Straight up essay on anti-Semitism (the real kind, not the criticism-of-Israel kind).
Anti-Semitism is not good. But what's to be done?
Here I think it's useful to distinguish between two kinds of things. Prejudice and Discrimination.
Prejudice is the feelings that people have. We can't make laws, directly, to change those, except by interfering with other people's rights, such as their freedom of speech, press, and thought.
Discrimination is when people act upon their prejudice through commerce--which is an activity which CAN AND SHOULD be regulated. Discrimination against anyone for ethnic, religous, or sexual preference reasons is generally illegal in the USA, however there are various loopholes, and laws are not always well enforced. This has been a battleground, but rightfully anti-discrimination forces had been victorious for the past 60 years until recently when some back-tracking may have occurred.
Anti-ethnic prejudice is not unique to Jews. Within the USA, Muslims and South-of-US-border-ethnicities face strong prejudice of a similar kind, and often from the same sources (white supremacists, nationalists, Christian Zionists).
But on a much smaller scale, of course, even these discriminated-against groups have bigots, usually against their antagonistic ethnicities. And so many Jews have an anti-goy prejudice, especially against sub-ethnics who look similar to white supremacists (bad goy), Mexicans have an anti-gringo prejudice, and so on. As well as reverse-prejudice (though I think this claim is often exaggerated or conflated, particularly wrt Jews). So, there are Mexican-Americans who are strongly opposed to new Mexican immigrants, Blacks opposed to affirmative action, and so on. With Jews, it's complicated, and criticism of the anti-Israel or anti-anti-Israel sub factions shouldn't be conflated with anti-Semitism, and even with that exclusion, there are oppositional sub-groups and legitimate-general-critics.
Prejudice is endemic, one might almost say "human nature" (however, it's surely mostly a socially transmitted phenomenon). Attempts to one-sidedly crack down on one side of prejudice are likely to reinforce the very stereotype they hope to suppress. The only hope would be to crack down on prejudice itself, but then there is a question of what constitutes prejudice, and what constitutes legitimate social critique, which inevitably will fall against the most trenchant social critiques of the prevailing power structure--which are precisely critiques of capitalism itself, global banking, and imperialism. To say that these things can't be discussed because anti-Semitism is far worse than anti-Semitism. It's Totalitarian.
And so also are attempts to conflate criticism-of-Israel and criticism-of-Empire with legally preventable discrimination. This is Imperial Totalitarianism. The Empire, it's Rulers (real or perceived) must Not Be Criticized, perhaps, even mentioned.
It's too glib to say "prejudice we will always have with us." Prejudice is preventable, and best through elimination of inequality, and secondly through elimination of discrimination. Regulating thought for the hope of suppressing prejudice is destructive.
Anti-Semitism is not good. But what's to be done?
Here I think it's useful to distinguish between two kinds of things. Prejudice and Discrimination.
Prejudice is the feelings that people have. We can't make laws, directly, to change those, except by interfering with other people's rights, such as their freedom of speech, press, and thought.
Discrimination is when people act upon their prejudice through commerce--which is an activity which CAN AND SHOULD be regulated. Discrimination against anyone for ethnic, religous, or sexual preference reasons is generally illegal in the USA, however there are various loopholes, and laws are not always well enforced. This has been a battleground, but rightfully anti-discrimination forces had been victorious for the past 60 years until recently when some back-tracking may have occurred.
Anti-ethnic prejudice is not unique to Jews. Within the USA, Muslims and South-of-US-border-ethnicities face strong prejudice of a similar kind, and often from the same sources (white supremacists, nationalists, Christian Zionists).
But on a much smaller scale, of course, even these discriminated-against groups have bigots, usually against their antagonistic ethnicities. And so many Jews have an anti-goy prejudice, especially against sub-ethnics who look similar to white supremacists (bad goy), Mexicans have an anti-gringo prejudice, and so on. As well as reverse-prejudice (though I think this claim is often exaggerated or conflated, particularly wrt Jews). So, there are Mexican-Americans who are strongly opposed to new Mexican immigrants, Blacks opposed to affirmative action, and so on. With Jews, it's complicated, and criticism of the anti-Israel or anti-anti-Israel sub factions shouldn't be conflated with anti-Semitism, and even with that exclusion, there are oppositional sub-groups and legitimate-general-critics.
Prejudice is endemic, one might almost say "human nature" (however, it's surely mostly a socially transmitted phenomenon). Attempts to one-sidedly crack down on one side of prejudice are likely to reinforce the very stereotype they hope to suppress. The only hope would be to crack down on prejudice itself, but then there is a question of what constitutes prejudice, and what constitutes legitimate social critique, which inevitably will fall against the most trenchant social critiques of the prevailing power structure--which are precisely critiques of capitalism itself, global banking, and imperialism. To say that these things can't be discussed because anti-Semitism is far worse than anti-Semitism. It's Totalitarian.
And so also are attempts to conflate criticism-of-Israel and criticism-of-Empire with legally preventable discrimination. This is Imperial Totalitarianism. The Empire, it's Rulers (real or perceived) must Not Be Criticized, perhaps, even mentioned.
It's too glib to say "prejudice we will always have with us." Prejudice is preventable, and best through elimination of inequality, and secondly through elimination of discrimination. Regulating thought for the hope of suppressing prejudice is destructive.
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