Watching the Democrats bumble-fuck their way through dealing with Antisemitic attacks and the Antisemitism coming from their own side has woken a lot of people up to the Antisemitism on the Left (unfortunately not enough Jews though).
At first, the Left tried to bullshit us that they were not Antisemites.
With overwhelming evidence hitting the news every day, they had to admit to it. But they couldn’t just apologize for it. Bigotry is something they are convinced only the Right embraces because bigotry is evil and they believe they are on the side of good.
So instead they rationalize their Antisemitism, and when they do so, they make it clear that they are proud of it.
Lux Alptraum is the working name of a former Gawker employee turned sex blogger, speaker, and sex toy consultant. She has one of those resumes that makes me wonder why in the shit do people listen to her and how does she make money.
She decided to break down Leftist Antisemitism from the Leftist perspective – with the moral high ground that only a former Gawker employee can have (i.e., none at all).
“See, you awful Righties hate Jews because you are stupid.
We Leftists hate Jews because of a Marxist view of the world where we root for the impoverished minority underclass, and Jews, although they are a minority, are just too rich and successful to deserve our support so instead, they deserve our scorn. We understand that hating Jews is on its face, wrong because bigotry is wrong. But we can’t abandon our hatred of the ‘privileged’ which includes rich Jews, so we call the situation ‘complicated.”
“We hate the rich, and that’s good. Blacks rent property and Jews own property. It’s not that we hate Jews for being Jews, we hate Jews for being property owners. It’s just too bad for the Jews that they got caught up in the rich. Sorry, not sorry.”
“I’m not really calling out anti-Semitism, I’m justifying it on Marxist principles.”
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.
If Lux is once, then the Daily Beast is twice and three times for the author and editor who approved this article:
What’s Behind the New Wave of Anti-Semitic Hate?
The suspect in the Monsey, New York, stabbings has some things in common with classic anti-Semitic conspiracists, but the differences between them may be more important.
Tell me, I’d like to know what those differences are.
New York is reeling from a wave of anti-Semitic attacks, and speaking as a Jewish parent who lives in Brooklyn, I can tell you that it’s terrifying.
Not terrifying enough to try and go against the Left and fix it.
It is also confusing. The vast majority of anti-Semitic attacks in this country are carried out by right-wing white supremacists.
Fuck you. White supremacists, yes. Right-wing, no.
But most of the recent New York-area attacks have been carried out by people of color expressing very different grievances, or none at all. So is this the same phenomenon, or a different one? Hate, yes, but what kind of hate?
The kind you are going to justify.
The answer is not simple. The recent street violence and acts of terror are based, in part, on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories similar to those on the Right. And yet, it is dangerous and misleading to see this as the same phenomenon, because the social contexts, the dynamics of race, and the relationships to power are all quite different.
“I want to blame the Right for this but it’s being carried out by black people in New York who are clearly not on the Right. So I’m going to invoke the Right and then say it’s complicated becuase the mantra of our side is ‘minorities can’t be racist’ and I can’t just condemn black Antisemitism as bad.”
For example, on Sunday the FBI found handwritten journals in the home of Grafton Thomas, who last weekend attacked a Hasidic family in the New York suburb of Monsey, indicating an espousal of anti-Semitic “Black Hebrew Israelite” ideology, which holds that Jews are not the true chosen people. (Police also recovered Grafton’s recent internet history, including searches for “zionist temples” and “Why did Hitler hate the Jews.” )
This same ideology apparently motivated the Dec. 10 attack on a kosher grocery store in Jersey City.
As Mark Potok recently discussed in these pages, the Black Hebrew Israelites are a tiny sect that blames Jews for degrading American culture and accuses them of being self-interested moneymakers. Like those of the Nation of Islam, these doctrines of hate are not dissimilar to right-wing anti-Semitic tropes of Jews being foreigners who destroy their host countries for their own enrichment.
“I just can’t condemn a black hate group without invoking the right. It’s impossible for me to full criticize black people.”
But in these cases, the anti-Semitic themes are sometimes wedded to quasi-progressive concerns about racial justice, or, more broadly, to grievances against Jews as usurious landlords or agents of gentrification.
“When white supremacists say ‘Jews are rich bankers’ that’s simple bigoted Antisemitism. When blacks say ‘Jews are rich bankers’ that’s a Woke Marxist argument against gentrification. It’s different, because black people.”
Consider the bilious anti-Semitic outburst by Joan Terrell-Paige who, astonishingly, still sits on the Jersey City Board of Education. (That this bigot is still in office is, itself, an intolerable outrage.)
Well, Al Sharpton’s group is backing her, so she’s not going anywhere anytime soon. The Kingmaker has spoken.
In a since-deleted Facebook post (screen-captured here), Terrell-Paige said that the “brutes of the jewish community… brazenly came on the property of… Black homeowners and waved bags of money.” She then continued “However we learned 6 rabbis were accused of selling body parts. Where is the truth in these reports?”
If this was published on The Daily Stormer, you would simply condemn it. But because Terrell-Paige is black…
Notice how Ms. Terrell-Paige’s post—I encourage you to read the whole thing—blends an almost coherent critique of gentrification with a shocking, false conspiracy theory (rabbis selling body parts?) redolent of 800 years of anti-Semitism. (The post also praises the murderers, and implies that all Jews should be held responsible, at penalty of death, for the misconduct of a few bad landlords.)
“I can’t fully condemn her because she mixed her Anstisemitsm with Leftist talking points I agree with.”
This is like making walnut fudge but using dog shit instead of chocolate and telling me that the walnuts are still good to eat if you just pick them out of the shit.
Now, most of the attacks in my hometown have not come with Facebook posts. Last Monday, for example, a man punched a 65-year old man and shouted, “Fuck you, Jew!” That’s not a manifesto; that’s simple hate.
In another incident, recorded on video and posted on Twitter, the assailant says that Jews “created the cult.”
In others, the attackers have been entirely silent.
“Those are from black people so I’m having trouble reconciling that against my ideology.”
And in some cases, there are glimmers of ideology. For example, the Crown Heights riot of 1991 was in part about city resources, housing, gentrification, policing and political power, but also shot through with conspiracy theories and the blaming of all Jews—or, more specifically, all Hasidic Jews—for the misdeeds of a few.
“When the Nazis had Kristallnacht, that was evil. When Al Sharpton kicked off a Pogrom, that was for good Leftist reasons.”
I’m not defending the Nazis. I just want to know, has it not ever occurred to these people that the Nazis had their justifications too? That what they are doing here is exactly the same thing, justifying their Antisemitism by making themselves into the righteous victims striking back at the Jews?
(Of course, it’s worth emphasizing, as strongly as possible, that black anti-Semitic attackers do not represent all black people any more than white anti-Semitic attackers represent all white people. Most white people are not white nationalists, and most black people are not anti-Semites. These attacks say nothing about African-Americans or anti-Semitism in black communities.)
Holy fuck, I think that is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone on the Left say “not all white people are racist.”
This combination of baseless hatred and socio-economic grievance stands in stark contrast to the wordy theoretical manifestoes of white supremacist anti-Semitism. And while some attackers cite conspiracy theories similar to the ones on the nationalist right, such as the Black Hebrew Israelite doctrines noted above, the social contexts and relationships to power are utterly different.
This is where this shit goes to hell.
White supremacists are almost university poor and undereducated. White supremacists who read The Daily Stormer are not college-educated professionals with good salaries but come from the lower end of the working class. They are poor whites with few skills, few job prospects, and little income. Just like the Germans who grew up under the economic destruction of post-WWI Weimar Republic and the hyperinflation of the Papiermark, they blame the Jews for their financial misery.
They blame the “Jewish bankers” for shutting down the local factory killing the town and use that to justify their Antisemitism.
Both poor Antisemitic blacks and poor white-supremacist whites hate the Jews using the same bigoted rationale. They both feel as though the Jews oppress them financially and that they would be much better off if it weren’t for the Jews.
The difference is that the Left buys that shit from blacks but doesn’t from poor, rural whites.
This does two things.
One: it allows the Left to justify black Antiseitism, and therefore not try and stop it.
Two: it stops the Left from empathizing with poor whites and therefore stops them from trying to fix the underlying problems that allows Antisemitism to metastasize.
This exacerbates all Antisemitism.
While conspiracy-mongering exists on the left and the right, there is no left-wing or African-American equivalent of President Trump, who has freely traded in anti-Semitic stereotypes, sometimes in a joking way (as when he told a group of Jews that they’d never vote to raise their own taxes), sometimes in apparently well-meaning but actually profoundly destructive was, as when he said Jews are primarily loyal to Israel, and sometimes in explicitly harmful ways, as when he and his surrogates blame everything they don’t like on the nefarious George Soros.
I guess he is obliviously unaware of Al Sharpton or Louis Farrakhan or Ilhan Omar or Keith Ellison.
After all, the notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan may be the leader of the Nation of Islam, but Trump is the leader of the free world.
That’s bullshit. Farrakhan has been spewing his shit since 1977. He’s had a much more expansive reach in his 43 years than Trump has in his three.
Indeed, Trump’s contribution to our conspiracy-fevered culture is broader than specifically anti-Semitic conspiracies. For example, regarding the 2016 election alone, Trump has claimed, baselessly, that it was rigged (even though he won anyway), that millions of people voted illegally in it, that Ukraine (not Russia) interfered with it, and that there are still important email servers floating around out there that we have to get our hands on.
When you play with fire like this, vulnerable populations get burned. Especially Jews.
Goddamn that is some erroneous bullshit used to downplay black Antisemites like Farrakhan and blame Trump for Antisemitism he hasn’t shown.
Finally, right-wing anti-Semitism is connected to right-wing political ideology and power.
That Leftist “power plus prejudice” is the ugliest fucking idea in the 21st century.
“Black Antisemitism isn’t as bad because blacks don’t have power.”
Tell that to the dead or wounded Jews in New York. I don’t really think they care about socioeconomic power dynamics when they are being beaten with bricks, stabbed with machetes, or shot.
Obviously, most conservatives are not anti-Semitic. But anti-Semitism often exists on a nationalist continuum from populists who traffic in anti-Semitic stereotypes, like Trump or Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, to outright anti-Semites like Orbán’s hero, Miklós Horthy.
This is a bullshit scale comparing Trump to Orban.
There is a reason the Pittsburgh attacker was frustrated that Trump wasn’t anti-Semitic enough.
“Trump is a Jew-hater causing violence but not enough of a Jew-hater which also causes violence. Either way, Trump is responsible.”
And in terms of scale, there is simply no comparison between right-wing anti-Semitism, which arguably stretches into the White House itself (if not Trump, then some of his recent advisers), and the fringe sects, street violence, and bigotry found among small segments of the African-American community.
Again, this means nothing to the Jews being wounded or killed in New York and New Jersey.
When the police look for somebody who stabs a Jew, they don’t start at the White House and work their way down the power dynamics.
It cannot be a coincidence that the rise in anti-Semitism coincides with the rise in Trumpism. According to the FBI, anti-Semitic hate crimes jumped 37 percent in 2017, compared with a 3 percent increase in 2016 and 9 percent in 2015. (According to the ADL, the rise was 60 percent.)
Ummm… the rise in Antisemitism also parallels the rise in Woke activism and identity politics on the Left, and the number of Leftists who gained following on Twitter and tumblr.
The rise in Antisemitic incidents on College campuses perfectly parallels the rise of intersectional Palestinian support in academia.
Don’t forget, it was the Women’s March and Dyke March that hosted Leftist Jew-haters like Linda Sarsour and kicked out the Jews from their organizations.
The dark turn to ethno-nationalism is a massive, global phenomenon. As horrific as the attacks in Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Monsey are, they are a footnote to this giant, global tidal wave.
Compared to the Right, around the world, the problem is Muslims and Leftsists.
On one level, yes, hate is hate. And hatred of Jews is hatred of Jews.
But…
But to eradicate anti-Semitism, we must understand it—and right now, when it comes to this devastating new wave of attacks, we don’t.
Since you keep justifying it for black people as grievances against gentrification, you won’t eradicate it.
The Left has fostered Marxist class hatred into the black community. Typical Antisemitic stereotypes have mixed with the Marxism to create a Jew-hating ideological Bouillabaisse.
Since the Left endorses the Marxism, they can’t fully condemn the Jew-hatred so instead try to explain why their Antisemitism is more enlightened than the knuckle-dragging Antisemitism of white supremacism, which they wrongly associate with being on the Right.
Because of this, they will never be able to get rid of the Antisemitism on their side, because they don’t want to.
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