Where Were You October 6th?.. and How To Wreck A Brand in 20 Days
Howard Lindzon
November 05, 2023
Good morning…
On October 6th there was a Ceasefire in place between Gaza and Israel.
Hamas controlled Gaza/Palestine as they had for almost two decades. The UN was sending aid that was being stolen by Hamas and life was good for hard working Palestinian protestors in America busy with their Starbucks Union and Ivy League studies like ‘why America is bad’.
BLM, LGBTQ, Ivy League Schools and AOC were not in the streets worried about their ‘Palestinian’ brothers and sisters.
The only street posters the smug, soulless protestors had to tear down (they did not) were those of missing dogs.
BTW, by Ceasefire I mean Hamas/Palestinians were launching rockets at Israel, but since Israel had an ‘Iron Dome’ the Palestinian protestors in America could focus on their real suffering…free time.
In Israel, free time means building apps that send rocket alerts so you can scramble to bomb shelters as Hamas/Gaza fires endless rockets into civilian areas (war crimes):
In Israel I have to use an app that sends alerts when Hamas fires rockets
It’s constant
Every rocket is a war crime & collective punishment - fired at civilians
It has happened FOR YEARS
Every rocket is THEFT from Palestinians as Hamas steals money to make them
— leekern (@leekern13)
Nov 2, 2023
On October 7th, Gaza/Palestine/Hamas broke the ceasefire and massacred 1,400 people and injured more than 4,000.
For a deep walk through and look back at the event and the war since, I urge you to listen to this podcast with Sam Harris and Graeme Wood that walks through the many layers and all sides of the October 7th massacre titled ‘The Infernal Logic of Jihad’.
For those arguing that Israel is fighting just 30,000 remaining Hamas terrorists in tunnels, I give you outdoor movie night in Gaza yesterday:
These are the innocent people of the Gaza. People rejoicing in the slaughter of Jews. People who spit on the bodies of murdered Jewish women and now watch replays for Lols.
— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray)
Nov 5, 2023
As for sick propaganda and the typical anti-Israel media bias I give you the Palestinian actor who shows up all over Gaza in fake ‘emergency’ videos that the BBC could easily have researched but decided to air…
The man with more lives than a cat, so it was only natural that #BBC fall for it. #pallywood#gaza
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A)
Nov 4, 2023
For those needing to tell me about the innocent civilians in Gaza, I hear you. I will have decades to see what Hamas brought to these innocents. Hear me that I have no mental/emotional time for your ‘death ratio’ charts, ‘proportion’, ‘what aboutism’ and ‘chart crimes’.
I am standing with Israel!
Here is the data that matters since Hamas/Gaza/Palestine broker the Ceasefire:
Hamas enters Israel and butchers 1400; kidnaps 240+
Fires ~10k rockets indiscriminately, with 1k+ landing on their own in Gaza
Builds 300 miles of terror tunnels
Lies about basically everything
Snipers their own trying to flee
And yet it's the Jews fault
Make it make sense
— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire)
Nov 3, 2023
Hopefully, you can understand the emotional horror for Jewish people around the world as anti-semitism has exploded. If you do, there are so many ways to roll up your sleeves and pitch in. The easiest is reaching out to check in and to at least understand how we feel.
Two people/founders/brands that decided to attack Israel, insight anti-semitism and raise the stress levels of jews (at minimum in the technology sector) have been Paddy Cosgrove and Paul Graham.
I called out Paul last week on my blog for a different disgusting Israeli/Jewish troll but he has been tripling down on his anti-Israel tweets (seen by millions of young people in tech). Here is one that was typical smug, temperature raising Paul:
Paul is not dumb. Paul is just a prick (others are calling him an anti-semite which I agree with). Only a prick would choose October 7th as a start date, ignore that Hamas started this war with a terrorist massacre and not mention the hostages (check his timeline). It turns out he has been doing this since 2014 as covered by tech press. I did not know. Now I know and I think it is fair for me to make sure others know because I would not have been looking at YC companies if I had known. Paul is a bazillionaire who funds and influences some of the ‘best and brightest’ minds in technology. Shame on Paul and the people at YC that know/knew. I will never look at another YC company.
One other brand that has destroyed itself is Web Summit. Here is a short, grim, but excellent video that explains how Paddy with the help of Qatar influence wrecked a technology brand in two weeks.
Of course, Twitter (Elon Musk) has taken this factual video down because you know…they need to make room for the disgusting anti-semite, death to Israel videos from Hamas, Iran and Jackson Hinkle.
Enough for today. Kiss your Kids and be nice.
PS…On Friday, I sat down with my friend Ben Hunt and chatted about how we both are feeling right now. Ben is a great human being, father, mentor and longtime guest on my old ‘Panic’ podcast and we discussed the following:
As this sad war carries on, we around the world may not be able to stop it, but I am watching. We see this. It is so hurtful. It is senseless to inflict this emotional pain