Neo Nazis and the Alt Right

Guaranteed 100% that would happen.

I donā€™t have an attic or basement but Iā€™m sure I could find room in my humble abode to hide a smallish family in need.

Hear hear!

I hope it never happens, but Iā€™ll be right with you trying to undermine those efforts.

More and more GOP candidates turning to Anti-Semitism:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/06/republicans-attack-jewish-candidates-across-us-with-an-age-old-caricature-fistfuls-cash/?utm_term=.fe0c97e917dd

Until these last couple of years I just didnā€™t realize how prevalent anti-Semitism really is. Itā€™s just gross.

I think back to all the MMOs and online games I played where Iā€™d just hear a constant stream of anti-Semitic stuff. I usually just chalked it up to dumbass kids trying to be edgy and offensive to people, but now I wonder.

I donā€™t remember that in EQ 1-2, GW 2, or FFXIV or the other dozens of MMOs I used to play. Most of the time though I turned off Global Chat as soon as I could and never used Voice Chat. I often went in with a few people and then just expanded by people in person.

I knew they werenā€™t kids though. Some of those assholes Iā€™ve been seeing in games for 20+ years, same name, same attitude sometimes same guild. They started off as a 20 year old kids, sort of, now theyā€™re bitter middle-aged men (mostly).

Fortunately, the guilds I associated with back in those days all had a very strict rule: ā€œNo politics in chat, no religion in chat.ā€ Made life bearableā€“having to work with 50-odd people you donā€™t know is bad enough without putting up with that BS as well.

Not trying to insult you but this seems like an opportune time to use this:

Bugger me it is still common in the South to hear the phrase Jew you down. I have a friend who has been married for about 25 years now and still has problems with his MIL because her daughter had the audacity to marry a Yid. In many circles,the only thing worse than a jew is someone with darker skin (brown, black, yellow, red) but only because you can identify ā€œthose typesā€ more easily.

I am not insulted. I mean I freely admitted I didnā€™t realize this was still a thing, until fairly recently. We do not have a large Jewish population here. I donā€™t even know how I would know someone is Jewish without them telling me or a few key garment pieces. One of my Econ professors was Jewish and the only reason I knew that is we didnā€™t have class on one of the holidays, which she had to tell us because the University didnā€™t recognize it, or have it off. I guess some last names might tell you but giving someone your last name isnā€™t always casually done and itā€™s the USA, so the last name may mean a lot orā€¦ not much at all.

Hearing and seeing these slurs online, I have not encountered that in person before. Itā€™s just crazy, and of course these people often call themselves Christians which makes even less sense.

Its kind of the flip to how so many of us werenā€™t aware how bad the problems were WRT policing in African American neighborhoods. like, it wasnā€™t that I didnā€™t believe that those incidents happened, itā€™s I didnā€™t realize the scale and pervasiveness. I didnā€™t fully appreciate just how oppressive things could be, overpolicing minor infractions and drugs and underpolicing violent crime.

Same exactly.

Iā€™ve been called a Zionazi.

Iā€™ve been asked if I was a Zionist.

Iā€™ve been told Iā€™m good with money.

Iā€™ve been told that Iā€™m ā€œobviouslyā€ rich.

Iā€™ve been accused of being more loyal to Israel than the U.K.

Iā€™ve been called a child killer.

Iā€™ve been told ā€œto shut the fuck up Jewā€.

Iā€™ve been told I only ever care about Jewish stuff.

Iā€™ve been called Zio scum.

Iā€™ve been told Iā€™m worthless.

Iā€™ve been told Iā€™m a disgrace.

Iā€™ve been told Hitler was right.

Iā€™ve been told ā€œitā€™s a pity all of your lot werenā€™t gassedā€.

Iā€™ve been spat at.

Iā€™ve been threatened with physical violence.

Iā€™ve reported every single incident.

Iā€™ve been told itā€™s all lies.

Whenever you see someone go for a Jew then stand in between them, for once theyā€™ve dealt with the Jews, you will be next. Our Jewish friends are definitely the canary in the political mine. Always have been, always will be, one of the worlds oldest prejudices is in the blood and culture of the entire West. Inescapable and always present, and from the worst of people, people who would do all of us harm.

I grew up in a place without a significant Jewish population, and anti-semitism is still the weirdest racism to me. Iā€™ve said many times half-jokingly that I donā€™t get it, because theyā€™re all just different kinds of white people, and I canā€™t tell the difference.

Iā€™m in the ballpark of ā€œblindsided by anti-Semitismā€ camp.

Becauseā€¦ who the fuck does that? Historically the GOP was very pro-Israel and pro-Jew and the Democrats where pro-every group. I would have thought that shit died out in America back in the 50ā€™s barring fringe groups like the Klan and neo-Nazis. Some part of me still sort of feels like itā€™s more a matter of a resurgence of neo-Nazis and Klan-wannabes than a pervasive part of the culture, but Iā€™ll openly admit Iā€™m probably wrong.

My first boss in games was an older guy who was incredibly nice and positive with everyone at the office. One day, his sleeve slid up and I noticed the concentration camp tattoo on his forearm. For me, it took the Holocaust out of academic study and into my real world. Iā€™d studied the Holocaust in school, but that moment really drove home for me that an entire nation was at least passively okay with putting kids like he was into camps to die.

Yeah exactly. Itā€™s a different kind of what the hell but still messed up as hell.

When I was a kid, they used to bring speakers to elementary schools especially, and we got to meet some individual who spoke about that experience. It made it real for me really early on. Itā€™s probably one of the reasons I read and watch holocaust type stuff decades later, if at all, itā€™s horrific.

I know that BlacKkKlansman movie is supposed to touch on this related but not related piece a bit so maybe Iā€™ll see it eventually just for that tiny bit.

Yeah we had the guy who owned the McDonalds come in and do a thing about it.

I guess he was Jewish, but I never met anyone in town who gave a shit. Maybe they keep that under wraps unlike the racism. Cause itā€™s easy to tell if youā€™re not white, not so much if youā€™re not Jewish.

When I was younger most of my friends were Jewish. I went to Seder every year. The real old folks would show me the camp tattoos. And sometimes, when the wine was flowing, theyā€™d tell stories.

It was horrifying then. Itā€™s horrifying now.