

∞
- Mike Austin December 10, 2021, 12:57 PM
  
  It was not the “process” I commented on with regards to Leibovitz, it was his reaction to it. Apparently he insists that everyone know every single one of the most minute details of how it happened, and so he goes on…and on…and on…to explain himself. The essay is, in fact, not about political positions at all. It is all about him. His self-indulgence and solipsism are cringe worthy. An Oklahoman or a Texan could have said the same thing in a sentence or two. But, you know…Jewish intellectuals living in New York City like to whine and lament, and whine and lament.
  
  As for commenters here at American Digest having all made a Left to Right political change: well, I have no idea. I was always conservative save for the two years (1976 – 1978) I spent in college living in an urban commune. Once the marihuana haze faded away after I left that place, I could not wait to vote for Ronald Reagan. The rest is history.
  
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  - ghostsniper December 10, 2021, 6:16 PM
    
    I think I’ve been a lazy conservative since I was born. For many years I was ignorant of the ways and just went about my days as they were delivered to me, not conscienceless, but mostly just uncaring, and trying to make do. There came a point where I had to make a choice, take a stand, and my conscience won over. As it has ever since. The “conversion”, as it were, going from being ignorant to a set of connected thoughts, happened in the early 90’s. The scales were removed and I was on an ever increasing trajectory to become a raging patriot.
    
    I don’t vote and never will and I don’t see a line between left and right. Both sides have good and both sides are, politically speaking, mostly bad. It is not possible for a person of conscience to choose between the two. No matter which side you choose, when you vote, you have to sell out. Trade off. Choose the “lesser of two evils” and I won’t do that. I stand firmer than concrete in my convictions and will never choose anyone to rule over you, or me.
    
    Lastly, there is not a politician alive or dead in these united states, that is not a criminal precise. Every last one of them condones theft and tyranny, and I’ll have no part of any of it. I am the last patriot and my blood is freedom.
    
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SteveS December 10, 2021, 11:53 AM

I suspect that possibly 100%? of commentators here at AD have made a left to right political change and have their own story’s to tell. Isn’t that why we gravitate to Gerard and the community? Another stellar blog is newneo.com. One of Neo’s
passions is the dynamics involved in political change
Changing usually takes place by degrees, one initiating event leading to another, yet to another. I say cut the “Big Leibovitz-owsky” some slack. It’s a process.

∞
Foo December 11, 2021, 7:57 PM

SteveS, no not 100%.
Another independent conservative here who was never “liberal” except in the classical sense, in high school.
I suppose Canoe U in the early seventies among other young men and women from around the nation dedicated to service, plus being despised by hippies in DC helped speed that wakeup up call. i’ve seen nothing in world travel to support the idea of a superior society, and even the Skandies are waking up to the reality of turd world totalitarian Islam they unwisely imported.

I see Lael Leibovitz, red-pilled by reality like Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Andrew Sullivan, whom all can hear the ovens being warmed up for them by the anti-semitic left, including the head choppers.

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