#cw: antisemitism

[lezzian]

i actually think we should not be giving JK rowling any attention in general but to be honest maybe normies should know that woman is straight up doing holocaust denial on twitter now

[berlinbabylon]

abraham goldstein beating up antisemites in babylon berlin 4x07

[stregoni-benefici]

Yesterday, a neo-nazi killed 2 people and injured others in a gay bar in Bratislava. He published a manifesto blaming lgbtq+ community. women and Jews on his twitter account before the act. It was a terroristic hate crime. But none of the Eastern European media uses the term terrorist because he was a white male. Speak up against hateful rhetoric at all times, don’t stay silent.

[batsysquared]

zionism and nationalism

Stop using the term "zionism". Ideally, nobody at all would use it outside of intra-jewish discussions and certain academic circles, but there are two camps of people who never let go of it. This very circumstance is exactly why it's so much more important that everyone else abandons the term in discourse. If you truly, truly care about the situation in Israel and Palestine on a level beyond morality plays and the fun of Geopolitical Team Sports - that is, you care about stopping pain and suffering, about ending a cycle of violence, about freeing the people of Palestine from their oppressors and the people of Israel from the very same chains that bind people living anywhere where those who hold power speak and act on their behalf without actually bothering to hear any but those who legitimize their actions, about forging a lasting peace between people where neither side has any significant desire to harm the other - then it is important to understand that zionism, as a term used in popular discourse (i.e. discussions against zionism by those critical of Israel's actions or for "zionism" in justification of Israel's right-wing - both distinct from discussions about zionism between Jews) is a weapon wielded by antisemites and genocide supporters both. It is a weapon of obfuscation, honed sharply over decades to muddle any good faith effort at a conversation on any topic relating to Israel. Antisemites use it, obviously, as a dogwhistle - they depend on others to also use it so that they can spread their hate unnoticed, spreading propaganda amongst the well-meaning to be regurgitated uncritically in order to effect a subtle societal shift towards their views - just enough that those they wish to victimize are terrorized and isolated by an already great hatred which now seems even unimaginably greater than it already was. At the same time, those wholly behind the State of Israel's actions, and those who believe it hasn't gone far enough, use zionism to further the conflation of their ideals with the ideals of all Jewish people everywhere. They use a long-standing cultural framework to ingratiate threatened Jews (of which there are many!) to an ideology that is not equally understood to be what it is. Where one person may see the safety of a homeland, the supporter of genocide sees kahanism - the elimination of all who are in the way, and the exclusion of those who are perceived to be not sufficiently culturally aligned. They, too, spread propaganda amongst the well-meaning to be regurgitated uncritically, merging these two different conceptualizations of zionism into one dual-but-irreconcilable meaning, and in doing so also isolate individuals to strengthen their own position and to gloss over the horrors they support by framing their desire as something less than their actions.

So - when the word "zionism" is used in these discussions about the actions of State of Israel (again, as opposed to discussions among Jews about what Israel ought to be; see also the distinction between black people discussing a theoretical New Africa and the condemnation by the public of pre-1980s Liberian politics) what does it mean? From my observance, it means something different to every single person who uses it, and every single person who hears it assumes that the way it was used was the way they understand it. With two constant forces acting in bad faith to make it impossible to know what anyone really means when they use the word, with so many people who are scared and hurt and so many people that are ready to fight on their behalf, how could anyone have a conversation in their presence which is not full of hidden barbs that cut away at any real attempt at forward movement? You can't. And for antisemites and kahanists both - that’s the goal. So what are those who truly care about peace to do? Simple: call out the actions of the State of Israel and the rhetoric of those in power and those who support them for what it is: nationalism. Not some unique "Jewish evil" as antisemites would have you believe, nor a desire and need unique to the Jewish people, but rather the very same mechanism by which states have organized themselves for centuries to protect Us and hurt Them. The thing being championed now as the solution for Palestine: the evil that always seems such a good idea until suddenly it isn't, because the usage of violence to create a geopolitical, cultural, and ethnic boundary forever taints those boundaries. This taint ensures that it will always be those who control those boundaries that refuse to let go of them once independence is won, because safety can never be truly assured. Others are always a threat, and so there will always be an excuse. Eventually, as we see now in Israel, the boundary closes in every way but the lines on the map (which, of course, expand) as people who fit the cultural and ethnic profile set forth fail to meet the expectations of those who now control who is and is not considered to fit in the box, and as the contents of the box change to exclude those trapped outside of it even though there was no problem with them before the box ever existed. And rest assured, as has happened with every nationalist movement before, should Palestine find its liberation under these same ideals - that "from river to sea, Palestine will be free" - all we've done is flipped who is Good and who is Bad. The slaughter continues, with a new flag and a new justification. To believe otherwise is to cling to liberalism - to defend the status quo by believing that it has changed even when all that has really happened is that blue has been painted over with red while the building continues to collapse on its rotten foundation.

The problem is nationalism. It always has been, everywhere across the world. Not only does calling it zionism plaster over the true issue, it causes people to turn a blind eye to the nationalism they themselves call for in desperation to combat the zionism they fear, and prevents them from wrestling with the nationalism they themselves live in and benefit from. Nationalism is a tool for liberation, yes, but one that must be discarded once liberation is obtained and yet never is. To build a nation is to preserve a people, but to build a state to defend that nation (or to build a nation around a state, lest we let empires like the US off scot free) is to open the door for atrocity. The answer is not a defined and bordered Jewish nation, nor is a defined and bordered Palestinian nation - even if both exist at once, their foundational myths and rhetoric will compel them, as states, to engage in "legitimate" violence against each other and their own people. This is not just an inevitable consequence of nationalism, it is its goal, as viewed through history across the world before the western concept of the nation-state even fully coalesced. Anyone who truly wants peace in Israel and Palestine, in the Middle East, or in the world as a whole must come to terms with this. And to do that, we must stop making excuses. Israel is not guilty of Zionism, because Zionism is a purposely moving target which (outside of non-discoursal channels, where the term is actually properly defined before use and remains so throughout the conversation) means everything to everyone and thus nothing to anyone. To call it Kahanism is a step better, but this still positions what has happened this past century as something unique. No, Israel is guilty of nothing more than dipping its hands in the same well of blood that humanity calls "security". Until we understand this and stand together to look upward and speak out against those who chain us with promises of that security and say that the blood of those around us will bring serenity, there can never be peace. Humanity will eat itself alive, snuffing out empathy as portions of it fail an ever-stricter purity test, and it will cheer itself on while it does.

[summerlinenss]

i’m not gonna give either of you the attention you want but fyi: preaching how i’m “woobifying slaveowners” before saying “i hope taika waititi gets impaled on a spike” & weaponizing the palestinian flag alongside the phrase “kill yourself!!!!” is all painfully ironic and doesn’t exactly help your cause, dear anons. 💕

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

Warning hate speach

I’ve just seen this in my notifications! (Censored)

@staff please can you do something about this blog? Delete their account and reveal their location!

I’m telling you right now this isn’t an real nazi but a Zionist trying to associate “free Palestine” with hating all Jewish people. That’s not what that means and not even Hamas want that.

This is the same tactics that bigots and fascists use to discredit the LGBT community. They make up fake social media accounts and try to associate something good with something bad. They want all LGBT people to be considered child molesters and they want anyone who criticises Israel to be considered a nazi.

If you see this please report this blog, find anyone who has reblogged from this account and report them too. I wouldn’t be surprised if this blog was started by Israel itself because they want everyone to believe that any criticism of Israel and their ongoing genocide is antisemitic.

Israel’s lies use the Jewish community as a human shield, don’t let them win.

Israel does not speak for the Jewish community and the Jewish community does not support Israel’s genocide.

[csolarstorm]

The Eternal Flower Files: The Sun King

Let's talk about King AZ, the king that became a wanderer.

Pokemon X and Y draw a lot of connections between King AZ and King Louis XIV of France. Remember that portrait in Parfum Palace? The one that reminds our player character of AZ?  Well, Parfum Palace is based on the Palace of Versailles, and the painting looks a lot like like Louis XIV. He called himself the "Sun King" for reasons that will be clear later in the post.

Screenshots from Pokemon Generations Episode 18: The Redemption

Notice how in AZ's last scene at the end of Pokemon X and Y, the sun is beating down hard on him in nearly every shot, including during the battle. Then when when Floette appears, she descends down from the sun.

While X and Y compare AZ to the Sun King, here it seems like the sun symbol...is Floette herself, as if the sun is Floette watching AZ. Floette's Eternal Flower is likely associated with light, but the sun itself? I don't have a full theory about this. Not yet anyway.

Another symbol associated with King AZ is the inchplant, historically known as "Wandering Jew".  It's a vine that shares some similarities with the Eternal Flower, especially the reddish-violet variants.  It even has three-petaled flowers, like the trillium.  The zebra-like stripes on the leaves especially remind me of the black triquetra markings on the Eternal Flower's petals. 

Sources: Succulent Depot, OrchidWeb: Tradescantia zebrina

If you've listened to Z-A theories lately, you might have heard of AZ's widely agreed on other inspiration, the story of the Wandering Jew, or "Eternal Jew". This is the antisemitic folk tale of a Jewish man who was cursed with immortality after mocking Jesus on the morning of crucifixion, and made to wander the earth until the end of days. This story has fueled centuries of antisemitism, even being used by Nazis for propaganda in WWII. 

We know anime can't resist playing with European history and western religious symbols. Pokemon wouldn't be the first anime to be inspired by Ahasuerus (Fate/Requiem), Xerxes (Fullmetal Alchemist), or Cartaphilus (Ancient Magus' Bride), which are all names associated with various versions of the Wandering Jew.  Personally though, I imagine this story catching GameFreak's attention because of the plant, considering how much flower symbolism runs the Pokemon franchise.

Sources: (1) Getty Images, via History.com, (2) Internet Archive via Wikipedia

So here we have a set of conflicting inspirations for AZ: the Sun King, and the Wandering Jew.  "Conflicting" is an understatement, because Louis "the Sun King" XIV actively persecuted French Jews. He called himself the Sun King because he considered himself God's representative on Earth.  Not only did he expel the Jews from the French West Indies, he stripped Calvinists of their religious liberties, and sometimes even went after other Catholics. (Source: History.com)

What do we make of these conflicting inspirations? Well, fiction can be cathartic. I think GameFreak switched the roles of the Sun King and the Wandering Jew for their story. In real life, the Sun King enjoyed a nice, long reign, unscathed by the people he persecuted and exiled. But in Pokemon X and Y, it's not the innocent religious minorities that wander the earth. It is the Sun King himself, forced to live eternally with the crimes he committed as the ruler of Kalos.

...

Multiple drafts of this post were reviewed by @fluffybunnybadass, who helped me cut straight to the substance. Thank you!

Want to know more about Eternal Flower Floette's connection to sacred geometry? Or how about all the Pokemon characters named after the fleur de lys? Ever since the announcement of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, I've been serving up lots of Gen VI theories, so check out them out below:

The Eternal Flower Files: Flowers of the Fleur de Lys

Eternal Flower Files Short: Thismia

The Eternal Flower Files: Sacred Geometry

Xerneas and Yveltal are Fungi: Let Me Explain

Poll: What Does the Λ in Legends Z-A Symbolize?

Pokemon Legends Z-A: What Is the Λ?

Aaah, it's an A! Is the A in Z-A the Tree of Life?

How much longer am I going to have to wait for a freakin' Unova remake?!

[aleph-sharp]

I don't Have to make a statement on random social media, but, Im just gonna say it, so if you follow me & disagree, you can fuck off.

1400 people were murdered. Brutality.

There were & are threats to many jewish communities and specific locations around the world, including mine, where members of our various shuls had to stay outside during what's supposed to be one of the happiest days of the year because there were threats of violence & murder against these shuls, and they had enough security training to protect people.

People all over are cheering for it, for these deaths, or both-sides-ing, or bringing up whats going on with palestinians during this, like they didnt die during this too. Hamas is a horrible group of disgusting, bigoted, murderers & rapists who will use anyone and anything as a shield so they can continue what they are doing. And trying to justify thousands of rockets landing on a country with ~1400 people murdered, and more injured and taken hostage, is wrong.

And yet, I'm unsurprised. Thats not to say I'm not devastated, or worrying, or angry, I AM. I've just grown up with the knowledge & expectation of this happening, of people thinking these things and wanting to do these things.

Last thing: if you are pushing any random jewish person and blaming them for anything the israeli government does, Think about why you are so eager to blame people for anything their government does when its jews & israel, and yet would never do that with anyone else.

Thats it.

[volixia669]

Hey you know that Wizarding game, that’s been called “Harry Potter and the Protocols of Zion” due to the whole plot where extremely antisemitic (like taken from nazi propaganda) caricatures kill a kid, and are rebelling because people keep stealing their stuff?

Yeah, uh...It gets worse. Way worse.

So this image has been going around social media. And hoo boy.

To run over:

-A horn used by goblins aka “totally not Jews” which would be a shofar. A shofar for those who don’t know is a special horn used during the High Holidays aka the weeks leading up to the new year in the Jewish Calender, to lead in the New Year, and on Yom Kippur. There are Jews who don’t get to synagogue all year EXCEPT for Yom Kippur. So. Holy item for holy days.

-”generally annoy witch and wizards” The shofar being an “irritant” to Christians is libel used against Jews to vilify us.

-So, fun history I got to learn today. 1612 was the year of horrifying pogroms aka genocidal slaughter of Jewish people in Germany. It’s called the Fettmilch Uprising. This date being used for Goblin rebellions is NOT a coincidence.

-Why DO these Goblins rebel so much btw? Could it be, that the WIzarding Kind teaches history in a way that acts like they are the good guys, and the Goblins constantly need to be put down? Seems that way.

-Hogs Mead Inn. It was fond in the pigs inn. Pigs or pork being the most well known non-kosher food.

-Oh but we’re not done. Gorgonzola is one of the few non-kosher cheeses. Stuffing it into the shofar is also not kosher, or in other words, makes it...I suppose not holy works? Not Jewish Law Approved essentially.

There are levels to the antisemitism here. “It’s just a horn” says some except the plot of the game is already riffing off of antisemitic tropes. JK Rowling’s goblins have been criticized as highly antisemitic for over two decades. To add in these highly specific dogwhistles is intentional.

Most people don’t even know what a shofar is, let alone which cheeses are kosher or non-kosher, or the dates of lesser known attempts to kill Jewish people. While I would never say the whole dev team was full of bigots, there were clearly some who were excited to throw in dogwhistle after dogwhistle.

That alone is a good enough reason to not support this stupid fucking game. Fuck Hogwarts Legacy. Go play something else.

[weaselbeaselpants]

If you use what is going on in Palestine right now as an excuse to be actually antisemetic in any way, you're a bad person.

You're awful. This is not up for debate.

Blasting Kanye, like he'd give a shit about Palestinians, is not pro-palastine. You're just being antisemetic because you know he is. No trolls/clowns allowed. These are human lives here and there are more being lost by the day.

White supremacists are not allowed in any propalastine spaces. Eat shit, Andrew Tate.

I'm very sorry to anyone for using their community specific tags. I'll retag if you pm me, but I won't take this post down.

[judaismandsuch]

I am sure all of my *checks notes* 4 followers? are familiar with the argument that was going around back in the day about whether or not lich's phylacteries were an anti-semetic trope. I am firmly on the side of 'not anti-semetic'

(I am happy to discuss the topic, just not the topic exactly of the post)

As many people know (because the u.s. dominates the news cycle) Senetor Dianne Feinstein recently passed away. As most people could guess, she was also Jewish.

Now, once she died there was the normal type of posts/comments on the subject. Mainly in bad taste, but y'know, to be expected. ('finally', 'well I guess we are prying it from her cold dead hands' etc.)

They were by and large, just dickish, none particularly bad (for the internet/subject matter).

But one comment bugged me, 'I guess we finally destroyed that Lich's Phylactery'.

Do I think the dude who commented that was aware of the discussion about that topic? No. Do I think they were a definete anti-semite? Probably not. I could have checked the post history but I don't care enough to.

Do I think that comment actually crossed a line? Yes.

Cause sometimes something can be neutral/borderline, but in a particular context, very very bad.

Not sure where I am going with this tbh.

Uh.

Z"L?

[oddthesungod]

Alright, I'm gonna respond to this ask like this because you added your handle (which I recognize) and I cannot answer you privately.

Here's the reason I've blocked you: I have zero interest in interacting with someone that wrote a nazi kink fic involving Spock (bro like, what the fuck????). The fact that I even wrote these words together gives me hives, and I honestly think you're grown enough to know why writing something like that with a character that was played by a jewish man, might make, at best, someone uncomfortable. Do not contact me again.

[flunkyofmalcador]

So I watched Fiddler on the Roof for the first time in 40 years

And post-conversion. It hit differently the "this is what I signed up for way", but also, the Fiddler became more than a whimsical metaphor.

The Fiddler represents walking through the world as a Jew, balancing on a roof between "playing a merry tune" in the world and "falling off and breaking your neck".

At the very end, as the family leaves Anatevka with the rest of the Jews of the village, Tevye looks back and the Fiddler is behind him on the road. We know the family is going to America.

I sat waiting to see if the Fiddler would be left behind in Anatevka, because that would be telling about the family's fate. They walk out of frame, with the Fiddler trailing a distance behind them. Then he follows them out of frame too. Tevye et famille may be making a new life in America, but as long as they are observant Jews, they are going to have to live that balancing act. I had goosebumps.

Aside: The daughter who converted to Christianity to marry the Christian boy? She would have been the one murdered in the Holocaust because they moved to Krakow. Yeah, this movie is packed with meaning if you give it the slightest bit of attention.

[thewebcomicsreview]

and there sinfest goes with the overt anti-semitism.

Were I more favorably inclined towards Tats I'd argue you could read this as an anti-Ye comic portraying him as delusional. But, of course, there's been a low-key current of antisemitism in Sinfest forever so I'm not so inclined.

Certainly his Twitter followers are taking it as a pro-Ye piece.

[ariclassof09]

Yom Tov (Passover)

Hey, everyone, it's Pesach/Passover today, and I just wanted to say a little something. Since the Iraq War, the war in Darfur, and the conflict in Lebanon are all going on (plus others), it can be hard for us as Jews to think about the Middle East in the Torah and remember it's the same Middle East as the one that's on fire right now?

I think the important thing to say is that, like, you know how on Passover we always say that we all were slaves in Egypt? Well, I mean, there's a lot of people building pyramids, right now, right? There's a lot of firstborns being slayed.

I think it's important to be conscious and aware of what's going on, so we as Jews are always ready to fight against war, bigotry, genocide, and that kinda thing. We as Jews need to donate and send help. We need to get the word out about what the conflicts are doing to people. Blown-up bodies, kidnappings, torture, murder, it's pretty fucked up.

I hope any other Jews who read my blog are safe and with their families and loved ones. Tbh, I feel, I dunno, lucky? Like, hey, as bad as my life can get, at least I'm in America, right? At least I'm not fighting Al-Qaeda or dying in a ditch.

This can't just be a Jewish thing. Everyone needs to work together to make sure that the Middle East and Lebanon, Iraq, and Israel are safe places to live for Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Also, I guess, all the other religions. That's important too. Are their Buddhists in Israel? I'm pretty sure there are Scientologists. I looked it up once.

My point is that we should all do something. I dunno what it is, but we'll figure something out.

Also, like, I wanna air out a grievance here. I know who threw coins at my head in elementary school. I know who tried to slip me pork as a "prank". I know who drew a swastika on my desk and told me to "get in the showers" in an Ahnold voice as "black comedy". I'm pretty sure it was Kylar, at least, that last one. Some of the kids at this school are really dumb, and they repeat edgy bullshit they saw on South Park or whatever. Antisemitism is a real bigotry, I know some of you wanna pretend that, like, the only way to be antisemitic is to be a Literal Nazi, but that's bullshit. There are tons of ways people are antisemitic, and sometimes it's as obvious as my examples. Other times, it's as simple as valuing Jewish input, Jewish dignity, or Jewish perspectives less than other peeople's.

Let's end war, injustice, discrimination, hate, and antisemitism by 2018. Happy Passover, everyone!

[ktempestbradford]

I have to do a ton of research into metaphysical, esoteric, and occult topics for my fiction. I really enjoy talking about these topics and also screaming about the nonsense one finds when you're interested in these topics.

I considered making a new side blog for this, then decided that this isn't so out of the way of what I normally reblog that it would be out of place here. I'll mark anything that's not kid friendly in case there are kids following me. I did promise to keep this place PG-13 after all.

First set of videos are about Atlantis, and I came across them when I went looking for how the idea of Atlantis being real came about and why that idea is so intertwined with white supremacists. These videos are an excellent explainer! Toss them at anyone who claims there is actual evidence for Atlantis.

This third one is... pretty difficult listening. You can stop with the first two and not miss much if you really don't want to dive in to how the Atlantis thing gets tied even tighter to racist effery once the antecedents to the Nazis come along.

Also, kids, don't watch this last video.

The biggest takeaway for me is that pretty much everything terrible in esoteric and occult circles after the 1700 can be blamed directly on the Theosophists. I'll post some videos about them later.

BTW I'm tagging all these posts Occulted Tempest (OcculTempest? nah, that's silly.)