Antisemitism being widespread within the AfD could complicate things further
Not necessarily. There’s tons of antisemitism in The American Fascist Party the GOP, but they’re 100% on the side of the Israeli government.
In fact, equating Judaism and the Israeli government is arguably a kind of antisemitism itself, since many Jewish people resent being automatically assumed to support the Netanyahu government’s atrocities or even Zionism in general.
Not necessarily. There’s tons of antisemitism in The American Fascist Party the GOP, but they’re 100% on the side of the Israeli government.
The conservative brain works in mysterious ways.
Some support Israel because of some end-times prophecy nonsense, some think that every Jew that moves to Israel is one less Jew in their way. Others just decided they hate Muslims more than Jew.
In fact, equating Judaism and the Israeli government is arguably a kind of antisemitism itself
That’s a different thing. You can oppose Israel without being an antisemite, but it’s trickier to explain how you can be an antisemite without opposing Israel. Hating all Jews while somehow militarily supporting those Jews. While it can be explained (see above) you have to admit it is rather counterintuitive.
And anyway I would not expect GOP dynamics to easily translate to the AFD.
It’s easy to explain: it’s raw, unadulterated primate tribalism.
Multiple studies have shown how tribal psychology overrides pesky things like logic or coherent, and it’s terrifying how much people will excuse or rationalize in order to remain in good standing with their tribe.
Demagogues know this very well, as one of the first things they do is force their followers to hold contradictory principles as a kind of shibboleth. It softens their followers up for what’s to come.
I didn’t want to say that not supporting Israel is antisemitic or that antisemites can’t support Israel. I just wanted to say that, on average, antisemites are probably harder to recruit for the Mossad than others.
Not necessarily. There’s tons of antisemitism in
The American Fascist Partythe GOP, but they’re 100% on the side of the Israeli government.In fact, equating Judaism and the Israeli government is arguably a kind of antisemitism itself, since many Jewish people resent being automatically assumed to support the Netanyahu government’s atrocities or even Zionism in general.
The conservative brain works in mysterious ways. Some support Israel because of some end-times prophecy nonsense, some think that every Jew that moves to Israel is one less Jew in their way. Others just decided they hate Muslims more than Jew.
That’s a different thing. You can oppose Israel without being an antisemite, but it’s trickier to explain how you can be an antisemite without opposing Israel. Hating all Jews while somehow militarily supporting those Jews. While it can be explained (see above) you have to admit it is rather counterintuitive.
And anyway I would not expect GOP dynamics to easily translate to the AFD.
It’s easy to explain: it’s raw, unadulterated primate tribalism.
Multiple studies have shown how tribal psychology overrides pesky things like logic or coherent, and it’s terrifying how much people will excuse or rationalize in order to remain in good standing with their tribe.
Demagogues know this very well, as one of the first things they do is force their followers to hold contradictory principles as a kind of shibboleth. It softens their followers up for what’s to come.
Not all antisemites realized they could hide behind support for Israel…
True.
I didn’t want to say that not supporting Israel is antisemitic or that antisemites can’t support Israel. I just wanted to say that, on average, antisemites are probably harder to recruit for the Mossad than others.
That’s very true. I didn’t actually mean to accuse YOU specifically of that form of antisemitism BTW, in case there’s any doubt 🙂