ON THE MAINSTREAMING OF ANTISEMITISM

What Mayor Mamdani said a few weeks ago regarding AIPAC is classic antisemitism. Whatever one thinks of AIPAC (I’ve not been a fan and have argued with them), it’s been a prominent Jewish organization.

When Mamdani singles out such an organization on a repeated basis, calling them “monsters”&focuses on “dark money,” he’s using 2 common slurs against Jews. Jews have heard these vile slurs for centuries, way way before AIPAC.

Jews have for centuries been called monsters, reptiles, rats, vermin, and spiders. This is classic dehumanizing language that led to pogroms, antisemitic riots, and the shoah, with millions murdered and lives destroyed–and not only Jews. Ever since the Middle Ages, others have described Jews as money-grubbing monsters working in the shadows to ruin the lives of non-Jews. Most know about the stories of Jewish bankers, the Rothschilds, and now George Soros (used by the right actually). This is the language reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion that popularized and mainstreamed antisemitism in the early 20th century.

If Mamdani were to talk about other political&ethnic PACs or groups rather than singling out a Jewish group, it would make it more difficult to say this, but that’s not what he chose to do. This is bigoted rhetoric, no question.

Many seem happy to tell Jews they’re not antisemitic. I’m used to the far right telling ppl they’re not bigoted about this or that group. But now it’s the left doing it to Jews.

It’s usually understandable when people use the wrong words and make mistakes. Then it’s time for apologies and forgiveness. That’s not what’s happening here, however. This language is used repeatedly by politicians and candidates in spite of how often Jews have told them it’s antisemitic.

And here’s the thing. When the vast majority of a group tells ppl something is bigoted, &the response is total denial, that’s called gaslighting.

Jews have always historically been the canary in the coal mine. When Jews are singled out for hate, other minorities&women are sure to soon follow. Even many White Christians will have to face the music at some point. Globally this kind of process has often started with Jews, but never ever ends with them. People might not know it and might think that they’re safe, but they’re not. The dark maws of bigotry will come for them soon enough.

Scapegoating Jews–a 2,000 year-old tradition–is an indicator that society is fragmenting&falling apart. So many decide to blame all their problems on Jews. This has happened in countries on a regular basis for two millennia–Europe, the Middle East, North Africa.

Scapegoating Jews seems an easy solution, but it leads to authoritarianism&societal decline&economic costs. Societies that do this only damage themselves, but the bigotry is so powerful that it overwhelms reason&common sense&moral values. Sadly most have not learned the lessons of history. Let’s hope that they don’t have to learn it once again.

SOCIALISM IN THE U.S. AND EUROPE

SOCIALISM IN THE USA AND EUROPE

I’m not a professional expert on socialism or the Democratic Socialists of America. But I do know something about the subject given that my grandmother was an avid registered socialist in NYC (she was also a socialist in Poland before she emigrated to the USA), as was my father until some time in the 1950s or 60s.. And I went to a Jewish socialist summer camp as a child. My father’s family was close to David Dubinsky who was originally a committed socialist and one of the founders of the modern American labor movement. They were so close to one another that they were all buried next to another in an NYC cemetery (as part of the cemetery’s Lodz Workmen’s Circle–which had socialist roots). Socialist rhetoric and ideals were something I heard constantly as a child and were a formative part of my upbringing.

Very few of the people in that world, however, stayed socialist (like Dubinsky who became a progressive capitalist), as most realized that in the USA socialism came to mean something very different from what it has come to mean in Europe.

In Europe, social democratic movements are generally NOT anti-capitalist. In Scandinavian countries, social democratic parties are part of the fiber of political culture, but their leaders don’t believe that the state should “own the means of production”–which is what classic socialism argues for. Scandinavian countries strongly support small business and the importance of a market economy that is not dominated by monopolistic corporations. They all have publicly accessible stock markets and private markets as well. They generally emphasize a regulated free market economy with a strong social safety net that keeps business competitive with one another and protects the interests of the middle class and poor. These social democratic parties are close to what Dubinsky and many others thought of as progressive capitalism. This was also true for FDR who believed in a regulated market economy.

Obviously socialism doesn’t mean one thing, but the Democratic Socialists of America (founded in 1982) are committed to opposing capitalism and a market economy. Unlike most social democratic parties across Europe, they oppose a profit-based economy, they oppose stock markets, and they oppose open, free markets.

So, if you think that American socialism is just like liberal capitalism with a strong safety net (e.g. FDR, most of the American labor movement, liberal Democrats), you would be incorrect. There are some members of Democratic Socialists of America who share that view, but it’s not the view of their party. The DSA is in fact committed to replacing the free enterprise system with a collectivist economy–though it’s not always clear to me what precisely they mean by that.

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