Thoughts on Reddit and Zionism

Reddit may just be the front page of the internet in one way. Its algorithm for what subs it shows me is at least as stupid as Twitter and Fuckbook showing me what accounts I "should" follow.

About two weeks ago, I got presented r/jewish in my feed.

First, are there actual antisemitic instances happening today? (NOT antizionist ones.) Yes.

Have they increased since Oct. 7, 2023? If so, not that much.

Is antisemitism in the US worse today than 20-30 years ago? I doubt it, and certainly not worse than 40 or more years ago.

Does every pro-Palestinian supporter want you, individual Jewish commenter, or all Jews, dead? Of course not. But, as part of this post:

I cut ties with pro-Pal people. I don’t want to associate with people who want me dead.

There you go.

No, what you probably really don't want is associating with people who challenge "casual Zionism."

And, that same person, "NYSenseOfHumor," proves my point with their second lie:

They all chant “from the river to the sea,” so yes, they want all Jews dead.

And, lie it is. And, while it's a bit trollish, I'm also dead damn serious when I respond to bullshit like that with:

"From the river to the sea, Zionist lies will never set you free."

That same thread has one person who does explicitly call out Bibi. And an even bigger kudo for "iloveforeverstamps" saying:

Plenty of "Zionists" are antisemitic. We are talking about a real country with a government and a military, and any serious discussion SHOULD be far more complex than "If you're not with us, you're against us". Any stance that can be fully explained in a few sentences is not adequate for making decisions about your relationships and life.

Bottom line. Their whole comment is great.

But then, the lies continue. Being anti-Israel is not being anti-Jew. 

And, on that post and in plenty of others, the old lie that anti-Zionism is antisemitism is repeated ad infinitum.

And, although I didn't see the phrase "self-hating Jew," this, about Jewish Voices for Peace:

JVP is false flag BS

Is close enough.

Well, I din't see "self hating Jew" on THAT post that Reddit suggested to me. 

I figured I'd search for "Finkelstein," as in Norman, within r/Jewish. 

Among the hits?

"I Used to Think 'Self-Hating Jews' Were a Myth."

The ONLY good comment there is this:

Why are there more posts on this sub about people who are jewish and on the left than about people who are jewish and involved in the far right christian nationalist movement? Seems to me like a lot of these accusations apply to the far right activists like ben shapiro and they are actually in a position of power in the world unlike western leftists

Period.

Other posts have the lie that Finkelstein is a Jewish David Irving or similar, which is just not true. His position IS controversial, and IMO pushes envelopes too far. But, he's not a Holocaust denier, and he's not the first Jew to wonder about a possible Holocaust industry being used by the nation of Israel.

I then searched for "Bari Weiss." Other than one post from five years ago, all puff pieces.

Oh, a lot of these folks on those posts say variations of "I'm involved in Hillel." Rather than that giving you a pass for seemingly being in a lovey-dovey organization, per this piece at Mondoweiss, it's a self-own.

Otherwise? These people are online socially isolating, to the degree they are, based on a fear that's largely consciously self-induced based on a mix of cherry-picking, strawmanning and "othering."

Otherwise, two? There's plenty of racism there. Some of it's generic anti-Arab; a lot of it is specifically anti-Palestinian. Related? Some of the racists are also MAGAts. (Shock me.)

Otherwise, part three? These people are liars. They've seen Israeli hasbara refuted again and again. They've seen it shown to be deliberate deep lies. And they keep deliberately repeating it.

Or, in this post, the lies and the racism commingle. (Oh, contra comments on there, "Ashkenazi" is ultimately a linguistic divider as much as anything else. Jews from Poland-Lithuania aren't of totally the same background as Rhineland Jews, just because both speak types of Yiddish. And, far east European Ashkenazis do indeed, by both language and DNA, hint that a "small" version of the Khazar hypothesis has at least a degree of truth. Shlomo Sand knows this in detail; that said, most people at r/Jewish would probably call him a "self-hating Jew" or similar.)

As for the totality of the sub? I'm guessing it's 75 percent full Zionist, 19 percent muddlers/non-Zionist, 4 percent anti-Zionist and 2 percent non-Jewish, however they break out on the Zionism issue.