The hypocrisy and gall of political extremists knows no bounds, that is a given, but the latest example perpetrated by certain elements of the far Left deserve consideration for an alltime special award. Of course, I should have sen it coming, but this took even me by surprise.
One of the oldest known conspiracy theories known to man is the idea of a so-called vast “Zionist conspiracy”, which goes back well beyond theformationof the State of Israel, back to the formulation of a plot by the Russian Secret Police of something known as “The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion”. This was supposed to a seriesof documents which amounted to a secret plan by Jewish Financiers to control the world through their various governemnts. It was widel discredited as a hoax, but nevertheless has been used to varyng degrees of success toencourage anti-Semitism, resulting in pogroms of Jews, and not only in
The Far Right elements have always had a grave distrust of the Jewish people, fo the most part, with the exception of certain fundamentalist Christian sects, and some of them have brought into it as well. It is an all but required belief among various Neo-Nazi groups, who still yet hold to the idea of a vast “Zionist” conspiracy to control the U.S. government, as well as the mass media, and banking, and business, and labor, etc., on behalf of the Zionist aspirationsof the Jewish people, particularly in regards to the well-being of the Jewish state of Israel. And of course various Jewish lobbying groups are yet another tool by which the Zionists control
In the meantime, beginning especially in the sixties and on through the seventies, and eighties, Liberal groups typically denounced such ravings as elements of Anti-Semitism. From denying the Holocaust, to belief in Jewish domination of business and media, and governemnt, all of it, was an Anti-Semitic scourge believed by bigots and idiots, by Nazis and other assorted racists like the Klan. Anybody that believed in the “Zionist” conspiracy, to even a small degree, they insisted, were all alike.
Even to wonder at the existence of Jewish lobbying groups ws to risk being tarred and feathered with the label of “Anti-Semitism”. You were to all intnets and purposes no better than Hitler.
Then came
Incensed at the War in Iraq, and even in Afghanistan, and enraged by the prospect of the Patriot Act, and the ever widening aspects of George Bush’s “War on Terror”, on down through the concept of the Department of Homeland Security, they insist that this is in large part driven by Jewish interests. Some even rattle off that the Jews were actually behind 9/11, and the
It is all part, they claim, of a “vast Zionist conspiracy”. This conspiracy, they insist, is driven in part by Jewish domination of government, the media, banking, and business. But that’s just the beginning. Next comes the really crazy part. Next comes the part that is ripe with hypocrisy, with a capitol H.
They are NOT Anti-Semitic. Yes, I know. That is also the laughable part. hen the Neo-Nazis and the Klan and other far Right-Wingers warnedof the dangersof Zionism, they were denounced as anti-semitic for doing so. Yet, when they do the same thing-they insist they are not anti-Semitic.
Maybe they are just a bunch of crazy fucking lunatics, then?
2 comments:
Well, I know what you're saying. And, I've actually complained about these people, written letters against their "divestment" campaigns, and so forth.
But, do you think that maybe the lunatics are getting too much attention? It seems like the Militiamen and Fred Phelps types on the right and the International A.N.S.W.E.R. and Noam Chomsky types on the left are annoying, but probably not that influential. Maybe they're the 21st century equivalent of the crank at the bar.
You might be right, and I guess I notice them more because of my involvement with certain yahoo e-mail groups where they spout off. The extremes of both sides have always had voices that are far louder in proportion to their actual numbers. But, in this day of the Internet, their message is disseminated to a far greater extent than before.
Worse, they poison the well of genuine political debate, and, unfortunately, they tend to more and more control the debate. That is why both political parties play up to them in the primaries, they make up a great lot of the volunteer door kockers, phone bank workers, and for that matter, donors.
The Far Right fringe took over the Republican Party in 1964, with disastrous results, for them. And the Far Left has become ever more influential over the years with the Democratic Party, though there was a brief respite from this with Clinton in the nineties with the Democratic Leadership Council.
I am afraid, however, that, as both the Far Left and The Far Right gain more and more influence on respectively the Democratic and Republican Parties,they both become ever more shrill, ever more fanatical, and ever more looney.
I just tend to be harder on the Left-and the Democrats for playing up to them-because I happen to be a Democrat and, on most issues (though not all of them)I am actually quite Liberal. As such, they irk me far more, though both are a danger, when at most they should be a mere annoyance, a nuisance to be laughed at and otherwise avoided. But it is hard to find any humor in their antics these days.
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