The anti-Semitism Questionnaire: Find out if you're an anti-Semite

@Pikachu I got the questions from this paper, but the paper doesn't provide the information you're looking for about computing the scores.

@flipper1966 If someone conflates anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel so brazenly, then I don't care about their credentials or their research methodology. If I can't agree on terms and definitions (or see them as disingenuous) then there is no point.

@Burnley123 This is part of a transnational project using AI to understand anti-Semitism.

https://decoding-antisemitism.eu/

@Burnley123 I respect your distaste for imputing anti-semitism to somebody who criticizes Israel or Israeli politics or the whole Zionist agenda. What interests me about this question goes to a larger academic issue that has intrigued me since I was 23 years old when I read the following quote by the American historian Richard Hofstadter from an article of his titled, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." The article has nothing to do with Israel, Jews or anti-semitism. I was fascinated with Hofstadter's thinking about how you can use objective facts to support an unstated agenda:

"One of the impressive things about paranoid literature is precisely the elaborate concern with demonstration it almost invariably shows. One should not be misled by the fantastic conclusions that it is not, so to speak, argued out along factual lines. The very fantastic character of its conclusions leads to heroic strivings for "evidence" to prove that the unbelievable is the only thing that can be believed. . . . But respectable paranoid literature not only starts from certain moral commitments that can be justified to many non-paranoids but also carefully and all but obsessively accumulates 'evidence.'"

I'm very much a Nietzschean, and Hofstadter's quote reminds me of something that Nietzsche wrote in [i]Beyond Good and Evil: [/i]"It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of—namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious autobiography; and moreover that the moral (or immoral) purpose in every philosophy has constituted the true vital germ out of which the entire plant has always grown. Indeed, to understand how the abstrusest metaphysical assertions of a philosopher have been arrived at, it is always well (and wise) to first ask oneself: 'What morality do they (or does he) aim at?' Accordingly, I do not believe that an 'impulse to knowledge' is the father of philosophy; but that another impulse, here as elsewhere, has only made use of knowledge (and mistaken knowledge!) as an instrument."

Again, Nietzsche is talking about the use of facts (or knowledge) to support an unstated agenda (or moral).

@flipper1966 Sure but that's not at issue here. Is he an antisemite?

Here's my thing, right. Bibi seems absolutely fine with Elon Musk and is happy for his participate/endorsement/resources.

But Musk has been openly and flagrantly giving attention and promotion to virulent antisemites on twitter/X, and the kinds of antisemites who believe the kind of shit the Nazis believed.

Yet, he openly endorses Israel, and Israel's leader endorsed him back.

So... what's antisemitism?

@CountScrofula[quote] Sure but that's not at issue here. Is he an antisemite?[/quote]

My view of him as an opportunist is that he has no values. As I see it you probably can't say he's an anti-semite or not -- no more than you can say a Toyota salesman actually believes in the product he promotes.

@CountScrofula[quote] I think the case of Elon Musk is worth examining.

Elon Musk was openly and repeatedly circulating posts by people who believe in the first six points. Straight up and open antisemitism going to the point of replacement theory shit which is the most vile antisemitic conspiracy there is.

In order to correct things, he has suddenly became massively and hugely pro-Israel, met with Bibi, and openly supports Israel's policy on Gaza.

So... is he an antisemite or not?[/quote]

He's an asskisser who is trying to keep from losing money.

[b][i][c=BF0000]From the Sea to the River Jordan.[/c][/i][/b]

@flipper1966 Indeed, and the anti-Semitic attacks usually get met with whataboutism about Islamophobia. Denying Israel's right to exist is common now as it's mixed in with the newest leftist battle cry "colonialist!" and "I'm anti-Zionist not anti-Semitic." It's a distinction without a difference.

@Bumbles There's a fascinating on-going research project using AI to analyze anti-Semitism in online discourse (like SW).

https://www.scribd.com/document/690680245/Discourse-Report-4-Decoding-Antisemitism-an-AI-driven-Study-on-Hate-Speech-and-Imagery-Online

@Bumbles [quote]Indeed, and the anti-Semitic attacks usually get met with whataboutism about Islamophobia. Denying Israel's right to exist is common now as it's mixed in with the newest leftist battle cry "colonialist!" and "I'm anti-Zionist not anti-Semitic." It's a distinction without a difference.[/quote]

One of Eban's talking points =

[b][c=BF0000]One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.
Abba Eban
[/c][/b]

[b][i][c=BF0000]From the River to the Sea and From the Sea to the River Jordan.[/c][/i][/b]

@RedBaron Who doesn't? And the older ones like Malcolm Lassman smoke cigars! Yikes! 🤣

@flipper1966 Malcolm Lassman was a managing partner at the law firm where I used to work. He was a character. Sometimes he would come to work in a cape! Like a Seinfeld character.

[media=https://youtu.be/bHNqri_0Mbo]

@flipper1966 My brother’s a rabbi, and he jokes with me about meeting people who make him feel antisemitic! 🤣🤣

@sascha Something I should have pointed out. Respondents are not simply asked to agree or disagree to the Questionnaire statements. Respondents are offered an opportunity to grade their agreement or disagreement, such as, by indicating "somewhat agree," "strongly agree," "no opinion," "somewhat disagree," or "strongly disagree."

@bijouxbroussard Something I should have pointed out. Respondents are not simply asked to agree or disagree to the Questionnaire statements. Respondents are offered an opportunity to grade their agreement or disagreement, such as, by indicating "somewhat agree," "strongly agree," "no opinion," "somewhat disagree," or "strongly disagree."

@flipper1966 That’s what I was looking for in terms of "measurement" like most questionnaires, and couldn’t find it.

@bijouxbroussard Sorry.

@MethDozer[b][u] Several findings of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report titled: Campus Anti-Semitism, issued in 2005.[/u][/b]

https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/docs/081506campusantibrief07.pdf

-- Many experts agree that anti-Semitism persists on college campuses and is
often cloaked as criticism of Israel

--In some cases, posters, rallies and speakers on campus have promoted hatred of Jews and Israel

--Although criticism of the state of Israel and its policies is a legitimate part of civil discourse, criticism that demonizes Israel by comparing Israel’s leaders to Nazis or that employs traditional anti-semitic stereotypes and images, crosses the line into anti-Semitism

--When Israel alone is demonized and made into the sine quo non of all that is evil in the world, when the actions that Israel takes to protect its citizens are held up to an egregious double standard, when other countries in that situation might be forced to take those same measures, and when Jewish students are intimidated and denied the right of political expression or participation in class, that is crossing over the boundary from legitimate policy debate into the domain of anti-Semitism

-- The ideology of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism fits within the larger campus themes that include anti-war (violence is never justified, war is bad, there is no just cause), anti-West, anti-American (Europe and America are powerful and bad, Brazil and Algeria are good), white people are bad, all other people are good, power is bad, weakness is honorable. These themes appear over and over again in the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel framework.

@MethDozer [quote]Being anti-zionist doesn't mean your likely to be anti-Semitic just because anti-semites are most often anti-zionist.[/quote]

Here's the Vatican's position: "We oppose anti-Semitism in any way and form, including anti-Zionism that has become of late a manifestation of anti-Semitism."

@flipper1966 The Vatican is an authority on nothing.