Everyone needs to be very clear about what it means that when someone hacked Elmo on Twitter, Elmo the muppet, everyone's favorite little red furry friend, they didn't just use him as a mouthpiece to yell about Trump and Epstein.
People have isolated the one tweet that says that Trump needs to release the Epstein files and calls him a "child fucker." But there was a series of tweets, and the mention of Trump and Epstein came within the context of advancing the centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews control the world, Netanyahu specifically controls Trump because of Trump's association with Epstein and came with two explicit and unvarnished calls for the murder of all Jews.
Viewing this single tweet about the Epstein files in isolation makes it appear like the hacker had some noble purpose. They did not. Their only purpose was to call for antisemitic violence.
The hacker cannot be applauded for any part of what they did.
A Jewish musician called Mikey Pauker offers sound healings at ecstatic dance events as a way of giving back.
He was scheduled to do a Hanukkah concert at Harbin Hot Springs in 2024.
Then a man named Derek Cyr started commenting on their posts, tagging Pauker, saying things like, “I am watching you and will have [you] cancelled anywhere you go."
He commented on Harbin’s Facebook page that Pauker plays “genocide music”
and had said that civilians killed in Gaza are getting what they deserve. The post concluded with, “Ask Harbin not to support genocide and cancel him!”
There's no such thing as “genocide music.” Pauker didn't say that civilians in Gaza deserved to be killed, much less its entire population or the entire population of Palestinians. He's a peace activist who has only spoken sympathetically about civilian casualties in Gaza.
But Harbin canceled the Hanukkah concert. Because of "severe negative feedback." And their "desire to avoid politics and divisiveness, including violence coming from any party."
A few days later, Harbin's senior vice president called Pauker and said it was cancelled because of community complaints about his "Zionist views."
Her example was that on October 7, 2023, as Hamas was still in the process of slaughtering 1,200 civilians in Israel, he'd posted an image of a military tank on his Facebook page with the words “I stand with Israel.” At the time he made this post, Israel had not commenced its ground invasion of Gaza. The IDF was the only organization able to force Hamas out of Israel.
You can condemn the IDF all day long. Everyone does, inside and outside of Israel.
But also, Hamas was not about to stop on its own. Its explicit goal is to destroy Israel, take over, and decide which Jews will be killed, allowed to live and flee, or forced to stay. In a single day, it tortured, mutilated, and burned its way across an area larger than the Gaza Strip itself.
Posting an image of an Israeli tank that is, at that moment, saving civilian lives, and saying you stand with the people who are actively being massacred, is the opposite of genocidal.
The reason he was posting about it again a year later was that a venue in Nevada had cancelled his upcoming sound healing.
The reason they gave sounded awfully similar.
Someone had commented saying, "He's a Zionist."
They "weren't equipped to provide the safety measures this situation requires."
The organizer googled "Zionism" and read that it's "a colonizer movement responsible for genocide in Gaza."
A musician named Shylah Ray had been threatening him directly, and telling everyone he was "Zionist scum of the earth."
The event's decision was made a week after the Bondi Beach massacre. Which was carried out by a father and son who said they wanted to "kill all the Zionists."
And the second Instagram post?
Police probe arson at home of Andreas Büttner, who vows 'not to be intimidated'; Brandenburg state officials say they 'stand by' him
Why is it almost always fire?
So many synagogues and Jewish schools have been burned over the past two years. So many places and people have been firebombed.
The tiny hostage protest in Boulder, Colorado. The Jewish governor of Pennsylvania's house. An Australian rabbi's car right after Bondi Beach. The Hillel in San Francisco.
Those are all just in the past seven or eight months.
What is this deep-seated need to burn Jews?
Boulder attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman poses for a jail booking photograph after his arrest in Boulder, Colorado, US, June …
Even if an event organizer didn't believe random accusations that a given Jew is "genocidal scum of the earth," they have plenty of motivation to cancel Jewish performances for fear of violence.
Jews are used to needing to think about safety and security at Jewish community events.
Getting emails about safety and deescalation training for your synagogue. Metal detectors at your Jewish private school. Renting security for your Purim festival. Wondering if the event you want to attend will be the one someone decides to attack.
The rest of the world is not.
It's super fun that when people realize a whole lot of people are violently angry at Jews, and might do just about anything with that rage, they... cancel Jewish performances. Which costs performers all the time and money spent planning and advertising each event.
But you know what's even more fun?
The fact that you believe there's a specifically Jewish movement for genocide.
The fact that you can accuse any Jew of belonging to that movement, to silence and demonize them for free.
Ireland never fails to outdo itself when it comes to antisemitic nuttery. I am disgusted with the country’s political, media, and NGO classes, all of whom will gladly cozy up to modern-day Nazis for their own personal gain.
update on this! apparently reporting for spam can be more effective
this blog has been spamming this same post. please report them, mass reports are the only way @staff will care.
they also have several other blogs that you can report
report post -> report something else -> hate speech violation
here’s what i wrote to report them, feel free to just copy and paste
for the description of the violation, i wrote this:
description of jewish people aligning with nazi ideologies. examples such as calling them “filthy subhumans,” saying they “drink baby blood,” saying “GAS THE FUCKING JEWS.” they call jerusalem a “failed kike empire.”
and for the explanation of why it violates hate speech policies, i wrote this:
this speech aligns with nazi ideologies and spreads harmful rhetoric about jewish people, an already vulnerable minority.
French mayor suspended after calling France ‘too Jewish’
Bernard Bazinet, mayor of Augignac, made the remark while supporting a boycott of Israel’s Eurovision bid; government and party condemn him
Bazinet wrote, “Yes to a boycott! France is too Jewish to boycott!”
Bazinet, a former member of the Socialist Party, admitted: “When I saw that France had approved Israel’s participation, it led me to react foolishly. I wasn’t necessarily aware that the term carried antisemitic connotations."