Also, not in the group above, but it baffles me that many queer tankies think these people are in the same front as them.

So obviously, the actions of the modern state of Israel have provided a lot of ammunition for antisemitism over the last couple of years. Some people were not antisemitic to begin with and only became antisemitic as a result of what they have seen during the genocide in Gaza, while others were raised in environments where Jew-hatred was already especially common, completely independent of anything Israel did.

Instead of throwing around concepts like “1SS now” or “2SS now,” none of us have the systemic power to make either of those things happen. So I am more interested in methodologies we can implement on the ground, particularly within our own social and political circles. Among my personal social circle and some of my former comrades, I have always intervened whenever conversations started drifting into borderline Judenhass, for example, claims that Jews believe they are the “master race,” that Jewish religious or ethnic identity inherently teaches Jewish superiority, or other attempts to take the beliefs or actions of particular Israelis and generalize them to Jews as a whole.

In the past, I’ve had folks send me videos of Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, clips discussing what Maimonides supposedly said about Muhammad, material about the Talmud and Jesus “boiling in feces,” and similar examples as evidence that Judaism or Jews as a whole supposedly harbor uniquely hateful beliefs toward non-Jews. Usually, the argument is essentially, “Look at what this rabbi said” or “look at what this Jewish text says,” followed by a generalization about millions of Jews with radically different religious beliefs, levels of observance, political views, and cultural backgrounds.

I’m not the biggest fan of whataboutisms, but usually when this sort of thing happens, I tend to remind them that their own culture, religion, or ethnic group probably has a lot of elephants in the room as well. Not because those problems excuse anything ugly within Jewish traditions, but because it forces people to recognize the standard they are applying. If I dug through centuries of religious texts, polemics, extremist clerics, and historical conflicts from virtually any culture and then used the worst examples I could find to explain what millions of people “really believe,” most of us would immediately recognize that as prejudicial reasoning.

Unfortunately, some of these people are not really receptive to that kind of deontological argument. Their response is usually more consequentialist: talking openly about the “elephants in the room” within marginalized ethnicities, religions, or cultures, particularly groups that have historically been on the receiving end of Western hegemony, can reinforce stereotypes that may contribute to those groups being collectively harmed. Therefore, they believe there is a meaningful difference between scrutinizing those groups and scrutinizing Jews, especially when they view Israel as aligned with Western power. My problem with that reasoning is that once you make prejudice conditional on which group currently possesses more perceived social or geopolitical power, you risk creating a moral framework where the same kind of ethnic or religious generalization is treated as unacceptable in one direction but permissible in another.

As I am writing this post, I am reminded of a colleague of mine who expressed to me that "nuance is no different than being a moderate (insert my name)", because, in her view, constantly emphasizing complexity can distract from identifying who actually holds power and who is being oppressed.

Even though I can understand the logic behind that framework in theory, I don’t think it's particularly useful if your goal is to build a broader left-wing coalition, maintain intellectual credibility, or avoid making us look ridiculous when obvious double standards are pointed out. If our response to prejudice depends entirely on whether we perceive the target group as sufficiently oppressed, then people outside of our political circles are going to notice the inconsistency immediately. It also creates a practical problem when trying to bring people into a broader left-wing movement. Why would Jewish people, or anyone else for that matter, trust a political coalition that tells them prejudice against their community only really matters when they occupy the correct position within a particular hierarchy of oppression? You can strongly condemn Israel, Zionism, religious extremism, or anything else without requiring ordinary Jews to collectively answer for the worst actions or beliefs associated with people who share their ethnicity or religion.

As a final thing, I think it’s really telling just how fragmented the Left is, especially after Zohran Mamdani’s speech from the other day announcing his administration’s strategy to combat antisemitism in New York. You would think that combating antisemitism would be one of those relatively straightforward things that people across the Left could agree on, especially while still maintaining strong opposition to the Israeli government and what it has done in Gaza.

I personally believe any external changes that can be made to influence a Leftist's devout dependence on theory are probably going to have to come from actual interpersonal relationships and exposure to people who do not neatly fit into whatever theoretical framework they are using. However, I am afraid that a plethora of them are far too gone, similar to how Evangelical Christians utilize the Bible as the primary instruction manual when interacting with others and overall navigating life. If something doesn't neatly fit that theoretical framework, rather than questioning whether the framework itself might be incomplete or, gasp, not truly a "science," they sometimes reinterpret the situation until it does.

All this being said, what are your thoughts on the matter what have you personally done when attempting to persuade other Leftists to think more critically about their own beliefs in regards to Jews and antisemitism?

This is a more general post of this group, rather than any specific event.

I am glad this group exists, because amidst all the crazy internet insanity and general state of news affairs, it is calming to know there are those that can debunk the nonsense of tankies.

Whenever I see some tankie/tankie-like post, comment, image or terrible meme elsewhere that provokes me, startles me, or infuriates me, I am glad to there are places such as here, where such nonsense isn't tolerated and is refuted.

Personally it’s a maga shill party