Asked by the ex-footballer who his allies against antisemitism are, the Jewish comedian was flummoxed. That’s because he has thrown his lot in with racists
I met you recently on a bridge at the Julian Assange rally at parliament. We spoke about how bad mainstream journalism was and I am afraid that I didn’t know who you were. Your articles are excellent and this is also very good indeed.
In relation to Baddiel, it seems to follow a trend whereby people of great privilege have to find some story whereby whatever group they belong to, is hard done by, where they have had a hard life and somehow are an exception to the people in their current circle. One claim is that they are working class – this is just often untrue. And even if it is true – when it is laid on with a trowel, it shows ignorance and insensitivity to the majority of people who still are in those circumstances.
The one that Baddiel chose, is being a member of a minority. Now if you are able to seamlessly blend in with the majority whilst also able to do the same with the higher echelons of society and if you were able to reach the highest stages of your profession, with support from all levels of the social system, then it is pretty clear that your membership of this minority has not impeded any progress. If the only effect of being a member of this minority is one incident of name calling (vile though it is), then I think that there are others who should be further up the queue in making programmes about how being a member of a minority has had much more negative and severe ramifications.
As for the rest of the programme, your article rebutted that entirely. Very good indeed.
Liberal Jewish “tolerance” of Israeli genocidal abuse of Palestinians appears to be very much in line with American liberal rationalizing of U.S. imperialism. It’s identity nationalism, which requires a dishonest assessment of routine, criminal conduct by their respective states. Jewish apologists lazily construe valid criticism of their mothership as a personal threat to their ethnic identity, and addled liberal Americans know, either consciously or unconsciously that the lifestyle they cherish is down to global piracy that entails murder, theft and propagandizing the home front.
An important and well argued case, the only thing I would add specifically about David Baddiel is that like many other white comedians his career was enhanced by telling racist jokes, not curtailed , he like Baron Cohen have had multiple TV series, can you imagine what would happen if Nigerian comedian Gina Yashere played the obsessive Jewish grandmother.
Paused reading the essay to respond to something Baddiel said:
' “there are lots of answers” to the question of why Jews are overlooked by the progressive left, but the most important is apparently this: “Jews are the only objects of racism who are imagined as both high and low status.” They are seen as both “dirty, thieving, stinking, vile”, but also as “monied, privileged, powerful and secretly in control of the world”. '
There has been a tradition since the nineteenth century to vilify Jews as obscenely wealthy capitalists who have a cabal to rule the world, whist simultaneously accused of being communists who want to rule the world.
These absurdly contradictory claims crop up in history books describing the end of World War One, for example.
I fail to see how progressive leftists use this to somehow forget racism against Jews.
Maybe there is something I've missed.
Boo hiss Jewish plutocrats for sure. Not because they are Jewish, but because the are plutocrats.
Solidarity with the oppressed Jewish people, doubly so if they are poor and disenfranchised and triply so if they are socialists.
I can't believe I'm alone in thinking this. I'd say that learning how Jews were vilified by the proto-fascists only deepens my awareness of antisemitism.
Not having seen any of the texts discussed in the article I may be wrong, but get the sense that Baddiel is pussyfooting around what he really wants to attribute this fictitious progressive left ambivalence to antisemitism; that is the Left's support of Palestine.
Again I stand to be corrected so if someone has a clearer picture of what Baddiel means here would be appreciated.
There is no claim that you are represented by him! You need to be able to get beyond your seemingly automatic response that you are being attacked. The argument is that this is a farce being used to make false claims all the while the very people using this to bring out your gut instinct are continuing to commit crimes against people for their own profit and promotions.
You are amazing! In well over 60 years of exposure to the Main Stream media here in the US I never recall seeing such pure journalism. I didn't even know it was possible and I really don't see many that can come close to the in depth quality of your work. Thanks for another light on the truth!
Really? What did you read? He doesn't claim anywhere that "all Jews" are involved in the crimes against the Palestinians. Where are you getting your news from that you are so unaware of the devastation being done to these people? Ever heard of an apartheid state which is what Amnesty International called Israel in it's actions against the Palestinians? I think you should invest in a comprehensive reading course and do a little more research on what is really happening in the middle east.
Self-serving nonsense. Religion - all of them are ideologies. Zionism was a movement to build and reinforce the Jewish homeland that would become Israel. It could be argued that the Zionist movement was critical to Israel’s establishment, but it is now nothing more than an excuse to justify barbarism which its practitioners would like the world believe is necessary and defensive. If this were true, Israel and its benefactors would not be spending billions of dollars every year to promote their propaganda, silence the criticism, and control the narrative that facilitates their continual violation of international law.
So you apparently identify with your government or perhaps you are part of that government? So killing people is OK with you as long as no one says there are some bad Jews killing people. Why are you on this site? Most of us here are against war and killing people so......?
Well here is the real you at last. "fake cause of the phony" Palestinians" indeed. Wow so you are so far under the rock you bought the bridge. Are you one of the people killing Palestinians? I think you are. You have a very disgusting attitude towards killing innocent children and people that has now become apparent.
This is one side of a story. Not the same one I heard. Videos and journalists getting killed paint a different picture and I along with many people here are against oppression, war and sanctioning innocent people who have a horrible life imposed on them to begin with.
I know you think you are supporting your point of view and arguing you case vehemently, however you are just digging your hole deeper and showing what a vile bigoted specimen you really are. Carry on, you are killing your own argument.
Really and the fact that Israel (one of the best manufacturers of weapons) uses jets, Artillery and bombs against this "enemy" who at best can use a "balloon" to fight back holds no weight with your statements?
Brilliant insight. It can’t have been easy to put these thoughts in such a coherent piece. Thank you
I met you recently on a bridge at the Julian Assange rally at parliament. We spoke about how bad mainstream journalism was and I am afraid that I didn’t know who you were. Your articles are excellent and this is also very good indeed.
In relation to Baddiel, it seems to follow a trend whereby people of great privilege have to find some story whereby whatever group they belong to, is hard done by, where they have had a hard life and somehow are an exception to the people in their current circle. One claim is that they are working class – this is just often untrue. And even if it is true – when it is laid on with a trowel, it shows ignorance and insensitivity to the majority of people who still are in those circumstances.
The one that Baddiel chose, is being a member of a minority. Now if you are able to seamlessly blend in with the majority whilst also able to do the same with the higher echelons of society and if you were able to reach the highest stages of your profession, with support from all levels of the social system, then it is pretty clear that your membership of this minority has not impeded any progress. If the only effect of being a member of this minority is one incident of name calling (vile though it is), then I think that there are others who should be further up the queue in making programmes about how being a member of a minority has had much more negative and severe ramifications.
As for the rest of the programme, your article rebutted that entirely. Very good indeed.
Liberal Jewish “tolerance” of Israeli genocidal abuse of Palestinians appears to be very much in line with American liberal rationalizing of U.S. imperialism. It’s identity nationalism, which requires a dishonest assessment of routine, criminal conduct by their respective states. Jewish apologists lazily construe valid criticism of their mothership as a personal threat to their ethnic identity, and addled liberal Americans know, either consciously or unconsciously that the lifestyle they cherish is down to global piracy that entails murder, theft and propagandizing the home front.
An important and well argued case, the only thing I would add specifically about David Baddiel is that like many other white comedians his career was enhanced by telling racist jokes, not curtailed , he like Baron Cohen have had multiple TV series, can you imagine what would happen if Nigerian comedian Gina Yashere played the obsessive Jewish grandmother.
Paused reading the essay to respond to something Baddiel said:
' “there are lots of answers” to the question of why Jews are overlooked by the progressive left, but the most important is apparently this: “Jews are the only objects of racism who are imagined as both high and low status.” They are seen as both “dirty, thieving, stinking, vile”, but also as “monied, privileged, powerful and secretly in control of the world”. '
There has been a tradition since the nineteenth century to vilify Jews as obscenely wealthy capitalists who have a cabal to rule the world, whist simultaneously accused of being communists who want to rule the world.
These absurdly contradictory claims crop up in history books describing the end of World War One, for example.
I fail to see how progressive leftists use this to somehow forget racism against Jews.
Maybe there is something I've missed.
Boo hiss Jewish plutocrats for sure. Not because they are Jewish, but because the are plutocrats.
Solidarity with the oppressed Jewish people, doubly so if they are poor and disenfranchised and triply so if they are socialists.
I can't believe I'm alone in thinking this. I'd say that learning how Jews were vilified by the proto-fascists only deepens my awareness of antisemitism.
Not having seen any of the texts discussed in the article I may be wrong, but get the sense that Baddiel is pussyfooting around what he really wants to attribute this fictitious progressive left ambivalence to antisemitism; that is the Left's support of Palestine.
Again I stand to be corrected so if someone has a clearer picture of what Baddiel means here would be appreciated.
Excellent article thus far.
I could not bear to watch David Baddiels programme , so thank you for writing this powerful article.
There is no claim that you are represented by him! You need to be able to get beyond your seemingly automatic response that you are being attacked. The argument is that this is a farce being used to make false claims all the while the very people using this to bring out your gut instinct are continuing to commit crimes against people for their own profit and promotions.
Brilliant!
You are amazing! In well over 60 years of exposure to the Main Stream media here in the US I never recall seeing such pure journalism. I didn't even know it was possible and I really don't see many that can come close to the in depth quality of your work. Thanks for another light on the truth!
Really? What did you read? He doesn't claim anywhere that "all Jews" are involved in the crimes against the Palestinians. Where are you getting your news from that you are so unaware of the devastation being done to these people? Ever heard of an apartheid state which is what Amnesty International called Israel in it's actions against the Palestinians? I think you should invest in a comprehensive reading course and do a little more research on what is really happening in the middle east.
Self-serving nonsense. Religion - all of them are ideologies. Zionism was a movement to build and reinforce the Jewish homeland that would become Israel. It could be argued that the Zionist movement was critical to Israel’s establishment, but it is now nothing more than an excuse to justify barbarism which its practitioners would like the world believe is necessary and defensive. If this were true, Israel and its benefactors would not be spending billions of dollars every year to promote their propaganda, silence the criticism, and control the narrative that facilitates their continual violation of international law.
Brilliant, spot on. I'm a Canadian Jew and a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, see our site: ijvcanada.org
So you apparently identify with your government or perhaps you are part of that government? So killing people is OK with you as long as no one says there are some bad Jews killing people. Why are you on this site? Most of us here are against war and killing people so......?
Well here is the real you at last. "fake cause of the phony" Palestinians" indeed. Wow so you are so far under the rock you bought the bridge. Are you one of the people killing Palestinians? I think you are. You have a very disgusting attitude towards killing innocent children and people that has now become apparent.
This is one side of a story. Not the same one I heard. Videos and journalists getting killed paint a different picture and I along with many people here are against oppression, war and sanctioning innocent people who have a horrible life imposed on them to begin with.
I know you think you are supporting your point of view and arguing you case vehemently, however you are just digging your hole deeper and showing what a vile bigoted specimen you really are. Carry on, you are killing your own argument.
Really and the fact that Israel (one of the best manufacturers of weapons) uses jets, Artillery and bombs against this "enemy" who at best can use a "balloon" to fight back holds no weight with your statements?