The Spencer Ackerman Syndrome

The Mean Girls Win, Bye Bye

I'm taking a break from writing about the Middle East/Israel.

It's been consuming me since October 7, 2023, and it's affecting my functioning on a daily level. I've been trying to step back for my own good, but something happened today that made it clear I need to take a break.

A quick explanation of the title. I've been meaning to write about this for a while, and today feels like the perfect opportunity to get it off my chest and wrap things up.

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What's The Spencer Ackerman Syndrome? Ackerman is a prominent national security writer who used to work at a now-defunct newspaper called The New York Press¹. I remember him because his current guise is so different from what he once was.

I used AI to help jog my memory:

The New York Press was an alternative weekly newspaper based in New York City. It was founded in 1988 by Russ Smith, who also wrote a popular column under the pseudonym "Mugger". The paper was known for its edgy and irreverent style, often covering topics with a mix of humor and insight.

The New York Press had a reputation for being a bit unconventional and was seen as a rival to the Village Voice. It published until 2011, when it ceased its print edition. During its run, it featured contributions from a variety of notable writers and journalists who went on to have successful careers in media and literature.

Bingo. I used to read it every week as an alternative to the canned leftism of The Village Voice. If you were a big city Reagan conservative, you read the NY Press.

I asked AI if Spencer Ackerman ever wrote for them.

Yes, you're correct! Spencer Ackerman did write for The New York Press in the late 1990s. He began as an intern in the listings department, handling tasks like opening mail and managing club listings. Ackerman described the paper as a unique and exciting place, filled with creative writers and a mix of far-left and far-right perspectives. The newsroom culture was lively and unconventional, with writers often engaging in spirited discussions about books, records, and movies1.

Ackerman's time at The New York Press was influential in shaping his career, and he later moved on to other notable publications like The New Republic, Wired, The Guardian, and The Daily Beast.

What a remarkable career trajectory. From an internship in the listings department of an alternative weekly to writing about national security!

Here's what stands out most about his writing: it was entertaining, intelligent, juvenile, snarky — and strongly pro-Israel. This aspect of his work was particularly memorable because of what I also remembered: that his views would likely shift dramatically once he gained a fuller understanding of some of Israel's unethical actions.

This prediction is etched into my memory. I had seen it happen to others. It happened to me. A bright young person raised within the cultural context of American Judaism, is shocked to discover Israel is far from perfect. Disillusioned, he careens in the opposite direction, often ending in frank anti-Zionism. That didn’t happen to me, but it happened to Ackerman.

(And, if you’re wondering about his national security credentials: he has none. No military experience, no time in the FBI or CIA — just a journalism background. That doesn’t mean he can’t write about national security; plenty of outsiders have written excellent books on topics they never studied or worked in². But when someone with zero experience in military or security affairs manages to ingratiate themselves into an influential clique, it’s fair to be skeptical.)

Sometime after October 7, an acquaintance told me of her three nieces, nice Jewish stereotypical girls expensively educated at day schools.

They were pro-Hamas.

I sighed. It was the Spencer Ackerman syndrome at work. How common this is, is anyone’s guess. But it’s not uncommon. I think it’s more common than we care to admit.

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I want to prevent Spencer Ackermans, and I do that by telling them the unvarnished truth about Israel: that it fucks up, that it’s made mistakes, it’s done horrible things, and that it doesn’t have the answers to your existential issues. Actually, it confronts you with them. It has created new ones.

Today, I came across something that should have warmed my heart: a young guy who has become a fervent supporter of Israel. And it did. I appreciated his love. But, hoping to avoid a Spencer Ackerman (because this can happen to non-Jewish supporters of Israel as well as Jewish kids), I warned him that Israel wasn’t all sunshine and roses.

Hoo boy, did I walk into an ambush. (No good deed goes unpunished.)

A Mean Girl who I had tangled with about something so inconsequential I’d forgotten about it interjected that I was a Bad Person to listen to.

I responded to her, read her response, and then blocked her. Such a person can only suck your energy. They contribute nothing except their own egomania. It’s always about Them. I will not name her; I will not waste time looking up the argument we had. I’ll only say this:

Mean Girls don’t know what they’re talking about.

Mean Girls have never spent time in Israel. They know no Hebrew and have never had a conversation with an Israeli in a distant development town whose parents came to Israel from Yemen or Morocco in conditions of great disarray, and who speak of the old country fondly and with regret.

Mean Girls never sat in a taxi while a guy whose legs were blown off and who shakes uncontrollably because he can’t get the sound of those blasts out of his mind tries to negotiate into the cab and sit next to you.

Mean Girls have never been in a country traumatized by the Last War, knowing that the Next War is not far off.

Mean girls get off on propaganda like this.

Mean Girls think that war is a way for feminists to prove that they are butt-kicking babes.

Mean Girls get heap big wargasms over pictures like that.

(Then the girls get captured and they turn into cowering sex slaves, and that’s good for Xwitter arguments.)

To Mean Girls, Israel is a way to exert dominance in a group.

According to the Mean Girl, I wasn’t “presenting” Israel properly. I was a Bad Person to associate with.

OK, Mean Girl, you win.

I’m exiting the discussion and reclaiming my life, you get to “present Israel” the way you want.

As for the young man I’m addressing this to, I’m always here to help. When an anti-Zionist hands your head to you about the Lavon Affair³ in an argument, and you’re dumbfounded, don’t say you weren’t warned. I don’t think the Mean Girl will be of much use then.

From here on in, I’m reclaiming my life.

Tomorrow, my thoughts on Caitlin Clark, and then after that, a total change in focus.

1. Something called www.nypress.com exists but I don’t think the two are related.

2. Two examples: Rebecca West on Yugoslavia, and Evelyn Waugh on Abyssinia. But it takes a certain genius to do that.

3. A false flag operation that imperiled Egyptian Jews and made it impossible for them to continue to live in Egypt. The article in the JVL is truly a masterpiece of double-talk, hiding the false flag aspect at the bottom of the article, and even obscuring it. The Israel Government site is far more honest. Which is what this poast is all about: excusing Israel’s misdeeds does the country no good.