tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9030666845195476209.post2867757219088326212..comments2014-11-13T12:48:14.761-08:00Comments on The Taints of Liberty: Four myths about antisemitismLibertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12550118647821849544noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9030666845195476209.post-69874561508754610182014-11-13T12:48:14.761-08:002014-11-13T12:48:14.761-08:00Your analysis misses the underlying pattern. Why i...Your analysis misses the underlying pattern. Why is anti-Jewishness perceived to be special in the "first place"? Consider: if anti-Judaism isn't the unique and perplexing phenomenon it appears to be then the question you are trying to answer "why the Jews" automatically answers itself: "for the same reason as any other." It is only because the question exists and is supposed to be valid that an answer is being sought out.<br /><br />Your article and pretty much anything else ever written on the subject assumes that anti-Judaism is special because they all operate through the world-view SET UP by anti-Jewish and later antisemitic propagandists over 1500 years. They only thing that differs, actually, between these articles is the effort to explain the cause of the "special" anti-Jewish problem. Antagonists claim the problem is with the Jews (their religion, later on, their "race"), while protagonists try to come up with other (unsatisfactory) explanations. <br /><br />Of course, the question you will have is why would anti-Jewish thinkers pretend that there is a world-wide and ancient Jewish hatred when there really isn't? Because that<br />s exactly how demonizing works: you single out your target and support your attitude against them by generating moral support (e.g. "everyone else agrees"). But why demonize the Jews you might ask? Simple: You were mistaken when you dismissed Christianity as the real cause underlying anti-Judaism. In fact it is the culprit but has done a clever job of disguising itself. Christianity has every reason to demonize Judaism, namely that Judaism is its primary theological rival and that if one is valid then the other is invalid. You can see this thinking in the early Church fathers. If you look at the pattern, you will see that Church propagandists are responsible for pretty much all of the anti-Jewish / antisemitic canards, and that their motivation was to invalidate Judaism by establishing that it was evil, the Jews were in league with the devil, and that they needed to be subjugated and converted for the ultimate triumph of Christianity. But finally you might ask why it would continue after the secularization of society. That is easy to explain as well: (1) It didn't continue with the same virulence AT ALL. While MOST people became far less anti-Jewish SOME people became much MORE antisemitic. The holocaust, Russian pogroms, etc., do not invalidate the pattern of decreasing anti-Jewish attitudes in proportion to increasing secularization. (2) It continues because it seems believable. People without ideological commitment to antisemitism / antijudaism have a hard time totally dismissing accusations against Jews precisely because the world-view set-up by anti-Jewish propagandists is believable and the alternative explanations provided by apologists are not totally convincing (until myself, of course XD). <br /><br />Analyze the matter by looking at the deeper patterns. Christian and Christian inspired Jew-haters and Antisemites have been making the same claims for most of the last 1500 years: Jews must be evil because...<br /><br />1. Everyone hates Jews.<br />2. People hate Jews more than anyone else.<br />3. People have always hated Jews.<br /><br />So, all you need to do to answer your "Jewish problem" question is investigate the validity of these statements. And if you do that you will find out that they are entirely invented (usually out of thin air) to support the theological rhetoric against Jews. If you care to talk more about the proof I can provide it. I don't have time now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com