whomst've'd

I was talking to my wife the other day and the word “cabal” came up, and also following some folks who practice Jewish mysticism, I was like “wait a minute...I bet money that this word has antisemitic roots” and sure enough, gentiles took it from the term “Kabbalah” and now it means cult or secret political group. Yikes.

If I was able to pick up on that, I was wondering what kinda stuff flies under my brain’s Hate Detection Radar all the time.

Hi friend! Such an important question, and thanks so much for asking it.

Because antisemitism is one of the world’s oldest prejudices, it is absolutely baked into our language (particularly in the west, but thanks to western imperialism it is a global problem as well). Cabal is a great example of a word that is steeped in antisemitism but that many people do not realize is antisemitic in origin. Here’s some other words/phrases that I hear used uncritically by people and that are steeped in antisemitism:

- Cabal

- New world order/NWO

- Global elites/cosmopolitan elites/coastal elites

- Rothschilds

- “Jew down”/“jewed”

- lizard people

- Illuminati

- scapegoat

And some dog whistles that are more pointedly antisemitic, but that the uninitiated may not realize are antisemitic code:

- Zionist organized government/ZOG

- Khazars

- kosher tax

- 👃

- “the goyim know”

Why do they do these things? Because they’re antisemitic and also pro-Israel. Why would antisemitic people be pro-Israel? Because their evangelical Christian constituents are pro-Israel. Not in the sense that any of them necessarily care about Israel, Israelis, or Palestinians (unless they’ve got their islamophobia hats on, as they frequently do), but because they care that Israel exists to fulfill their end times theologies.

I feel that this should be expanded on.

According to Christian evangelicals, to bring about the End Times and the Second Coming, all of the “Children Of Israel” (Jews) need to be “Gathered In The Land Of Israel”. Once “Assembled”, the gathered Jews will have the Christian Gospels preached at us, whereupon 144,000* Jews will spontaneously convert on the spot. All of the Jews then die, and those who converted ascend to Heaven, while the rest go down to Hell. Those who ascend to Heaven then bodily return as the escort of Jesus Christ.

I first heard of this from a missionary who was trying to convert me and I was fending him off using quotation from his own text. And in the end, his eyes shining with the fervor of a True Believer, he told me that he was jealous of me, because I was sure to be one of the Elect with my knowledge of the Christian Bible.

I asked him what he meant by that, and was told about the above “prophecy”–and, he was quick to assure me, that with my knowledge of Christian scripture, I was certain to be one of those 144,000 who saw the light and converted when the time came. And thus, to his mind, I was in a position where I would meet Jesus first.

Just think on that.

He just told me that in his religious worldview, I exist to be nothing more than a blood sacrifice to bring his god back, and he was jealous. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life, seeing someone looking at me not as a person, but as a thing.

Since then, I’ve had it sadly confirmed that this is an incredibly widespread belief among Christian evangelicals, which is important to remember–they support Israel because they need their human sacrifices for their god.

~~~

https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/08/opinions/jerusalem-israel-evangelicals-end-times-butler-bass-opinion/index.html

https://newrepublic.com/article/156166/pence-pompeo-evanglicals-war-iran-christian-zionism

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3512555

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/

https://thegroundtruthproject.org/the-faces-of-the-end-of-days/

https://forward.com/opinion/431687/stop-gaslighting-the-left-about-christians-they-believe-awful-things-about/

This quote from that last source especially is very crucial:

“Most evangelicals do believe that Jews who do not convert to Christianity will go to hell, and they believe the apocalyptic Battle of Armageddon will center around Israel. They support destabilizing policies like the move of the U.S. Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the basis of the theological script they are following. One cannot achieve a healthy religious pluralism by pretending that robust mutual respect for religious diversity exists where it does not exist. Fostering healthy pluralism, which democracy demands, means confronting intolerance.”

there was once a little boy.

he is born disabled. his body hurts, and he can’t walk properly the way the other children do. he doesn’t understand why. he’s a little boy. but he plays with wooden boats and pulls toys on a string.

somebody makes him a tunic. they sew ducks onto it in red and green and yellow and blue. the bright colours of a child.

the little boy is eight years old, and he’s going to be king now. there’s a big ceremony about it. he doesn’t really fully understand what’s going on, because he’s eight, but he wears the tunic with the brightly coloured ducks for the occasion because he loves it. look at his ducks! aren’t they great?

he is a child. the adults around him manipulate and coax him to gain more power for themselves. he still plays with toys.

as a teenager, not yet an adult, he fathers children. they do not survive. he’s not even old enough to have full agency in his job and is still being manipulated, but he had babies and they died.

he does not make it to his twenties. at eighteen or nineteen years old he dies, and is buried. his babies, so tiny, are buried with him.

and so is his tunic with the little ducks that he loved so much he kept it long after it no longer fit.

yeah i think that like. especially with historical figures in your mind people who were kings and queens or important nobles were adults. even if you know how old they were it doesn’t really click. it doesn’t seem real

but then you get something like a little tunic with brightly coloured ducks on it and it hits you like a fucking truck that this really was a little kid and no matter how far removed you are a little kid is still a little kid. their brains didn’t develop any quicker back then. he was just as developed/mature mentally as any 8 year old now. he had cartoonish animals on his clothes and he played with toy boats and probably terrorised the local cat population.

tutankhamun was a child and he didn’t make it to adulthood because he was unfortunate enough to be a very important child

his dad died when he was 8. he saw his own babies die when he was still just a boy himself.

tutankhamun had a little pair of sandals with ducks on them. he had earrings decorated with ducks. he kept those, and other items of childhood clothing. some toys. keepsakes. things he loved, and treasured. he kept them all in a little wooden chest. the chest… was carved with ducks.

and that little duck chest, filled with things he kept from his childhood, was buried with him. maybe he was keeping them for the little babies who did not make it. maybe they just reminded him of good days and fun times.

WITH PLEASURE

(greyscale makes it hard but the duck head is on the right above the toe strap. always takes me a while to find it too)

Do not use the website called Sci-Hub!

It lets people access scientific articles for free. This is dangerous. It helps the free flow of knowledge and reduces the competitive edge of all the people who worked really hard to have been born into a wealth.

Like, it’s literally a website where you can type in the DOI of an article and read it, without ever having to pay the publisher who exploited the author.

Marie Kondo, gently over my shoulder: why is a pair of pants you find unwearable still in your dresser drawer

me: oh shit that’s right!! The dresser is for clothes that under some circumstance I might conceivably wear!!

Marie Kondo, beaming proudly: Yes, that’s correct!! These pants must have been your favorites. How wonderful that they were so comfortable and practical that you wore them out. But now since they no longer function as pants, you should move them from the drawer where you keep your functioning pants!

me: Yes thanks I got it they’re in the fabric basket now

Marie Kondo: Your room isn’t very clean, but that’s okay, I love mess! Does this spark joy?