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Intro, Antisemitism and the Right Wing

So I’m not going to do a play by play of the whole episode (it’s 2 hours and would spawn a behemoth essay), so I want to focus on one part of the episode.

Klein and Rufo are both establishment voices. They have some unsurprising disagreements on policy and rhetoric.

However there is an argument that Klein makes with Rufo that Rufo doesn’t engage with (rather denies outright) that basically boils down to: the right underestimates and underestimated the hate and forces it unleashed that it utilized to win elections.

I completely agree with Klein here. Rufo argues that the right’s most conspiratorial, frothing at the mouth antisemites & racists past & present (Duke, Fuentes, Owens, Fishback, Carlson) are not actually supported by the Right wing American establishment. Rather, they are the fringes are mere entertainment or entry points to get people engaged with politics.

Klein counters that these individuals often get explicit backing from right wing leaders (Trump, Vance, etc.) and can in fact change the minds of people in a way they aren’t anticipating. It’s the fact they are creating this environment of hate and discrimination that’s here and real. That this fringe of the party isn’t the fringe, its intellectual products travel from the fringe -> far right -> media personalities -> Trump. They aren’t able to control or mitigate the level of hatred and bigotry that emerges. The movement of ideas is constant and decentralized. It changes the base and the party as well as its orbiting organizations change to meet that base, see the heritage foundation.

This in turn, explicitly creates antisemitic beliefs and actions that Klein does call out: Israel killed Charlie Kirk, the great replacement, etc.

But let’s take Klein’s argument, and turn it back to the left for a moment. Rufo attempts to do so as a cynical defense, but the points Klein concedes (there were too many “white man bad” policies, canceling went too far) make no purchase for me.

I don’t agree with them because the research doesn’t show this. Where are the large scale numbers of white men who lost their jobs and positions during the Obama to Early Trump years? The better critique is one based on antisemitism.

Rufo fails to bring a true discussion of antisemitism because he doesn’t understand it and isn’t Jewish. In fact he seems to think that these current right wing antisemites will just “fizzle out” of the party. Klein calls that view “optimistic” in a joking manner, obviously well aware of the right’s historic inability to ever truly remove this antisemitic kernel at the heart of their beliefs.

It’s a shame he can’t stretch his analysis back over to address our own side with his own analysis.

The Left & Antisemitism

This is what I want to provide perspective on. Let us remind ourselves first of Klein’s central point and message he is sussing out of Rufo. It’s that Rufo’s success as an activist and the right more over has unleashed powers of hatred beyond their ken. We’re supposed to glean: the right underestimates and underestimated the racist/antisemitic hate and forces it unleashed that it utilized to win elections

Most here on Tumblr likely agree with this, most people left of the American center would agree. I’d go as so far to say center right figures see this as well. I would also say that it feels to me that the left has gotten jealous of exactly this populist playbook.

Who among us has heard calls for a “Joe Rogan” of the left? Who among hasn’t seen that realized not only in Hasan Piker, but among the greater left American media ecosystem? Just like how you have political figures like Fishburn emerging in an extremely red area, is it surprising that you see figures like the “Mamdani cluster” candidates in New York and other deep blue areas. What is rapidly emerging to me is that the left underestimates and underestimated the antisemitic hate and forces it unleashed that it utilized to win elections

What is my evidence for these claims? Klein provided Rufo with some, so it’s only reasonable that I brought my own. (It’s also worth noting that I am not positioning this claim to say there haven’t been actions taken against pro-Palestinian activists under a false justification of antisemitism, but the fact that I have to get that out of the way illuminates the inherent suspicion of antisemitism’s validity often not brought forth for other bigotries.)

First, we can observe from the justice statistics that antisemitism is on the rise in the US. This is absolutely undeniable, we have my own anecdotal experience (that I’ve documented on this blog) but there are more widely publicized, deadlier instances: outside peace events, at people’s homes, in the streets, at protests. We see red triangles, we see swastikas, we see antisemitic caricatures. This is in front of our eyes. They are not solely coming from people like Fuentes, this is at left leaning marches.

Second, we see explicitly antisemitic rhetoric emerging from the fringes and moving toward the center. If we consider opinions coming from Hasan Piker our fringe (Jews are inbred, Israel is a settlercolonialapartheidfascistethnostate, Jews are oppressors, the ZOG) we can see them mirrored in people closer to the mainstream, even Jewish officials like Sanders and Lander, but in particular goyishe ones like AOC, Khanna, Tlaib, Omar, Mamdani and others. When we hear things like: AIPAC dark money, organ theft, 80 years of genocide, trained rape dogs, and more… how is that any different than the right? There have been too many times where it has become impossible to separate the two. Anecdotally, how many TikToks speak to the experience of an Antizionist agreed in lock step with antisemites only to eventually find out they were getting chummy with a Nazi?

Third, this rhetoric is translating into some electoral success. Notably in the bluest, richest, whitest districts, but a win is still a win. A win is still power that is in the hands of people who have used antisemitic dog whistles and populist tactics to emerge over more moderate incumbents. It is now that we officially have our Trump-esque pipeline as words emerge from Hasan Piker, then get prettied up by Mamdani’s charisma.

Now we are at the same place republicans are, where the democrats are increasingly aren’t able to control or mitigate the level of hatred and bigotry that emerges.

For me this moment is best exemplified with the treatment of Schumer and Wiener. Two left politicians, from the center to the farther left respectively. One has establishment views and the other has said everything that other goyishe left voices have said on Palestine. Both are still held to a unique standard just for being Jewish.

Enough that Wiener, despite having notable LGBTQ legislation, gay himself and saying all the right things: was run out of a California pride event.

When people who are on your side in every conceivable way, benefitted you directly, are members of your queer community… but you still haven’t had enough out of him? I guess that’s just one more Jew who ran out of pockets to turn out.

So this is where we are now, our tea party moment. Where we’ve now decided it’s worth entering into the right’s own game, all it cost the left was just a few percentage points of people, right?

Conclusion

Look I’m not here to be in the business of saying that “everyone is antisemitic”, but I am in the business of pointing out the bar that we’re sitting at.

Once upon a time a story has been passed around about how you can’t let Nazis get a foothold in a bar, because it becomes a Nazi bar. It regularly still makes the rounds.

It’s easy to point over to the bar across the street, who changed their name to Grand Old Iron Cross or some shit snappier than GOP, and accost its owners. And yes, it should be done. I am doing it now.

But it’s much harder to accept that yes, we have Nazis at our bar too. And yes, those Nazis are now kicking out your fellows. And sure… they weren’t your favorites right? Maybe a few were annoying, a few were problematic. And the bar is going great right?