General – Page 144 – The Occidental Observer

Understanding Western Uniqueness

March 23, 2021/1 Comment/in General/by Kevin MacDonald

A rather long critical review of Joseph Henrich’s recent The WEIRDest People in the World, based on my book Individualism and the Western Liberal Tradition.

Understanding Western Uniqueness: A Comment on Joseph Henrich’s The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
Mankind Quarterly 61, no. 3 (2021): 723–766.

Abstract

Despite its many strengths, Joseph Henrich’s The WEIRDest People in the World (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2020) has several weaknesses: 1.) It conceptualizes the uniqueness of the West as solely the result of cultural evolution set in motion by the medieval Church, thereby ignoring the strong tendencies toward individualism in the Greco-Roman world of antiquity, the Indo-European groups that conquered the continent in pre-historic times, and the primordial northern European hunter-gatherers. 2.) It conceptualizes analytic thinking and representative government typical of the West as resulting from the cultural shift brought about by the medieval Church, whereas analytic thinking can be found in the ancient world, particularly among the Greeks, and representative government can be found in ancient Greece and Rome, and in pre-Christian Germanic and Scandinavian cultures. 3.) Henrich’s portrayal of Westerners as non-conformists is overdrawn. Although Westerners are more likely to dissent from a group consensus compared to kinship-based cultures, moral communities based on a variety of psychological mechanisms are a powerful force for conformity in individualistic Western societies, with dissenters subject to guilt, ostracism, and altruistic punishment. 4.) Henrich analyzes the accomplishments of the West solely in terms of social learning and culturally constructed personality variation in traits related to conscientiousness, thereby ignoring data on the biological basis and adaptive significance of variation in personality and general intelligence.

Conclusion

I agree with Henrich that there has been a strong role for culture in human adaptation. However, the psychological origins of individualism and the psychological systems related to individualism, as well as intelligence and personality, lie far more in the biological realm than Henrich is willing to grant. The unique individualism of the West can be traced to the hunter-gatherer cultures of northwestern Europe as well as to the Indo-European cultures of ancient Greece and Rome and the Germanic peoples that dominated Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church adopted policies similar to some aspects of Greek and Roman culture (non-kinship-based identities, monogamy, and exogamy), thus reinforcing individualism in Western Europe. Despite important differences between different culture areas of Western Europe noted here, the traditional view that the uniqueness of the West originated in the ancient world remains true. Western culture is “of a piece.”

Although the West came to dominate the collectivist cultures of the rest of the world, Western cultures are proving highly vulnerable to collectivist groups that have been welcomed into Western societies. Ultimately these groups are welcomed because Westerners are relatively trusting of strangers and more prone to seeing others as individuals rather than as members of competing groups — phenomena that are now occurring within a cultural context in which the West is widely despised for its history of conquest and slavery and thus the appropriate target of altruistic punishment by Westerners themselves. As Henrich notes, people whose roots lie in collectivist cultures remain untrusting of strangers and are less individualistic-independent and more conformist-obedient even long after immigrating to the West. Such people are prone to acting in their collective self-interest, and they are slated to become majorities throughout the West in coming decades. If that happens, it is likely that the institutions of Western individualism based on the long tradition of individual freedom, representative government, and reproductive egalitarianism will not survive and that Westerners who are genetically and culturally inclined toward individualism will become a diminishing, powerless minority in a world of competing identity groups. Indeed, science, perhaps the crowning achievement of the West, is increasingly deferring to group interests in the publication process (Nature Communications, 2020).

Western individualism is a fragile flower in a world where kinship and tribal loyalties remain strong and are likely to remain so into the foreseeable future.

Lipton Matthews interviews Prof. Ricardo Duchesne

March 20, 2021/2 Comments/in General/by Kevin MacDonald

New Publisher: Clemens and Blair

March 11, 2021/4 Comments/in General/by Kevin MacDonald

A new publisher, Clemens and Blair, offers a wide range of books relevant to contemporary issues as well as historical topics, including many books that will be of particular interest to readers of TOO. Have a look!

By Way of Deception

March 1, 2021/14 Comments/in General/by Kevin MacDonald

Jewish history is replete with examples of deception, including the Old Testament:

The Biblical stories of sojourning by the patriarchs among foreigners are very prominently featured in Genesis. Typically there is an emphasis on deception and exploitation of the host population, after which the Jews leave a despoiled host population, having increased their own wealth and reproductive success. Indeed, immediately after the creation story and the genealogy of Abraham, Genesis presents an account of Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt. Abraham goes to Egypt to escape a famine with his barren wife Sarah, and they agree to deceive the pharaoh into thinking that Sarah is his sister, so that the pharaoh takes her as a concubine. As a result of this transaction, Abraham receives great wealth (while his wife does not actually conceive a child by the pharaoh). But disasters afflict Egypt as a result of the immorality of the arrangement, and the pharaoh confronts Abraham with his deception. Abraham is allowed to leave with his wife and the possessions obtained as

A similar sequence occurs during the sojourn of Abraham and Sarah with King Abimelech and on the part of Isaac during his sojourn in Gerar. Both eventually leave with great riches. (APTSDA, Chap. 8)

In recent times examples of deception range from Jewish communists altering their names to obscure their Jewish origins to the Kosher industry. Another example is the Mossad, as described in Victor Ostrovsky’s By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer (1990), the theme of which was the Israeli use of deception in carrying out its operations, including against its main “ally,” the United States:

It is an insider’s account of Mossad tactics and exploits. In chilling detail, Ostrovsky asserts that the Mossad refused to share critical knowledge of a planned suicide mission in Beirut, leading to the death of hundreds of U.S. Marines and French troops. He tells how they tracked Yasser Arafat by recruiting his driver and bodyguard; how they withheld information on the whereabouts of American hostages, paving the way for the Iran-Contra scandal; and how their intervention into secret UN negotiations led to the sudden resignation of ambassador Andrew Young and the downfall of his career. By Way of Deception describes the shocking scope and depth of the Mossad’s influence, disclosing how Jewish communities in the U.S., Europe, and South America are armed and trained by the organization in secret “self-defense” units, and how Mossad agents facilitate the drug trade in order to pay the enormous costs of its far-flung, clandestine operation.

So I wasn’t too surprised to read “Leaked Memo Details ADL’s Annexation Response,” in Jewish Currents (June 26, 2020). Pretty clearly, there is nothing at all that Israel could do that would prevent the ADL from supporting it.

AS THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT prepares to annex parts of the West Bank, Jewish establishment organizations are strategizing how best to shield Israel from political consequences. In the same week that Jason Isaacson, the American Jewish Committee’s chief policy and political affairs officer, explicitly stated that, whatever tactical objections to annexation there might be, the AJC will “defend annexation if needed,” the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) appears to be formulating its own response. A leaked ADL strategy memo obtained by Jewish Currents sheds light on how the nominal civil rights organization is preparing to address annexation’s critics.

The “stakeholders analysis memo,” which was issued by the ADL’s Government Relations, Advocacy, and Community Engagement department and marked as a draft, warns that the group will need to find a way to defend Israel from criticism without alienating other civil rights organizations, elected officials of color, and Black Lives Matter activists and supporters. The memo suggests that the group hopes to avoid appearing openly hostile to public criticism of annexation while it works to block legislation that harshly censures Israel or leads to material consequences, such as conditioning United States military support. The ADL did not respond to requests for comment on the memo by press time.

The memo lists “eight top political and community engagement implications” annexation could have, among them: “complicate ADL’s relationship with the Tri-Caucus (the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus) and the Progressive caucus”; “pit ADL on the wrong side of the black lives matter movement”; “be used to label Israel as an occupier, racist and apartheid state”; and “challenge relationships between ADL and many civil rights organizations and coalitions.”

Of particular concern to the ADL, according to the memo, is that the group will have to find a way to credibly defend Israel from accusations that it has formalized a system of discrimination and subjugation on the basis of ethnonational identity. “The reference to apartheid or ‘separate but equal’ systems to describe Israel will be a major political flashpoint,” the memo states. “As an organization, how ADL responds to these attacks will be critical.” The memo proposes as “next steps” that the ADL’s communications team and executive office “game out how to respond to accusations of Israel being racist and an apartheid system and when to respond in public and when to respond in private.”…

In a sign of the growing significance of the ongoing nationwide Black-led uprising, the memo repeatedly stresses that similarities between Israel’s techniques of occupation and institutionalized racism in the US will lead to intensified criticism of Israel. “At this moment in our country, when we are collectively going through a moment of racial reckoning, Israel will be painted as akin to an ethno-nationalist country which continues to oppress and subjugate Palestinians,” the memo states. “If violence erupts, the Middle East will be looked at from the prism of the George Floyd domestic movement.”

The memo makes clear that the ADL does not want to be seen publicly as defending annexation, even as it hopes to mollify annexation’s critics. “ADL must provide a space for local and national leaders to express their criticism of Israel’s decision,” the memo advises. “Do not give the impression that ADL is an ally of PM Netanyahu and a supporter of annexation.” …

If the memo is any indication, the ADL’s goal, in responding to criticisms of annexation, is to superficially allow rhetorical rebukes while working to neutralize what it calls “anti-Israel legislative proposals, e.g. condemning and singling out its human rights record and conditioning its military aid.” As an example of strategies that the ADL should support, the memo cites a “measured, appropriate, and unifying” letter on annexation circulated by Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Ted Deutsch, and others that includes moderate criticism of Israel, which the ADL hopes will “discourage the far left from signing something more extreme on the annexation issue.” While the memo states the ADL plans to seek out “engagement with progressive groups” such as J Street, Bend the Arc, and the NY Jewish Agenda, it states that it will “coordinate ADL’s policy response” with AIPAC, which has publicly announced that annexation will not alter its approach to “the US-Israel strategic relationship.”

The leaked ADL memo illustrates the position in which some establishment Jewish groups now find themselves. The ADL appears to recognize that annexation would violate Palestinians’ basic human rights, enforcing a codified regime of nationality-based discrimination subjugation—and that, as a group ostensibly concerned with civil rights, this is in tension with its stated values. Yet despite the seeming contradiction, the ADL has long devoted substantial time and energy to chilling criticism of Israeli policies and shielding the Israeli government from consequences. Annexation, it seems, won’t change that.

Scamming Christian Zionists: The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews

February 6, 2021/30 Comments/in Christian Zionism, General/by Kevin MacDonald

Watching the Fox News channel on weekends I have been blown away by this ad soliciting donations for “thousands” of “Jewish Holocaust Survivors” who are “in dire need.” Forgive me if I think this is a scam. If the pathetic people like those depicted are really in such dire need, surely they could be airlifted to Israel. Or the many well-endowed Jewish charities and foundations, or the many Jewish billionaires could take care of the problem—if there really is one—in a heartbeat.

Charity Navigator indicates that IFCJ raised nearly $120,000,000, with $15,328,386 in administrative expenses. Yael Eksteine, who inherited her sinecure from her father Yechiel, makes a salary of $710,418/year—doing well by doing good, and having an income that would put her in the top one percent of income earners in the U.S. I’m thinking that Eckstein could afford to contribute a few of those $25 gift boxes.

Given that the ad is running on Fox News, it’s clearly aimed at Christians, and one has to think that the great majority of the $120M is being raised from Christians. Parasitism by any other name. Andrew Joyce’s Christian Zionism as a Parasitic Ideology – The Occidental Observer on Christian Zionism clearly shows how gullible Christian Zionists are—how they are prone to accepting wildly contradictory ideas, how they strip well known globalist Jews like Soros of their Jewish identity.

Truly depressing. As AJ writes, it’s very difficult to think of how to reach Christian Zionists, as it is with anyone with strong religious beliefs. As P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” And where there are suckers, there’s never any lack of people who will take advantage of them.

Germany: Knowledge Superfluous —Thinking Undesirable — Lateral Thinking Forbidden!

February 2, 2021/14 Comments/in General/by Kevin MacDonald

From the German Magazine UN Unabhängige Nachrichten (Independent News) 1/2021) Translated by The Hun.

After 70 years of free democratic governments and state political education work, is democracy so weak, so sick, that its continued existence must be strengthened with billions of taxpayers’ money?

For a long time, more than 100 million euros of taxpayers’ money have been spent annually on political education work by the federal government, the states, and the municipalities. Churches, trade unions, associations, the “leading media” and the well-known television programs participate in this democratic education work.

If “right-wing extremism and racism” have nevertheless actually spread in society to such an extent as is being painted on the wall by the ruling party cartel, the question must be asked as to who is to blame for such developments.

It cannot be the older generation: Nazi education ended in 1945, after which “re-education” began. Whether “re-educated” or not, this generation, due to its age, no longer determines the formation of public opinion, because it is approaching old age.

So, if the younger society is allegedly so permeated by increased “right-wing extremism and racism« that billions are required in the “fight against the right”, no one else is responsible for it than the misguided, anti-people policy of the responsible parties in all areas according to the Merkel motto: “Everyone who is staying here forms the nation.!”

Since March 2020, there has been an special cabinet committee that has set itself the goal of taking measures “against right-wing extremism as well as against racism, anti-Semitism, anti-gypsyism, Muslimophobia, anti-black racism and all other forms of group-based hostility towards people.”

The result is a gigantic economic stimulus package worth 1.1 billion euros for NGOs (non-governmental organizations), various Antifa groups and for a large number of “democratic associations of civil society.”

The members of the cabinet committee, under the leadership of Mrs. Merkel, agree “that the fight against right-wing extremism and racism must be intensified.”

This resulted in a catalog of 89 measures that “takes into account the opinions of representatives of civil society, especially migrant organizations.”

Four main points outline what is causally at stake:

Create greater awareness of racism as a phenomenon affecting society as a whole and establish improved state structures in the area of combating right-wing extremism and racism; strengthen cooperation between security authorities, the judiciary, state and civil society agencies and improve the empirical basis;
Expand and strengthen prevention against right-wing extremism and racism, anti-Semitism, Muslimophobia and all other forms of group-based hostility in regular structures in all areas of society, including the internet; further develop political education and democracy work;
Expand support for victims of racist discrimination and the social environment; effectively protect victims and improve sustainable structures for combating racism;
Recognize and value a diverse and equal opportunity society and strengthen equal participation opportunities for people with an immigration background.

These are the demands, some of which are couched in cloak and dagger terms. 75 years after the first wave of re-education, the German people are now to be finally brainwashed with empty phrases.

The term “misanthropy” is perfectly suited to nip any resistance to today’s policies in the bud. Criticism of the unchecked immigration policy, of the Covid measures, of feminism, genderism, globalization, left-wing terrorism, etc. will in future be a case for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution or for “civil society groups.”

In addition to the monstrosity of using such an immense sum of taxpayers’ money quite unabashedly against the political opponent, the damage to the cohesion of society will be incalculable.

Defamation and denunciation will be further opened up by the state — the people will be divided into “good” and “bad.”

Fear of state repression, mistrust, resentment and discord will characterize our lives. To give you a foretaste of what is to come, we have compiled the most important points of the 89-measure “catalog.”

Even if it seems tedious, it is worth reading every word carefully:

Catalog of Measures of the “Cabinet Committee to Combat Right-Wing Extremism and Racism.”

Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs

No. 1 Adaptation of constitutional protection law with introduction of a legal basis for source telecommunication surveillance for the federal intelligence services (amendment of the Federal Constitutional Protection Act BVerfSchG)

No. 2 Antiziganism [Anti-Gypsyism] — Establishment of a national contact point within the framework of the EU Roma Strategy 2030

Independent monitoring and information center for racist, especially anti-Gypsy attacks

Evaluation of policies and strategies to combat antiziganism in cooperation with civil society

No. 4 Launch of a new prevention program “Democracy on the Net”

No. 7 Expansion of the intercultural and diversity-oriented opening of the public service (diversity strategy), e.g., through

– Reviewing selection procedures for the civil service

– Targeted campaigns to recruit more people with a migration background for the civil service

– Regular survey on diversity/diversity-measures in the public service

No. 10 Report by the Independent Expert Group on Muslim Hostility (UEM) with recommendations for action to combat anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobic discrimination

No. 11 Preparation and updating of a situation-report on right-wing extremism in security agencies, extension to situation-report on public service as a whole

No. 12 Promoting the political and social engagement of migrant people

No. 13 Research project: Investigation of the everyday life of the police

No. 14 Research funding in the area of Islam/Muslimophobia

No. 15 Research study on everyday racism: development and prevalence of discriminatory acts in civil society, business and industry, and public institutions […]

No. 20 New, further measures within the framework of political education on specific phenomena (anti-Semitism, Muslimophobia, anti-gypsyism, anti-black racism)

No. 21 Program “Anti-racist education” (intensified commitment against racism and other forms of group-related hostility)

No. 22 Strengthening migrant organizations through model projects for qualification (Association Academy for Migrant Organizations), Houses of Resources

No. 23 […] Expansion of cooperation with security authorities in dealing with right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism

No. 25 Increased awareness of racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of exclusion in education, training and continuing education in the public sector

No. 26 Education and training offer for police officers on anti-Semitism sensitization at the House of the Wannsee Conference

Foreign Office

No. 29 Coming to terms with colonialism in an international context:

– Development of joint textbooks (target region Africa, Georg Eckert Institute)

– Expansion of the “kulturweit” volunteer program with Africa as a target region«

No. 31 Strategic communication abroad: dealing with disinformation and conspiracy mythologies from the right spanning populism, anti-Semitism and racism, increasing Germany-abroad funding (DiA)

No. 32 Study on Racism and patterns of exclusion in foreign cultural and educational policy with recommendations for action

Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection

No. 35 Federal government supports further training in the area of right-wing extremism/racism/anti-Semitism in the judiciary (training events at the German Judicial Academy, support for projects of the German Institute for Human Rights)

No. 36 Reformulation of Art. 3 of the Constitution, replacement of the term “race”

– Establishment of an expert working group between Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) and Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs (BMI)

No. 37 Practice-oriented jurisprudential research on law and racism

No. 38 Examination of how the confrontation with Nazi injustice can be achieved in legal training and, if necessary, how this can be ensured by amending the German Judges Act

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth

No. 47 Sustainable expansion of political youth work in the regular structures of the federal government (child and youth plan – Kinder- und Jugendplan, KJP)

– Expansion of regular structures for political youth education,

– Establishment of nationwide interest groups, including Muslim, migrant and black youth initiatives of Muslim, migrant and black youth initiatives with base funding from the KJP

– Nationwide promotion of extracurricular memorial trips

– Expansion of democratic children’s and youth involvement

No. 52 Improvement of the legal and budgetary framework for the promotion of civil society engagement for democracy, diversity and against extremism. To this end, the BMI and BMFSFJ will promptly develop and then present key points for a law to promote defensible democracy

No. 53 Promotion of projects on the topic of anti-feminism and right-wing extremism

No. 54 Campaign on “Raising Awareness of Prejudice and Everyday Racism” as part of the federal program “LiveDemocracy!”

No. 62 Strengthening work against hate on the Net/digital hate violence, including expansion of the “Hate on the Net” competence center and new model project (with participation of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection)

No. 63 Strengthening political education in youth social work

No. 65 Further development of the federal “Live Democracy!” program

– Expansion of local commitment (further partnerships for democracy)

– Improve existing victim and affected person counseling in the federal states the federal states + support of the federal association

– Further development of existing competence centers and networks, e.g., racism against black people, Islam- and Muslimophobia, antiziganism, anti-Semitism, right-wing extremism – incl. expansion of pheno-specific community-based monitorings

– Further development of disengagement and distancing

– Strengthening work against conspiracy ideologies

Federal Ministry of Education and Research

No. 67 Strengthening research on right-wing extremism, racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of group-based hostility (e.g., antiziganism), improving the research data infrastructure and sustainably anchoring the research field at universities. As well as the historical and contemporary reappraisal of the emergence of right-wing extremism and racism.

No. 71 […] Establishment and expansion of concrete projects of reappraisal, documentation and mediation in BKM-funded institutions and at project partners on the topic of colonial history, effects of colonialism and racism as well as dealing with collection items from colonial contexts, especially in museums such as the German Historical Museum and the international lighthouse project Humboldt Forum.

No. 72 “Lighthouse Project”: new type of operational preventive measure: New Start Initiative Cultural Integration, i.e., broadly effective campaigns, solidarity actions and impulse projects of the “Initiative Cultural Integration” with a focus on combating right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism and racism are to be promoted in order to carry out operationally effective cultural activities in a broad societal consensus and network of the state (federal government, states, municipalities) and civil society with major umbrella organizations such as the Central Council of Jews

No. 73 Strengthening media competence, media diversity and media pluralism as a core element of democracy; establishing and expanding prevention projects against hate speech and propaganda, prevention on the Net [i.e., “We want media diversity except any media that allows “hate speech” must be prevented.]

Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration

No. 75 Naturalization offensive: shall specifically promote the possibility of naturalization in order to enable well-integrated foreigners who meet legal requirements to participate fully

No. 80 Initiation of dialogue between the federal government, the states and civil society on intercultural diversity in framework curricula and diversity competence in initial and in-service teacher training

No. 83 Supporting municipal concepts and dialogues in dealing with diversity and hostility and strengthening municipal (political) decision-makers through qualification projects in dealing with right-wing extremism and racism

Roberta Kaplan: Jewish lawfare activist

January 19, 2021/16 Comments/in General/by Kevin MacDonald

Roberta Kaplan is a good example of what makes Jewish activism so effective: smart, well-connected, hyper-aggressive, in the context of a court system sympathetic to her causes. She is suing the Charlottesville protesters and was behind the successful gay marriage lawsuit; she is also E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer in her sexual assault lawsuit against Donald Trump.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan is about to make Trump’s life extremely difficult

By Karen Heller

Jan. 18, 2021 at 3:00 a.m. PST

On the other side of Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency, the lawyers are waiting.

Leaving aside his Senate impeachment trial, mounting government investigations include a civil probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., and a federal probe by acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. Michael Sherwin that may include Trump’s role in the catastrophic [!!]storming of the U.S. Capitol this month.

But already pending for the soon-to-be South Florida retiree is a trio of lawsuits that allege defamation, fraud and more fraud — all of which are helmed by one attorney.

Roberta Kaplan’s clients include writer E. Jean Carroll, who filed a defamation case after Trump claimed she was “totally lying” about her allegation that he raped her a quarter-century ago in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, and niece Mary L. Trump, who claims that Trump and two of his siblings deprived her of an inheritance worth millions.

“I became the go-to person to sue the president,” says Kaplan, 54, with considerable relish.

She is in many ways the ideal legal adversary to take on Trump. Kaplan is a brash and original strategist, with neither a gift for patience nor silence, a crusader for underdogs who has won almost every legal accolade imaginable. Kaplan, says New York Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in an email, “has been indispensable in the fight against the cancer of hate and division that Trump spent four years exacerbating.”

…

For much of her career, there was little in Kaplan’s professional bio to suggest she would become an attorney suing behemoths. Kaplan, known to all as Robbie, is a self-described “traditionalist,” in pearls, pumps and, pre-coronavirus, superior blond highlights, who long worked as a top commercial litigator at Paul, Weiss, one of the nation’s preeminent firms, where the fees tend to be if-you-have-to-ask-you-surely-can’t-afford-us.

But she became increasingly identified as an advocate for liberal causes and outside-the-box legal strategies. She is a lesbian, an observant Jew and a die-hard Democrat for whom 12 hours constitutes a light workday.

“My maternal grandmother always hated a bully,” Kaplan says during a series of phone interviews. “One really good job for going after bullies is to be a lawyer.”

Since launching her own firm four years ago, Kaplan has initiated a constellation of cases against powerful, often intimidating forces: white supremacists, major Hollywood players, the president of the United States. Legal writer Dahlia Lithwick calls her “an attorney general for the resistance.”

…

Kaplan remains most celebrated for the Edie Windsor case that, in 2013, successfully struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, paving the way with stunning alacrity for the legalization of same-sex marriage two years later to the day.

Among Kaplan’s strategic moves — “I don’t know where I found the chutzpah to do this” — was to help coax Bill Clinton to publish a Washington Post opinion piece renouncing his 1996 support of DOMA before she appeared before the nation’s highest court. United States v. Windsor remains the only U.S. Supreme Court case that she has ever argued.

“A little girl with a big mouth.” That’s how Kaplan’s grandmother described her, meant with affection. Growing up in Cleveland, she was a rigorous student who designed a plan. Head East to a top school (Harvard), train as a lawyer (Columbia), become a New Yorker.

…

Believing that Trump’s Justice Department seemed unlikely to seriously investigate and prosecute the people responsible for the violence during the “Unite the Right” rally and counterprotest — he infamously claimed there “were very fine people, on both sides” — Kaplan announced, and this was her precise language to friends and colleagues: “I want to sue Nazis.”

Because, why not?

Within days, Kaplan and her team flew to Virginia. The firm adopted an outside-the-box approach and sued two dozen avowed neo-Nazis, white supremacists and associated groups, invoking the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act to argue that they conspired for months to commit racially motivated violence, thereby making it more of a challenge for the organizers to adopt free speech as a defense. The case is scheduled for trial in October.

In the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct revelations, Kaplan co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which offers financial assistance for plaintiffs filing harassment cases, and she now serves as chair of the Time’s Up organization. Many women who say they have been sexually harassed or assaulted have come to her. The actress Amber Heard sought Kaplan’s representation in ex-husband Johnny Depp’s $50 million case involving a 2018 Washington Post opinion piece by Heard; he alleges she defamed him by implying that he domestically abused her. (The op-ed does not explicitly name him.) In the complaint, the actor denies any abuse took place.

Heard says of Kaplan, “I’m instantly drawn to the type of individual who can look upon the Goliath and say, ‘I think I can take you.’ That kind of energy and temerity is rare in the world, especially in the legal world.”

Kaplan is celebrated for her candor. She’s active in LGBTQ causes, recently serving as the board chair of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. She rhapsodizes about her “big gay Jewish wedding” in 2005 to Rachel Lavine, a liberal activist who serves on New York’s Democratic committee.

Yet Kaplan remained in the closet until law school graduation.

“Robbie is one of the most conventional radicals you’ll ever meet,” Lithwick says.

In 1991, Kaplan came out to her parents at age 25. It did not go well. Her mother walked up to a wall and began banging her head, repeatedly, in dismay. “Which she has apologized for over and over again,” Kaplan says. The family remains close.

Kaplan experienced a rare episode of depression, which led her to consult a therapist named Thea Spyer, who referenced her lesbian relationship in an effort to comfort Kaplan — and whose death in 2009 left a punitive estate-tax bill to her partner, Edie Windsor, because their marriage wasn’t legally recognized, sparking the Supreme Court case that helped define Kaplan’s career.

Why did such an outspoken person hide her true identity for so long?

“I’d never been a burn-down-the-ramparts sort of person. I believed in working in institutions,” says Kaplan. “Living a life very much on the margins didn’t appeal to me. I really wanted to have kids. I really wanted to be part of the Jewish community. I really wanted to have a career. All of this would have been unavailable in the world I grew up in.”

She has all of that — the marriage, a son (Jacob, now 14), a goldendoodle. On Sunday mornings, she participates in a Talmud discussion group with her rabbi and Lithwick.

“Also, I knew when I met Rachel there was no way I was going to be able to be in the closet and be with Rachel,” Kaplan says. “Those two things were completely incompatible.” Everyone in the New York gay rights movement knew Lavine. Politics, civic engagement and intellectual rigor were part of the attraction. On an early date in a romantic Chelsea bistro, the two argued at length over the comparative power of the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks during the Russian Revolution.

…

The firm’s high-profile cases have attracted top legal talent, like Joshua Matz, who briefly left the firm last year to help the House Judiciary Committee draft articles of impeachment.

“We’ve learned that, in presenting options to Robbie, she will presumptively favor the most aggressive option,” Matz says. “She is jaw-droppingly strategic and savvy on the one hand, and extremely bold on the other.”

It’s also a menschy practice. “What’s unusual is the sheer amount of contact she has with her clients,” Karlan says. Kaplan celebrated Passover with Windsor, who died in 2017. She’s available at all hours for phone consultations. Gifts of food are constant. She sent Heard a box of chicken soup, lox and bagels.