Consider the most recent prolific incident involving flat earth conspiracy theory. Remember when we thought it was hilarious that B.o.B wrote a song about how the earth is flat?
The thing is, conspiracy theory - like every other belief - needs to be able to draw upon an intellectual history in order to explain itself. But since conspiracy theory is, by its nature, bullshit, the only intellectual history available to it is the conspiracy theory that came before it. It must be self-referential or can’t survive. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the single greatest conspiracy document of the 20th century and directly contributed to the Holocaust. There’s essentially no 20th century conspiracy theory that doesn’t draw upon the world of the Protocols to explain itself. This includes silly conspiracy theories like flat earth. “Well if the earth is flat, why isn’t that common knowledge?” “Because the elites are suppressing knowledge to keep you under their control.”
Of course I don’t actually believe that every single person who makes a lizard person joke is antisemitic. That’s the very point of this post. They aren’t, and when my non-Jewish friends make a lizard person joke I don’t chase after them with a big stick and beat them for it, as you seem to believe.
A significant aspect of the way antisemitism has evolved is that dog whistles now make up much of its language. What I’m referring to in this post is the overwhelming experience of Jewish users who combat coded antisemitism online - the fact that it’s coded makes it very easy for people to dismiss both our lived experience and expertise. Jews don’t just decide willy-nilly when something is harmful so we can bask in the pleasures of making other people feel guilty. We know the history of this hate, where it comes from and what it can do.
So yeah, Zuckerberg is a weird guy. I, too, really dislike him. Do Nazis, in 2020, believe Zuckerberg is a literal lizard? No. Lizard people is a reference to a somewhat outdated antisemitic conspiracy theory popularized by David Icke. But Nazis are big into the idea that Zuckerberg isn’t a person. Jokes about Zuckerberg looking like a robot or lizard masquerading as a person can’t be isolated from his Jewishness and the white supremacist belief that Jews are an especially sinister force, capable of looking like ordinary (or white) people even though they really aren’t people, they’re a degenerate race in control of everything and bent on erasing white people entirely.
Would you like to see how this plays out in Nazi chats?
This is where I’m putting in a read more, or a warning to Jews reading this post that I’m about to add screencaps from Nazi social media.
snowghoul
gamechangershow
titsay
vaporwave
andulkaphoto
