Norman Finkelstein: Tenure-worthy or Tiresome?

Regardless of my mixed feelings about him, this made me sad to read:
http://urbantimes.co/2014/01/norman-finkelstein-interview/

That is sad, and the way he got shafted by DePaul was fucking infuriating. I realize it's not exactly easy to bounce back from something like that with any shred of optimism intact, but things like "no one reads anymore" and "people don't care about content" are annoyingly misanthropic.

It's demonstrably true that people read fewer books, and fewer books of the kind that he wrote. I read quite a lot, perhaps more than ever, but very few books.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg6UahRNZik

hard not to be moved by Finkelstein's words on the Piers Moron show, even the unexpected Susan Boyle detour.

Mans out there calling child protection and immigration as he tries ethnically cleansing his own apartment building,

Nothing about Finkelstein ever made me think he'd be a pleasant neighbor.

Is that a reference to something?

Dirt dug up by Destiny after Finkelstein humiliated him in a debate

I warned you that you will never win against me. You should have Googled my name--NORMAN FINKELSTEIN--or gone to Youtube and entered my name. Now it is too late.

I'm almost afraid to ask, but is there somewhere I can read an explanation?

I have strongly disliked Finkelstein for a long time now, and felt that he was only tolerated because he was a useful Jewish attack dog for people who value a Jewish attack dog. He is one of a few anti-zionist Jews for whom I think the label of antisemitic is apt.

Finkelstein had some noisy neighbors and he went nuclear on them, calling the cops, threatening to call CPS and INS. Accusing them of medical fraud and mob ties. I've had noisy neighbors and wish I'd done stuff like this.

no way did finkelstein try to ethnically cleanse his own apartment building pic.twitter.com/7FJUm4DUbu

— LonerBox (@BoxLoner) March 15, 2024

Jesus Christ.

I'm especially unsympathetic to him on this one bc I had nightmare downstairs neighbors who used to harass us because they couldn't deal with the fact that small children sometimes make a noise and there is only so much that can be done about it in a building with poor insulation (although we covered our floors with rug pads, extra thick rugs, and often play mats on top of them).. I'm talking about during daytime or early evening hours, and our kids' offenses included splashing in a bathtub (which I guess could be heard from the bathroom below?). Their idiot 15 year old son threatened to beat me up, they called the cops on us multiple times, they screamed at us, they deliberately made recordings of frightening sounds and blasted them through their ceiling to scare our kids. It was a big part of why we moved.

It's not entirely surprising to me - he has always struck me as vicious, hateful, and unhinged, but that is outweighed by his value as a Jewish guy who says what people want to hear and his constant invocation of his parents' holocaust experience.

no argument from me that he is an asshole and possibly an anti-semite.

but i think the main reason people like him is that he is a great debater.

but i think the main reason people like him is that he is a great debater.

Plaintiff suddenly confronted defendant Caryl Jovellanos, yelling "Your husband is a drug addict! I am a professor! I am a doctor! I will do everything for them to take away your daughter"

Game set and match, defendant

Fuck Destiny and his Zionist ass.

https://x.com/TrueAnonPod/status/1769124552192205115?s=20

I had literally never heard of Destiny before this week. Finkelstein nonetheless always has been and remains a POS.

Ok but he's being really loud about a free Palestine, shining light on US and EU support of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and calling out Zionists left and right. Who gives a shit about noise complaints he's made? Don't buy into Destiny's stupid smear campaign.

if this was anyone else you'd be calling him a racist

Uh, I'd say those are a little worse than mere "noise complaints".

there are also lots of people "being really loud about a free Palestine, shining light on US and EU support of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and calling out Zionists left and right" without trying to get their Latino neighbors deported

I didn't know about him either until a year or so ago when I saw him talking about Russia having a right to invade Ukraine. Now he's everywhere all of a sudden!

Lots of white supremacists are also loud about Palestine

His takedown of Dershowitz in 2005 was pretty satisfying

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dershowitz%E2%80%93Finkelstein_affair

I didn't know about him either until a year or so ago when I saw him talking about Russia having a right to invade Ukraine. Now he's everywhere all of a sudden!

― anvil, Monday, March 18, 2024 1:45 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

He was fairly popular when I was in college for his Holocaust Industry book (which is itself an antisemitic and ugly work) and he seems to resurface every so often since then, usually when Israel/Palestine is in the news. I used to be a little more tolerant of him but over and over again I see him fan the flames of the worst antisemitic tropes and stereotypes and also just generally act like a vicious and hateful douchebag. And ironically, it's Finkelstein who tends to exploit the holocaust, constantly using his parents' experience in the camps as a shield and a sword.

He is certainly a good hitman/takedown artist, but such people often tend to be assholes.

i didn't articulate myself well but yes NF is obviously not all there and historically a pos. i just feel like giving this info power ultimately dilutes the message. destiny lost the debate so he in bad-faith digs up dirt on the guy that made him look stupid in order to discredit him and basically say "genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign against the palestinians is okay since norman was an asshole."

but i think the main reason people like him is that he is a great debater.

Can I ask why you think he's a good debater? Anything I've seen has just been two people talking at the same time, which I can't be doing with. This has only been the last month or so other than the Russia take which I don't think he argued very well but I think there were two people talking at the same time in that too

I'm not interested in good debaters, frequently it means someone who either has the arrogance to say dubious stuff with great force or they are some kind of ultra rational psychopath. I agree with much of what Finkelstein says, but by the sound of it he is an arsehole. That doesn't mean he's a wrong arsehole on the occupation of Palestine.

Okay, Mr. Ben Shapiro, if I wear a bib and diaper, will you then debate me?

— Norman Finkelstein (@normfinkelstein) November 14, 2023

how's Norm's rapping game?

"If she (Finkelstein's mother) had read what you (Dershowitz) wrote, she would have said to me 'If you don't take the first train now down to Cambridge and kill him, I'll never speak to you again.'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktlBCXrZXHE

Norm is a cranky old guy who’s good on the I/P history and bad about everything else.

He’s also open to going on any show that will have him, even ones that might record maybe a little too late in the day for him to operate sensibly, shall we say, in ways where the show hosts and producers might just be operating ways bordering on elder abuse.

*in ways

it does seem like elder abuse that his legacy may well be a lot of sensationalized YouTube videos like

watch Destiny DESTROY a small child who thinks he deserves candy

― mookieproof, Thursday, January 4, 2024 7:46 PM bookmarkflaglink

(I'm sorry, every time someone brings up Destiny I think of this post and laugh)

"Can I ask why you think he's a good debater?"

the dershowitz debate is his classic

who the fuck is "destiny"?

glad I don't have a fucking clue!

I only know his child

lol

Destiny_(person)

who is worse - Taibbi or Greenwald