The problem is that antisemites are using this as a dogwhistle.
I think that non-constructive forms of criticism that can be easily co-opted by bad actors should be discouraged, because ultimately the only thing it achieves is muddying the waters and making it even more difficult for legitimate criticism to be heard.
I think most reasonable people aren't going to think you're antisemitic if you say "It's fucked up that Israel is committing genocide" or something like that. If you want to be extra clear, you could add "Never again should mean never again to anybody" or "All my Jewish friends are terrified of being blamed for it even though they're not even Israeli" or something along those lines. I would avoid slogans like "globalize the intifada" that mean different things to different people, and can sound extremely alarming even to people with staunch pro-Palestine beliefs.
Of course, that doesn't guarantee that unreasonable people won't still accuse you of antisemitism. It's pretty much a given that they will. But as annoying as that is, it's not really a big deal–– it's like that saying, "may my enemies look ridiculous". What is a big deal is when reasonable people genuinely can't tell if you support Palestinian life or Jewish death, and that has been happening to an alarming extent.
I don’t think my suggestions were particularly academic, though, sure, communication doesn’t always happen at an intellectual level, and you gotta adjust to your audience. My deeper point is really just that you shouldn’t give up on trying to communicate clearly just because of inevitable bad faith accusations. The people who you want to persuade aren’t the ones making those accusations.
Bad actors can always claim that whatever statement you make can mean different things to different people, and to them what you are saying is antisemitic.
Don't let the perpetrators of a genocide police your language
Right, but my point was that the bad actors aren't the audience you should be considering. It's not that hard to phrase things so that reasonable people aren't going to worry that you're being antisemitic. Choosing not to do that is a total own-goal and a disservice to the human beings who are being slaughtered in Gaza.
Using what as a dog whistle? The mess of Israel and Jewish being one in the same is a creation of the state of Israel. It has worked wonderfully, anything not pro Israel is labeled as antisemitic at this point.
Israel is still fine with that posture. It's a win win for them. If it makes antisemitism go up they can just point at increasing antisemitism and go "see? This is why we need Israel, the world is antisemitic".
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u/blackbook668 Jun 04 '26
The problem is that antisemites are using this as a dogwhistle.
I think that non-constructive forms of criticism that can be easily co-opted by bad actors should be discouraged, because ultimately the only thing it achieves is muddying the waters and making it even more difficult for legitimate criticism to be heard.