““Anti-semitism is a primitive critique of the world, of capitalist modernity. The reason I regard it as being particularly dangerous for the left is precisely because anti-semitism has a pseudo-emancipatory dimension that other forms of racism rarely have”I… Don’t get what this means entirely.
What part of it are you unsure about?
- what’s seemingly emacipatory about anti-semitism?
- is that even attractive to the Left?
- anti-semitism has been around a lot longer than capitalism.
- most recent left wing anti-semitism has consisted of either 1. Stanning bloodthirsty Palestinian terrorists and calling any Jew who worries about this a Zionist Imperialist, 2. Purity-testing Jews to require them to be anti-zionist, and 3. Treating Jewish solidarity as hostile because it isn’t controlled by the Woke like black / gay / etc solidarity is. So I’m not really seeing the quasi-liberatory side.
The uncharitable explanation: For “emancipatory,” read “leftist.”
The more-reasonable explanation: Most forms of racism and ethnic hatred center on the vilification of an “other” who is depicted as a lower life form – lazy, stupid, incompetent, threatening only in its numbers and its capacity for violence. Spending all your time dwelling on your hatred of rats is demeaning and poisonous to the soul, even completely leaving aside the part where the “rats” are actually people. Antisemitism, as it is commonly practiced, involves vilifying a very different kind of “other.” Jews are portrayed as sinister, canny, deceptive, manipulative masterminds of great power. There is something ennobling about being the hero who faces off against such a villain, and so antisemitism possesses an intellectual draw that other forms of racism and ethnic hatred lack.