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No more than me criticising Rishi Sunak for being a shit Prime Minister is anti-Hindu.
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Submitted 11 months ago by Lafari@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s complicated. Israel has the most right wing leadership in its history, and it’s not uncommon for a guy like Netanyahu to use such accusations as a cover for his extremist views. That sort of behavior has a way of trickling down.
Lafari@lemmy.world 11 months ago
[deleted]Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That is the big problem. The Israeli government has it down to an art form that anyone criticising whatever they do is automatically branded an “antisemite”. Which, on the other hand, waters down any criticism of real antisemitism.
Fondots@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I think there’s a few things that can be going on
First and probably the most straightforward, there’s people who are trying to deflect criticism of themselves. In your example, let’s say the Jewish person did actually say something disrespectful and misogynistic. They don’t want to get called out and catch heat for it, so they deflect by accusing the other person of being an anti-semite.
There’s also cases where cases where the person actually is anti-semitic, their motivations don’t really have anything to do with calling out misogyny (again using your example,) they’re just playing the part to attack the Jewish person. Now sometimes they might end up actually calling out actual misogynistic language, even a broken clock is right twice a day, which is a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or other times they might make a mountain out of a molehill or even just totally making up reasons to be offended.
And there’s some things that can complicate it even further.
There are cases where the Jewish person may be genuinely interpreting the accusations as being an antisemitic attack. Using your example of misogyny, some (but by no means all) Jewish communities/sects do hold some misogynistic views, under their interpretations of judaism, they have strong views about what a woman’s place in society is/should be, and to them speaking out against that genuinely is an antisemitic act.
There are also cases where they have been conditioned to watch out for antisemitism (or other forms of prejudice,) which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and in actuality is probably a wise thing for people to have at the back of their minds, but that’s a hell of a thing to have weighing on your mind and some people can get a little overzealous or paranoid and start seeing it in places where it doesn’t exist.
Also, as a non-jewish person, if this is something you’re experiencing regularly, it’s probably a good idea to think about what your own biases are, and try to think about what you’re saying from the Jewish perspective and why what you’re saying or doing might be coming across as antisemitic. You very well might be in the right, or you might discover some biases you didn’t know you had.
And lastly, a final thing to keep in mind, we’re living in the disinformation age, there no shortage of trolls, bots, provocateurs, and other bad-faith actors out there trying to stir the pot and sow discord either for some political agenda or even simply for their own amusement. This especially applies online when you often have no real idea who it is you’re talking too and what their motivations might be, but it also applies in-person as well.
One final thought is that these sort of negative interactions will stick with you, you probably won’t remember conversations where things went smoothly and civilly nearly as well. For every time you’ve seen someone play the antisemitism card, or the race card, or transphobia card or what have you in this manner, you’ve probably had other conversations where it never comes up at all, but that’s not going to stick out in your mind as clearly.
clockwork_octopus@lemmy.world 11 months ago
No, in the same way that it’s not sexist to criticize a person for something unrelated to their gender, and it’s not racist to criticize someone for something unrelated to their “race” or ethnicity.
I think the person in your example is being an asshole, and they clearly don’t understand the definitions of antisemitism or misogyny. Assholes are everywhere, in every country, culture, and religion. Nowhere is exempt. Which is a shame, because people everywhere are deserving of dignity and respect.
Except for assholes.
rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
I think no, but it is an unpopular argument, because it’s also used by the antisemitic people. (“No, I’m not being antisemitic, I just criticise everything you stand for…”). So I’d be a bit careful with that.
Mango@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yes! Jewish people are minorities and therefore better than you and you should consider them perfect!
What kind of answer do you want here?
hperrin@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Without knowing what actually happened, nobody can tell you whether it was antisemitic. Obviously, you asked this in a way that there’s only one answer, so no, that’s not antisemitic, but you already knew that.