cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/22035706

Sat 2 Mar 2024

"Alex McDonald’s When They Speak Israel, reviewed here by Steve Grant, explains to all of us how to engage. His basic assumption is that while some Zionists are dyed-in-the-wool racists or ethnonationalists, most are not. They sincerely believe they oppose racism but have been taught that support for Israel is justified — if not a solemn moral duty."

  • StalinistSteve@lemmygrad.ml
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    edit-2
    3 days ago

    Separating exclusionary and assimilationist racists serves no one but the assimilationists that want to feel morally superior -- while being just as essential (in fact more so) than their more direct counterpart to the global system of racism and "nations as classes". There's some good tips in here too for talking with these people, but this separation confuses praxis and leaves room for thinking certain assimilationist views are at least not as bad as exclusionary ones.

    I hardly find myself in the position this article is asking of me because, especially in our current day climate, associating any pro-Israel sentiment with the same kind of social taboo as exclusionary racism and giving a more "What the fuck bro" approach to the topic is easier and in my experience genuinely more effective. They may not think they're "dyed-in-the-wool racists" but they are and they need to know it.