• Valbrandur@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        1 year ago

        Since when is "rabid dog" an antisemitic dogwhistle? Or is any criticism of Israel written with the use of literary devices to be labelled as an antisemitic dogwhistle?

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          1 year ago

          Since when is “rabid dog” an antisemitic dogwhistle?

          Since anti-semites called Jews dogs in their anti-semitic propaganda dating back over a century.

          is any criticism of Israel written with the use of literary devices to be labelled as an antisemitic dogwhistle?

          No, use of literary devices to criticize Israel is not an anti-semitic dogwhistle. Specifically referring to them as dogs is.

            • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              With a very well documented history in anti-Semitic propaganda. We can criticize Israel without using phrases that attract white supremacists to our spaces

              • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                What? Dog in reference to “Jewish” people has always been towards the gentiles, it even shows up in the Bible.

                Dog is a basic insult and not a slur or antisemitic. History and linguistics does not agree with you.

                Here’s Cambridge even saying the same.

                Show

                • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Hey thanks for this. You are correct that I was confused. I had falsely believed that calling Jews "dogs" was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

                  The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said "No Jews or dogs allowed", but that doesn't meet the standard of what I had believed.

              • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                Could you provide sources for it being specifically used as antisemitic dogwistle, especially that you claim it's very well documented? Calling any ethnoreligious group "dogs" is of course not very nice (good that nobody here did it), but i relly never heard of thar particlar insult being specifically antisemitic unlike let's say "k_kes" or "l_ce" or many others which do have specific context.

                • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I dug for sources and discovered I was wrong. I had falsely believed that calling Jews "dogs" was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs, as you said.

                  The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said "No Jews or dogs allowed", but that doesn't meet the standard of what I had believed.

                  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 year ago

                    Yeah, and respect for you for admitting it. For comparison, nazis also called Poles "pigs" with high consistence, but no one ever thought "pig" is antipolish slur since it's also one of those often used by everyone, including Poles for Germans.

                    Now when i think of it Polish slurs for Germans are pretty weak considering the circumstances, we have "szkop" (castrated ram, but also from the specific nazi helmet shape looking like pot or from Czech word for "highlander", literally "coming from up there"), "Helmut" (from the popular name), "Szwab" (from land of Swabia), even the worst case when we officially called the cockroach "Prusak" is also borrowed contextually from Czech language.

                  • boboblaw [he/him, they/them]
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Yeah, the antisemitic comparisons I've seen have typically been in the "vermin" category. Implying that Jews need to exterminated. I guess dogs wouldn't fit the rhetoric well because people are generally sympathetic to dogs...

                    I know the dog comparison is used pejoratively in a couple of other languages, but the connection there seems to be to dogs barking - basically calling someone a nuisance.

          • Valbrandur@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            1 year ago

            Jews aren't being called "dogs". The state of Israel is being called a rabid dog, and rightfully.

            Equating Israel with jewish people is one of the main tools that the PR teams of Israel and the IDF use to protect themselves from criticism of their genocidal expansion project, and you have fallen right into the trap.

          • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            1 year ago

            Calling someone a "dog" isn't a dogwhistle, I think you may be confused.

            Anti-semitic animal based dogwhistles are usually some form of vermin; rats, cockroaches etc. Things that are usually seen as in need of extermination.

            • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              Hey thanks for this. You are correct that I was confused. I had falsely believed that calling Jews "dogs" was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

              The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said "No Jews or dogs allowed", but that doesn't meet the standard of what I had believed.

          • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
            ·
            1 year ago

            They said the country of Isreal, not Jewish people. This only makes sense if you automatically equate the two. I understand the discomfort of proximity there, but you're mischaracterizing what the other person said.

            • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              I am not saying the person is anti-Semitic, I'm saying it's a dog whistle and I am criticizing their use of it. There is no mischaracterization going on here.

                • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  It turns out I was expressing a false belief.

                  I had falsely believed that calling Jews "dogs" was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

                  The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said "No Jews or dogs allowed", but that doesn't meet the standard of what I had believed.

          • GarbageShoot [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Could you share examples? I am familiar with Arabs being compared with jackals, but not Jews with dogs.

            • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
              ·
              1 year ago

              Hey thanks for this. I had falsely believed that calling Jews "dogs" was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

              The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said "No Jews or dogs allowed", but that doesn't meet the standard of what I had believed.

      • Bloobish [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Israel the state does not represent Judaism nor ethnic Jews (just ask what happened to the Ethiopian Jews), it represent Zionism a movement fomented and supported by the Western colonial super powers before and after the World Wars as a means of creating a nationalistic foothold into the Middle East and thereby create monopolies of resources needed for the imperial cores at the time (and as a geopolitical soft/hard power for now). Saying someone wishes Israel as a state to no longer exist is not anti-semetic, it's like saying someone that wishes for the dismantling of the US is wishing for genocide or something similarly overreaching and ignorant of materialistic context.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          1 year ago

          Israel the state does not represent Judaism nor ethnic Jews

          I am aware and agree.

          Saying someone wishes Israel as a state to no longer exist is not anti-semetic

          I agree.

          What I believed was that the use of "dog" was an anti-semitic dogwhistle with historical use as a call to oppression and genocide of Jews.

          Calling for the dismantling of Israel but using an anti-semitic dogwhistle with a history of calling for genocide blurs the line between legitimate criticism of Zionism and calling for anti-semitic genocide.

          As it turns out, I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

          The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

          Had the commenter said “Israel is a plague of rats that needs to be exterminated”, I believe I would have been justified in calling it out as using a dogwhistle. As it stands, however, I was wrong.

      • SovietyWoomy [any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Israel is an illegitimate, genocidal state. Zionists want to spread the antisemitic lie that all Jewish people support their evil, and you're helping them do that.

        Fuck you for implying that I support genocide because of my blood.

        • freagle@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Israel is an illegitimate, genocidal state.

          Agreed.

          Zionists want to spread the antisemitic lie that all Jewish people support their evil

          Agreed.

          and you’re helping them do that

          Potentially inadvertently, due to a false belief. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

          The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

          Had you said "Israel is a plague of rats that needs to be exterminated", I believe I would have been justified in calling you out for using a dogwhistle. As it stands, however, I was wrong.

          Fuck you for implying that I support genocide because of my blood.

          I don't know what your blood is, so rest assured I implied nothing due to it.

          Additionally, I had no intention of implying you supported genocide. My intention was to accuse you of using dangerous language to express your perfectly valid point. Again, I was wrong about my beliefs of the history of those words.

          I apologize.