Both Cornel West and Gabor Mate are intellectual relics of the past. Mate is defensive and describes himself as intellectual arrogant. Both come off as wonky and erudite but dance around anything substantive in their discussion of the war in Gaza and the massacre that precipitated it. Mate and West default to the threadbare argument that Palestine is the total victim of occupation and oppression. We are left to assume they are oppressed by Israel and the Jews but it could be just as easily the American Empire. Mate assure's us he has studied the Palestinian occupation thoroughly and is absolutely sure of his analysis that they are total victims of oppression. Why? He assures the listener he has thoroughly studied the issue and he says so. Really? We are left to trust his insight. There is almost no discussion at all about the massacre. Neither brings up the elephant in the room of Islamism in the culture and lives of many of the Palestinians and all of Hamas. Is that even allowed? Somehow we are to trust and know that the Palestinians are all victims and the unsaid hint is that the massacre, while regretful, was just maybe in some ways justified. Listening to Cornel and Mate as well as Katie and Aaron in other forums, one gains a sense for the dogmatic "Oppressor verses oppressed" ideology that they subscribe. It is this same Neo-Progressive ideology that has taken hold of formerly elite centers for learning and free thinking in America such as Wesleyan and the Ivy League and not for the better. In Mate and Cornel's world, to be balanced is to be reflexively for the "oppressed apartheid" victim, whomever that may be. In that they are really not at all activists but sheep and slaves to BDS dogma. The issue of Gaza, Israel, the Palestinians and Jews is more nuanced than what was on offer. Neither is perfect. Sadly what Cornel and Mate gave us was an empty victimization without substantiation. In that we are meant to trust and believe.