The Anti-Racism of Fools
Peter Dorman at Econospeak
The Anti-Racism of Fools
Antisemitism has long been intermingled with movements against injustice and elite control. This is because the most widespread image in the mind of antisemites is the existence of a secretive cabal of Jews who control global finance and promote liberal-sounding ideas only because it serves their nefarious goals. Hatred of Jews therefore deflects radical inclinations that might otherwise fuel movements against real domination. This understanding was summed up in the expression that “antisemitism is the socialism of fools”, often voiced in socialist circles the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Now that class is no longer regarded as the ur-oppression from which all others stem, new reservoirs of fools can be tapped to keep antisemitism in business. This is apparent in the ongoing wave of anti-Jewish bigotry that masks itself as anti-racism. Ye and Kyrie Irving are relatively easy examples to point to, since their foolishness is on display. But even a much cleverer Dave Chappelle illustrates the anti-racism of fools trope. Watch his recent SNL monologue closely, and you can see all the elements there—not only the winking references to Jewish collusion and control, but also the way sly attacks on Jews become a substitute for identifying and challenging the control of cultural institutions, and most of the rest of America, by the ultra-rich, who, for historical reasons, are nearly entirely white. Like, why should the livelihood of any artist, which of course includes satirists, depend on patronage by corporate moguls? The fool part is thinking you’ve pinpointed the problem by fantasizing about a conspiracy of Jewish moguls.
Being smart is not a defense against being stupid, and bigotry is always stupid.
Delicious irony that antisemitism created by Romans to shift the blame for Christ on the cross from the Romans to the Jews lead to the Jewish diaspora seeking protection from the nobles and wealthy of the world via their proficient numeracy and literacy. Even the Bolsheviks made an exception for the Jewish pharmacist Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum after they gang raped his thirteen year old daughter Alisa, later known to the world as Ayn Rand. Double irony that Jewish numeracy was base10 Arabic numerals, actually a misnomer as they were developed in India.
One can hardly blame Emperor Constantine and Emperor Charlemagne for confiscating Christ from the Jews and then blaming them for the crucifixion. They were just responding to the reality that it was easier to get men to murder, rape, pillage, and plunder in the name of god than it was to get them to murder, rape, pillage, and plunder in the name of Caesar. That is at least part of why Caligula claimed to be God. The other part was that he was an insane narcissist. Pontius Pilate provided Rome its alibi from the start when he stacked the court with followers of Barabas who would choose to free their murderous rebel leader rather than the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
You mean Bar Abbas, “The son of the father”?
i watched the Dave Chapelle monologue. i thought it was funny. he was making fun of the stereotype…making fun of the stereotype-ers.
And there is this:
“Like, why should the livelihood of any artist, which of course includes satirists, depend on patronage by corporate moguls? “
The livlihood of any artist depends on his ability to get paid. Traditionally it is only rich people (moguls?) who can afford to support artists. and is Mogul a racist slur on Muslims of asian origin?