Douglas Murray vs Dave Smith Breakdown Part Two: How Our Intellectual Class Has Crumbled

The Wolfowitz is antisemitic and "you haven't bean thar" debate

Douglas Muray vs Dave Smith Part Two (because part one was getting too long)

Murray has become another unfortunate “Institutionalized” Soul, God help him.

This is Douglas Murray's Sam Harris moment. It is absolutely clear here that Douglas Murray not only does not care about finding the truth in these issues, but he has also been driven mad by the idea that someone might have a different perspective than him. Sam Harris has also attacked Dave Smith for opposing war.

Douglas Murray cares about protecting institutions, unfortunately, we’ve lost another one. He’s become institutionalized.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Used to be that when someone spent too much time in prison they would become “Institutionalized”, like they would get so use to life inside, they would forget how to live outside.

Now, that our institutions of intellect have crumbled, those who have spent their entire careers with them to lean on, like a crutch, they don’t know what to do except defend these institutions like they are still alive, and they can use the credentials they allotted to them to win any argument.

That time is gone. And these people must realize the present. We all have a voice now. Information is at our fingertips, and they can no longer lie to us again.

Mr. Murray, it seems, is one of these poor institutionalized souls, but he can make it out. I just hope he sees the light because he is a valuable voice, I believe, but maybe not. We’ll see. Now we continue…

---

---

There’s a moment in here where he talks about “Punching jelly” that is simply bullshit. “You’re a podcaster, but you talk about history, you’re not a historian…” It is unreal stupidity! He would like no one to have an opinion that doesn’t have a degree in the field they are talking about.

Dave asks him, “are you an expert?”

He says, “I have expertise in some things.”

---

Let’s look at his expertise… Okay, so he’s written many books on many topics. This is what hurts me about this, he has written many excellent books on many topics that he had zero expertise in. His website douglasmurray.net lists his education was an undergraduate at Oxford which I’m sure is very good.

When it came down to it, he has a bachelor’s degree in English.

He founded a think tank on terrorism and extremism:

In 2007 he founded the Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC), the first think-tank in Britain to study extremism and terrorism. The CSC subsequently became part of the Henry Jackson Society, where Murray held the position of Associate Director from 2011 to 2018.

He also wrote a book defending neoconservatism which therein is where the rubber meets the road:

In 2005 Murray published Neoconservatism, a history and defence of neoconservative thought. Reviewing the book in Asharq al-Awsat, Amir Taheri wrote ‘Whether one agrees with him or not Murray has made a valuable contribution to the global battle of ideas.’ On publication of the US edition (2006) Christopher Hitchens wrote of his review of Murray’s ‘masterly’ first book and his own review of it in the New York Review of Books: ‘There are not many occasions when a grizzled hack like myself can mark the emergence of a fresh new author who bears watching, but this was indubitably one of them.’ In praising Murray’s Neoconservatism book Hitchens noted that ‘It is highly encouraging to find someone youthful, defiant and principled who can both write and think at the same time.’

This is probably what I find the most detestable. I can see it now. The guys a fucking neocon. The neocons have shapeshifted through history to whoever is in power all the way up to most recently taking sides with Kamala Harris when they thought she would win.

---

---

The Very Semitic Argument Against Wolfowitz

So, now I understand his Paul Wolfowitz take. He made this same argument on Lex Fridman too that if you blame the wars on Paul Wolfowitz, “it’s because you are antisemitic.” He’s defending Wolfowitz, not Jewish people. We can definitely blame the Iraq War at least partly on Wolfowitz and his religion has nothing to do with it.

Okay here is the Wolfowitz bit on the JRE:

And here it is on the Lex Fridman Podcast:

Boy is that a strawman if I’ve ever heard on. He thinks we can’t look this shit up for ourselves. So, lemme explain the semitic argument against Paul Wolfowitz:

By the way, Paul Wolfowitz left his position as the Under Secretary of Defense to Donald Rumsfeld to be The 10th President of the World Bank according to the WorldBank.org. After he completed his goal in the Bush administration? Maybe. The World Bank also says:

Prior to his arrival at the Bank Wolfowitz held a number of increasingly important positions in the U.S. government, including State Department Director of Policy Planning (1981-1982), **((During the Iran-Contra Affair))** Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1982-1986), Ambassador to Indonesia (1986-1989), Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (1989-1993)**((Iraq War I))** and Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005)**((Iraq War II))**. Between 1994 and 2001 he was Dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Okay, so it’s worse than I thought. Here’s the New Yorker, who was also employing Seymour Hersh at this time, who the very next year broke the Abu Ghraib story the next year. If you don’t remember that was the secret torture prisons run the CIA and United States Military and here is what the New Yorker had to say about Paul:

The previous afternoon, as Wolfowitz was preparing to board his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, an aide had handed him a report containing some vexing news. Wolfowitz’s boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, had just delivered a speech in New York and, in a question-and-answer exchange afterward, had declared that he had not seen any “strong, hard evidence” linking Al Qaeda with Saddam Hussein’s regime. Rumsfeld’s unexpected remark—undercutting one of the Administration’s principal arguments for going to war—had already prompted press inquiries at the Pentagon, suggesting a bad news cycle ahead. Meanwhile, the Washington Post was preparing to report that L. Paul Bremer, the former administrator of the American-led occupation of Iraq, had faulted the U.S. postwar plan for lacking sufficient troops to provide security—affirming a principal contention of the Administration’s critics. In addition, the government’s Iraq Survey Group, headed by Charles Duelfer, was about to release a final report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; already the report’s substance was being summed up in headlines as “report discounts iraqi arms threat.” And the Times had learned of a new C.I.A. assessment casting doubt on links between the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saddam’s regime—undermining yet another of the Administration’s rationales for the war.

Wolfowitz has been a major architect of President Bush’s Iraq policy and, within the Administration, its most passionate and compelling advocate. His long career as a diplomat, strategist, and policymaker will be measured by this policy, and, more immediately, the President he serves may not be returned to office because of it. The Administration had been divided over Iraq from the start, and new fissures seemed to be appearing.

Later in the article it says:

This grand idea of liberalizing the Middle East one country at a time, beginning with Iraq, was associated particularly with Wolfowitz. The State Department was, and is, skeptical, and it is said that Rumsfeld harbored doubts as well.

But let’s not just listen to the New Yorker.

Here is Four Star General Wesley Clark, famously, said to Democracy Now, in a live event that the Bush Administration had been planning to overthrow seven countries in five years, here is that clip:

Here he is again. On National Geographic:

And if that isn’t enough, here he is again. This year, in a debate against the great historian Scott Horton on Piers Morgan uncensored:

So, this is the power of the moment we are in.

People, like Douglas Murray, can make these assertions, but we can look at the facts of what really happened.

What really happened is the Neoconservatives took power in the White House three times. Once when Nixon was in office, and when both Bushes were in office. It seems they are there again. Mike Waltz was Dick Cheney’s Director of Counterterrorism. Maybe that’s nothing, but it seems like something.

But, back to Douglas, I’m not done. Now for:

---

---

“You Haven’t Bean There?”

So, Douglas Murray as he is arguing that the people of Gaza are facing “No deficit” and they are receiving all their aid Douglas says, “Have you bean to the crossing points?”

Dave answers very sincerely, “No.”

Douglas’s eyes bulge, he thinks he has him, he says, “No!?!?!”

Dave, bemused yet jovial, says, “What? So, I can’t have an opinion on this?”

Doug says, “Yes, but you should at least visit.”

Lots of his institutionalized fellows also thought this was a good point, but you know who didn’t Douglas Murray! Let’s roll the film:

Here’s the original video, it was Douglas’s first appearance on Lex Fridman and his reaction was, “Fuck you. I really resent that form of argumentation, really resent it.”

“I have the right to talk about whatever the hell i want and no one's gonna stop me or try to intimidate.”

Should I continue. I think those two videos make this argument better than I ever could. God, I love the internet.

I’m gonna skip all the people who had been there in the past who were used to sell the conflicts to the public. Because Jeffrey Goldberg and Judith Miller had been there and were used in support of the war, but Seymour Hersh and Chris Hedges were there too. They very much represented the truth and always have. So, I’ll move on to…

---

---

The Response

The response was deafening. I’m not even going to X. It’s Baaaaad over there, but the YouTube comment responses were the best and reverberated all across YouTube into every channel and show close to this.

These screenshots tell it all:

These were from Murray's first and second appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast

Now let’s get a little closer here’s just the beginning of the comments on the Duncan Trussel Family Hour w/ Darryl Cooper:

DTFH-Darryl Cooper

Quote from this podcast:

“The devil moves in crowds; God speaks to us individually.”

—Darryl Cooper

Here’s Sky News Australia where Douglas talked about the debate, here is the Top Comments:

This was an audience friendly to Douglas Murray. Where he contributes weekly! The ‘Top Five’ comments!

Now for the Joe Rogan Experience comments:

(Top seven or eight, look at the number of likes on these comments)

These are the best comments ever!!!

So, who won? You decide. It’s honestly how you feel about the subject. Should people be allowed to express opinions that might be wrong without an “expert” in the room? I’m sure 99.8% of Americans have the same opinion on that. That 0.2% leftover are supporters of Hitler (probably).

One more thing I must address, that one of the comments reminded me of.

---

---

Why Say “We” You Weren’t Fighting Any Wars

I’m from a lower-class neighborhood. Joining the military was the only way out for a lot of my peers, loved ones, and peers who are loved ones.

The “War on Terror” very much was part of my upbringing and many of those I grew up with went to fight these terrible wars and some of them didn’t make it home. So, to say to him “You care a lot about these wars.” Yes, we do. We care a lot about our government sending our friends and family to fight wars that were based on lies. We care a lot about our tax dollars that we slave for everyday being used to kill innocent people.

And we care a lot about our freedom to say whatever we want, to whoever we want, however we want.

And we believe that right can’t be taken away. It is an inviolable right that was given to us as a package deal that came with our souls, and we will never be silent when an issue touches our hearts, our family, our friends, or our pocketbooks, and no one is gonna tell us otherwise.

Thank you for reading. This has been a production of The Freedom Manifesto.

This is Jordan Lee Canter, Editor-in-Chief. Checking out.

Goodnight, all.