11-26-2022, 09:47 AM
Illustration: about a quarter-century ago I was on the long-defunct news forums on the New York Times, and I encountered one "Thomas B Liar"
(and you will figure how I applied that moniker upon him easily. I ripped some right-wing pol in France for his anti-Muslim bigotry. "Thomas B Liar" shortly quipped:
"Hypocrisy comes easily to people who see themselves as God's Chosen People"
and
"I can't believe all the Jewish hypocrisy on this thread".
Not Jewish, I could not recognize how any of that applied to me. I see nothing wrong with Judaism, as aside from some rituals (every religion has those) and for the Orthodox, kashrut dietary laws (I enjoy pork and shellfish, thank you) Judaism is as pure morality as any religion. Conversion to Judaism is difficult, but if I had to choose between being a Nazi ("Thomas B. Liar" exposed that he was a Nazi-sympathizing creep) I would become a Jew because as a Jew I would need make neither cultural nor moral compromises except (if it had to be Orthodox) to give up cheese-and-meat sandwiches, pork, and shellfish. Too bad about cheese-and-meat sandwiches, pork, and shellfish, but at the least I am not going to cast children directly into a furnace or live inmates into a bear enclosure at an abutting zoo, or have dogs kill helpless prisoners -- all of which is what Nazis did. "Thomas B. Liar", not surprisingly, denied the Holocaust and claimed that Jews are all responsible for Communism to the exclusion of all other people (like, as one of the Jewish participants said "Kim il-Sungstein").
I left plenty of clues that I was not Jewish. I did not know about the Jewish holidays. I did not talk about "my" bar mitzvah, as I never experienced one. Methodists don't do them. I expressed the opinion that Nazis were going to Hell along with Stalinists as the most egregious sinners of all time after making allusions to Dante's Inferno, stating that Dante wrote it too early to account for those anti-human beasts as the most egregious violators of morality. I also told him that I was contemplating conversion to Judaism. Gentiles can convert to Judaism with difficulty; Jews are already there or else return.
In the end I got him to tell us all what he was protecting, and he said "Germans and German-Americans". I fit several Jewish stereotypes except for having an ordinary-sized nose, so I have heard some antisemitic slurs at times. They hurt. I hate those slurs and despise those who use them. I told him that I am a German-American, and that his attacks on me for being Jewish cause me to say "No thanks!" for his ostensible help. I have never experienced any hatred from Jews for German origin. Of course, I hate Nazis.
For being a comparatively small group of people thanks to the Holocaust and various persecutions and massacres in the past, Jews are no monolith. As for the infamous Protocols that defame Jews as a mass conspiracy to exploit and debase all gentiles whether a Jew is an infant or a senile old person, I concede much competence to many Jews. This said,competent people do not use conspiracies to get things done when toil, investment, cooperation with others, and legitimate planning work as well with fewer bad consequences. He had a collaborator who brought up the criticism that Sir Winston Churchill had of Jewish Bolsheviks... but ignored the suggestion that Jewish Bolsheviks could redeem themselves by returning to Judaism and its benign traditions and stern demands for personal morality.
"Thomas B Liar's" tribe is "Aryans", which is a large one. It is also morally empty.
(and you will figure how I applied that moniker upon him easily. I ripped some right-wing pol in France for his anti-Muslim bigotry. "Thomas B Liar" shortly quipped:
"Hypocrisy comes easily to people who see themselves as God's Chosen People"
and
"I can't believe all the Jewish hypocrisy on this thread".
Not Jewish, I could not recognize how any of that applied to me. I see nothing wrong with Judaism, as aside from some rituals (every religion has those) and for the Orthodox, kashrut dietary laws (I enjoy pork and shellfish, thank you) Judaism is as pure morality as any religion. Conversion to Judaism is difficult, but if I had to choose between being a Nazi ("Thomas B. Liar" exposed that he was a Nazi-sympathizing creep) I would become a Jew because as a Jew I would need make neither cultural nor moral compromises except (if it had to be Orthodox) to give up cheese-and-meat sandwiches, pork, and shellfish. Too bad about cheese-and-meat sandwiches, pork, and shellfish, but at the least I am not going to cast children directly into a furnace or live inmates into a bear enclosure at an abutting zoo, or have dogs kill helpless prisoners -- all of which is what Nazis did. "Thomas B. Liar", not surprisingly, denied the Holocaust and claimed that Jews are all responsible for Communism to the exclusion of all other people (like, as one of the Jewish participants said "Kim il-Sungstein").
I left plenty of clues that I was not Jewish. I did not know about the Jewish holidays. I did not talk about "my" bar mitzvah, as I never experienced one. Methodists don't do them. I expressed the opinion that Nazis were going to Hell along with Stalinists as the most egregious sinners of all time after making allusions to Dante's Inferno, stating that Dante wrote it too early to account for those anti-human beasts as the most egregious violators of morality. I also told him that I was contemplating conversion to Judaism. Gentiles can convert to Judaism with difficulty; Jews are already there or else return.
In the end I got him to tell us all what he was protecting, and he said "Germans and German-Americans". I fit several Jewish stereotypes except for having an ordinary-sized nose, so I have heard some antisemitic slurs at times. They hurt. I hate those slurs and despise those who use them. I told him that I am a German-American, and that his attacks on me for being Jewish cause me to say "No thanks!" for his ostensible help. I have never experienced any hatred from Jews for German origin. Of course, I hate Nazis.
For being a comparatively small group of people thanks to the Holocaust and various persecutions and massacres in the past, Jews are no monolith. As for the infamous Protocols that defame Jews as a mass conspiracy to exploit and debase all gentiles whether a Jew is an infant or a senile old person, I concede much competence to many Jews. This said,competent people do not use conspiracies to get things done when toil, investment, cooperation with others, and legitimate planning work as well with fewer bad consequences. He had a collaborator who brought up the criticism that Sir Winston Churchill had of Jewish Bolsheviks... but ignored the suggestion that Jewish Bolsheviks could redeem themselves by returning to Judaism and its benign traditions and stern demands for personal morality.
"Thomas B Liar's" tribe is "Aryans", which is a large one. It is also morally empty.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.