"We're not like that" (Or, there are antisemites besides neo-Nazis)

This article from the Daily Mail has a few problems. First, as a British paper, it must feel like a great relief to criticize antisemitism in America. It isn't like we haven't got problems over here, but Britain (which invented the Blood Libel) has more than enough problems of its own. Second, the focus on neo-Nazis is always an issue. Yes, they're sensational and entertaining subjects, and news is ultimately an entertainment industry. But again, it's a great relief to swell our chests in pride and say, "we're not like those people." Antisemitism exists in different forms, and it can be difficult to criticize precisely because people only think of antisemitism as this kind of kooky far-right. When Jenny Tonge is criticized for antisemitism, she responds by saying, "I'm not like those people." Third, the beliefs of these neo-Nazis are hardly described. This article is actually better than most on this account, but still falls short of really informing anyone, focusing instead on the openness of the family's hatred. The family are described more than once as Holocaust deniers. Beyond that, there's this bit (toward the end, where an editor might have cut it off for length):

'I have read a little bit about their religion and a lot of it is very damaging to people,' she said.

'The Jews are definitely the worst race in America.'

But there is nothing more specific about their beliefs about Jews. Why do they think the Jews are the worst race in America? That's not to say that antisemitism is worse than other forms of racism. It's important to note the distinction that these antisemites make, which is not the same as reifying the distinction. They see people of color as animals but see Jews as demons. Animals could never take control of the government, but demons can and will. Watch The Omen if you don't already get why people who don't look so different can be so scary; the film features an infant as the ultimate evil for a reason. Neo-nazis view the US as occupied territory, controlled by a "Zionist Occupied Government." It's here that someone who likes to talk about the power of Jews (like Stephen Walt or John Mearsheimer or Jenny Tonge) might find a similarity they couldn't dismiss so simply by saying "We're not like that." And, of course, such a similarity is far more important than the swastika tattoos.

People simply don't know enough about antisemitism, which makes it difficult to keep antisemitism from being subsumed into a more general anti-racist effort that doesn't come close to meeting the needs of Jews. Articles like this, which discourage any sort of self-criticism, are part of that problem.

ex-neo-nazi skinhead's memoirs

Ex neo-nazi skinhead, Frank Meeink. The excerpt, here, details his socialization into white supremacism. It's notable just how he had to be socialized. There's a break between the center-right racism we see all the time and the far-right racism that's less common, and it's important to understand that break.

a few links

Engage has this great piece by Daniel Barneboim.

Phoebe Maltz caught this item from the NYT on a kosher soup kitchen.

Via the Trots, this rather long article on Kevin MacDonald. Btw, he used to be a leftist.

Via SPLC's Hatewatch, vandals hit a synagogue. Also, Detroit Neo-Nazis view the bad economy as good for recruitment.

Oh, that Hitler! (hits forehead)

U.S. Congressional candidate Tony Zirkle is facing criticism from one of his primary opponents, and a host of people on the Internet, for speaking at an event over the weekend that celebrated Adolf Hitler's birthday.

Yet he has our best interests at heart:

Let's save our Jewish brothers and sisters from this tyrant king porn dragon before we get to another world-wide pogrom after a war with Iran or some other conflict and after the Jews get blammed again.

He is, fortunately, something of a fringe figure:

Zirkle received 30 percent of the vote in the 2006 primary, losing to incumbent Chris Chocola, who was defeated in the general election. Zirkle said Tuesday that winning the election is not his primary goal.

But, that fringe figure makes a point. This response to criticism is about the only thing I'd agree with him on:

He compared his speech to other politicians appearing at Bob Jones University.

Yes, those other Republicans need to stop appearing at Bob Jones University. That points to how Zirkle is maybe just the fringe of an ugly trend that is much broader in society.

His campaign website is a hoot. For evidence that Jews were disproportionately represented among early, male performers in pornography, that Jews are major players in international sex slavery, and that Jews make kiddie-porn snuff films, he cites a number of sources. Including David Duke, the wakeupfromyourslumber blog, the Historical Review Press (I'd expect it's a branch of the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review), and the JewWatch website. No wonder he didn't realize that the group that invited him to speak in front of a giant picture of Hitler, with swastikas all around was a bunch of Nazis.

When asked if he was a Nazi or sympathized with Nazis or white supremacists, Zirkle replied he didn't know enough about the group to either favor it or oppose it... He also told WIMS radio in Michigan City that he didn't believe the event he attended included people necessarily of the Nazi mindset, pointing out the name isn't Nazi, but Nationalist Socialist Workers Party.

But this quote may damn him more than anything else:

I'm considering discussing divorce aids and my plans for a "Derrenger's for Dildos" policy to put guns in American women's hands instead of divorce aids... When a women turns in her stash of divorce aids, then give her a free gun to defend America when the jihadists follow us home.

I may discuss the historical fact that before there were Nazi doctors, there were divorce aid doctors who used these divorce aids to "treat" "hysterical" women. Is there an etymological connection between hysterical and hysterectomy? http://www.dailycal.org/article/9535/sex_on_tuesday_history_69

I may also call attention to the fact that one of the biggest commercial frauds is that divorce aids market themselves as being for "novelty purposes only" so that they can avoid all consumer safety inspections; yet ,they then go to court and claim they have a 1st Amendment so called right to privacy to abuse their bodies. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19333870/page/2/ Who knows what toxic chemicals these women are inserting into the most intimate areas of their bodies and how many men chase children because they can not find comfort from an adult women.

Ezekiel noted women made male images and committed whoredom with them just before their 70 years of slavery, and Bertrand of Worms implored women to set aside their divorce aids about a generation before the crusades began. (I'm still looking for the cite on Bertrand (sp?) of Worms).

Jeremiah 3:9: And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

Ezekiel 16:17 (Whole Chapter)
Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them.

Ezekiel 16:26 (Whole Chapter)
Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

(That last one did not sound like a ringing endorsement for Jungle Fever to me. Maybe that should go into the self-determination segregation section).

By giving our soccor moms guns, they will be better able to take out the suicide bombers once they start following us home. Isn't that what the republicans are saying will happen if the deomcrats get elected and even dare to withdraw our troops from Iraq prematurely?

So, maybe we need a whole army of Sen. Hillary Clinton styled Annie Oakleys? Didn't Sen. Obama recently say that one would think she was Annie Oakley or something.

If the Derrengers for Dildos idea doesn't get me an invite to John Stewart's Comedy Center or the Colbert bump, I'm not sure what will.

That's right, he actually says the crusades were the result of dildos. And, in case you missed it, he's not too fond of the mixing of the races. But he expects we ought to forgive his ignorance for speaking before the sort of Nazis who wear their bigotry on their sleeves.

h/t David Neiwert at Orcinus

A complicated matter of free speech, work around

Neo-Nazis marched in Washington. About 30 of them, from Michigan.

At midday, about 50 demonstrators found several march supporters next to the Washington Monument, and an angry confrontation erupted... "People marching in brown shirts and swastikas is a tool of intimidation and terrorism. We came out here to oppose them so they won't feel they can do it safely," said Dan Peterson, 23, a D.C. resident who was arrested.

This is not how to handle Neo-Nazis. They like the confrontation, feed off it. The problem is not that they can feel safe while spouting such vile messages. Provided they aren't making threats, they should feel safe, even though their goal is to make others not feel safe. The problem is that they feel they can be effective.

Periodically, hecklers watching from a distance shouted "racist pig" or vulgar slogans. But a far more powerful reproof came from a protester who played a tape of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech from the March on Washington in 1963.

That's how to handle Neo-Nazis.