'Nobody Wants This'
When traditional American normality feels revolutionary...
Since the genocidal attack on October 7th, 2023, most Americans have been exposed to Jewish life almost exclusively through conflict.
The news cycle has been relentless.
Protests.
Counter-protests.
Encampments.
Flags.
Slogans.
Accusations.
Outrage.
Violence.
For nearly three years, some of the loudest activist voices in our public square have attempted to define Jewish identity through war and politics.
The results have been utterly un-American.
We have witnessed scenes that would have seemed unthinkable only a few years ago.
Jewish and Christian diplomats gunned down by a Communist hitman.
Jewish Americans burnt alive in a park by another foreign terrorist.
Jewish students harassed on campuses by foreign-focused mobs waving foreign flags.
Synagogues attacked and requiring heightened security.
Jewish businesses targeted—closing down.
US citizens assaulted simply because they were Jewish.
Attacks committed in the name of a foreign cause thousands of miles away.
Mainstream media, academia and Hollywood covering for all this.
This was never part of our recent American life.
Sadly, antisemitism exists everywhere, including in the US.
But much of the rhetoric, symbolism, and ideological framework that exploded here after October 7th felt imported rather than organic.
The language.
The slogans.
The revolutionary aesthetics.
The open sympathy for movements fundamentally hostile to Western values.
Gaza became the excuse—America became the target.
Which is why I found myself unexpectedly—while profoundly—enjoying a Netflix series I had never heard of before: ‘Nobody Wants This.’
The show is not about war.
It is not about geopolitics.
It is not about Hamas, Israel, demonstrations, or activists.
Instead, it focuses on something far more radical in today’s environment.
Normal life.
Relationships.
Family expectations.
Religious traditions.
Love.
The Jewish characters are not presented as political symbols.
They are not activists.
They are not victims.
They are not villains.
They are simply people.
Fellow Americans.
And perhaps that is precisely why the series felt so refreshing.
It reminded me of something many seem determined to forget.
American Jews are not a political cause.
They are not a foreign policy issue.
They are not a headline.
They are our neighbors.
Our colleagues.
Our friends.
Our fellow US citizens.
That was the America I wanted to live in—the America we must rescue from the foreign-focused violent mobs.
An America where people attend church, synagogue, or neither.
Where differences exist without becoming tribal warfare.
Where citizens are judged by their character rather than by which side of a foreign conflict they happened to support.
The most striking thing about ‘Nobody Wants This’ is not what it shows.
It is what it refuses to show.
No slogans.
No mobs.
No ideological theater.
Just ordinary Americans living their lives.
And after years of watching extremists dominate the public conversation, ordinary life begins to feel almost revolutionary.
Perhaps that is why the series resonated so deeply with me.
It offered something increasingly rare.
Normality.
And normality is worth defending.
Because the future of America must not be decided by the loudest extremists waving foreign flags in the streets.
It must be decided by ordinary Americans living ordinary lives together.
The future belongs to them.
It belongs to us.
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Nobody wants this. The title says it all.