Destiny vs. Norman Finkelstein

About

Destiny vs. Norman Finkelstein refers to memes and discussions related to a debate about the Israel-Hamas Conflict between Norman Finkelstein, Benny Morris, Mouin Rabbani and Steven Bonnell (aka Destiny) hosted on Lex Fridman's podcast. The five-hour debate prompted discussions on X / Twitter and Reddit, with many internet users finding amusement in Finkelstein and Destiny's irreverence toward each other. Many reactions to the debate also revolved around Finkelstein's repeated and varied mispronunciations of Destiny's real name as "Mr. Benelli," "Mr. Morelli," "Mr Borelle" and so on.

Origin

On March 14th, 2024, Lex Fridman posted a nearly five-hour-long video titled, "Israel-Palestine Debate: Finkelstein, Destiny, M. Rabbani & Benny Morris | Lex Fridman Podcast #418." The video saw Norman Finkelstein, Moiuin Rabbani, Benny Morris and Destiny (real name Steven Bonnell) debating the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The video gathered over 800,000 views on YouTube^[1] and 2.7 million views and 9,000 likes on X / Twitter,^[2] the latter platform only hosted four hours of the debate.

Online Reactions

On March 14th, 2024, X^[3] user @Absurd_Ruka posted a clip from the debate showing Norman Finklestein struggling to remember Destiny's name before admonishing him, saying "Mr… Bonnell, don't change the subject, please have some humility." The video gathered over 17,000 likes in a day (seen below, top). X^[4] user @Sturgeons_Law quoted the clip, writing, "Even Israeli historian Benny Morris, Destiny's own debate partner, tries to contain his laughter when Finkelstein insults him," gathering over 4,000 likes in a day (seen below, bottom).

Also on March 14th, X^[6] user @okimstillhungry posted a clip of Destiny asking Finkelstein, "Did you read the case?" prompting Finkelstein to respond, "Mr. Borelli, I'm gonna ask you again, please stop displaying your imbecility," and "Don't put on public display that you are a moron." The post gathered over 25,000 likes in a day (seen below).

On March 14th, 2024, X^[5] user @punished_stu wrote, "DESTINY: ok whatIthink ishappeninghere is a binary fallacy andwhat
NORM FINKELSTEIN: MR BENELLI, I FORGET YOUR NAME. I DON'T THINK YOU CAN READ," gathering over 13,000 likes in a day (seen below, top). Also that day, X^[7] user @bad_takes's made a caricature of everyone involved in the debate, gathering over 1,000 likes in a day (seen below, bottom).

Redditors on /r/Destiny reacted to the debate differently, with /u/NecessarySwimming942^[10] interpreting Benny Morris's smile as approving of Destiny, writing, "Find someone who looks at you like Benny looks at Destiny." The post gathered over 2,000 upvotes in a day (seen below, left). Meanwhile, Redditor /u/GuyWithOneEye^[11] made a post on March 14th mocking Finkelstein and gathering over 2,000 upvotes in a day (seen below, tight).

On March 15th, 2024, Redditor u/JM-ONER posted a clip to the /r/lexfridman^[12] subreddit under the title "Destiny owning finkelstein during debate so norm resorts to insults," receiving over 250 upvotes and 220 comments in 10 hours (shown below).

Destiny's Response

On March 14th, 2024, Destiny made several posts on X^[8] responding to criticism levied against him, including a Woman Yelling At Cat meme edited to resemble Norman Finkelstein (seen below, top), and then by refuting user @Sturgeons_Law's assertion that his debate partner was laughing at him (seen below, bottom).^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References