...what things are antisemitic that gentiles don’t usually pick up on?
I was talking to my wife the other day and the word “cabal” came up, and also following some folks who practice Jewish mysticism, I was like “wait a minute...I bet money that this word has antisemitic roots” and sure enough, gentiles took it from the term “Kabbalah” and now it means cult or secret political group. Yikes.
If I was able to pick up on that, I was wondering what kinda stuff flies under my brain’s Hate Detection Radar all the time.
Hi friend! Such an important question, and thanks so much for asking it.
Because antisemitism is one of the world’s oldest prejudices, it is absolutely baked into our language (particularly in the west, but thanks to western imperialism it is a global problem as well). Cabal is a great example of a word that is steeped in antisemitism but that many people do not realize is antisemitic in origin. Here’s some other words/phrases that I hear used uncritically by people and that are steeped in antisemitism:
- Cabal
- New world order/NWO
- Global elites/cosmopolitan elites/coastal elites
- Rothschilds
- “Jew down”/“jewed”
- lizard people
- Illuminati
- scapegoat
And some dog whistles that are more pointedly antisemitic, but that the uninitiated may not realize are antisemitic code:
- Zionist organized government/ZOG
- Khazars
- kosher tax
- 👃
- “the goyim know”
There’s plenty more (sadly), but these are the ones I see floating around unchallenged the most often, so I thought I’d highlight them. Thanks again for such a good and helpful question!
Hi I would like to ask a question, not to be challenging but because I think you would have the best answer.
Republicans use these terms all the time, like all the time. Yet they also brag that they are the pro-Israel party. Can you comment on this disparity? I’m asking because I want to understand and be more sensitive to antisemitism.
No problem! So yes, politicians in the GOP use these terms plenty, and it got worse under the last administration. At the same time, GOP politicians defend Israel to the point of utter absurdity.
Why do they do these things? Because they’re antisemitic and also pro-Israel. Why would antisemitic people be pro-Israel? Because their evangelical Christian constituents are pro-Israel. Not in the sense that any of them necessarily care about Israel, Israelis, or Palestinians (unless they’ve got their islamophobia hats on, as they frequently do), but because they care that Israel exists to fulfill their end times theologies.
So weird? Yes, but also consistent with pandering to a Christian evangelical base.
because they care that Israel exists to fulfill their end times theologies.
I feel that this should be expanded on.
According to Christian evangelicals, to bring about the End Times and the Second Coming, all of the “Children Of Israel” (Jews) need to be “Gathered In The Land Of Israel”. Once “Assembled”, the gathered Jews will have the Christian Gospels preached at us, whereupon 144,000* Jews will spontaneously convert on the spot. All of the Jews then die, and those who converted ascend to Heaven, while the rest go down to Hell. Those who ascend to Heaven then bodily return as the escort of Jesus Christ.
I first heard of this from a missionary who was trying to convert me and I was fending him off using quotation from his own text. And in the end, his eyes shining with the fervor of a True Believer, he told me that he was jealous of me, because I was sure to be one of the Elect with my knowledge of the Christian Bible.
I asked him what he meant by that, and was told about the above “prophecy”–and, he was quick to assure me, that with my knowledge of Christian scripture, I was certain to be one of those 144,000 who saw the light and converted when the time came. And thus, to his mind, I was in a position where I would meet Jesus first.
Just think on that.
He just told me that in his religious worldview, I exist to be nothing more than a blood sacrifice to bring his god back, and he was jealous. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life, seeing someone looking at me not as a person, but as a thing.
Since then, I’ve had it sadly confirmed that this is an incredibly widespread belief among Christian evangelicals, which is important to remember–they support Israel because they need their human sacrifices for their god.
~~~
* As an aside, I love the precision of that number. Exactly 12 Apostles times 12 tribes times 1000.
I didn’t know about this earlier, but WTF? Can… can I get your sources for this? This feels like it’s one of those things that’s clearly propaganda because it’s too crazy to be true.
I had this told to me to my face by a Baptist Missionary with a fanatical gleam in his eye, jealous that I would be meeting Jesus first, so I feel a little bit irked by the skepticism here. But I understand it, so I can’t give you a written source–because, you know, it was told to my face by a fanatic who wanted me to die for his god–but I’ve had it confirmed by multiple other people in the years since. It’s based off of Revelations 7:3-8, Revelations 14:1, and Revelations 14:3-5, among other passages. I think that other people can probably confirm it.
I’ve got plenty of sources!
For many evangelicals, Jerusalem is about prophecy, not politics | CNN Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem pleases evangelical Christians because they see it as a step toward the end-times, says Diana Butler CNNhttps://newrepublic.com/article/156166/pence-pompeo-evanglicals-war-iran-christian-zionism
The Evangelicals Who Pray for War With Iran Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo, who urged Trump to kill Qassem Soleimani, are ardent proponents of Christian Zionism. The New Republichttps://www.jstor.org/stable/3512555
https://thegroundtruthproject.org/the-faces-of-the-end-of-days/
The faces of "The End of Days": Christian Zionism in Israel | The GroundTruth Project Editor’s note: Micah Danney is a GroundTruth and Overseas Press Club Foundation reporting fellow who teamed up with editor-in-chief Charles The GroundTruth Project Opinion | Stop Gaslighting The Left About Evangelicals. They Believe Awful Things About Jews One cannot achieve a healthy religious pluralism by pretending that robust mutual respect for religious diversity exists where it does not The ForwardThis quote from that last source especially is very crucial:
“Most evangelicals do believe that Jews who do not convert to Christianity will go to hell, and they believe the apocalyptic Battle of Armageddon will center around Israel. They support destabilizing policies like the move of the U.S. Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the basis of the theological script they are following. One cannot achieve a healthy religious pluralism by pretending that robust mutual respect for religious diversity exists where it does not exist. Fostering healthy pluralism, which democracy demands, means confronting intolerance.”
tl;dr like Christians of yore, these guys still really don’t like us and harbour the same awful beliefs about us they’ve always held, but they see us as a means to an end and figure we’ll either convert or get our comeuppance after the end of days by living an eternity in hell. Oh, also a lot them see themselves as modern-day crusaders and therefore see themselves in a war against Islam on top of all this mishegas. So they’re using us as pawns for that, too. They’re hateful, nuts, and not to be trusted.
Ex fundie evangelical here! Everything said about the way these people talk about Jewish people is 100% true, and not just that, but taught from VERY early. I first remember hearing about this sort of thing at around 8, just before or after I was baptized. They only really went into it during events not really intended for “outsiders”, like revival weeks and special night services, but the passion in their voices when this shit came up is…. Intense.
Fun fact! Most “anti Christian propaganda” is just straight up shit that’s true. Christianity, but particularly evangelical and fundamentalist sects of Christianity, is violently antisemitic, and im genuinely surprised that more people don’t see that.