"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
"
It's pretty much always relevant these days. Both for explaining how the discourse is going, and for personally remembering that the person you're arguing probably knows that whatever they're saying is supporting murder and genocide and they're just completely okay with that but playing a role to gain sympathy from people who aren't.
"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past. "
Another Sarte quote I find relevant in these times is "In order to treat a man like a dog you must first know that he is a man."
Israel is fully aware they are waging an inhumane campaign before the Gaza bombings even started.
Thank you
It's pretty much always relevant these days. Both for explaining how the discourse is going, and for personally remembering that the person you're arguing probably knows that whatever they're saying is supporting murder and genocide and they're just completely okay with that but playing a role to gain sympathy from people who aren't.