Anti-Semitism

CoffeeHorse

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I really did enjoy the history lessons while that lasted. My Jewish ancestors pretended to be Catholics when they came here and eventually sorta forgot it was pretend, so I don't really know much about it.
 
LordGigaIce

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
CoffeeHorse said:
I really did enjoy the history lessons while that lasted. My Jewish ancestors pretended to be Catholics when they came here and eventually sorta forgot it was pretend, so I don't really know much about it.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing they were Spanish?
Iberia was home to a thriving Jewish community after the Jewish diaspora from Judea, and the Islamic Caliphate that conquered Iberia oversaw a multicultural society of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Europeans, Arabs, and Africans... basically a huge melting pot.

It's easy for some people to fall into the trap and assume it was all great all the time compared to Eurorpean Christiandom, and it wasn't. Like in Christian Europe this tolerance in Islamic Iberia could be- and was- revoked as different leaders with different ideas came to and fro, but my point is that this multicultural Iberia did exist.

Anyway when Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain completed the Reconquesta and booted the last of Islamic states out of Iberia in 1492 they decided they needed to unify their lands behind certain ideals. And the decision was to make Catholicism one of these unifying principals.

This actually had very real political advantages, as an aside. See, completing the Reconquesta had made Ferdy and Izzy pretty popular in Christian Europe and they were able to use that to basically force the Pope to cede control of the Catholic Church in Spain to them. So unifying the country under Catholicism was more so about controlling a domestic power base than anything truly zealous.

Anyway this meant that they expelled the Muslims and Jews who lived in Spain, and there were significant populations of both. This actually ended up f*****g up Spain badly because Christian aristocracy didn't like doing lowly stuff like farming, businesses, and government administration so suddenly Spain lost like... a lot of capable people who kept the country running.

For a lot of Muslims the obvious decision was just to pack up and hop back across to North Africa which was still solidly Islamic.
But for Jew prospects were trickier. Some went to North Africa, some to other places in Europe (France welcomed a lot actually), but some took a different approach.

See 1492 was also the year Christopher Columbus blindly stumbled his way into the Americas and he did it for Spain which meant Spain had a head start on colonization.

For a lot of Spanish Jews pretending to covert to Catholicism to get the feds off their back and then hopping over to the New World to get way out of the Crown's line of sight was the best way to deal with all of this. Sure you could go to Islamic North Africa or Christian France but whether or not you could remain unharassed depended on the hereditary dingus in charge.
But if you go to the Americas... well... it's a fresh start. Government control's going to be indirect at best. You can just go and... not deal with this crap anymore.

So a lot of Spanish Jews under the guise of dutiful Catholic converts went to the Americas and, over time, just fell into being Catholic.

To Spain's credit they realize how s****y this all was and now if you can prove your family is one of the Muslim or Jewish families forced to leave Spain you can qualify for Spanish citizenship even if you don't plan on moving to Spain. So that's neat!
 
Ungnome

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
I'd imagine convenience, probably, depending on when they immigrated, where they originally settled and what Christian sects they were most familiar with.
 
LordGigaIce

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
CoffeeHorse said:
German, actually. So I'm not sure why they picked Catholicism.
Click to expand...
Germany is split along Protestant and Catholic lines with the north being mostly Protestant and the south being Catholic.

If they were from southern Germany and wanted to fit in Catholicism would have made a lot of sense.
 
Thylacine 2000

Thylacine 2000

Well-known member
Citizen
www.yahoo.com

Anti-Semitic posts by former European Court of Human Rights judge exposed

A former European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judge has claimed that Jewish people are the “enemies of Western civilisation” in a string of anti-Semitic rants shared online.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

A former European Court of Human Rights(ECHR) judge has claimed that Jewish people are the “enemies of Western civilisation” in a string of anti-Semitic rants shared online.

Bostjan Zupancic, who worked at the court for 17 years until 2016, shared a series of tweets in which he wrote that “Jews are the central enemies of Western civilisation”, what Jewish people are “doing in Ukraine” is “one of the greatest evils of the 21st century” and shared articles referring to the “Jewish War on White”. The former ECHR judge also tweeted an offensive bearded, hook-nosed Jewish caricature and shared links to videos about the apparent Rothschild banking “mafia”, among scores of other offensive posts. He also alleged in the posts that Jews “introduced … sexual perversions of all sorts … sadism, masochism, lots of homosexuality” before the Nazis came to power.

Mr Zupancic, who has also been vice president of the United Nations Committee Against Torture, is also understood to have adjudicated in numerous hearings that have had a direct impact on Jewish communities.
Click to expand...

This is me being unsurprised.
 
PrimalxConvoy

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
I'm double-posting this here and at the LGBQT+ News thread. I'm watching it at the time of writing this (ok, I'll admit it's paused as I'm writing) so I don't know if it's anti-Semitic, but it might be interesting for anyone interested in Jewish and/or trans issues?

 
Thylacine 2000

Thylacine 2000

Well-known member
Citizen
Spin-Out

Spin-Out

i cant take it anymore im at my limit
Citizen
he's just saying the quiet part out loud now ig instead of hiding it behind qanon dogwhistles.
 
PrimalxConvoy

PrimalxConvoy

NOT a New Member.
Citizen
Netanyahu asks Elon Musk to condemn antisemitism on X; Musk deflects

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday publicly pressed tech billionaire Elon Musk to condemn antisemitism and find a way to combat it on his social media platform X as the pair met at a Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif.

"Ihope you can find within the confines of the First Amendment the ability to stop not only antisemitism, or roll it back as best you can, but any collective hatred of the people that antisemitism represents,” Netanyahu urged Musk in the meeting, which was live-streamed on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. He added, “I encourage you to find the balance. It’s a tough one.”

While the meeting was largely cordial, Musk sidestepped Netanyahu’s call to forcefully denounce anti-Jewish hatred, which research shows has spiked on the platform since Musk bought it nearly a year ago. Musk has restored accounts previously banned for hate speech and has repeatedly criticized a prominent Jewish human rights organization, stoking a recent wave of antisemitic attacks.


Musk told Netanyahu that, while he’s personally against antisemitism, “free speech does at times mean that someone you don’t like is saying something you don’t like. If you don’t have that, then it’s not free speech.” He did not address his own role in promoting it.

The meeting came as each leader looks to the other to help fend off escalating criticism. The pair had said their meeting was intended to discuss artificial intelligence, but the conversation quickly veered to antisemitism and also touched on Iran as well as protests in both Israel and the United States against Netanyahu’s government.

Protesters who followed Netanyahu’s motorcade from the San Jose airport to the factory 17 miles north planned to continue protesting in San Francisco’s Union Square. Sunday night, Netanyahu critics projected “Welcome to Alcatraz Bibi” — Netanyahu’s nickname — on the wall of the prison that is one of San Francisco’s most iconic landmarks.

For Netanyahu, the meeting with one of the world’s most prominent tech entrepreneurs comes amid outcry that his controversial push to overhaul Israel’s judiciary risks scaring off international investors and the tech community that has given Israel its reputation as a “start-up nation.” In remarks made in Israel before his departure for California, Netanyahu called Musk “the current leader of the most dramatic development in the new age and perhaps in general,” apparently referring to AI, and said he will “work toward encouraging him to invest in Israel in the coming years.”

For Musk, a personal visit from Netanyahu offered a chance to counter allegations of antisemitism after a series of tweets in which he blamed the 110-year-old Anti-Defamation League for trying to destroy X and threatened a lawsuit against the nonprofit. Research has found that antisemitic speech has risen dramatically on the platform since Musk acquired it last fall, and ADL leaders have said Musk’s recent criticism of the organization has further stoked hate online and off.

But on Monday, Musk twice passed up Netanyahu’s requests for a forceful, specific condemnation of antisemitism, pivoting instead to the importance of free speech and combating bots on X.

“Generally, I mean, I’m sort of against attacking any group,” Musk said. “You know, it doesn’t matter who it is.”

He went on, “I’m in favor of that which furthers civilization and which ultimately leads us to become a spacefaring civilization, where we understand the nature of the universe. So we can’t do that if there’s a lot of infighting and, you know, hatred and negativity. So, you know, obviously I’m against antisemitism. I’m against anti, really, anything that promotes hate and conflict.”

When Musk shifted to the importance of allowing free speech, Netanyahu politely pushed back.

“It doesn’t stop you from coming out, as you have, as I do in every possible form, and condemn antisemitism,” Netanyahu said. “The condemnation is quite separate from the question of access.”

Musk spoke instead about X’s newly announced plan to offer a lower pricing tier for its paid subscription service, which he described as “the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” including those that amplify hateful content.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement, “We appreciate PM Netanyahu for raising concerns about the proliferation of antisemitism on X/Twitter during his conversation with Elon Musk. We hope that Mr. Musk takes PM Netanyahu’s concerns seriously so that X/Twitter can become a safer and more welcome place for all.”

It is not the first time Musk and Netanyahu have spoken amid controversy over Musk’s dalliances with antisemitic tropes. This summer, Netanyahu smoothed things over in a conversation with Musk after the X owner compared the Jewish financier George Soros, a frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, to the Jewish X-Men villain Magneto. Netanyahu’s government minister tasked with fighting antisemitism made a of point of saying that Musk’s comments were not antisemitic, despite widespread outcry in Israel. The two spoke about AI at the time, according to reports.

Netanyahu traveled to the United States for the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where he is expected to speak on Thursday. The visit to California was a late addition to Netanyahu’s itinerary.

Early in Monday’s meeting, the two found common ground in their concern over the potential for artificial “superintelligence,” which Netanyahu warned could lead to “the destruction of democracy” and Musk mused could end with robots controlling humanity.

Following the exchanges over antisemitism, Musk brought up the protests against Netanyahu’s government and noted the presence of protesters outside.

“I probably got the most amount of pushback at Tesla about this interview as anything I’ve ever done,” Musk said, adding, “I think it’s primarily the judicial reform question.”

Netanyahu defended his commitment to democracy, saying “Israel will always be a democratic country” and arguing that its judiciary had grown too powerful. His government’s move to diminish the influence of Israel’s Supreme Court has sparked months of nationwide demonstrations, arguably the greatest domestic crisis in the country’s 75-year history.

Musk suggested they return to the topic of AI. Following their one-on-one interview, the pair held an “AI safety roundtable” that included OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman and MIT physicist Max Tegmark, who has warned of the existential risks he believes AI poses.

Musk’s more than two dozen tweets attacking ADL caused the organization to face a string of attacks, and a hashtag Musk amplified was used at a white supremacist rally in Florida.

X is still considering whether to sue the ADL for what executives say are false claims about the level of hate speech on the service. If so, it would be the second such lawsuit against an advocacy group that has criticized X. The company sued the advocacy group, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, last month.
Click to expand...


(Source: - Washington Post)
 
Tuxedo Prime

Tuxedo Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
At least they didn't close it with "Molotov!" (which has been a Wonkette reference since 2014.)
 
Thylacine 2000

Thylacine 2000

Well-known member
Citizen
The wording of her message is correct for Yom Kippur (though it should be "Gmar", not "Gamar"). She clearly had someone put in the effort for her on that part, which makes the imagery seem even stranger. Was there one intern for the wording and another on graphics?
 
wonko the sane?

wonko the sane?

You may test that assumption at your convinience.
Citizen
Oh wow... there's like blood on the nails and everything.

Wow, just... like, I hope the marketing folk that came up with that got fired, at least?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Top Bottom