How Republicans Echo Antisemitic Tropes Despite Declaring Support for Israel - eviltoast

The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, traveled to Columbia University two weeks ago to decry the “virus of antisemitism” that he said pro-Palestinian protesters were spreading across the country. “They have chased down Jewish students. They have mocked them and reviled them,” he said to jeers from protesters. “They have shouted racial epithets. They have screamed at those who bear the Star of David.”

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Amid the widening protests and the unease, if not fear, among many Jews, Republicans have sought to seize the political advantage by portraying themselves as the true protectors of Israel and Jews under assault from the progressive left.

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Debate rages over the extent to which the protests on the political left constitute coded or even direct attacks on Jews. But far less attention has been paid to a trend on the right: For all of their rhetoric of the moment, increasingly through the Trump era many Republicans have helped inject into the mainstream thinly veiled anti-Jewish messages with deep historical roots.

The conspiracy theory taking on fresh currency is one that dates back hundreds of years and has perennially bubbled into view: that a shady cabal of wealthy Jews secretly controls events and institutions contrary to the national interest of whatever country it is operating in.

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    • MxM111@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      Well, for that you need Armageddon, not tiny Israel, and only AFTER the third temple, which has not happened.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        For fun, look up a recent TV show called ‘Dig.’ It’s about the efforts of a cabal of different religious types to push the clock forward and bring about the End Times.

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            The first two words of my comment were ‘For fun.’

            BTW, people have been using fiction to inspire reality for years. Back in the day, Nellie Bly travelled around the world in 75 days and NASA named an actual spaceship “Enterprise” because of a TV show whose name escapes me.

            • MxM111@kbin.social
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              6 months ago

              I understand your suggestion is for found, but it sounded as if it is possible to learn something from those. Which I seriously doubt. As for inspiration, other than names and words (e.g. robot), not a lot of ideology got transferred into real lives. There are exceptions, of course. Like Ann Ryan’s book “Atlas Shredded” is popular on the right, Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” influenced the left in the sixties, but I think those are rather exceptions. A very small fraction of books and shows do that. I hope that the show you suggesting is not one of those.