Kanye, Trump and David Bernstein’s book, “Woke Antisemitism,” opened up the door for me to say something useful, probably offensive, but hopefully helpful. If the post Kanye hysteria is correct, Kanye’s type of Antisemitic rhetoric is going to result in real world harm to Jews.
I’m on record as saying every intellectual who writes on Wokeness underestimates it’s pervasiveness and its pathology.
Post George Floyd racism and concerns about racism flooded public discourse. Kanye’s pre-Sukkot comments, followed by Donald Trump’s targeted harassment of the American Jews over the holidays made me want to act.
Political correctness gone awry is kind of my schtick. Add in Minnesota Marxist History, taboos, mass formation, totalitarianism, gender perception and moral panics, and you pretty much have my whole blog.
I violate corporate and political taboos by necessity, but never thought I’d be able to publicly address my thoughts on Antisemitism and Jew Hatred.
Ironically, I ate lunch at the Holyland Deli a few times per week in Mpls when it was apparently the Islamophobiantisemtism Capital of the world.
I’ve been writing on local intersectional tragedies. Dancing Parade Grannies Run Down at Christmas Parade, Juju Thaler, Feminist Mom She/Her trunks her 6 year old son after shotgunning him 9x at point blank range.
These topics are nowhere near as taboo as my thoughts on Antisemitism. I handle really horrible topics in order to give insight into system problems and human exploits.
Everything that I’ve written about Anti Semitism is likely to be met with accusation, suspicion, and possibly cancellation… but I’m kind of cancel-proof.
No one knows who I am, no one pays me, and I’ve never so much as turned on ads on my blog.
Whether I’m right or wrong, I think the wholesale speech moratorium on “The Jews”(™) is the canceliest cancel culture that ever canceled culture. Jews might not like that characterization.
Let me explain.
Despite writing hundreds of articles on the woke_mind_virus and the mindhive, it would have never dawned on me to talk about the Anti Semitism Industry as Proto-Wokeness.
BLM is accused of spending $90 million in 2020 and doing nothing to help actual Black people. Meanwhile, the Holocaust Museum has had a $100 million operating budget for years.
If your brain just went alight with reasons that those two things are different, let me explain how analogies work… they’re supposed to be different but compare something or demonstrate an idea.
How much money is spent every year fighting racism and Anti Semitism? It’s not zero. It’s an industry and one I believe does net harm.
Those are just two of hundreds of organizations designed to exploit liberal people’s sympathies.
I overlooked several dozen non-profit organizational budgets while trying to ‘educate myself’ and compile a comprehensive list of all of the “Antisemitc Tropes.”
Wow.
I’ve traveled the US extensively and I’ve lived my entire life in a Progressive Politically Correct Utopia. Still, with about 12 hours of research, on multiple search engines, I was left with the feeling no such comprehensive list will ever exist.
The range of topics one is not allowed to discuss couldn’t reasonably be enumerated.
I got the distinct impression it would be Anti Semitic for a non-Jew to cry foul of Jussie Smollett’s Grandmother, Molly. Molly Smollett tearfully compared her Grandson to her family’s Holocaust victims at his trial.
While I have free speech, it’s too expensive for me to call bull shit on this obvious bull shit.
Who is this protecting exactly? The speech code feels illiberal and regressive.
Are we really all supposed to pretend this isn’t a grotesque emotional coercion? Really?
The relatively high social cost of calling BS, feels as repressive as it is regressive. I think people rightfully resent feeling manipulated, coerced, and potentially shamed for telling the truth.
Or being Wrong (™).
Many non-Jewish people find the implied threat of accusation to be omnipresent. That feeling may actually paradoxically contribute to increased Antisemitism.
It may also keep solutions at bay.
I’ve never explored Anti Semitism as a topic, or the Jewish History of Minnesota, or piped in on Black on Jewish and Asian violence as it relates to Wokism. These are some things I may have some actual insight into.
I don’t touch it because I feel the cost of being wrong is just too high.
This is completely subjective and anecdotal, but I’d bet if you asked non-Jews, after they looked over their shoulder to make sure no one else was listening, some would tell you.
I have avoided these conversations and topics in which I might otherwise be funny or maybe provide some actual utility.
My Favorite Jewish Stereotype
The closest I’ve ever come to writing about Jewish stereotypes is an article that has both gained me some Jewish friends and lost me some Jewish friends.
It’s one of my most popular and shared. God, Jesus Christ, I Love the Jewish People – it’s about three Jewish men I would lie in front of a train for.
Stanley Cohen – A Left-Wing, Terrorist-Defending, Self-Professed-Self-Hating-Jew who is also a Jewish Lawyer whom I know personally and professionally and love like an uncle.
Dr. Lee Jussim – Dept. Chair of the Social Perception Lab at Rutgers who dared question the Holy Grail of Wokism, “Are stereotypes sometimes accurate?” and worse, “How do we know?” Reeeeeeeee!
Mark Rosenthal – a Jewish Men’s Rights Activist who got Claire’s to stop carrying “Throw Rocks at Boys” t-shirts and sang a song that rhymed, “Me Too” with “Doo Doo Due Process for You!”
Yes, he rhymed, “Me Too” with “Doo Doo Due Process for You!”
I love these men for the reasons I explore in the article, along with my incredible admiration for the cultural contributions of the Jewish People.
There are plenty of conservative, liberal and woke Jews who’d dismiss me like a pig sandwich with extra pig on it for appreciating either of these men.
Hell, I have experienced contempt from Jews for citing Pinker or Haidt, for Christ sakes, I’m not even making that up. What group of people could have enough contempt to disavow Pinker or Haidt?
I’ll let you guess.
When I think of stereotype accuracy among Jewish people, I laugh. I laugh because it’s just so viscerally Wrong (™).
But the laughing has stopped because it’s incorrect.
I honestly think the Anti-Semitism Industry might be driving paranoia about Jewish people.
I bet I could find some Jews who see that, but I am 100% confident that I could find very smart Jews who would disagree. That is actually my favorite Jewish Stereotype.
You could find a Jew to disagree with you about anything. I saw a Jewish guy on Twitter talking about an app in Israel that lets you argue in Hebrew.
I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not and that made me laugh even more. The joke and the laughing made me like Jewish people even more.
The summer of 2020 saw armies of Humorless New Puritans from Minnesota turn into Salemite Covidians spreading hysteria throughout their global network.
It got everyone’s attention, and I think it was meant to.
Right and Left, an authoritarian impulse looked eerily close to the Democide we’re never supposed to forget. Everyone seems to be seeing a rise in Antisemitism from both sides of the political aisle.
I don’t make any bones about it, I think everyone is underestimating how malignant and widespread wokeness is. I’m also not crazy about the Right’s pending reaction.
I’d never considered publicly sharing my thoughts about how the Antisemitism Industry may be an engine that generating Antisemitism. I don’t know how many, if any, Jews would agree with it.
I think it’s too important of an idea to languish without criticism. Some are going to accuse me of Antisemitism, so be it. I’ll take the hit to my reputation because I’d like to hear others’ thoughts.
Chances are someone would treat me like a retard for saything the Wrong (™) thing.
Worse, they’d treat me like a contagious retard, spreading harm, for being wrong, and infecting others.
Over Sukkot, I watched an absolute Twitter hysteria meltdown following Kanye’s antisemitic tweets. A meltdown that lasted for two days when Not all Jews were even on Twitter.
By contrast, I hardly heard a peep out of anyone talking about Darrell Brooks who was on trial for murdering 6 people, including some Dancing Grannies and an 8-year-old marching in a Christmas Parade in WI.
This tells me there’s something we’re not seeing. Something important we’re not talking about.
As a historian of the woke_mind_virus, I feel I should put in my two cents.
There have certainly been some Jews involved in the spread of wokeness, but there’s nothing specifically Jewish about it.
However, for reasons I explain, Jews and Men are perceived as having high moral agency and are pilloried because they’re supposed to magically control all the money, and wield all the power in the world.
The Antisemitism Hysteria and Applied Histrionics following Trump and Kanye’s pre-holiday tweets was OVERWHELMINGLY coming from non-Jewish people.
I think all of this wokeness and Marx Hysteria spell Bad News for jews.
There seems to be a lot of people who are alarmed about a downstream rise in Antisemitism, and I thought, perhaps, things were bad enough that it might be worth it for me to risk being wrong in public.
Some of what I’ve written is distasteful, some of it is funny, maybe some of it’s useful, but between Kanye, Trump and David Bernstein, these are ideas worth exploring.
