(((The Jewish Cowbell))): Unpacking a Gross New Meme from the Alt-Right

[Jaron]

Its sad to see Martinus become an apologist for anti semitism. Maybe that staring into the abyss quote rings awful true.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I find Woody Allen's neuroticism rather wearing but that is about it 

Yeah I genuinely can't think of any stereotypes I have or have held about Jews

My main contact with Jews was at my old school in Brighton (Hove actually). They were all from ultra-liberal families and you more or less had to be told that they were Jewish. Instead of morning worship they went to a large room and played cards and whatnot; I joined them for a while as I prefer cards to singing hymns, but was spotted by my housemaster and had to rejoin the Christian faithful 

Maybe I could have managed some anti-semitism if the contacts had been with the very orthodox? With the guys in Brighton it would be like hating oneself.

[Sheilbh]

I grew up in the Highlands. Having stereotypes about Jews would be like having very strong opinions on the Bedouin.

I had a fair amount of stuff about Gaelic speakers though.

[celedhring]

I think I met a single jew in all my life until I moved to NYC. And I was like 14 (he was a classmate in high school)  and too preoccupied by puberty in order to develop prejudices. He told some great jokes, though, I guess that's a cliché too.

[Martinus]

Not all cliches are bigotry.

[Capetan Mihali]

Not as weird as watching leftists like Capetan Mihali spout anti-semitic stuff in defense of Palestinians.

Sorry my cuckraking QQ on behalf of the Palestinians was too much for you -- a man with a deep personal connection to the Jewish people, being that one of your multiple boyfriends is 1/8th Jewish or something like that, right? -- to bear, but I regret to inform you that I'm very far from antisemitic in my opinions (except probably by ADL standards of course).  More subtle thinkers than yourself, whether they agree or not, can distinguish criticism of Israel's policy and even criticism of Zionism from antisemitism.

But whatever suits your fancy.  Feel free to keep latching onto me as your "prototypical kind and sensitive person" and "SJW," even though you don't have a clue about, or a legitimate interest in, my actual political beliefs.  Hint: They're very far from the ethos of "identity politics."

[Capetan Mihali]

Maybe I could have managed some anti-semitism if the contacts had been with the very orthodox?

I grew up with old relatives who were secular Jews living in Brooklyn, and they maintained a deep-seated resentment against the ultra-Orthodox (referred to as "Yiddles" or "Heebs") in their neighborhoods.  My relatives would be chastised for doing shopping on a Saturday and such things, but I figure their antipathy had more significant roots than just that.

[Capetan Mihali]

I find Woody Allen's neuroticism rather wearing but that is about it 

Yeah I genuinely can't think of any stereotypes I have or have held about Jews

That's kind of surprising.  No stereotypes of Jews being any combination of cheap, shrewd, unscrupulous, underhanded, argumentative, neurotic, or overly intellectual/analytical?

I heard a few people in the courthouse down in Charlotte sounding quite pleased when telling family members that they'd drawn a "Jew lawyer" (a colleague doing property felonies) as their public defender.   Precisely because of some of those stereotypes, of course. 

I got asked about my origins and the derivation of my last name a couple of times personally, in the South and in the North, with the client hoping I was, in fact, a possessor of "that vaunted Ashkenazi intelligence" from the original post, at least so far as the law went.

And yes, antisemitic feeling probably varies considerably across the country.  The relationship between African-Americans and Jews has been particularly strained since the mid-60s, with some black activists making more pointed attacks against "Goldberg," the archetypal exploitative Jewish owner of black-patronized stores and black-occupied tenements.  Jews meanwhile continued to participate in the general "white flight" to the suburbs during this period and saw blacks increasingly as a threat.

But I'm thinking specifically of the 1968 Ocean Hill-Brownsville teachers' strike (long story but the teachers were almost all Jewish, the students almost all black) as a discrete event from that era that strongly contributed to the breakdown of mutual friendliness, not to mention the ostensible solidarity between the two groups that existed during the mid-50s "respectable" civil rights heyday. 

More recently, the 1992 Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn were a particularly violent flare-up of tensions between Orthodox Jews and the local West Indian community; again, it's a long story and while antisemitism did play into it, it was more complicated than just that.

[Razgovory]

The Jews I knew have been a mixed bag.  Pretty much like everyone else.

[CountDeMoney]

"that vaunted Ashkenazi intelligence"

So that's what's wrong with Siege.


Here's a leaflet on "Famous Jewish Sports Legends."

[dps]

The Jews I knew have been a mixed bag.  Pretty much like everyone else.

That's been my experience as well.  And, yes, there are Jews in southern West Virginia.

[derspiess]

In my Appalachian hometown we had a small number of jews in the community, enough for a couple synagogues.  Anti-semitism was practically non-existent.

[Berkut]

I mean let's face it, everybody is antisemitic to a degree.

Yeah, I am just going to stop right there...

[garbon]

I mean let's face it, everybody is antisemitic to a degree.

Yeah, I am just going to stop right there...

Yep, quite an odd one.

[Grinning_Colossus]

I mean let's face it, everybody is antisemitic to a degree.

Yeah, I am just going to stop right there...

Consider the cultural context.