i gradually began to hate them  the more i argued with them, the more i got to know their dialectics. first they counted on the ignorance of their adversary; then, when there was no way out, they themselves pretended stupidity. if all this was of no avail, they refused to understand or they changed the subject when driven into a corner; they brought up truisms, but they immediately transferred their acceptance to quite different subjects, and, if attacked again, they gave way and pretended to know nothing exactly. wherever one attacked one of these prophets, one's hands seized slimy jelly; it slipped through one's fingers only to collect again in the next moment. if one smote one of them so thoroughly that, with the bystanders watching, he could but agree, and if one thus thought he had advanced at least one step, one was greatly astonished the following day. the jew did not in the least remember the day before, he continued to talk in the same old strain as if nothing had happened, and if indignantly confronted, he pretended to be astonished and could not remember. fuck me he articulated it so well. seeing it play out here every day really drives it home.
United Kingdom