Really racist, really nuts, hitting on all the tropes and hatred you'd expect.

in kanye •  2 years ago 

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(My friend is Jewish)

Me: "I haven't really been following that close. What did Kanye actually say this time?"

My friend: "I dunno. I think he just said my people own media and Hollywood. And, you know... they do and he's just gonna have to get used to that." Shrugs shoulders

Also... Leave aside for a moment how true or not overrepresentation in these areas, from media to banking, actually is. It's always been super weird to me that antisemites use financial success as some kinda insult. It's like if someone who's racist against black people said "they're overrepresented in sports" and used athleticism as an insult, or someone who was racist against Asians said "they're overrepresented in math heavy professions" and used analytical skills as an insult.

It's never made any sense to me to see what are essentially positive stereotypes as negative qualities or whatever.

I guess it helps conspiracy theorists pin those conspiracies on a group if they think that group is powerful or whatever, but... It's just bizarre.

Also... For the record, my friend's dad was Jewish and her mom wasn't, so under Jewish law she ain't Jewish. It's still a part of her identity. Judaism is a religion, obviously, but Jewish also can refer to ethnicity or culture depending on the context.

So it got me thinking about appeals, intentionally or not, to racists through politics. I don't think it's a problem unique to libertarianism by any stretch, but I think certain types of racism have natural homes in certain political ideologies and parties that aren't exactly grounded in racism.

When I say it's not alone in attracting racists, you have to look no farther than the top US political groupings.

For instance, the Republican party has got a whole strain of nativist, anti-immigrant sentiment, and is virtually signaling against trans stuff, right or wrong. Tough on crime rhetoric that dovetails to minority suppression has been more at home in the GOP (than the Dems) my entire life. The Democrat party is currently lead by a president who literally opposed integration because he didn't want his children going to a "racial jungle" and supported all the excesses of the drug war and is constantly saying racist shit, running a party that literally thinks minorities aren't even capable of getting IDs or getting into college without discriminating against Asians.

I'd posit that those racist against, say, Mexicans... Are more at home in the Republican party, while those racist against whites and Asians are more at home in the Democrat party. Those racist against blacks because they're afraid of crime are more at home in the Republican party, and those racist against blacks because they think they're stupid are more at home in the Democrat party.

I do think anti-Semites are more attracted to libertarianism, though. So you gotta ask... why? And I think there's a few contributing factors. For one, opposition to central banking has been pretty central to the movement, especially post-Ron Paul. Many of the critiques of central banking definitely dovetail into negative tropes and conspiracies found elsewhere. For another, libertarians more than any other major political group, have been highly critical of Zionism, from the way Israel's most recent iteration was created, to it's actions against Palestinians, while both Rs and most Ds have been incredibly supportive of that state.

Then there's the whole "third party" (or in small l circles) third way thing. People who are politically conscious yet consciously avoid the major two parties, whether they're libertarian, green, constitution party, anarchist, or communist... are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. They're more likely to oppose major media and feel like their voices are being censored. The more likely you are to be opposed and feel oppressed by these institutions, and the more likely you are to believe there's something coordinated and sinister behind it, the more likely you are to buy into associated tropes. And I'd posit there's more people who are anti-Semitic in the LP, Green Party, and among commies and such in part because of that.

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