• Tja
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    1 day ago

    Do you have a source about the Zionism thing? Because antisemitism was alive and well for most of western history. And for me personally seeing Israel starve a bunch of children in Gaza make me hate Israel / IDF, not the Jewish baker down the street.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      antisemitism was alive and well for most of western history

      So was anti-Teutonism and anti-Sinoism and anti-Americanism for that matter. I’m not sure you can absolve the Jewish state of its crimes by pointing to a rival clan of bigots.

      seeing Israel starve a bunch of children in Gaza make me hate Israel / IDF, not the Jewish baker down the street.

      Part of the problem with Zionism (and other ultra-nationalist movements), is how it deliberately works to draw sharp lines between people globally in order to justify horrifying colonial violence locally. I’ve got Jewish neighbors and family who are very weird on Israel specifically, because they’ve considered a Jewish State a source of pride for so much of their lives. You can’t really address the Gaza Genocide without getting an earful about how Palestinians started it and Arabs deserve it.

      In the same way, seeing my state government persecute trans people and black/hispanic minorities can’t mentally be divorced from a Texas baker down the street waving a little Trump flag.

      • Tja
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        23 hours ago

        Well, the Trump flag changes a lot. It’s like the Jewish baker having “death to Arabs” on his window. But then your feelings are not about race or ethnicity, it’s about the beliefs that person have.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          It’s like the Jewish baker having “death to Arabs” on his window.

          Given the state of Israeli foreign policy, it’s not hard to read their flag that way.

          But then your feelings are not about race or ethnicity, it’s about the beliefs that person have.

          Beliefs informed by the family race and ethnicity

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      1 day ago

      I don’t know if it’s the number one cause, but it has definitely caused me to have some antisemitic thoughts before I caught myself doing it and started making a serious mental effort to always distinguish between Zionism, Judaism, and Jewish ethnicity. Nothing else has ever caused me to give credence to racist ideas.

      It also seems pretty obvious to me that it contributes to antisemitism when monsters like Netanyahu are allowed to get away with claiming they represent all Jews.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      23 hours ago

      Do you have a source about the Zionism thing?

      gestures vaguely at every Zionist conflating Israel with all Jewish people

      You can’t just pretend that committing a laundry list of atrocities is acceptable while calling yourself representative of a wider group of people without some of the less discerning and/or more conspiracy-minded people taking you at your word and resenting the people as a whole.

      Not saying that antisemitism is in any way acceptable, of course, but just like brutal oppression breeds terrorism, committing or defending things that should never be accepted while saying that you represent all of Jewdom is going to teach some people the wrong lessons.

      Because antisemitism was alive and well for most of western history

      Yes, and it has traditionally been mostly caused by the othering of Jewish people by conservative clergy or politicians trying to keep their “flock” in check, but that’s not the main cause anymore.

      While the “traditional” causes still exist, in a world where most people can read about and watch atrocities on TV, the Hasbara talking points meant to mollify and deceive the masses are no longer working, so instead of convincing people that the atrocities are necessary for Jewish people to be safe, some people are being convinced of another lie: that the atrocities are the kind every Jewish person would do if given the chance

      And for me personally seeing Israel starve a bunch of children in Gaza make me hate Israel / IDF, not the Jewish baker down the street.

      Same here, but not everyone is able and willing to make that distinction while the war criminals themselves and their most ardent defenders keep insisting that there’s no difference.

      • Tja
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        23 hours ago

        The thing is, gesturing vaguely at something we thing is obvious, is not really a source. Even 1+1=2 has to be proven. I suspect that Zionism is just used as a pretext to be antisemitic by people who were going to anyways. But I also don’t have any data to back it up.

        • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Even 1+1=2 has to be proven.

          Disclaimer: This is off-topic.

          How do you prove this? Through definitions? An appeal to authority is not valid proof.

          This line of reasoning reminds me of when people were saying the “square root of 2 isn’t 1 because mathematical scholars say so”…No, it’s by definition not one. Count one thing one time, how many things have you counted? One.

          I don’t need a source or an authority for that nor for 1+1=2. I need to understand the basic definitions and concepts.

          • Tja
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            19 hours ago

            The proof is something like 300+ pages long and they needed to invent a few new branches of mathematics to reach the end, because it’s strictly not based on appeal to authority. I didn’t even try to understand it, but it’s a cool piece of trivia.

            • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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              19 hours ago

              It’s a basic property of counting though, right?

              I mean I understand that there are academic standards of proof, but the idea that those are necessary for casual conversations about easily understood concepts is pretty ridiculous.

              It seems like one of those bojack memes where the drooling person at the one end and the Jedi at the other end would both say just count a couple of rocks and the nerd in between would be saying write a 300-page proof.

              • Tja
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                17 hours ago

                Things like basic property of counting are not mathematical strict definitions.

                Relying on “dude, it’s obvious” doesn’t work in science, you need to prove things. Otherwise you’d think a feather and a cannonball always fall a different speeds, for instance.

                • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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                  15 hours ago

                  Mathematics isn’t an empirical science.

                  And you’re trying to prove that mathematics works the same way as physics weirdly with regards to proof? It doesn’t. You do proofs in precalculus and none of them involve dropping cannonballs and feathers from the ceiling.

                  But again, we’re not talking about an environment where formal proofs are necessary. This is social media, we’re a link under cat photos.

                  • Tja
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                    10 hours ago

                    My point is broader, you need data and rigor, not “dude, just look at it”.

          • belastend@slrpnk.net
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            23 hours ago

            It is often used by antisemites to disguise their antisemitism as valid criticism of zionism.

            That validity ends, once you attack any Jew for their Jewishness, attribute any wrongdoing of Jews to their Jewishness or straight up insult other people as “Jews”.

          • Tja
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            23 hours ago

            That’s an option article, same as we are writing here. There could be statistics relating anti-semitic attacks to Israels activity, for instance. Claiming something is outside of objective science is a very lazy cope-out.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          23 hours ago

          The thing is, gesturing vaguely at something (…) obvious, is not really a source

          Yeah, it’s not like there’s a lot of people honestly and precisely detailing how they developed their bigoted attitudes. That doesn’t mean that you can’t reason your way to a logical conclusion, though.

          • Tja
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            23 hours ago

            This is a place where you need data, not reasoning to a plausible conclusion.

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              23 hours ago

              No, this (ascertaining the underlying causes of bigotry) is a place where definitive data by definition can’t exist and thus logically reaching the most probable conclusion based on what IS known must take its place.

              I’m trying to assume that your demands for the impossible are in good faith, but it’s getting difficult .

              • Tja
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                19 hours ago

                As I said before, claiming data can’t exist is a lazy cope-out. I also presented an example of data that could work: antisemitic attacks per day vs activity of Israel in Gaza, plotted over time. Just an example, I’m no sociologist.

                • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  19 hours ago

                  As I said before, claiming data can’t exist is a lazy cope-out

                  As far as bad faith reading goes, ignoring the word “definitive” to make your strawman fit is up there 🙄

                  antisemitic attacks per day vs activity of Israel in Gaza, plotted over time. Just an example, I’m no sociologist.

                  Nobody ever told you the difference between correlation and causation or the fact that bigotry consists of SO much more than just overt violence, did they?

                  It’s clear that nothing good will come from continuing to indulge you, so I’m gonna go now. Have the day you deserve.

                  • Tja
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                    17 hours ago

                    I repeat: just one example.