Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[Habbaku]

The simplest explanation, to me, seems to be they chose a random background image and had no clue what they were doing. Associating it with the blood libel seems to be stretching way too far to explain an idiotic mistake.

[Habbaku]

The alternative that I see is that they meant to put the Jews on there and are asserting that they are literally "giving up" people for Lent--IE, informing on the Jews and giving them over to the secret police.

And that is another extreme stretch.

[Barrister]

The simplest explanation, to me, seems to be they chose a random background image and had no clue what they were doing. Associating it with the blood libel seems to be stretching way too far to explain an idiotic mistake.

Why isn't the simplest explanation the fact that the meme-maker is making a blood libel "joke"?

It's really obvious those figures are meant to be jewish.

[grumbler]

The card doesn't make any more sense as a reference to the blood libel than as a reference to anything else.  The BL version would be "babies" not "people."

OTOH, "I'm Giving Up People For Lent" seems to be a meme of some standing, though not related to that card.

The pin that the IGUPfL comes from is by a poster whose got a ton of other stuff, none of it religious.  I'm going to say that this was an innocuous use of an image she probably didn't realize depicted Jews.

Here is the original of the card (I think)

[grumbler]

The image isn't showing in the previous post (maybe the site doesn't allow crossposting).  If you can't see it, look at a quote and follow the link.

[Habbaku]

The simplest explanation, to me, seems to be they chose a random background image and had no clue what they were doing. Associating it with the blood libel seems to be stretching way too far to explain an idiotic mistake.

Why isn't the simplest explanation the fact that the meme-maker is making a blood libel "joke"?

It's really obvious those figures are meant to be jewish.

Because I'm not convinced that the people sharing it even know what the blood libel is. Ditto for the vast majority of people in the first place.

[Oexmelin]

I think it's a classic case of dog whistle. Antisemitic conservatives meme-makers (and there are legions, which lead me to believe it really was intentional) nod approvingly while merely xenophobic conservatives share cluelessly.

[The Brain]

If we make them Chancellor we can control them.

[Barrister]

Because I'm not convinced that the people sharing it even know what the blood libel is. Ditto for the vast majority of people in the first place.

Many probably don't know the term "blood libel", nor know the history or specifics of it (that the blood goes into matzoh for passover), but the notion that Jews drink the blood of Christian babies is pretty widely known, though not I think widely believed.

I think I recall joking in college with jewish friends about it, much in the same way you'd joke with an italian friend about being a mobster.  And Lord knows Malthus has used jokes like that on Languish going back to 2003.

[Malthus]

The card doesn't make any more sense as a reference to the blood libel than as a reference to anything else.  The BL version would be "babies" not "people."

OTOH, "I'm Giving Up People For Lent" seems to be a meme of some standing, though not related to that card.

The pin that the IGUPfL comes from is by a poster whose got a ton of other stuff, none of it religious.  I'm going to say that this was an innocuous use of an image she probably didn't realize depicted Jews.

Here is the original of the card (I think)

"Babies" wouldn't be funny.

The whole point of making it a "joke" is that it have a double meaning - one innocuous, one vile.

The innocuous one relies on "giving up people for Lent" being a longstanding meme. The vile one depends on Jew-haters smirking over the fact that the people depicted are Jews (therefore not likely to be into Lent), thus "ironically" referencing the Blood Libel (that no-one these days actually believes in) for laughs.

The "fun" part is knowing that you are making a vile joke that only the like-minded will "get". As Oex says, a classic dog whistle.

[grumbler]

I think you guys who see this as deliberately antisemitic are seeing what you want to see, rather than, say, doing what i did and looking at the other pins by the woman who created this, but I won't argue this any more.

[Tamas]

Yeah I agree, the level of elaboratedness you guys imply is not only well beyond Syt's sister (sorry dude!), but also well beyond the creators of the "memes" she shares.

[Barrister]

Yeah I agree, the level of elaboratedness you guys imply is not only well beyond Syt's sister (sorry dude!), but also well beyond the creators of the "memes" she shares.

I don't get it - it's not an elaborate joke at all.

[Malthus]

Yeah I agree, the level of elaboratedness you guys imply is not only well beyond Syt's sister (sorry dude!), but also well beyond the creators of the "memes" she shares.

I don't get it - it's not an elaborate joke at all.

I'm with BB - any joke sounds "elaborate" if you explain it (try explaining why a "pun" is supposed to be funny). The actual funny part is pretty simple. 

[Razgovory]

I think it's a classic case of dog whistle. Antisemitic conservatives meme-makers (and there are legions, which lead me to believe it really was intentional) nod approvingly while merely xenophobic conservatives share cluelessly.

Yeah, I see that a lot.