So I found a leftie anti semitism quiz in some centrist craphole of a subreddit, but hey, given my distaste for the modern left and whatever uneasy alliance I have with centrists on this issue, I figured what the heck, I'd take it for the heck of it. This should be good.
I mean, I'm pro Israel, but I'm not SO pro israel I can't admit that they do anything wrong. Which is...part of the problems with the "anti semitism" line. I've long since noticed that pro israel people love to scream anyone who doesnt agree with them is an anti semite or hates Jews, when it's like "no, I just don't agree with you 100%", so I figured, what the heck, let's see what I score here, given my nuanced perspective.
Question #1: Have you ever referred to Hamas fighters as “our martyrs”? If so, give yourself ten points. If not, have you ever referred to Palestinians killed in the Israeli fight against Hamas as “our martyrs” in a context in which a reasonable person might understand you as referring to Hamas fighters as martyrs? If so, give yourself two points.
No, I've never heard that phrase before actually.
Question #2: Have you ever expressed the sentiment that Palestine must be free “from the river to the sea” or any similar slogan that calls for the destruction of any Jewish sovereign presence in Israel proper and that might reasonably be construed as a call to remove or kill Jews from that region? If so, give yourself ten points. Deduct two points if you cannot identify the river in the slogan. Deduct another three if you can’t identify the sea in question. If either or both of these two conditions are met, you might be less of an anti-Semite than an ignorant idiot who has no idea what you’re saying.
I mean, it seems very obvious that phrase means that Palestine should own all of the land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea, and no, I've never expressed such a sentiment. Because it's insane and would require doing SOMETHING to the people who live there, either genocide or forced removal. Which would be a humanitarian crisis on a magnitude much higher than the existing plight of the Palestinians.
I have before questioned the idea of forming the state of Israel in the first place, but like I would say, that was a problem that should've been addressed in 1948, not now. The damage is done, the people who live there have every right to live there at this point, and I'm not interested in relitigating the land claims of the distant past. The current borders are the current borders, get over it already.
Question #3: Do you find yourself radically more engaged by the plight of Palestinians displaced, injured, or killed in Gaza in response to a massacre of Israeli civilians than by the millions of Syrians displaced, wounded or killed in the murderous war by the Syrian government against its own people; by the millions of Ukrainians who have been killed or made refugees by Russia; or by the brutality of the Taliban? If so, give yourself ten points.
No, and I find the weird obsession the left has with this issue to be weird.
Like, if anything, I became significantly more pro Israel since October 7th. Normally I stay out of this conflict, much like I don't have an opinion on Syria, and am well beyond caring about the Taliban. Not my part of the world, not my problem.
I would say I became very activated when Russia invaded Ukraine, and I ended up being very activated over this, although the "both sides are bad" to varying degrees aspect of this makes me frustrated.
Still, I'm not "radically" more engaged by the plight of the palestinians. If anything I think the disproportionate obsession with this issue is weird and I don't share such an opinion. I'm really going against the leftist tribes on the internet right now, even ones I normally agree with.
Question #4: Do you have an urge to shout at or harass Orthodox Jews or others who are visibly Jewish—or to protest at Jewish or kosher institutions—because of your objections to Israeli policy? Give yourself ten points if you have this urge. Give yourself 50 points if you have ever acted on it.
Yeah this actually is anti semitic, so no.
Question #5: More generally, do you believe the rise in antisemitic incidents, on college campuses and elsewhere, around the country is understandable under the circumstances? Give yourself five to fifteen points depending on how understandable you think it is.
As I said, I've strongly rejected hate crimes committed against people on both sides of the aisle here. No excuse.
Question #6: When 1,400 Israeli civilians were massacred, did you have a strong urge to add a “but” to any statement of condemnation you may have issued on social media or elsewhere? Give yourself three points if you had the instinct. Give yourself five points if you, in fact, qualified whatever public statement you made.
You mean had a nuanced take on the matter? Anyway, this is my original statement in reference to this matter. If anything most buts seem to be recognizing leftist opinions on the matter, but basically saying that palestine brought whatever response happens upon themselves.
Still, seeing how this seems to be group think against daring to have an opinion that isn't 100% pro israel, I'm going to just bite the bullet and take 5 points.
Question #7: Have you ever secretly wondered whether there is such a thing as an Israeli civilian? If so, give yourself ten points; that’s some dark shit. Give yourself an extra ten points if you’ve had this thought about Israelis but never had a similar thought about the nationals of any other country.
Not toward Israel. I HAVE wondered this about Palestinian civilians though, and wondered how many of them support these terrorist nutcases that are hamas. I mean, you gotta consider how civilians in democratic countries think about their leaders. Are American civilians response for trump? If they voted for him, yes. What about russians supporting putin? I know many are brainwashed, but yeah.
The fact is a lot of civilians are indoctrinated to support their country's side whether they're right or wrong, and a lot of them will say absolutely crazy crap about their country.
Still wondered if there's a such thing as a civilian? No, not exactly. I just wonder how innocent civilians really are of the government that they put in place and many supposedly support.
And normally I do a pretty good job separating that crap out recognizing that civilians should not be treated as combatants.
I think it's funny that most of my weird dark thinking has been more about palestinians than israelis.
Hell, I understand israeli voters. Because I understand how people react to terrorist attacks in their own country. One of my formative experiences that shaped my politics early on was literally 9/11. So...if anything I'm very sympathetic. I actually have spent a lot of time arguing on this blog that the israeli response to this attack is more justified than our response to 9/11 because at least Israelis are literally facing an existential enemy that hates them for existing.
So yeah. Not giving myself points here.
But I do want to point out that simply having thoughts about this isnt necessarily a bad thing, ESPECIALLY if you've wondered it about other countries. That's just...normal if you're a thinking person who tries to put themselves in others' shoes.
Questions #8: Was any part of you secretly relieved by the speed and ferocity of the Israeli response to the October 7 massacre, as it allowed you to stop talking about the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and instead talk about Israeli policies and actions you could condemn? If so, give yourself five points. Give yourself an extra five if you never seriously contemplated what realistic alternative options Israel might have to protect its people than the course it is taking. Give yourself an extra five still if the first statement you made or protest you attended took place in response to Israeli action, rather than the Hamas action.
I already posted my first response, it was an obvious condemnation of hamas. And yes, I've written several blog articles about how I would do things differently and have morally grappled with this in as fair of a manner as I could.
And no, I wasn't relieved of anything. If anything getting my bearings on the situation after the attack, I became very pro israel and anti hamas. So I'm giving myself 0 points.
Question #9: When you heard about the riot that broke out in an airport in Dagestan the other day, in which rioters looked to attack passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv, did you instinctively want more “context” or to understand the rioters’ point of view? If so, give yourself five points.
Well I didn't hear about this until this article brought it up. And I didn't wonder about context until this post made me ask that leading question to myself, because ya know, im a nuanced thinker. But no, my first reaction is basically "gee, sounds like they hate jews and the world is going insane again."
Question #10: Do you interpret the Biden administration’s support for Israel principally as evidence of Jewish political power in the United States? Give yourself five points for a soft yes, ten points for a more emphatic yes.
I think principally is the key word. Basically it means primarily. And here's the thing. Nuanced opinion...but if you don't think AIPAC influences our government, you're delusional. There is this massive pro israel lobby in the US. I remember AOC crying when she cast her vote for the iron dome when Nancy Pelosi whispered in her ear before hand. Idk what was said, but it seemed like her hand was forced, and she was doing something that went against her conscience. Because a lot of leftists are critical AF of Israel.
Still, "principally"...no. Like, there's a lot of reasons we support them. They're the one reliable ally we have in the middle east, the muslim world is more pro Russia and anti US. They are a western democracy, albeit a flawed one. And honestly, if forced to choose between the two factions of Israel and Palestine, I think it's very obvious why we drift toward Israel. We're more culturally similar to them.
Still, I am gonna give a soft yes here for 5 points, because...well...again, nuanced opinion. I'm not 100% uncritically pro Israel. And normally the political tribes im most close to often criticize Israel. In retrospect, often unjustly so, I find the leftist brainrot on the subject to be disturbing, and I can see why several of these questions are obvious red flags of some inherent anti semitism there, but still, is Israel perfect and above criticism? Certainly not, and we shouldn't accuse anyone of being critical of Israel or being an anti semite and a bigot.
That said, let's score this:
Scorecard
0-to-10 points: Not an anti-semite. I absolve you of sin.
11-to-30 points: You have been infected with left antisemitism, but it’s nothing a little reading on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the history of the left won’t cure.
31-to-50 points: You’re dabbling in some serious antisemitic ideation. You clearly don’t mind violence against Jews very much.
51-to-75 points: You’ve got a serious problem.
76-and above: You’re a member of the Raging Bigot Club.
Nominally, I gave myself a 10. However, there are situations where simply having a nuanced situation and trying to consider the situation from all sides could give me a higher score if interpreted.
But to interpret the results...
Gee thanks, I don't need to be absolved of sin. Because I dont buy into the postmodernist framing that any unconscious biases I have ARE a sin. And I feel like that's this weird leftist social justice thing that I really don't like.
But yeah, formally, not an anti semite, and at worst, have a touch of the leftist brain rot. But given I have educated myself throughout this conflict, yeah, I've become significantly more pro Israel than I originally was.
THe fact was....I try to be fair. I try to consider both sides, and inherently believe palestinians have a right to life, and I do understand the history to an extent where I can see why they have a point.
BUT...yeah, educating myself on the conflict and how it has unfolded over time has made me WAY more pro Israel. Because I kinda realized that these are just radical nutcases with barbaric values doing crazy terrorist things. And that's not acceptable.
Like even if I were to grant palestine the idea that they deserve to be treated better, and they deserve land too, the fact is, they did, quite literally, dig themselves into this hole, by being uncompromising extremists for the past 75 years. I mean, I heard today they fear another "Nakba" (the "catastrophe", or what they call the expulsion of millions of palestinians from their land in response to the outcome of the arab israeli war). But...didn't the nakba happen...because they wouldnt compromise and did BS like this? And isn't this happening because they...once again, did crap like this?
And sure, even acknowledging the whole civilians are innocent and not military targets thing, it's like...okay but what else can israel really do here?
Like, again, I've expressed my moral dilemmas with this issue on here in full sincerity. It's like...yeah maybe palestinian civilians deserve better, but given how messed up this conflict is, I don't know what else israel can actually do.
So I'm just gonna sit here and let whatever happens happens.
Ya know, I know this quiz was intended to make me think about whatever anti israel biases that I have in relation to this, but I just find myself questioning any anti palestine biases I may have.
Because as you can tell, when the attack happened, I was more quickly to condemn hamas, and I've been significantly less charitable to the palestinian side of the crisis. And a lot of this is because yes, I have a pro western and anti islam bias due to my secular humanist worldview.
Remember...without any god telling us what to do a la the...abrahamic god, all morality is subjective, all morals are human made, and many are only enforced well within the context of a modern western state built on things like the rule of law, democracy, rights, etc. Israel is such a state, albeit an admittedly flawed one. And I can be fairly sympathetic to israel in response. I even understand why israel as a country is so neocon in their politics. It's because hamas is LITERALLY the enemy bush merely told us we were fighting after 9/11. "They hate us, they hate our freedoms, they hate our way of life", they wanna oppress/kill us. Completely 100% true in the case of the palestinians under hamas. Hamas really is that kind of enemy.
And as for palestine/hamas...I just see them as the barbarians at the gates of civilization, trying to beat it down so they can come in and kill everyone. And given I'm already EXTREMELY uncharitable to radical islam and consider it to be an extremely regressive and illiberal force that is a threat to my very value system, yeah...I really struggle to sympathize with palestine.
Are palestinian civilians innocent? Perhaps they are. I will give them that. Many are just caught in the crossfire. But Palestine has been the side of this conflict that has been regularly causing the most problems. They refuse to compromise, they declare, they commit terrorism, and their horrid living conditions are literally the result of 75 years of just being beaten back into the ground again and again. It's like watching freeza in dragonball Z all on the ground, cut in half and bloodied, and any time goku gives him a little energy he just uses it to attack goku AGAIN.
So...yeah. If anything, I would say I have somewhat of an anti arab/palestinian bias because my worldview, unlike that based on leftists, and to some extent, the OP of this checklist, is not based on postmodernism, but on secular humanism.
And my honest opinion toward humans that cannot play well with others is that they need to be stopped, one way or another. Not saying we cant be as humane as possible, and I do support that, but again, what does such a stance amount to but "bomb nicer" as many leftists point out? I mean, really.I keep coming back to this, but I ask, what else can be done? I know some leftists start talking about mossad going in and assassinating individual hamas leaders, but Im not even sure that could work. So yeah. I just look at this situation, and I'm like...yeah, whatever, screw it.
I've been as nuanced and as charitable to both sides as I'm going to get. So yeah. I dont really care what the outcome of this quiz is. The fact is, no matter what my opinion is, someone is gonna hate me for it. And Im to the point where screw it, I just give the best opinion I can and anyone who doesnt like it can find another blog to read.
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