I never thought it would come to this. I was a fan, an admirer, I thought even a friend of Maryscott O'Connor. I was also one of the original posters at My Left Wing. No longer. But it's worse. If it were just a disagreement, I would go quietly. But My Left Wing has embraced the very ugliest edges of the left wing, going so far it meets itself at the other end. My Left Wing is an absolute hotbed of virulent anti-Semitism. The most recent diary there is entitled "Goodbye, Cruel Jews," and concludes:
I now find myself, for the first time in my life, hating Jews.
...
I find myself thinking that Proximity perhaps has the right idea, that Jews regard other human beings as objects, to be sacrificed to the interests of Jews. That Jews will always stand with other Jews no matter their guilt, and against non-Jews, no matter their innocence. The face of Jews has become unspeakably ugly in my sight, because of the ugliness of the Jewish haters here.
Follow the link if you dare. See how many people tell the diarist how much they appreciate her input and beg her to stay. BEG THE JEW-HATER TO STAY! A site that calls itself "My Left Wing" begs the Jew-hater to stay, INCLUDING A MODERATOR.
What is this all about, you ask? Let me tell you, because there really IS an ugly underbelly, and the most important thing to understand is that MLW has become a safe place for people to SAY these things, its denizens are not the only ones who think them.
As you might expect, the beginning of all this was I/P debates. In my own opinion (I state that up front, becase ultimately the starting point becomes irrelevant) it was prophylactic demands "don't call me an anti-Semite" to run cover for hatred. But it pretty quickly tipped into obvious anti-Semitism. Let me give you a few examples:
Zionists are like Nazi's. You don't want to win them over.
Did you mean to say "Zionism created the Holocaust?" The statement on its face makes sense, because Zionism benefitted from the Holocaust.
Remember Eileen? She gives us the theory David ben Gurion killed Kennedy. And the funny thing? Other posters agreed with and/or defended her.
So, we have every reason to expect that were another heretical prophet to return with the same message that Jesus is supposed to have taught, then, if the society provided Jewish decision-makers with a similar opportunity to see the heretic put to death, that they would not pass that opportunity up.
Okay, that's pretty damned bad- not only a repeat of the deicide accusation, but a claim "the Jews" would do it again." But you know what makes it worse? MSOC's own reaction:
Proximity is NOT anti-Semitic.
Period.
Proximity, by the way, is the guy who posted this:
Did you know Jews were responsible for their own persecution? I didn't:
As I've put it elsewhere, if I belonged to a religion that claimed being the target and the victim of more than five thousand years of intermittent if not, indeed, sustained animosity, or worse -- prejudice, discrimination, hatred, the possible terms are many and varied -- I'd examine very closely and critically what my religious leaders and holy sages were instructing me to believe and I'd start to question whether the faults were all on the side of those who are held to be antagonistic to my religion
and how does MLW's proprietor respond?
It's worth discussing, and I think you've approached this with a respectful and dispassionate tone and attitude. I see no attempt to drum up a flame war or provoke, in an unwarranted fashion, an incendiary series of comments disguised as a "discussion."
The heat got to be a bit too much for MSOC, who was trying desparately to defend him. So she tried to feed him the words to say:
"Jews have it coming"
I'm not buying it.
He does not say that. He never says that.
proximity, could you please jump in here and, in plain language, either affirm or deny the charge that you think Jews are partially to blame for the Holocaust, that they "had it coming" because of their self-identification as Jes?
PLAIN LANGUAGE, remember. Don't couch it in intellectual academic language this time. Just be PLAIN.
Yes or no --
* Do Jews "have it coming" when they are assaulted while walking down the street in conservative garb -- the hats and curly hair on either side of the face, the little caps (can't think of the word), that sort of thing?
* Did Jews "have it coming" when they were dragged from their homes and slaughtered in the Holocaust?
* Did Jews "have it coming" when their villages were burned and they were systematically either killed, beaten or simply driven from their homes and forced to walk hundreds of miles to find another place to live during the pogroms in Russia?
* Do Jews "have it coming" when racists in the south burn crosses on their lawns?
I'd like a straight yes or no answer, proximity, to these questions.
His response?
Tell me something, MSOC. In your opinion: does the fact that their [Jews'] persecution is not "deserved" mean that they have no part, no role and no responsibility whatsoever in any aspect of it, however small?
That is what I understand that Kane, Paul, dhonig (and who knows who else) would love to insist.
This may be thought a crude and insensitive analogy, but damnit, does a guy who's found in bed with his neighbor's wife deserve to get his brains blown out for it? In my opinion, no, he doesn't. But, also in opinion, there's a certain part he has in the fact that his neighbor flew into a rage and unjustifiably blew his brains out.
That's an unpopular opinion. So be it. I don't and I won't hold Jews absolutely and completely free of any-- even partial-- responsibility for the fact that others' have over long periods practiced unjustified persecutions of them. But that doesn't mean that "they deserved it," that they "had it coming" in any particular set of circumstances.
You really did read that right. The six million murdered by Hitler, the millions over millenia murdered by every society in Europe, were just like a guy screwing the neighbor's wife, because that is a sin akin to being Jewish. This might not surprise you by this point, but he's still posting there.
The favorite author of these people, by the way, is Israel Shahak. If you want to know more about him just google David Duke, KKK, or Stormfront. They are not only his biggest fans, but their plaudits are on his book jackets. I wrote a bit about him HERE, but he's still a favorite at My Left Wing.
Here's another regular:
Moore goes after the rich and powerful, those that sanction the conditions under which we all live, and that's why they call him names and threaten him with institutionalization in insane asylums. Christ fell into their clutches and paid with his life. Peace
and from the same poster:
The fact is that Christ was a Jew and the Jewish hierarchy thought it best that his life be ended and it was. On a cross just about the time an eclipse happened. That it was a Roman who nailed him to the cross is an administrative detail.
Here's something I didn't know- Jews lived privileged lives in the Middle Ages and ewre responsible for their persecution:
In fact, I'm sure that there were occasions when Jews were attacked without their having done anything immediately antecedent to provoke the attacks. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean that the people attacking them were without either precedant experiences which motivated their animosities. History, I can now better see, isn't "neat" and "clearcut". The people responsible for harsh treatment of the serf society in their proximity are not necessarily the same ones which the serfs vent their grievances upon. Does that surprise you? Do you think medieval serfs who've lived under the heel of a certain group of Jewish society's privileged can and should take careful account of chains of cause and effect before lashing out at people they identify as their oppressors? Should they say to themselves, "Wait, these aren't the very same individuals who've long oppressed us. Some are their offspring. Some are newly arrived immigrants, therefore, it would be wrong for us to rise up against them even though many of their number are doing similar things or the same things to us that others like them did to us or our parentage" etc.?
The "money-changers" are in charge of the Temple and there is a new wind blowing which will "shake your windows and rattle your walls". Peace
By the way, even MSOC agrees this poster is an anti-Semite. Funny thing though, they're still posting. And s/he says:
It's all the fault of Moses
Exodus Chapter 7, 8, 9,10 and 11. First this guy turns his "staff" into a snake which was a hugh hit with the ladies. But, rather then stopping there, he tells a superstitious Pharao that unless you let my peeps go "I'll have God rain down 10 plagues upon your head." Then lickety-split rivers turn to blood, frogs pop up all over the place, gnats descend by the millions, billions of flies join the gnats, then boils show up on everybody, pestilence breaks out, hail falls and smushes the crops, locusts come and eat what the hail didn't destroy, then an eclipse happens and to top it all off the oldest child in each family dies. Any good scientist will tell you that all of those things are natural occurrences which follow one after the other. But, Pharao and his flock weren't scientists, they were nitwits who thought that Moses had made God punish them. Moses didn't disabuse them of their silly notions because he wanted out of Egypt with his tribe. Right off the bat the Jews placed themselves in the position of being mistrusted and feared. Fast forward 1300 years and the corrupt Sanhedrin off's a popular prophet and the bad press continues for another thousand years. Prisoners of their own devices. Peace
I truly never thought I would read crap like this on a left-wing site. But there it is. And just in case you're curious, the "I hate Jews" diary has received several recommendations over there.
Why do I write this here? I really don't know. Perhaps the words "never again" take on even greater meaning when the hatred is coming from the left and the right. Perhaps it is valid to remind ourselves once in a while that hate really has no political affiliation, and that evil comes from every direction.