4 ms·

Disclaimer: I did not vote for Trump (I feel the internet needs to know before they down vote me) It makes sense that an anti-Semitic individual would act out

Disclaimer: I did not vote for Trump (I feel the internet needs to know before they down vote me) It makes sense that an anti-Semitic individual would act out if they believed that the president was also anti-Semitic. But I really think it’s who the individual believes the president is that drives the action and that belief is influenced by articles like this and the president’s public actions. I personally don’t think the president’s actions point toward anti-semitism. If every article an individual reads about Trump mentions some radical ideal that Trump supports (whether or not he actually does), then we’re going to see radical people who agree with those ideals. I do think that anti-semitism is on the rise just like racism and political bifurcation. But I think it’s more complicated than: Trump said the Mexicans are taking out jobs.

krapp 8y ago
I haven't seen any evidence that Trump is anti-Semitic, although some of his comments (in particular his equivocation with the Charlottesville incident) lead me to suspect that he has some bigoted views regarding race and ethnicity. However, it is undeniable that his campaign and rhetoric were attractive to the alt-right, neo-reactionary and white supremacist communities, and the narrative of his election as an act of defiance by "angry rural white males" afraid of the loss of white cultural identity and demographic majority in the US has been well documented. The US has always had a problem with anti-semitism, not to the same degree as Europe, but it's a bigotry that's nonetheless been baked into Western culture since the dark ages. It's not separate from hatred of foreigners, those are closely correlated, and it's exacerbated in the light of a rightward shift in culture and politics by the view that Jews in the US comprise a leftist cabal within academia and finance undermining traditional American ideals in favor of a Zionist agenda. Of course, now we mostly don't talk about the perfidious Jews who secretly run the world, we talk about "New York elites" and "cultural Marxists" and "globalist bankers," and let people who know connect the dots. Distance from the Holocaust and WW2 and web took the fangs out of that ideology for years and history, having become tragedy, became shitposting edgelord meme culture. To me, Trump is like a bright light attracting American bigots like moths. He didn't create the swarm but it is drawn to him regardless. It is more complicated, sure, but it's also simple - Trump attracts them because he, his irascible, politically incorrect personality and his populist rhetoric makes him seem like he really is one of them, just incognito.

krapp 8y ago

I haven't seen any evidence that Trump is anti-Semitic, although some of his comments (in particular his equivocation with the Charlottesville incident) lead me to suspect that he has some bigoted views regarding race and ethnicity. However, it is undeniable that his campaign and rhetoric were attractive to the alt-right, neo-reactionary and white supremacist communities, and the narrative of his election as an act of defiance by "angry rural white males" afraid of the loss of white cultural identity and demographic majority in the US has been well documented. The US has always had a problem with anti-semitism, not to the same degree as Europe, but it's a bigotry that's nonetheless been baked into Western culture since the dark ages. It's not separate from hatred of foreigners, those are closely correlated, and it's exacerbated in the light of a rightward shift in culture and politics by the view that Jews in the US comprise a leftist cabal within academia and finance undermining traditional American ideals in favor of a Zionist agenda. Of course, now we mostly don't talk about the perfidious Jews who secretly run the world, we talk about "New York elites" and "cultural Marxists" and "globalist bankers," and let people who know connect the dots. Distance from the Holocaust and WW2 and web took the fangs out of that ideology for years and history, having become tragedy, became shitposting edgelord meme culture. To me, Trump is like a bright light attracting American bigots like moths. He didn't create the swarm but it is drawn to him regardless. It is more complicated, sure, but it's also simple - Trump attracts them because he, his irascible, politically incorrect personality and his populist rhetoric makes him seem like he really is one of them, just incognito.