Antisemitism

[ericadawn16]

So our pest control man likes to talk when he comes to spray the house and it's fine when it's about his kids or his side business, but then he talks about politics and religion. My mom's been tempted to just ask him to stop because it really upsets her. Then, to make matters worse, last time he said how great it was that we never tell him off or anything, just let him talk.

I try to listen and not argue but not let it upset me that our views are so different...he says Fox News out of New York is the only REAL news outlet.

However, I just can't get over this one thing he said because I just don't understand it.

He said that Progressives were ALL Antisemitic.

Now, I wasn't about to get him started but HOW would he get that impression?

Now, I do realize we haven't been as buddy/buddy with Israel as in the past but I don't think we should favoring either them or the Palestinians. We should be neutral because we can never truly understand what it means to be either one. They've been at war for MILLENNIA, we've been a country for 234 years. There's no comparison.

I have an Israeli friend. We like to talk about Disney and animation. He told how he didn't like Monsters, Inc that much. I explained how much it meant so soon after 9/11.

He told me how he's lived like that EVERY DAY SINCE HE WAS BORN and that we were basically spoiled.

Comments

[imweirdlikethat.livejournal.com]

Maybe just start off with one issue at a time? Like, "Excuse me, but we have some Jewish friends, so it makes us uncomfortable when you say...." etc. Then maybe it'll be easier if he needs to be toned down in the future.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure you can even begin to have a sensible debate with somebody who believes Fox news is the only real news outlet...

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm going to say it. A lot of my fellow progressives are anti-semitic. They always say they are just anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian, but if you scratch below the surface you often find the typical anti-semitic crap - Jews have too much power, Jews should go back where they came from, etc. Suddenly the Israeli government becomes 'the Jews.'

Anti-semitism never goes out of style I'm afraid. And in this case, your plumber is right.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's sad. I've never noticed that. I think of myself as Progressive and I love all my Jewish friends. They might piss me off sometimes but that's what happens with people.

I try not to be "just anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian" because they both have bad and good points to their arguments and they're both just as guilty about doing bad things to the other.

I guess I was also annoyed at his use of "all progressives" since if you find one person who it doesn't apply to, then that hypothesis is automatically wrong. Since I'm not, my mom isn't and you're not, then it's a wrong statement although I suppose between you and some others, we'd have to amend to "a lot of Progressives" which is just...ugh.