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> And then the web billionaires won’t even need to toss those few shekels at artists. Why say "shekel" here instead of "dollar"? Or any other currency? Given

> And then the web billionaires won’t even need to toss those few shekels at artists. Why say "shekel" here instead of "dollar"? Or any other currency? Given the context of the article, the choice of words is either extremely poor taste or an antisemitic dogwhistle He does have another article [0] where he just hand-waves away LF Celine's antisemitism [1], so if I had to guess it's the latter [0] https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-most-cynical-novel-ever-written https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-most-cynical-novel-ever-... [1] "The German officer and writer Ernst Jünger stated in his Paris war diaries that Céline told him on 7 December 1941 "of his consternation, his astonishment" that the Germans did not "exterminate" the French Jews." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Ferdinand_C%C3%A9line#Antisemitism,_fascism_and_collaboration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Ferdinand_C%C3%A9line#An...

aesh2Xa1 2y ago
It's probably because the use of "shekel" is slang in the US, and it carries a connotation of "very low amount of currency." It's idiomatic rather than a dog whistle in this use. I think you could argue that it's an appropriation and its modern/continued use is divisive. By what means would the word be recognizable to a broad audience in cultures that do not use the currency (it's not widely used)? "Only anti-Semites will recognize it in such cultures" seems extremely unlikely. In order to be hidden (a dog whistle), it also needs to be more broadly understood as innocuous.
- entropicdrifter 2y ago
  To be clear, the argument you're making is that it's blatantly antisemitic rather than a dogwhistle?
  - aesh2Xa1 2y ago
    No, there are two arguments. First is that I don't find this use to be sufficient evidence to go around claiming that the author is an anti-Semite. It seems more likely to be idiomatic than to be a dog whistle. Second is that I feel the word has divisive cultural baggage in our current culture.
- matrix87 2y ago
  Idiomatic maybe in alt right circles. I've never seen anyone else use it as a figure of speech like this
  - aesh2Xa1 2y ago
    Idiomatic in just the broad culture. Whatever alt right people do with it, and its special context in their bigotry, is another thing. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shekel https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shekel > shekels, Slang. money; cash.

aesh2Xa1 2y ago

It's probably because the use of "shekel" is slang in the US, and it carries a connotation of "very low amount of currency." It's idiomatic rather than a dog whistle in this use. I think you could argue that it's an appropriation and its modern/continued use is divisive. By what means would the word be recognizable to a broad audience in cultures that do not use the currency (it's not widely used)? "Only anti-Semites will recognize it in such cultures" seems extremely unlikely. In order to be hidden (a dog whistle), it also needs to be more broadly understood as innocuous.

entropicdrifter 2y ago
To be clear, the argument you're making is that it's blatantly antisemitic rather than a dogwhistle?
- aesh2Xa1 2y ago
  No, there are two arguments. First is that I don't find this use to be sufficient evidence to go around claiming that the author is an anti-Semite. It seems more likely to be idiomatic than to be a dog whistle. Second is that I feel the word has divisive cultural baggage in our current culture.
matrix87 2y ago
Idiomatic maybe in alt right circles. I've never seen anyone else use it as a figure of speech like this
- aesh2Xa1 2y ago
  Idiomatic in just the broad culture. Whatever alt right people do with it, and its special context in their bigotry, is another thing. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shekel https://www.dictionary.com/browse/shekel > shekels, Slang. money; cash.