#understanding antisemitism

[fromchaostocosmos]

I've been studying antisemitism for a while now and while I'm not an academic scholar or formal scholar in the topic, as in I went to school for this and have degrees on this topic I do consider myself some form of amateur scholar on the topic.

Something about antisemitism that I've come to understand and wish more people understood is that antisemitism is just antisemitism no matter which side it is coming it is from.

Left or Right they use the same base, the same roots, the same stereotypes, the same conspiracy theories, the same blood libel, the same canards, it is all the same the just put a diffrent hat on it.

The both use the Jews are perverse, Jews prey on the innocent, Jews kill children, Jews control the world/governments, Cabals, octopus imagery, spider and spider web imagery, Jews using blood, Jews using minorities for nefarious purposes, Jews and money, Jews controlling banks, Jews are secretive, and so much more.

And even the Left engages in the Globalist dog-whistle style rhetoric even if they don't use the word Globalist because they do use other words instead to give that same dog-whistle feel about Jews controlling the world through business takeovers on a global scale.

Both the Left and Right use the dog-whistles "Elite" and "Cabal".

The antisemitism that is being mined is the same exact antisemitism no matter which side it comes from, the difference is how they dress it up.

[edenfenixblogs]

I would appreciate if you deleted my reblog post from your website. I am not familiar with the part of tumblr where people think it is okay to screenshot your statements and reblog them on the internet. I do not consider that normal discourse. I never once said the things you accused me of in your post. I did not call Jews white. I said that Jews can be both white and non-white plainly because whiteness is emphatically not real.

If I misinterpreted your words in my post, please reblog this post with your feelings and opinions about Jewish people. Or you can reply to this post. If I have misinterpreted your words, I will happily delete the post.

Unfortunately, I have had far too many people do antisemitic things in the comments of my posts — as small as using microaggressions to suggest that I am somehow selfish for experiencing antisemitism to outright telling me to kill myself for saying that I support Palestinians and hope for a future where Israelis and Palestinians can live peacefully (because I do believe Israelis should continue to live) and when I go to respond to those posts, the person has blocked me to prevent me from responding or deleted the comment so that I am left feeling gaslit as if I’m upset about something that never happened. This is a common form of antisemitic psychological warfare in the internet age.

For that reason, I will not be deleting my post with your comments while I remain unsure about how you feel about Jewish people.

We are experiencing a terrifying uptick in antisemitism to the point where I am unable to go a single day without experiencing it. Right now, my blog exists in part to document how the world feels about Jews during this time.

HOWEVER, I am more than willing to admit that I may be oversensitive and hypervigilant about your specific comments. I do have PTSD and after months of nonstop isolation, death threats, and other antisemitic rhetoric flooding my life, I absolutely believe that my symptoms may be making me see and feel hostility that you did not intend. If that’s the case, then I apologize.

But this blog seeks to validate Jewish pain and trauma during this time as well as to document my own personal experience of antisemitism so that I don’t convince myself “it’s not that bad,” which I am very prone to do in the face of trauma. And this leads to horrendous problems for me personally.

I will also say that I do consider screenshotting to be a normal part of discourse, but not the end of discourse. I welcome you to elaborate your thoughts or engage in more discussion on the topic.

But you wrote words on a public post on the internet. And I wished to highlight that response. Because it felt extremely invalidating and dismissive of a very real, lived, and ongoing trauma experienced by me and most other members of the diasporic Jewish community. That trauma is known as conditional whiteness—wherein we are treated as “white” until we are too visibly Jewish or Israel becomes unpopular or any number of other reasons—at which point we are forcibly ejected from our social circles. This has led to generations of Jews never feeling truly welcome in any peer group. And the ongoing wave of extreme antisemitism has made our culturally traumatic worst fears into an ongoingly traumatic reality for the past 8 months. And whether or not you meant to ignite those fears and traumas, you did so. For me and for all the other Jews responding to you with frustration and anger right now.

Everything you say on the public internet is public speech. And if you wouldn’t post it on your own blog or say it to a human being’s face, you shouldn’t post it anywhere.

That said, I do not believe that one bad screenshot or communication defines you as a person. I am capable of being wrong and am happy to admit when I am. We all make mistakes and shouldn’t be defined by them. People grow and evolve. What happens next is up to you.

You are correct that whiteness is a social construct. And that construct is wielded in a shifting way against Jews and has been for generations. I will not delete my post, but I welcome further discussion. I don’t hate you. But I am scared of you. I am scared that you hate me and my people, because so many people do and have shown that they do.

I extend this invitation to you with an open heart and in good faith. Please attempt to respond in kind.

[mental-mona]

Understanding Antisemitism - Jewish American Heritage Month