Not (Only) in Kansas Anymore: Anti-Semitic Violence Is Up Across America

[Behind the Aegis]

With the Internet fueling hate, violence against Jews is on the rise.

My mother's mother was a Polish Jew who was sent to a forced labor camp during World War II, where she witnessed babies being killed and narrowly avoided being shot or sent to the crematorium multiple times. Her three sisters, three brothers, and young son were slaughtered by the Nazis.

After the war, she was reunited with her husband. They and my mom, who was born in a German displaced persons camp, moved to the United States in 1949, leaving the anti-Semitic, blood-drenched memory of Europe behind.

“What they show on television, what they show in the books, is not 1 percent what I saw there myself,” my grandmother said before she died, in her thick Yiddish accent. “When Hitler would have computers, like they have here now, he would take the world.”

Her video testimony, taken by my cousin, was recorded in the early 1990s, but her words about computers fueling anti-Semitism ring eerily true today: Anti-Semitic violence is on the rise, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish human rights organization, and the Internet is home to an unquantifiable hotbed of hatred toward Jews and other minority groups.

more: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/04/25/anti-semitic-assaults-on-rise

[Scootaloo]

1. "With the Internet feuling hate"

Well, thank goodness we have an expert on the subject at hand! Do tell us all about hate sites, Aegis.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. .

Last edited Sat Apr 26, 2014, 05:51 AM - Edit history (1)

[joshcryer]

6. Wow, why even sign up to Stormfront?

Do they have secret forums you can access being signed up?

Aegis does not deserve your hateful commentary here. Especially if you're a self-admitted Stormfront lurker.

[joshcryer]

11. If anyone has the jury results, I'd like to see 'em.

4-3 is pretty alarming, on DU...

Note: I did not alert, I just saw the hide message when I refreshed. I have literally alerted four times in the past year. One for an egregious post and the other times, obvious spammers. I would have alerted on that post, because I respect Aegis' opinion and thought the response was over the top, but I didn't think it was enough to merit a jury. Glad the jury ruled the way it did. Aegis is a great DUer, who shares an opinion that not many on the left share.

[anti partisan]

17. In order to understand hate, it's best to observe it first-hand

And I've gained a much different perspective on the matter as a Jew. Considering a lot of the things people at Stormfront consider to be fact, anti-Semitism is a normal reaction. I'm not saying that they are in the right to be anti-Semites, BUT there are many well-intentioned people there who really just have a bad grasp of facts and believe stupid conspiracy theories about the "Protocols" or the majority of Jews looking at Gentiles as some sort of scum of the earth. So what I see is a lot of hate which almost completely stems from pure ignorance. And I daresay if I was in their shoes, I'd be anti-Semitic as well.

I don't know about actually signing up over there. I don't think you get access to secret forums, but lurking there is certainly a valuable educational experience. And I don't have any hate towards people who act out trying to make the world the better place, based on what they think is the truth. If we all strive for truth with an open mind, much ignorance will be overcome and I do have confidence that some of these "haters" will come over to our side when they realize their belief systems are based in lies.

[joshcryer]

18. Why would I need to observe it to understand it?

What is there to understand about hate?

That some people are ignorant? I refuse to believe that. There are neo-nazi's who have come around and realized that they are the ones spreading hate (the one guy who got his tattoos removed comes to mind).

There is no other group, save black people, who are shit on on the internet than Jewish people. Jewish people actually may be hated the most since even black people hate them. It's insane how often I encounter it. But I think anti-black racism is probably more pervasive.

[anti partisan]

19. If we want to *end* hate, we must understand its root causes

And until we do so, progress will not be made.

Of course you refuse to believe that some people are ignorant, because you fill in what you don't know with your imagination. Go read Stormfront and see that there is a consensus opinion that Jews have a stranglehold on all "White countries", which they are using to intentionally destroy the White race, which ultimately will lead to the downfall of mankind. Heck, if I believed that some group of people really was destroying mankind, I'd be fighting them too. It's all about perspective, and they have a perspective which is based in faulty logic, misinformation, and all kinds of garbage, BUT if you fail to look at these people as human beings and instead some hellspawn that have a one-track mind of HATE!... nothing will ever be solved.

It is true that we can whip up a social pressure to tar-and-feather so-called "haters" and at least we won't see much vocal display in public, but internalized feelings are sometimes more dangerous than externalized ones, and I think part of the problem is we are so caught up in political correctness that people don't speak their mind on certain issues, allowing misconceptions to fester within our minds. If we want to do our fair share, we should make it our role to actually pave the way to a new non-racist (rather than anti-racist) society and reach out our hands to the racists rather than invoke their fighting spirits. Maybe I live in a fantasy hippie world, but I really think peace and love can be contagious.

[joshcryer]

20. If you thought a race was destroying society you'd fight them?

Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know how absolutely absurd that sounds?

Think: a race, in some conspiracy, trying to destroy humanity.

In what bizarre reality is that even remotely possible?

Not, btw, conceivable, or imagined (as these idiots are basically conspiracy theorists on steroids), but possible. Such an event is simply impossible.

The "white race" has indeed had leverage over the entire global community, but not by some addle brained conspiracy. It was mainly through economic leveraging and inter-race relations. The "white race" (Caucasians) are actually on the decline, in the very system that they devised (Caucasians will be a minority in 15-20 short years, in the US, is that by design? Insanity).

[anti partisan]

21. It's not possible

But if I held onto those ignorant beliefs, then why wouldn't I be fighting against the group of people that was destroying society? You know, before society is destroyed?

I'm really just trying to make the distinction between flawed thinking and malevolent thinking. We characterize anti-Semites too hastily as purely malevolent people fueled by hate (cue Nazi imagery), and in doing so lose out on opportunities to understand where they come from and hopefully help lead them on a much better path.

There is no logical reason to hold the beliefs these Stormfronters hold, and that is my point!

[joshcryer]

5. Nothing to see here...

Move along.

Read a random YouTube comment for once. I don't go a day without seeing that shit.

[Scootaloo]

7. oh, I'm not arguing that, josh

Though i would draw a distinction between youtube trolls, and dedicated effort s to propagate hate. Both vile of course, but the first is generally just some boneheaded dipshit hoping for a chance to go "U MAD BRO LOLOLOL" more than anything. It's the difference between crank calls and phone scamming, if we go by scale of the problem.

[joshcryer]

9. To think they are mere trolls is to be naive.

If you ever see said "troll" go click on their profiles and the shit they recommend or like or whatever. 90% of them don't set their privacy settings, they're trash. And yes, I do this, mainly because I've got death threats (legitimate death threats) and do it before replying to said posters (some, you can discern, are more prolific, and in my experience, they are more likely to try to track you down).

The anti-Semitic posters are not anywhere near crank callers, they really believe their garbage.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Thanks for this.

Upsetting, to say the least.

[joshcryer]

8. I don't go a day without seeing "anti-Jewish" commentary.

It doesn't matter where I go on the internet, it festers, it boils, it steams.

I think a huge chunk, perhaps 10% of internet posters, are anti-Semitic assholes.

It helps that the internet fosters pure, unquestionable, anti-Semitic propaganda, due to posters being anonymous. Conspiracies abound.

[LeftishBrit]

10. While I think a lot of antisemitism and other racism is the result of the economic crisis...

)people tend to look for scapegoats, and the Jooos and the Evil Immigrants are usually high up on the list), there is no doubt that internet hate-sites fuel the problem. It is easier to click on a hate-site, probably one that shrieks that it's telling you the TRUTH, than to purchase and read a propaganda book, or to attend a demagogue's speech.

Rense, WhatReallyNeverHappened, WakeUpFromYourSlumber, whale.to, and many other hate-sites fuel the scapegoating of Jews and other minorities.

But mainstream right-wing sources are dangers too; e.g. the British tabloids. On the whole, they go after immigrants and benefit recipients rather than Jews at the moment. But I have no doubt that if there were ever again a significant amount of Jewish immigration to the UK, there would be a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the tabloids. There is certainly some rather thinly veiled anti-Semitism in some of the attacks on Ed Miliband and his family; and we should not forget that in the 1930s, the Daily Mail supported the Nazis and Blackshirts until the eve of the war.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. That is very true.

Watching the European news, the other group seems to be the Rom, as well as the "immigrant." Of course, anti-Semitism is easy and more acceptable than most would think. After the flyers, came blame of the Jews (the ADL, actually) as published in "Press TV" which had an anti-Semite, Gordon Duff, of "Veterans Today", claiming the flyers were all the work of Jews in the US, and possibly Israel. No facts were actually used, but that doesn't really matter. Thankfully, few places picked up on it.

The real danger also comes from those who mock or denigrate anti-Semitism because of their own hatreds. It allows for anti-Semitism to get a better foothold.

[latrun]

13. Universal Scapegoat

The Jews are a universal scapegoat. As a group, they are universally "different" enough to be easily separated from any other group. There has been so many descriptors ascribed to the group there are few outside the group who do not find an easy excuse for vilification. These facts are replete in the complete chronology of Jews as an identifiable group and that it is why it is impossible to find any single means to counter every instance of anti-Semitic behavior.

[uppityperson]

14. welcome to DU. Are you saying that because there are so many "different" descriptors accurately

attributed that very few people see "The Jews" in a positive manner? I am confused at to your meaning and would appreciate clarification. Thank you.

[William769]

16. Looks like you touched a raw nerve.

Juries can only do so much. One of these days DU will get a thorough good house cleaning until then, juries it is.

[NuclearDem]

23. Maybe I haven't had enough coffee, but I still can't tell what happened up thread.

[William769]

24. To stay within community standards all I will say is this.

The title of the OP.

[SidDithers]

22. DU rec...nt

Sid