The League of Irrational Gentlemen

Still frame of Abe Foxman of the ADL from Defamation (2009).

Many people have written their 9-11 experience story, but for me it wouldn't be that interesting. I was in earth science class, sophomore year of high school, and most of the kids didn't take the images on the TV seriously, and neither did I. And at the same time I've been listening to a lot of people (Jews and non-Jews) fighting over anti-Semitism. Yesterday a YouTuber that I watch, a harsh critic of Israel, posted a movie called Defamation by Yoav Shamir (Spoiler Alert).It details the frenzy over the "new anti-Semitism" and was released in 2009 sometime around the period when I returned to the USA. In the movie, there is a murky debate raging between Shamir, the then-head of the ADL (Abe Foxman), Israeli teens visiting death camps, Orthodox Jews in Moscow, and far-left anti-Israel activists like Norman Finkelstein and Uri Avnery over what anti-Semitism is. Watching the film it drove me to conclude that (regardless of the faults of all the other people in the film) the ADL has been an awful organization for a very long time. The current leader Jonathan Greenblatt is a horrible pro-censorship tool of the liberal establishment, but Foxman was also a horrible leader. A couple years ago I called his group the A&ADL (Aiding and Abetting Defamation League). I'll explain why. . .

Natural negativity

Earlier today as a thunderstorm was raging I went outside and watched it drench the grass. There were many lightning strikes in the area and it seemed like a scene out of the Perfect Storm. So eventually I went back inside. When extreme weather hits we're all advised to seek shelter, but no one rational asks "how can we prevent storms?" Poor weather, even destructive weather, is part of the natural course of events.

Deep hatred is in many ways like that. Human beings don't treat everyone the same as much as people want it to be so, and unfortunately people also find reasons whether justified or not to hate other people. For Abe Foxman and Jonathan Greenblatt the answer to anti-Semitism is to raise a battleaxe every time and declare the offending person to be basically the most horrible thing in the world. There's no real reason to their method, it's just a reflexive expression of outrage about how old myths and tropes are being used to demonize Jews again, and that this is how Hitler came to power. Unfortunately, thanks to people that evoke Hitler all the time, it has become fashionable to call everyone and anyone Hitler. In a very key point in the movie Finkelstein yells at Shamir (who is rather left-wing himself) that to call Foxman Hitler would be an "insult to Hitler, because at least he didn't do it for the money".

Yelling epithets at one another is no way to respond to actually, but the ADL is an epithet machine, and they are NOT helping to combat hate but rather giving it further ammunition. Censoring YouTube channels that are hateful does not refute the views and beliefs of the people that run them and their fans but emboldens them and validates the perception in their own minds that they are being persecuted.

If you are concerned about the spread of anti-Semitism, I encourage a different approach. You have to answer rumours and allegations even if many times they appear either irrational or inflammatory with a calm and reasoned rebuttal. If the person is not reasonable enough to take your response seriously, it may not be useful to engage anymore in any sort of back and forth with them. Those that think that reporting people on social media, doxxing them, or getting them banned will change anyone's mind is mistaken.

Play for the audience, not the opponent

One of the best pieces of advice that I've heard comes from former Secret Service agent and pundit Dan Bongino who says that when in an argument it is fruitless to attempt to convince a stubborn opponent. However, the people that can be swayed are those that are observing on the sidelines.

This ties us back to 9-11. After seeing an Unz Review and MintPress News article claiming that new FBI declassified documents could validate the "Dancing Israelis" narrative explaining a broader Mossad-Saudi conspiracy behind the attacks, I read through it and realized that just the opposite was the case. So I penned a rebuttal on this blog directly citing where in both the photographs and FBI file text that not only was MintPress and Unz Review wrong but they were ignoring exculpatory evidence that cleared the five Israelis in question.

After posting the blog, I heard a couple weeks earlier that a different YouTuber that I know was going to discuss the evidence concerning the "Dancing Israelis" theory. His audience includes many people that one could easily say are "anti-Semites". However, based on my previous work I knew that he would at least give my post a serious read on the air. During the live-stream where he read it, I did notice that the usual people were totally unconvinced in the chat and popping off about the same themes. But later I heard back from other listeners that they had clicked on the actual article, read through it, and it had given them some closure to the issue, or they had changed their mind about the theory.

Problems justify solutions

The ADL has never tried such an approach. They believe that by labelling and muting the most abrasive voices they create a harmonious consensus. This is like thinking that if you use an angle grinder while putting on noise cancelling headphones, you're not creating the noise in the first place. In the film Shamir seems to show that while there is anti-Semitism (I personally call it anti-Judaism) the intensity and motives that are behind it are not accurate according to the ADL. He shows nearly everyone in an unflattering light, but it's largely because they give him plenty of material. Foxman shows repeatedly that he cannot control his anger and that he is willing to break certain ethical codes of behaviour in order to get his way.

Greenblatt is far too savvy to get caught on camera saying and doing the things that Foxman did, but he is if anything worse, as exhibited by its recent decision to smear Pewdiepie (Felix Kjellberg), a Swedish video game enthusiast with an audience of over 100 million subscribers, for being an anti-Semite due to childish jokes that he made concerning Nazis. This prompted Pewdiepie to donate $50,000. What response has that garnered? His own fans reject it because they know the criticism was unwarranted, his critics continue to scorn his effort to make amends. . . and the ADL gets the publicity and donation. Bravo, I guess a lot of intolerant minds have been changed today. Were it not for real or imagined shadows of anti-Semitism, they could not justify their black tie dinners, conventions, and summits with powerful leaders. Until there is a groundswell among Jewish Americans to reject these tactics, the ADL and other organizations will likely do more to aggravate anti-Jewish sentiment than assuage it.