They’re going to learn that you can’t just say antisemite to shut people up or make them scared. Words have meaning and if you disregard their meaning and use them too aggressively, they lose their meaning, as well as the power associated with them.
Back in the day, antisemite was an awful accusation which made someone look awful, literally equating them to a nazi. Nowadays it’s anyone who supports palestine. So if someone calls me an antisemite these days for being against genocide and occupation of Palestine, I’m just going to laugh at them because they’re a chud who can’t be taken seriously.
i hope they learn! :( it’s my understanding that israel and pro-israel media are very aware that they are galvanizing further antisemitism on purpose to some degree, because it lends credence to the idea that a zionist state must exist.
I think it’s even simpler than that. A lot of the people conflating anti-Israel sentiment with anti Jewish sentiment are ethno nationalists. On the Israeli side, those would be Jewish nationalists; but here in the US, the sentiment is disproportionately coming from Christian nationalists.
Incidentally, these people also tend to be the same people who conflate anti-current-governing-coalition-and-policy-of-Isreal sentiment with anti Israel sentiment more generally, because that conflation is part of fascist ideology, and ethno nationalism tends to be a fascist ideology.
The reason we see pro-Zionist media ferment anti semitism is simply that the Zionist movement is ideologically aligned with most anti-semetic movements.
I have little faith that they will, at least not before eroding the meaning of the term completely, to the point people find being called antisemitic or an antisemite to not carry any weight, and just be a meaningless insult like “butthead” or “peabrain” something you say to try and make people feel bad or dumb, but doesn’t have any real meaning.
It might also be seen as a way to silence real dissent against horrible things, and that’s even worse because it means people not only won’t take it seriously, they’d consider the people saying it, even ones using it legitimately, to be trying to enact suppression.
Ultimately what they are doing is very bad and has negative long-term consequences, which they seem to be blatantly neglecting or disregarding.
![[bigotry showcase] common StopAntisemitism ruLe](https://stopantisemitism.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/WhatsApp-Image-2024-12-04-at-14.57.59_3eb47e25-1536x1050.jpg){kind=link}
They’re going to learn that you can’t just say antisemite to shut people up or make them scared. Words have meaning and if you disregard their meaning and use them too aggressively, they lose their meaning, as well as the power associated with them.
Back in the day, antisemite was an awful accusation which made someone look awful, literally equating them to a nazi. Nowadays it’s anyone who supports palestine. So if someone calls me an antisemite these days for being against genocide and occupation of Palestine, I’m just going to laugh at them because they’re a chud who can’t be taken seriously.
i hope they learn! :( it’s my understanding that israel and pro-israel media are very aware that they are galvanizing further antisemitism on purpose to some degree, because it lends credence to the idea that a zionist state must exist.
I think it’s even simpler than that. A lot of the people conflating anti-Israel sentiment with anti Jewish sentiment are ethno nationalists. On the Israeli side, those would be Jewish nationalists; but here in the US, the sentiment is disproportionately coming from Christian nationalists. Incidentally, these people also tend to be the same people who conflate anti-current-governing-coalition-and-policy-of-Isreal sentiment with anti Israel sentiment more generally, because that conflation is part of fascist ideology, and ethno nationalism tends to be a fascist ideology.
The reason we see pro-Zionist media ferment anti semitism is simply that the Zionist movement is ideologically aligned with most anti-semetic movements.
I have little faith that they will, at least not before eroding the meaning of the term completely, to the point people find being called antisemitic or an antisemite to not carry any weight, and just be a meaningless insult like “butthead” or “peabrain” something you say to try and make people feel bad or dumb, but doesn’t have any real meaning. It might also be seen as a way to silence real dissent against horrible things, and that’s even worse because it means people not only won’t take it seriously, they’d consider the people saying it, even ones using it legitimately, to be trying to enact suppression.
Ultimately what they are doing is very bad and has negative long-term consequences, which they seem to be blatantly neglecting or disregarding.