On Monday, my colleague Susie Moore posted an interesting article centering around actress and scientist Mayim Bialik, famously known for playing "Blossom" in the early 90s' and later as Amy Fowler in "Big Bang Theory."
Bialik posted a video to Instagram expressing shock after the discovery that the amount of antisemitism around her was much greater than she anticipated. The video is unscripted and goes on for some time, but the gist of the post is that the antisemitism that is thriving across the globe is unacceptable and that it's thriving in places that Bialik didn't anticipate like her old alma mater, UCLA.
As Susie posted, this got a response from Dr. Sheila Nazarian, plastic surgeon, and television star, who shares Bialik's Jewish ancestry but not Bialik's surprise concerning the antisemitism she's seeing. In her own video response, Nazarian said something incredibly poignant:
"I just finished watching Mayim Bialik's recent post about how she sees things, and it took October 7th for her to see things. And...I'm just so...I don't know...I don't understand why it has taken so long for people to see what a lot of us have been screaming for the last four years, especially — and I hate to say it — especially the progressive Jews in America.
"You thought marching with these leftist organizations meant that you were one of them and that they supported you. You failed to read the charter of Black Lives Matter, that had antisemitism written in it from the beginning. You failed to notice the antisemitism at the Women's Marches by Linda Sarsour on stage — one of the people on the board of the Women's March.
"You failed to listen — you failed to see. And what? Now you see? Now you're awake? You're disappointed in the world? I'm disappointed in you. I'm disappointed that it had to take a massacre of the Jewish people for your eyes to be opened.
Nazarian's video should be spread far and wide, and not because Bialik needs to be shamed in the least. Bialik's shock is shared by many and many can't be blamed for not seeing what Nazarian has seen.
We often times treat ignorance in today's society the same way we do maliciousness, but the world isn't as easy to navigate as we think it is. We think because we discovered the truth that it should be as easy as it was for us, but that's just not the case.
Most Americans wake up in the morning, take care of their kids and pets, get ready for work, drop their kids off at school, do their 9-5 job, come home, feed their families, help their kids with their nightly routine, possibly while doing some house chores, and then what little downtime they have after that is usually spent on escapism. Funny enough, this goes for many celebrities as well, including Bialik, who returned to television because it allowed her to spend more time with her family.
And people like Bialik are surrounded by a certain bubble that is heavily influential, and she's been in it for a long time. Despite that, Bialik still manages to be a relatively normal person with good values, if not a little misled in a few ways.
Nazarian is right; it's disappointing that Bialik never noticed the raging antisemitism in popular leftist culture, but people like Bialik have been lulled into this false idea of what the left is because of an oft-repeated lie that eventually became the "truth."
The lie is that the left has always been the "tolerant" and "accepting" side. It was the side that said it supports the oppressed and fights for the little guy. It said it stands up for the marginalized and promises hope and change to the unjust parts of society.
This was the promise of "social justice," and it's a promise that was echoed from every corner of mainstream society from the stages of Washington to California and every platform in between.
But social justice has always been a mask for bigotry, racism, and yes, antisemitism. It's the excuse for some of the most horrid behavior in modern history from first-world citizens. Social justice is a lie you tell when you want to dominate and subjugate those around you whom you deem as villains, oftentimes because of skin color, gender, or race.
(READ: Many Should Be Seeing the Long-Standing Racism of the Left Now)
As Nazarian points out, the left's racial hatred has always been evident, specifically towards the Jewish people. You can see it even now in Washington through members of "The Squad" like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. You can see it through the "spiritual leaders" of the left. You can see it in their activist groups.
The left has never been shy about expressing their racism and bigotry; they just used a different language to express it than what you've typically seen throughout history. Some, like Nazarian, notice it right away for what it is because they grew up around it, but others have to be shocked into reality.
They need to realize that the true evil was never the "conservatives" in America like the left liked to claim with all its distracting witch hunts and accusations, but it was the left all along. The same people who preached tolerance while practicing intolerance, who decried racism while expressing racism, and who denounced bigotry while being openly bigoted themselves.
This war between Israel and Hamas should give the ignorant, the misguided, and the confused a very solid look at who the left is and what it truly stands for. People need to see it and be educated about it. There will be few better teachers about the left's true nature than at this moment.
