Know Your Jew-Haters (A Guide)
Here is a taxonomy of today's antisemites, so you do not confuse the Jihadist with the Social Media Ignoramus and make a fool of yourself.
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This is a guest essay written by Nachum Kaplan of the newsletter, “Moral Clarity.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
There is nothing worse than a social faux pas.
Imagine being at a dinner party and saying that the Palestinian Authority is full of neo-Nazis, when everyone knows it is full of jihadists.
In other words, there are so many kinds of antisemites that it can be easy to mix them up. To help you avoid looking like a dolt and not getting a return invitation, here is a guide to the different types of antisemites.
Beware, though, many antisemites are so filled with hatred that they belong to more than one category.
Here are the 12 main kinds:
1) The Neo-Nazi
Like the original Nazis, neo-Nazis hate Jews as a racial ideology, differentiating their Jew-hatred from older religious-based forms of antisemitism.
This distinction between racial and religious antisemitism matters. While a Jew might be able to convert to another religion, or pretend to convert, a person cannot escape their ethnicity.
Neo-Nazis are often white supremacists who care mainly about skin color, whereas the original Nazis were more obsessed with the dubious notion of “blood purity.”
In fact, few things bothered the Nazis more than Jews who could pass as non-Jews, maybe second only to discovering that they had some distant Jewish ancestor.
2) The Nazi
Old-time Nazis are back. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party winning power in the eastern state of Thuringia shows that you cannot keep a bad idea down.
German law makes expressing far-Right antisemitism difficult, so the AfD’s focus is on Germany’s 5.5 million Muslims, especially immigrant ones, rather than its 110,000 Jews.
Antisemitism in the form of “anti-Zionism” is prevalent among German Muslims, but I am betting the irony of them now finding themselves the target of Nazi hatred is wasted on them.
3) The Conspiracy Theorist
They believe that Jews control the banks, media, government, and — my personal favorite — the weather.
Psychologists tell us that conspiracy theories are an anxiety disorder. Unable to cope with the world’s chaos and uncertainty, they draw comfort from thinking that someone is in control behind the scenes running it all. Conspiracy theories also provide a scapegoat for all that is wrong with the world and in the theorists’ lives.
Personally, I have no objection to there being a secret Jewish cabal running the world. What bothers me is that I have not been included in it. Does anyone know how I can join? I am a self-starter and keen to learn.
4) Self-Loathing Jews
This tiny minority of Jews are psychopaths who deserve no digital ink spent on them. They are profoundly uninteresting.
5) The Islamist/Jihadist
Islamists suffer a particular derangement. They want to build a Caliphate that will look something like the horror show that was the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) and they find that desirable.
Besides wanting everyone to convert to Islam and to kill or enslave those who do not, Islamists believe that paradise is assured if they die a martyr pursuing this cause.
Jihadists hate Jews and want to destroy Israel for religious reasons. They believe that Islamic expansion and conquest is a proof of their religion’s truth. Any lands that were once under Muslim rule must be retaken; otherwise the Islamic expansion narrative is put into reverse.
Destroying Israel is at the top of their hit list, followed by retaking Andalucía. Christians and secularists are next in line.
6) The Far-Leftist (aka the Woke Lunatic)
Marxism holds endless appeal for unclear reasons, given its utter failure whenever and wherever it has been tried as a system of government and economic organization.
Having lost the Cold War, the far-Left looked for new ways to bring down the capitalist order and believe they found it. Instead of a class struggle, or a battle between capital and labor, they decided that the world is a battle between oppressor and oppressed. This is the “Woke” narrative.
The “Woke” are the most annoying kind of antisemite because of their domesticated dog kind of cluelessness. They believe that identity markers — such as race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, and wealth — determine where groups sit in a hierarchy of oppression.
Jews bother them because as history’s most oppressed group, they should be suffering intergenerational trauma and be downtrodden. Yet, Jews are successful and Jewish refugees built the modern, prosperous, democratic state of Israel and turned it into a technological, cultural, and military powerhouse.
Unable to make sense of this, the “Woke” decided that Jews must be “oppressors” and Israel the poster child for “oppression.”
7) The Denier
They have imbibed centuries of antisemitic tropes deep into their Western psyches and sincerely believe that they are not racists.
Yet, their beliefs and actions are indistinguishable from an antisemite’s. They see themselves as “pro-Palestinian,” but apply double and triple standards to Israel with regard to the right to self-defense, the laws of armed conflict, and pretty much everything else.
Many people at “anti-Israel” rallies are antisemites in denial, as are many of the world’s leaders and foreign ministers, and a disturbing number of journalists.
8) The Christian Fundamentalist
They are less common than they used to be, but they still exist. Rooted in theological differences, their hatred stems from Jews’ non-acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
U.S. congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is an example of someone who believes the Gospel teaching that Jews are responsible for Jesus Christ’s killing (deicide), and even opposed an antisemitism bill on these grounds. This was also the official position of the Catholic Church until 1964.
Obviously, the Romans killed Jesus. The Jews would have stoned him.
9) The Unreconstructed Muslim
Quranic-inspired antisemitism is common and not limited to Jihadist quacks.
The Quran says a mixture of things about Jews, and recognizes them as People of the Book, but it contains some deeply antisemitic passages.
Consider verse 2:61, which accuses Jews of killing prophets and defying Allah’s will, stating that “shame and misery” are “stamped upon them.” Verse 5:60 describes Jews’ transformation into apes and pigs, while verse 5:64 accuses Jews of spreading war and corruption.
Many ordinary Muslims have this baked into their worldview thanks to such passages. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority dictator whom the West sees as “moderate” and wants to govern a Palestinian state, is fond of quoting such passages.
10) The Social Media Ignoramus
This is a new breed that has learned what little they know about the world from TikTok videos and other such scholarly sources.
They agree with whatever is trending on social media, so their whole view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the world’s most complex and intransigent dispute — comes from Palestinian propaganda posts.
Jews are bad. Very bad. Palestinians are good. Very good.
11) The Virtue-Signaler
True social primates, what matters to them is their status within a group. As they seek to gain status by displaying virtue, so they find trendy causes such as being “anti-Israel” irresistible.
Doing or being good matters less than being seen to be good. It is why they do things that grab headlines (like waving stupid banners at protests) which make no difference to a conflict on the other side of the world that they do not understand.
My best guess is that virtue-signaling is like a peacock’s tail; it is there to attract mates, but has no other purpose.
12) The Angry Activist
Angry activists are first cousins of the “Woke” but without the philosophical underpinnings. Their motives are psychological. They are interested in the fight, not the cause.
They will take up any “cause” as long as there is a good fight to be had. You will see them clashing with police at “anti-Israel” marches, battling Japanese whaling ships at sea, and chaining themselves to trees in front of bulldozers to prevent logging.
Only issues that involve such excitement motivate them. You will never see them fighting for tax reform or better wheelchair access at malls.
“Personally, I have no objection to there being a secret Jewish cabal running the world. What bothers me is that I have not been included in it. Does anyone know how I can join? I am a self-starter and keen to learn.”
Well written as always. The above quote is quite humorous. Thanks!
What about the brain dead Jews (65%) that still voted for Harris after all the anti-Zionist rhetoric by the base of the Dem/marxists. Thankfully the clueless nominee chose an even stupider VP candidate rather than the little Jewish gov who might have won Pa. for them. The TDS of the American Jewish community defies comprehension. Thankfully most leftist secular Jews have few or no children. Orthodox Jews on the other hand ( 80% voted for DJT )have many children, so there is hope for our tribe.