Posted by: Doug Henwood | November 30, 2010

Clarification on anti-Semitism

I asked here (An apology) why the evil financiers are almost always Jews. This prompted an email from someone saying that it sounded like anti-Semitism. It was most certainly not. It was an ironic (and apparently not successfully so) question about how conspiracy types so often flirt (or worse) with anti-Semitism. Also, a lot of populist critiques of finance traffic in covert or overt anti-Semitism. I should resurrect an old polemic on that topic and post it here soon. Sorry if there was any misunderstanding.

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Responses

  1. It was clearly ironic, and well put, in my opinion. No need to apologize for other people being obtuse.

  2. I’ve gotten myself into a LOT of trouble lately with irony…ugh

  3. Reading McLean and Nocera’s /All the Devils are Here/ I was surprised at how many of the names (not all Devils) in the index end in vowels: Paul Abbamanto, Maria Bartiromo, Joe Cassano, Ralph Cioffi, Alberto Cribiore, Alano Grinspanio, Andrew Cuomo, Enrico Dallavecchia, Angelo Mozilo Armando Falcone, Lew Ranieri, John Gamboa, etc. etc.

  4. I think most of us got what you were saying. Maybe you should have provided a definition of irony in footnotes or something.

  5. “Reading McLean and Nocera’s /All the Devils are Here/ I was surprised at how many of the names (not all Devils) in the index end in vowels:”

    Ponzi? Sacco? Vanzetti? Al Pacino? Bobby Deniro?

  6. The tone in which you meant it was perfectly obvious to this Jew. No apology needed.

  7. Ok, no more apologies for irony! Promise!

  8. maybe an irony smilie?
    http://www.flamencodancer.eu/blog/wp-content/themes/df_new/images/smiley_xmas_irony.gif

  9. I’m glad to read this. Now if you’d only stop comparing Israel to Nazi Germany as you have in the past(if memory serves), that would be really nice!
    Plus if you’d be just as critical of say, the government of Colombia, calling for boycotts of Colombian academics etc., the way you have with Israel(again if memory serves).

  10. Ed Beaugard seems to be following the hasbara script outlined by Gabriel Ash, especially the part about “everything sucks”. This is a predictable old trope that they never tire of peddling.

  11. I understood what you meant. I guess people who don’t have the misfortune of running into zany conspiracy types wouldn’t understand that these characters are quite often practice antisemitism lite.

  12. [...] and “the neocons” as a malevolent cabal of Jewish string-pullers. Why, Doug Henwood asks, “are the evil financiers almost always [...]


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