• Valbrandur@lemmygrad.ml
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      11 months ago

      Since when is “rabid dog” an antisemitic dogwhistle? Or is any criticism of Israel written with the use of literary devices to be labelled as an antisemitic dogwhistle?

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        Since when is “rabid dog” an antisemitic dogwhistle?

        Since anti-semites called Jews dogs in their anti-semitic propaganda dating back over a century.

        is any criticism of Israel written with the use of literary devices to be labelled as an antisemitic dogwhistle?

        No, use of literary devices to criticize Israel is not an anti-semitic dogwhistle. Specifically referring to them as dogs is.

          • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            With a very well documented history in anti-Semitic propaganda. We can criticize Israel without using phrases that attract white supremacists to our spaces

            • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
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              11 months ago

              What? Dog in reference to “Jewish” people has always been towards the gentiles, it even shows up in the Bible.

              Dog is a basic insult and not a slur or antisemitic. History and linguistics does not agree with you.

              Here’s Cambridge even saying the same.

              • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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                11 months ago

                Hey thanks for this. You are correct that I was confused. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

                The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

            • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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              11 months ago

              Could you provide sources for it being specifically used as antisemitic dogwistle, especially that you claim it’s very well documented? Calling any ethnoreligious group “dogs” is of course not very nice (good that nobody here did it), but i relly never heard of thar particlar insult being specifically antisemitic unlike let’s say “k_kes” or “l_ce” or many others which do have specific context.

              • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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                11 months ago

                I dug for sources and discovered I was wrong. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs, as you said.

                The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

                • boboblaw [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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                  11 months ago

                  Yeah, the antisemitic comparisons I’ve seen have typically been in the “vermin” category. Implying that Jews need to exterminated. I guess dogs wouldn’t fit the rhetoric well because people are generally sympathetic to dogs…

                  I know the dog comparison is used pejoratively in a couple of other languages, but the connection there seems to be to dogs barking - basically calling someone a nuisance.

                • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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                  11 months ago

                  Yeah, and respect for you for admitting it. For comparison, nazis also called Poles “pigs” with high consistence, but no one ever thought “pig” is antipolish slur since it’s also one of those often used by everyone, including Poles for Germans.

                  Now when i think of it Polish slurs for Germans are pretty weak considering the circumstances, we have “szkop” (castrated ram, but also from the specific nazi helmet shape looking like pot or from Czech word for “highlander”, literally “coming from up there”), “Helmut” (from the popular name), “Szwab” (from land of Swabia), even the worst case when we officially called the cockroach “Prusak” is also borrowed contextually from Czech language.

        • Valbrandur@lemmygrad.ml
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          11 months ago

          Jews aren’t being called “dogs”. The state of Israel is being called a rabid dog, and rightfully.

          Equating Israel with jewish people is one of the main tools that the PR teams of Israel and the IDF use to protect themselves from criticism of their genocidal expansion project, and you have fallen right into the trap.

        • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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          11 months ago

          Calling someone a “dog” isn’t a dogwhistle, I think you may be confused.

          Anti-semitic animal based dogwhistles are usually some form of vermin; rats, cockroaches etc. Things that are usually seen as in need of extermination.

          • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            Hey thanks for this. You are correct that I was confused. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

            The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

        • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          11 months ago

          They said the country of Isreal, not Jewish people. This only makes sense if you automatically equate the two. I understand the discomfort of proximity there, but you’re mischaracterizing what the other person said.

          • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            I am not saying the person is anti-Semitic, I’m saying it’s a dog whistle and I am criticizing their use of it. There is no mischaracterization going on here.

              • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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                11 months ago

                It turns out I was expressing a false belief.

                I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

                The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

          • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            Hey thanks for this. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

            The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

    • Bloobish [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      Israel the state does not represent Judaism nor ethnic Jews (just ask what happened to the Ethiopian Jews), it represent Zionism a movement fomented and supported by the Western colonial super powers before and after the World Wars as a means of creating a nationalistic foothold into the Middle East and thereby create monopolies of resources needed for the imperial cores at the time (and as a geopolitical soft/hard power for now). Saying someone wishes Israel as a state to no longer exist is not anti-semetic, it’s like saying someone that wishes for the dismantling of the US is wishing for genocide or something similarly overreaching and ignorant of materialistic context.

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        Israel the state does not represent Judaism nor ethnic Jews

        I am aware and agree.

        Saying someone wishes Israel as a state to no longer exist is not anti-semetic

        I agree.

        What I believed was that the use of “dog” was an anti-semitic dogwhistle with historical use as a call to oppression and genocide of Jews.

        Calling for the dismantling of Israel but using an anti-semitic dogwhistle with a history of calling for genocide blurs the line between legitimate criticism of Zionism and calling for anti-semitic genocide.

        As it turns out, I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

        The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

        Had the commenter said “Israel is a plague of rats that needs to be exterminated”, I believe I would have been justified in calling it out as using a dogwhistle. As it stands, however, I was wrong.

    • SovietyWoomy [any]@hexbear.net
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      11 months ago

      Israel is an illegitimate, genocidal state. Zionists want to spread the antisemitic lie that all Jewish people support their evil, and you’re helping them do that.

      Fuck you for implying that I support genocide because of my blood.

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        Israel is an illegitimate, genocidal state.

        Agreed.

        Zionists want to spread the antisemitic lie that all Jewish people support their evil

        Agreed.

        and you’re helping them do that

        Potentially inadvertently, due to a false belief. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

        The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

        Had you said “Israel is a plague of rats that needs to be exterminated”, I believe I would have been justified in calling you out for using a dogwhistle. As it stands, however, I was wrong.

        Fuck you for implying that I support genocide because of my blood.

        I don’t know what your blood is, so rest assured I implied nothing due to it.

        Additionally, I had no intention of implying you supported genocide. My intention was to accuse you of using dangerous language to express your perfectly valid point. Again, I was wrong about my beliefs of the history of those words.

        I apologize.

      • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        I don’t expect anyone to cater me. I expect to be able to express my beliefs and lived experience.

        In this case, it turns out my discomfort was based on a false belief. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

        The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

        • toomanyjoints69@lemmygrad.ml
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          11 months ago

          Speaking of, if you wanted a primarry source of Nazi antisemetism then watch The Eternal Jew. It is a Nazi propoganda movie that a lot of colleges make students watch as an excersise to show the climate of antisemetism. That one uses the rat insult a lot, and has some really traumatizing photage of a dead guy in a ghetto covered in rats as people walk past him.

          Watching that movie was very rough for me but I felt like I left with a better understanding of what living in Nazi Germany was like. I can’t imagine living in a world where something so brutal is just playing in movie theaters.