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Antisemitic. Every time I hear this word, I can’t help but think of its irony—a term used exclusively for describing discrimination against one community, as if
by pagade 2y ago
Antisemitic. Every time I hear this word, I can’t help but think of its irony—a term used exclusively for describing discrimination against one community, as if prejudice against them carries more weight than against any other. Perhaps, though, it serves as the best reflection of our hypocrisy.
- dlubarov 2y ago[flagged]
- throw310822 2y ago[flagged]
- glassounds 2y ago[flagged]
- newspaper1 2y ago[flagged]
- glassounds 2y ago[flagged]
- newspaper1 2y agoHow could that possibly be true when the only people perpetuating this word are groups like the ADL, Israel... If what you said was true, all of these Zionist institutions wouldn't be promoting it.
- glassounds 2y agoI can promise you that "the ADL and Israel and the Zionist institutions" are not the only ones using the term "antisemitism". I'd personally prefer that it'd be called anti Jewish racism.
- newspaper1 2y agoThey are the main institutions using the term as a weapon, and the discussion here is based on Netanyahu's own words.
- thomassmith65 2y agoI checked wikipedia, and actually it states the same as the parent comment. That sentence has five references. It doesn't shock me, given the era, but rather than speculate and squabble, someone could check the references and see if they really do support the statement in the wiki.
- newspaper1 2y agoSo all of these Jewish institutions are promoting an anti Jewish word? Please explain why they would do that.
- glassounds 2y agoThey're using the current common terminology for the phenomenon, which does not have the roots you claimed it has.
- newspaper1 2y agoThat's the point, it doesn't matter what the origin was, how it is being used now is what is being critiqued.
- thomassmith65 2y agoI assume hardly anyone remembered, or payed much mind, to the origin of that word by the 1920s. I don't know who coined 'homophobia' or 'feminism' or many other concepts; they're just common words we use.
- newspaper1 2y agoRight, so the word as it's used today is what we're talking about. It's being used as a weapon to silence criticism of Israel and Zionism in general.
- thomassmith65 2y agoI dunno. Regardless of the exact words one uses, one can always accuse one's opponent of bias. If the word 'antisemitic' didn't exist, the accusation, phrased in different words, would still carry weight.
- Hikikomori 2y agoDoes Israels actions over the years have any impact on how Jews are treated elsewhere?
- dlubarov 2y agoWhy would it matter? I don't think we should ever justify Islamophobia based on the actions of Islamic states or other Islamic groups; by the same token we should never justify antisemitic hate crimes regardless of our views on Israel.
- Hikikomori 2y agoIt does as its also a goal of Zionists. They want more Jews to move there and if they don't feel safe elsewhere they are more likely to do so.
- yread 2y agoNot to mention there are more semitic people than Jews. And Holocaust targeted more people, too. And there were pogroms against other poeple, too.
- culi 2y agoThe Romani people for example (derogatorily called "gypsies". The term "gyp"—to scam—derives from stereotypes of Romani people) faced some of the most gruesome programs in history before facing the Romani Genocide in WW2. Yet we rarely talk about antiziganism the way we talk about antisemitism and people still casually throw around terms like "gyp"
- glassounds 2y ago[flagged]
- glassounds 2y agoThe word has never, in its history, been used for anything other than racism against Jews. There are Semitic languages, not people. > Due to the root word Semite, the term is prone to being invoked as a misnomer by those who incorrectly assert (in an etymological fallacy) that it refers to racist hatred directed at "Semitic people" in spite of the fact that this grouping is an obsolete historical race concept. Likewise, such usage is erroneous; the compound word antisemitismus was first used in print in Germany in 1879 as a "scientific-sounding term" for Judenhass (lit. 'Jew-hatred'), and it has since been used to refer to anti-Jewish sentiment alone
- edanm 2y ago> Not to mention there are more semitic people than Jews. Accurate, but irrelevant. The meaning of anti-semitic has always specifically been hatred of Jews.
- ada1981 2y agoEspecially when you consider "semites" are a member of an ancient or modern people from southwestern Asia, such as the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, or Arabs. It can also refer to a descendant of these peoples. So, many Palestinians are Semites as well. And one may conclude when Ovadia Yosef, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel, says: “It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable. The Lord shall return the Arab’s deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world.”* That this is "Anti-Semitic" speech as well. It's amazing how buying off 98% of US Representatives can change a cultural and media narrative. *https://adc.org/racist-incitement-by-israeli-leaders-must-end/ https://adc.org/racist-incitement-by-israeli-leaders-must-en...
- edanm 2y agoAntisemitism specifically refers to hatred of Jews. It doesn't matter whether it's the most accurate term given that it's anti-semitism; that's still what the term means.
- glassounds 2y ago[flagged]
- aguaviva 2y agoThe thing is, the term "Semite" is (except in very archaic contexts) pretty much dictionary-only. It exists, and has semantic validity. But it does not in any way describe a group that has ever had any kind of common identity. Or as Wikipedia (itself a kind of a dictionary) puts it: The terminology is now largely unused outside the grouping "Semitic languages" in linguistics.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- glassounds 2y ago[flagged]
- glassounds 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- havelhovel 2y agoIt's incredible that a term was coined in the 19th Century to describe demonstrable hatred toward Jews, that the term was happily adopted and popularized by people who hated Jews, and now over 150 years later the term itself is pointed to as "proof" of Jewish privilege or conspiracy, perpetuating the cycle of ignorance and hatred under a new guise.