If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would one day sit down for a civil, wide-ranging online conversation with online antisemite Lucas Gage about antisemitism, Judaism, and Israel, I probably would have laughed.
True, I had sat down with him already and done exactly that on a private Zoom call after he “quit” the movement back in 2023. But he had soon gone back to his antisemitic ways, ratcheting up the attacks on Jews, conspiracy theories and rhetoric. Not to mention on yours truly.
I thought he was probably beyond redemption. I was wrong.
Over the past half year or so, Lucas publicly distanced himself from the antisemitic movement he was once very much a part of. As I wrote previously, I was initially extremely skeptical. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
But something seemed different this time.
Lucas has been increasingly willing to question ideas he once accepted, acknowledge where he believes he went wrong, engage directly with Jews, and endure attacks from some of his former allies for doing so.
So I reached out to him and suggested we sit down for an open discussion online. Not an interview, per se, but a dialogue.
Lucas graciously accepted and it happened last night Israel time.
In an online world where people are rewarded for becoming more extreme, more hateful and more entrenched in their respective camps, two former enemies sitting down and actually talking strikes me as something worth encouraging.
I think this conversation is essential viewing for anyone interested in better understand the thinking of an antisemite, the sociology of online movements and the difficult, messy process of personal transformation.
