... and I'm guessing that anti-Semitism, given the weaponised accusations of it by the Israel lobbies, is a hot enough a topic for an ongoing all-purpose thread.
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... it's just an idea
Last edited by mickthinks; 01-08-2019 at 03:29 PM.
Thread on antisemitism in Britain. I don't really understand what's going on but apparently eight MPs have left Labour over antisemitism in the party and three have left the Tories because I don't even know. I know the catastrofuck of Brexit is still looming as well. I watched John Oliver's brilliant segment on that and feel much better informed on that, but I still have no idea what's going on with the party departures.
Anyway, the real reason I'm posting this isn't so much the original thread but the replies. I know most of the times you don't want to read the comments, but in this case, you do. This is as remarkable an exception as that episode of House where it actually was lupus.
I can’t sleep.
It has been a difficult few years to cover what’s been going on in the Labour Party.
But tonight - seeing the actions of certain people who are supposedly the future of the Labour Party - I have been left deeply shaken. I can’t remember feeling this distraught.
I must confess that I was actually looking for Kamilah's "Message of Hope" thread, but I found this one while doing so, and it's a more relevant fit.
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Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” -Adam Smith
It is only through a complete abuse of the language which would normally indicate a non-native speaker of English that you can claim to have met antisemism in Britain now.
But that isn't "meeting antisemitism". That's meeting a fearful response to perceived antisemitism. Or it's a faked response intended to manufacture an illusion of fear and generate scare-copy for the likes of The Guardian.
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... it's just an idea
Last edited by mickthinks; 06-30-2019 at 10:14 PM.
Someone refusing to invite a Jewish writer because you're afraid of anti-Semitism of your supposed allies (co-partisans) is perpetuating anti-Semitism. Whether they are "personally" anti-Semitic in the sense of harboring anti-Jewish animus themselves, it is an anti-Semitic act. In my view.
And even if you don't consider that person to be anti-Semitic, the disinvited writer would still be encountering anti-Semitism, indirectly. It is undeniably experiencing the effects of anti-Semitism. And that's if you take the organizers at their word that they were only worried about what other people thought.
If you think it's an exaggerated or outright false anecdote, that's one thing. But assuming the story is true, I don't have a problem with calling it anti-Semitism.
Someone who moves out of the neighborhood because a black family moved in might say it's because of declining home values not because they hate black people, and the home values are affected by other people's racism... they still contributed to the very pattern that causes home values to decline, they still are contributing to residential segregation, they still are perpetuating racism, and it still is a racist act. Maybe they would pay a personal price in terms of their home value declining if they didn't move. Nobody ever said that taking a stand against racism would always be cost-free though! If doing the racist thing always imposed a cost on the person doing it, and never provided any benefit, there would probably be a lot less racism!
Someone refusing to invite a Jewish writer because you're afraid of anti-Semitism ... is an anti-Semitic act. [...] And even if you don't consider that person to be anti-Semitic, the disinvited writer would still be encountering anti-Semitism, indirectly.
It follows from your first conclusion—refusing is an antisemitic act—that being refused would be a direct encounter with antisemitism. That you introduce the idea of indirect meetings shows that you, subconsciously perhaps, accept the point I am making—dealings through third parties are not "meetings" in any sense.
Can you be guilty of an antisemitic act and yet not be an antisemite? Yes, I believe you can. For instance, arguably Jeremy Corbyn's support for an antisemitic artist was antisemitic, even though Corbyn (I believe) is not.
If the organisers of an event have a reasonable fear of antisemitic protests, (because there have been such protests at similar events, for example) and feel the event would be disrupted to the point of being spoiled, then I agree that any guest who is disinvited is "meeting with" antisemitism directly.
The crucial element here is "reasonable fear of destructive disruption". Without it, the antisemitism is illusory, or indeed, manufactured. In my view.
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... it's just an idea
Last edited by mickthinks; 07-01-2019 at 04:54 PM.
Someone called Orla Guerin produced a short film report as part of the BBC's coverage of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Her report has been condemned from right-wing quarters as "crass and offensive", "foul – sickening", "deeply offensive and upsetting ... unnecessary, insensitive and particularly ugly ... inexplicably and unjustifiably offensive", "perverting ... utterly appalling... desecrat[ing] ... hatred of the Jewish state”.
Cohen defends Guerin's report in terms like these:
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... it's just an idea
Last edited by mickthinks; 01-28-2020 at 04:23 PM.
GOP House candidate wrote novel which is a "continuation" of Anne Frank's Diary in which she finds Jesus while at Auschwitz https://t.co/D8nULrmPKD via @jtanews
You know, you'd almost think that people like Johnny Teague are pro-Israel because getting all the Jews together in one place will make it easier and more convenient for Invisible Magic Sky Daddy to slaughter them all when the time comes.
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko