We have been hearing about some dinner at Mar-a-Lago, with Trump, Kanye West, and some other guy.
Who is he?
Kanye West brought Nick Fuentes to join Trump at dinner. Fuentes charmed Trump, telling him he was a big fan and that he loved the unscripted free-flowing Trump. Trump said he was impressed with him. Then Trump learned his background. Trump is backing away from Fuentes, saying he was a surprise guest, not a friend.
Christian nationalism is a theme within Trump's populist America First agenda, but it is rarely expressed as bluntly as it is by Fuentes. Fuentes is a holocaust denier and anti-Semite. Many Trump-supporting evangelicals are overtly pro-Israel and pro-Jew. Others are receptive to talk of George Soros conspiracies, Jewish influence, and replacement of Christians by Jews. Trump presumes Jews have "dual loyalty," and says there are "good people" among anti-Semites. The politics within evangelical Christian community is complex and in transition, so Fuentes is divisive within the Christian nationalist pro-Trump base.
21 comments:
Former Democratic Party Presidential contender Jesse Jackson called New York "HYMIE TOWN". Jesse don't like Jews.
Former Democratic Party Presidential contender Al Sharpton regularly condemns Jews. Al don't like Jews.
Hunter Biden regular regularly refers to Blacks as "Ni@@ers". That's been documented. Hunter don't like Black folks.
Nick Fuentes is a 24 year old jerk-off whom I never heard of until this week. He just got his 15 minutes of fame.
When it comes to racial discrimination, nobody beats the Democrats, the party of identity politics. Tell it like it is!
Jackson apologized for using that word in a private conversation. It was not part of his platform or a regular occurrence.
Please provide evidence about Hunter Biden and Al Sharpton, otherwise it is libel.
The use of the word "regularly" is particularly interesting.
Trump may say he didn’t know who Nick Fuentes is, but he lies a lot. Fuentes is one of this country’s most prominent white supremacists. He sees America’s “white demographic core” as central to its identity.
As president and leader of the Republican Party, Trump brought white supremacy back into the mainstream. They’re now an integral part of the GOP base, so it’s no surprise that Republicans pander to them. Like the Birther Movement or BM of old, their current “anti-woke” movement is the latest slop Republicans are throwing in their trough. In their view, only Hunter Biden and his legendary laptop poses a greater threat to the U.S. Well, maybe all those dark-skinned immigrants are equally dangerous.
According to an ADL press release on its website (dated 5-23-22) leading social justice groups in the US, including Sharpton's National Action Network, called for a national summit on right-wing extremism. It was issued after the racially motivated attack against black people in a grocery store in Buffalo, NY.
I have never understood antisemitism from any perspective, let alone as YHWH's chosen favorites, which this putative Christian Fuentes seems to forget.
They are recorded human history's pound-for-pound champions. No group has accomplished so much, without or without that nonpareil hate and affliction.
Relative predominance in certain industries from banking to entertainment is only because they were long unfairly barred from other professions and trades.
The 20th century was the century of Einstein, Marx and Freud, and Hitler and the Protocols be damned. I am a philo-semite. What choice is there, really?
I don't go out of my way to listen to Al Sharpton, but I'm pretty sure I've never heard him disparaging the Jewish people, unless he's putting down Netanyahu, the Israeli Drumpf.
Fuentes entire manifesto could not be further from the teaching of the leader he claims to follow. Unfortunately, like many well-meaning self-described Christians today, his theology is more shaped by his political ideologies rather than the other way around.
For a "Christian" provocateur like Fuentes (and those who follow him), one of the most cautionary scriptures should be when Jesus said “Not all those who say ‘You are our Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven... On the last day many people will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, we spoke for you....Then I will tell them clearly, ‘Get away from me, you who do evil. I never knew you.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
Rarely, if ever, have I agreed so heartily with Low Dudgeon. When I was 7, we moved to new town, in Humboldt County and my folks needed to rent a place for a few months while construction if Dad's new business was completed. At one house, the potential Landlord told Dad she wouldn't rent to a Jew, and he responded with "Well, that lets us out".
I had to ask my Dad what a Jew was, and he just said "it's a different religion". Since we weren't church goers then, or ever, that always stick with me.
Al Sharpton was definitely an anti-semite. He purposely fomented a pogrom in Brooklyn in 1991.
Please, as a Jew, keep away from me anyone who aspires to be "pro-Jew." What did you mean by that ill-considered phrase? Did you mean someone who is welcoming and respectful towards members of religious and ethnic minorities? Then write that next time. I agree with something Dave Chapelle said on SNL: Don't ever put together the two words The and Jews (even if you're trying to say something flattering about "the Jews.").Characterizing someone as "pro-Jew is, to me, another formulation of the same problematic verbal construction. I would take Chapelle's line a step farther and say it's a mistake to put the word THE in front of any ethnic or racial or religious grouping. I don't want to hear what "the Muslims" are thinking or what "the disabled" are doing or what "the Blacks" want. It's overgeneralizing and stereotyping.
Please.
Many Trump-supporting Christian nationalists do in fact think of themselves as pro-Jew. They perceive Jews as a separate tribe within humanity and one anointed by God as the "chosen people." They look for opportunities to support Israel and people they understand to be Jewish by ethnicity or religious persuasion. Examples of this would be supporting Jewish organizations, supporting the Jewish side in conflicts with other religions, and in opposing anti-Semitism. In some respects it is simply the analogue and opposite of Anti-Semitism. In their millennial aspirations, some people think that Jews and Israel have a special place in the playing out of end times, which they encourage.
Racial and ethnic constructs are real as ideas, if not exactly in biology. Yet these are constructs that have meaning for some people. There are anti-Semites. There are people who are "fans" of Jews. I cannot substitute "Israel" for "Jew" or "Jewish" because the affinity of many of those people are most certainly not for the nation. It is for what they consider a tribe and they consider that category meaningful.
I want to be respectful, and I will endeavor to use the right words. I am gathering that the word "Jewish" as an adjective is OK, but the noun "Jew" is not. We do this in English. On TV advertisements can refer to "penile tissue" but not "penis." To "vaginal" but not "vagina." I am open to instruction. Is there any noun that can be used respectfully to describe Jewish people as a group?
Peter Sage
I wish to be respectful in describing categories and groups.
Dale—
If our society chooses to place great positive emphasis and importance upon cultural constructs like race and ethnicity as such, including explicitly for purposes of social policy and political science, shouldn’t we decline, absent antipathy or hate, to require some sort of dance of the seven veils around what are practically indistinguishable forms of usage?
That said, unless I missed it the words “the Jews” have not appeared in this post in or the comments anyway. It’s Biblical, eh? Moreover, the formulation you introduced, “pro-Jew”, even if it were offensive, is not an accurate synonym of my “philo-semite”, assuming that’s part of what you’re objecting to. A philo-Semite is by definition loving or praiseful of Jews.
A couple of literary references spring to mind. One is from Hamlet, as in the penchant to honor something in the breach rather than in the observance; the other from Eco: “Ma gavte la nata”. I own I have corks too.
Speaking as a Jew, I find nothing offensive about what Peter said. It’s the name of my tribe, and I am proud of my tribe. Given the persecution we Jews have experienced for the past 5,000 years, I am happy to have anyone declare their support for us, regardless of the specific terminology they use.
I am pretty sure that if Peter had said something like, “Hitler hated the Jews“, Dale would have had no problem with Peter's use of the phrase. What Peter did say was obviously not derogatory towards the Jews.
It’s completely unreasonable to expect people speaking their minds to avoid causing discomfort to everyone within hearing. Context and intentions matter, and no speaker can anticipate the internal emotional reactions of every single person. Free speech is an important value of our culture.
Speaking of the Jews as “The Chosen People“ reminds me that I have always thought that Abraham should’ve asked what we were being chosen for before signing up.
Or, in the immortal words of Bob Dylan:
God say to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe say, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No", Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
Next time you see me comin', you better run"
Abe say, "Where you want this killin' done?"
God say, "Out on Highway 61"
— Highway 61 Revisited
Just a little historical note:
In 1991 there were terrible race riots in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights. A black child was killed and a Jew was killed. Al Sharpton showed up to put in his two cents worth well after the rioting began. To say he “fomented a pogrom” is beyond hyperbole. A pogrom is an organized massacre. Sharpton didn’t foment it and it wasn’t a pogrom. He’s just another two-bit political opportunist – something all races, religions and political persuasions have a glut of.
Mr. T—
Salubrious transition—or distillation— via R. Zimmerman. As a music-loving Gentile, I well remember relevant singers, songwriters, composers and violinists. Moved on to philosophers, painters, novelists, historians, playwrights, actors and producers, and we still haven’t touched on the outsized share of the best doctors, lawyers and financiers. As an ultimately lowbrow person I suggest we leave the pertinent summaries to the likes of Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks, and maybe Sarah Silverman. In terms of the potential overlap of genes and lived experience, let’s throw in for the sake of argument representative matchmaker Dolly Levi. Diversity, and discrete identities, is our strength, eh? Be intellectually and ethically consistent, good progressives.
The black kid was killed in a car accident. The Jew was killed on purpose by an antisemitic mob of blacks who had been revved up by a demagogue named Al Sharpton. Equating those two events is an obscenity.
Jew is Not a "bad" word. To check double-check myself in the year 2022, I googled: Is Jew a bad word? Answer: Absolutely not. Google it.
Another example (similar but also different): Is feminist a bad word? Absolutely not. But some idiots will try to use it as a bad word (insult).
Other terms for Jew could be Hebrew or Israelite...but not exactly.
The Christian Right lives in hope that Jews will eventually be Born Again & convert. They see Christianity as Judaism "perfected." It is actually a form of anti-Semitic, religious bigotry.
Although I not Jewish, I grew up with Jewish friends, babysat for Jewish families, dated a Jewish person, took a Judeo Studies class in college, etc. It is ok to say Jew.
To correct myself, it was an Introduction to Judaic Studies class (not Judeo Studies). It was decades ago. It was a good class.
The bill of indictment against Al Sharpton for hateful antisemitic slurs and deadly rabble-rousing is long and bloody, and collated by sources that progressives consider reputable. Seth Mandel for the Washington Post on 8/1/19 is the best example.
As Mandel notes, most of the mainstream left simply agreed over time to issue Sharpton a pass. As a U.S. Rep., Joe Scarborough denounced Sharpton on the House floor as a dangerous bigot. Last week the Right Reverend joined Joe on MSNBC denouncing bigotry.
Part of the picture surely is that the most frequent non-government visitor to the Obama White House was Al Sharpton. Crown Heights began with reactions to a despicable anitsemitic rant by a CCNY professor, who just happens to be Hakeem Jeffries' father.
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