These are powerful and mission critical to fighting any info war. And clearly, we are in one.
I remember when Steven Spielberg document testimony from my grandparents and their stories from the Holocaust, and so thankful he did.
We need more of it..
That’s what I’m excited to support Wendy Sachs and Debra Messing and the rest of their team in producing a piece that will detail and document this antisemitic disease that’s beginning to rot away our society.
In any society, antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine for a deep, uglier reality. It needs to be exposed because light is the best antidote for darkness.
Interviews will include some of the most active and vocal voices like Noa Tishby, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Rapaport, Dan Senor, Einat Wilf, Hillel Neuer, Sheryl Sandberg and more
There’s lots more to do but this is just another initiative of many that’s needed.
EXCLUSIVE: Actress, producer, and activist, Debra Messing, has signed on to executive produce the feature documentary, Primal Fear about the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, on social media, and in the streets since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. Wendy Sachs, the co-director and producer of SURGE, is directing the film and will also serve as an executive producer.
I recently listened to Lex Friedman’s interview with Jeff Bezos. If you want to hear someone speak with incredible clarity and wisdom, listen to Jeff. There’s a reason he is the second richest person in the world.
But there was one topic that resonated with me more than anything.
Truth.
It seems like the world doesn’t care much about it these days. Just skim through social media and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
However, Jeff reminds us that “truth” is arguably the single most important factor that leads to success and prosperity.
“Yes, challenging. They [truths] can make people defensive even if that’s not the intent. But any high performing organization, whether it’s a sports team, a business, a political organization, an activist group, I don’t care what it is, any high performing organization has to have mechanisms and a culture that supports truth-telling.” – 1:29:14
The evidence is irrefutable. As of this writing, Amazon has about a 1.6 trillion dollar market cap making it the fifth richest company in the world.
If you look at the world’s most successful companies, they all have this trait.
They consistently engage in the pursuit of truth, employing critical thinking, problem-solving, and scientific methodologies in their approach.
“And so science is all about truth-telling. It’s actually a very formal mechanism for trying to tell the truth. And even in science, you find that it’s hard to tell the truth. Even you’re supposed to have a hypothesis and test it and find data and reject the hypothesis and so on, it’s not easy.” – Jeff Bezos, 1:30:10
Elon Musk also famously refers to “truths” and first principles:
As of this writing, Elon Musk is the number one richest person in the world, with companies that launch rockets into space (SpaceX), produce self-driving cars (Tesla), and let humans transmit information electronically with just their brains (Neuralink). You only do that with capable leadership and truth-seeking.
There is another place where this truth-seeking discipline has taken shape over the past few decades leading to some incredible human achievements and prosperity, including, but not limited to the development of things like:
This country also ranks #7 in the world for creating the most unicorns, has more than 100 companies listed on US exchanges, with a combined market cap of more than $150 billion, and has the fourth most companies listed on the Nasdaq after the United States, Canada, and China.
And if that wasn’t enough, Israelis have among the world’s highest life expectancies and lower rates of “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse. It’s also one of the few populations that are young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking. According to a recent UN report, it is also the fourth happiest nation in the world behind Finland, Denmark, and Iceland.
These achievements would not have been possible without dedicated hard work and a relentless quest for truth.
But, truth is hard.
“You have just asked a million-dollar question. So if I generalize what you’re asking, you are talking in general about truth-telling and we humans are not really truth-seeking animals. We are social animals.” – Jeff Bezos, 01:28:21
This brings us to today.
War.
There is a hot war in the Middle East and an information war online.
Both sides understand the importance of truth or lack thereof.
Iran and their proxies, like Hamas, understand that “we are social animals” and so the more death, destruction, and oppression they can inflict on their people (look what Israel did to us!), the more sympathy they can create for their cause.
In short, they can prevent “truth-seeking animals” by pulling on the strings of our most animalistic tendencies and emotions, using social media megaphones we all have in our pockets. Who wouldn’t get upset when they see the photos coming out of Gaza? I know I do. It’s horrible and tragic. But that’s the point. They recognize that “truth-telling” for most people is hard, and so they prey on the ignorance and lazy thinking that many people have.
But ultimately, truth will prevail.
And the truth is this:
One side wants dead Jews.
The other side does not want to die.
And if you don’t believe this, then just look at the track records of truth.