I was going to ignore this stupid controversy, another distraction which is apparently being used by SPLC and adjacent to show there’s “antysemytysm” in the GOP. But I listened to the audio and couldn’t resist saying something because it bears on a bigger problem with America and the right at moment…first, listen to the audio. Then see that all MAGA-adjacent influencers got in line to say the guy in video has a valid religious objection and that this is why he refuses to attend a "Shabbat dinner."
After listening to audio and seeing replies I realized it wasn’t a friend inviting him socially to dinner, but that this was a question in a public forum (which was videotaped but this post below deceptively presents this as a secret recording of a private conversation) regarding a mandatory or semi-mandatory "Shabbat dinner experience" to "educate" employees at this conservative think tank about antysemytysm. I find it absurd that such things as this kind of coercive passive aggressive "invitation" can be issued in 2025 at a conservative think tank and I find the answer both of this guy and also of the "influencers" lining up to defend him to be very weak and to miss the point.
The fact that in our day after everything that's happened you still have to couch in religion your objection to what amounts to leftist woke HR bullying on the part of "Bethany Shonda" at a fucking conservative think tank is pathetic. And if indeed (in the remote chance) his objection was actually only religious and referred to the time of week (so he would have accepted the same teach-in on another day?), then I still think he should have gone out of his way to say something else.
Like, couldn't you say, "No I'm sorry, if you were going to invite me socially in a spirit of friendship to one of your holidays I might be glad to attend; I travel all over the world and honor the local beliefs of many tribes and small peoples and even make offerings to birds and such, sure I'll come to your ritual. But that's not why you're making this invitation. You're doing this because we're all being held under suspicion of heresy and thought-crime and "antisemitism." This is no different from being lectured in college by a leftist professor or administrator, being forced to attend mandatory antisemitism or racism teach-ins with educational hour about e.g. black culture, and I'm not going to be subjected to this or be held under suspicion." Or anything of that variety.
Had he said anything like that, I would consider him courageous, but that he didn't say this, and that most of "influencers" on here are assisting in this, I find very weak. The implication is that without a religious premise or without another identity-demand, it isn't acceptable to refuse the mendacious "Shabbat invitation," and there's not even the pretense anywhere for calling this out for what it is (and honestly you should all be writing any donors to Heritage, and I'll ask the few I know, who happen to have money, to refuse to donate until a pledge is made that all bullies like Bethany "Shonda" and the other ethnic activists are fired or at least severely given their OWN teach-in and discipline regarding freedom in a civilized society). Worse still, and this is what I suspect--that actually the speaker, or those around him, and many influencers stomping for this, wouldn't have a problem subjecting others to identity struggle and microaggression-teach-in sessions of their own, so instead of an atmosphere of professionalism and manly freedom (what indeed, does researching immigration policy at a think tank have to do with attending "Shabbat dinners" or any religious function at all??) you get everyone very sensitive about their own little gay religious identity that must not be slighted.
Otherwise the duty would be the same also for any Jewish employee who cares about freedom...why did none of you at Heritage who are Jewish stand up and call out this bullshit antiracism educational hour masquerading as a "Shabbat dinner" invitation?
On another matter, I don't know anything about Evan Myers, and don't mean this as a personal attack on him--he may very well be a good guy. Someone just showed me that the only thing he's written is a kind of review of my own supposed influence, in talking about Patrick Deneen's book...I think he misunderstands what I say and it's partly an attack on me from the point of view of Deneen, but he's not unkind to me and there's no venom as there usually is when conservatives write about me. So he shouldn't think what I'm about to say is about him. But this episode and the response to it is depressing in that in fact very little has changed after Trump. The fact you all have to pretend this is about religious commitments, instead of boldly standing up against HR-style intimidation antiracism hour ...I have to think that many of you didn't think this through. You are rushing to defend something because it's being attacked by bad people, but actually this is a very weak statement and position, a very weak defense of freedom.
As for what goes on at these think tanks I find it repulsive. I was ostracized my whole life precisely because I DID often say things like what you see above and I was almost always the only one saying it; the result is you see I never got any jobs or internships at Heritage or anywhere else, and was almost universally avoided. By conservatives especially. Conservatives are and have always been weak and brown-nosers; and you're delusional if you think anything has changed. And I guarantee you that the so-called based populists in DC are the same types of people who went into politics before 2016 and you'll be very disappointed if you expect anything coming out from this world after Trump. This includes the leadership of Heritage who you all defended but who predictably folded and apologized, and whose content and output, should you have cared to look at it, is indistinguishable from the same religious conservative boilerplate that existed in the years before Trump, and is an embarrassment. These people can't lead against either the left or ethnic lobby groups.
Evan Myers, who has been credited with helping write Kevin Roberts’ book and is reportedly involved in crafting his public statements, is said to have worked on the video Roberts filmed last Thursday with Ryan Neuhaus. He has also stated that his faith “prevents” him from attending a Shabbat dinner.