— Feature, Musings —11.21.2023 11:08 AM
My latest: digitizing the oldest hatred
It’s a deadly virus, one that has killed for millennia. But the virus has mutated.
It’s not actually a coronavirus. It’s anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism – hatred of Jews – is one of the oldest viruses. It pre-dates Christ by Centuries, as far back as Abraham. Before the Common Era (BCE), Hebrews would be persecuted for refusing to conform to the religions or beliefs of regional potentates.
After Jesus Christ, anti-Semitism changed, but it did not go away. Even though Christianity was seen as another Jewish sect – and even though Christ himself was, at all relevant times, a Jew – the Romans sought to destroy the Jewish state. Roman Emperors converted to Christianity, and Jews were again persecuted for refusing to accept Christ as the Messiah. And it all got worse.
Anti-Semitism has been part of Canada for as long as Canada has existed.
Mackenzie King called Hitler “a sweet man” and kept out Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust. Social Credit types formed governments in the West and railed against “international Jewish financiers.” And in Quebec, Jew hatred was popular and mainstream, led by the likes of Lionel Groulx (a priest!) and Adrien Arcand.
When this writer first started writing about organized anti-Semitic groups, the Internet wasn’t widespread. So, in those days, haters – the Aryan Nations in Alberta, the Klan in Manitoba, the Heritage Front in Ontario – had a tougher time spreading their hateful gospel.
They were always looking for money: money to print their pamphlets, money to send members out to distribute the pamphlets, money for lawyers if the members got charged.
The Internet changed all of that. They could now reach a global audience, instantaneously, anonymously, for pennies.
The Jew-haters were among the first to embrace the dot-com revolution. For the first time in human history, they could quickly and cheaply promote their vile creed to a mass audience. All they needed was an Internet connection.
So, if you are asking yourself why you are seeing anti-Semitism everywhere these days – if you are wondering why anti-Semites seem more organized and more bold than ever before – the answer is found in your pocket or on your desktop. For the neo-Nazis and the Hitler freaks and the Jew haters, the digital revolution has been a (godless) godsend.
The anti-Semitic groups – from the Proud Boys to Hamas – use the Internet to recruit, fundraise and propagandize. On all fronts, they have been wildly successful. If you think you are seeing anti-Semitic messages more often, and if you think that the Jew-haters are more numerous and better-organized than before, you’re right. They are.
But it’s not enough to merely say that the Internet has helped them. Those who own and control the biggest online platforms have helped them, too.
Take Elon Musk, for example (please). As the Washington Post revealed this week, in a major report: “Antisemitism was rising online. Then Elon Musk’s X supercharged it.”
Writes the Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin: “Since Oct. 7, anti-Semitic content has surged more than 900 per cent on X and there have been more than 1,000 incidents of real-world anti-Semitic attacks, vandalism and harassment in America.”
By repeating anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, Musk has also overseen a “dramatic loosening of standards for what can be posted, and [a] boosting of voices that previously had been banned – all have made anti-Semitism more acceptable on what is still one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.”
So, the hashtag “HitlerWasRight” has been used nearly 50,000 times on X since October 7. Meanwhile, an anti-digital-hate group found 200 wildly anti-Semitic posts on X. Musk allowed 196 of them to remain online, and they went on to accumulate nearly 150 million views.
Anti-Semitism has been a seemingly-unkillable virus for Centuries. But it is a virus that is surging again, and is clearly worse than most of us have seen in our lifetimes.
The anti-Semitic virus, like all viruses, is never completely eliminated. But by letting it rampage online, unopposed, we have let it grow too big, too far, too fast.
And too many are now infected.
I dropped The Burning Platform website four days ago because of the incessant online anti-Semitic behaviour evidenced daily ad infinitum & ad nauseum on that website.
Jim Quinn hosts that website and I’ve never seen him
write anything anti-Semitic, but his followers are the
most vile pieces of shit in existence via online right-wing hate groups that also fully support everything Elon Musk writes. Zero Hedge used to allow anti-Semitic behaviour to grow online via their website,
but the got censored by Google and they had to stop it
in order to get promoted via search engine providers.
Anti-Semitism is the best indicator of hate groups
and their behaviour run amok IMHO.
I see Elon is now pushing Pizzagate.
God help us.
Mraz makes an interesting point about education. It doesn’t seem like it’s enough, but especially when that education is expected to counter huge volumes of antisemitic education people get online. The game has changed – we’ve long ago moved past teachers, professors, newspapers and broadcast news as our main sources of education – whatever efforts governments make to inform students, they have to understand that the education they deliver must to drown out the propaganda they’re currently being fed online.
100%
I’ll also add that the value of education will be immediate. Why? Because education gets people talking, not only in the classroom.
Take LGBTQ issues as an example. Put up a pride flag in a classroom and watch the chatter blow up outside of that classroom. Not just with the kids, but also the parent’s.
Education isn’t just about instilling the students. It’s also about hammering home the state’s official views.
Educating the kids about the holocaust will create dinner table conversations with the parents too. It is far more incendiary and valuable than is commonly assumed.
It was difficult enough to believe that this ancient prejudice could have been accepted when the vast majority of the population was illiterate, but in today’s world, with all of the educational opportunities that exist, there is no excuse whatsoever. I have been reflecting on the fact that thousands of Canadian soldiers died to defeat Nazi Germany. The persecution of Jewish people (among others) was central to that hideous creed. How can anyone not understand how existential that struggle was, and how important it is to extirpate anti-semitism (along with all other forms of hate)? Did all of these Canadians die in vain? At times I am at a loss for words at what I am witnessing in my country, a country I love and under normal circumstances, am usually proud of. We need the people who aspire to be our leaders to stand up and be counted, and definitively condemn this ugly display of anti-semitism.
Warren,
We gave Mandela Canadian citizenship after Mulroney’s principled stand on South Africa and majority rule. Take the fuck away Musk’s Canadian (and American) citizenship and be quick about it. He isn’t fit to be a Canadian!
And the elephant in the room is…what is Musk’s agenda following his retweet of antisemitism? Maybe a new charter member of the DS league?
My name is John Daly and I’m a drug addict.
When I was a kid/teenager it was rare to see a swastika. In a history textbook or (rarely) scrawled as grafitti or in a bathroom stall but these were quickly turned into a “window” with the addition of a few lines. It was a forbidden symbol.
In 2023 the swastika has been completely normalized. Kids these days see them every day in their social media or used casually in memes. The impact has been completely diluted – much to the glee of the online hate squad, I imagine.
Warren,
From The National Post:
Michael Higgins: New poll shows Palestinians are the impediment to peace — not Israel’s war
“A Nov. 14 survey by a West Bank polling firm asked Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank what kind of state they wanted to establish: one state for two peoples garnered the support of 5.4 per cent of respondents; a two-state solution was supported by 17.2 per cent; but the clear-winner, with 74.7 per cent in favour, was a “Palestinian state from the river to the sea.”
A reminder for those who haven’t been on a pro-Palestinian march recently: this phrase means a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean — with no Israel in between.”