Viral: Antisemitism In Four Mutations - on PBS this evening (5/26)

[question everything]

Explore the recent rise in antisemitism, which is increasing in ways not seen since the 1930s, in the U.S. and Europe, and hear firsthand accounts from victims, witnesses and others who have experienced it.

Check local listing.

[Jamastiene]

1. I need to get my cable situation fixed.

I keep having to go to the web sites to watch things because my cable is messed up with my new idea of watching online instead of renting the set top box. Spectrum's web site to watch on PC will not load the programming any more. It used to work, but for the last couple of months or so, it has not. PBS is one of the hard ones for me to watch online. I have trouble getting my local PBS link to play there too. This might not have been a good idea in the long run to give up the set top box.

I want to see this. I will never understand why people target Jewish with hatred and bigotry that way. Never. I wish I knew effective ways to fight them back.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Goes back at least to the Middle Ages where the Church didn't allow interest...

on loans or savings. Jews became the default bankers.

Didn't help that they were outsiders, like Gypsies. Our species rarely greets outsiders with outstretched arms. Shit look at African Americans-- they did nothing but be captured and enslaved and look at the shit they're still taking.

Native Americans? They were just in the way.

Also didn't help that several Biblical sources blamed the Jews for the crucifixion and death of Christ. Being a "Christ killer" did not endear you to the local European population.

As a species, we're in love with hate.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Planning to watch it tonight!

[Mosby]

4. K and R

Set to record, thx.

[JudyM]

5. I caught the last half or so, seemed very well put together.

Engaging and diverse ideas.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. If you are able, do try to get the first half.

It is as good as the second half. It is anti-Semitism on the far-right in the US and the rank anti-Semitism happening in Hungary.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. It was very good. Sobbering, but well put together.

I enjoyed that no quarter was given, which is bound to piss off the usual suspects, which makes me happy for different reasons. What was particularly upsetting was a sense of foreboding from the "common" Jew to the most educated of us. There is not a mismatch, as is sometimes seen in situations like this. I feel many are thinking when not if, as it applies to future mass (or series of) events against Jews.

[question everything]

8. As the program detailed the atrocities in France for awhile I wondered

whether things have quieted down but of course they have not, as we read your regular posts. It is just that in the Corona virus days they do not generate headlines.

[Mosby]

9. A mixed review.

I knew some people were going to react negatively to Blair and El Karoui as experts, leftists think Blair is a war criminal, and El karoui is an ex-Rothschild investment banker. This reviewer actually claims the last section is islamophobic.


Matt Fagerholm is an Assistant Editor at RogerEbert.com and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Snip

...What’s ironic is how the third portion of Goldberg’s film, focusing on the far-left in the U.K., essentially does to soon-to-be-former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn what Orbán did to Soros—portray him as a dangerous figure with no redeeming value.

Indeed, Corbyn’s failure in rooting out the antisemitism eroding his party, resulting in their recent loss and his subsequent resignation, is inarguable. What’s missing here is any account of the oppression endured by Palestinians—a group Corbyn gained notoriety for supporting—because of Britain’s arms deals to Israel and support of the nationalistic movement known as Zionism. It seems all too fitting to have Tony Blair, whose business-friendly policies Corbyn opposed, among the talking heads deemed by Goldberg as trustworthy. Also included in the round-up of good guys is Bill Clinton, whose wife’s presidential campaign was derailed in part by the rise of fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders, a far-left figure often likened to Corbyn (Trump has noted that Corbyn’s loss bodes well for his desired reelection in November).

Muslims are granted as dangerously reductive an analysis as Palestinians in the film’s final section detailing Islamic radicalism in France. According to talking head Hakim El Karoui, senior fellow at the privately funded think tank Institut Montaigne, approximately 10,000 young French Muslims have the potential of being radicalized and are kept on a list. Nothing is mentioned about how El Karoui has come under fire for suggesting that Muslims must conceal their religious and cultural identity in order to be accepted as members of French society. Abdelghani Merah, author of My Brother, the Terrorist, provides crucial insight into how his sibling became a jihadist, but aside from that, the lack of a nuanced Islamic perspective in this section, combined with the string of antisemitic killings spliced together, is distressing, to say the least. There’s no question that Islamophobia is also on the rise around the globe, and this film—however inadvertently and well-intentioned—plays directly into it.

Snip

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/viral-antisemitism-in-four-mutations-2020

[Behind the Aegis]

10. What a fucking moron.

"What’s missing here is any account of the oppression endured by Palestinians"

Really? Really?! Did this asshole realize the subject was ANTISEMITISM? Oh that's right, anytime antisemitism is mentioned, these types insist that other, if not all (or as many as possible) bigotries should be mentioned, if not taking the forefront, despite the topic being ANTISEMITISM! Also typical of "whataboutism" assholes like this POS, is that any mention of Muslims is a call for screams of Islamophobia. The piece was very specific in talking about radicalized Muslims and those who refused to assimilate, they even threw out a statistic that the vast majority of Muslims not only don't fall into this category, they don't even come close.

The most laughable part of this "review" is whining the documentary portrayed Corbyn in the same light as Orbán. LMAO! It doesn't even come close, though both are anti-Semites and both play the "put I got Jew friends, so I can't be a Jew hater" schtick. I knew as soon as part three rolled around those who consider themselves left would blanch. Oh, want to talk about white privilege or male privilege manifesting in the left, that is fine, even admirable, but don't dare discuss, or even suggest, antisemitism is a problem on the left. For the ones who kvetch about "bothsiderism" they also seem to miss the fact they are guilty of "whataboutism" (see above) and the "No True Scotsman" fallacy.

Finally, I think this quote:

There’s no question that Islamophobia is also on the rise around the globe, and this film—however inadvertently and well-intentioned—plays directly into it.

sums up the stupidity of some of those on the left because it is easily transposed with the addition of antisemitism in place of Islamophobia and criticism of Israel; and there you have the issue, the MAIN issue, facing more than a few on the left.

Pointing out and confronting antisemitism on the right is like shooting fish in a barrel, except when those right-wingers aren't white or Christian, then certain elements need to rethink if something is really anti-Semitic or not. It is all very Animal Farm-esque.