An extreme right-winger justifying his hatred of Je- er, “Zionists” because so many of them were involved in the Civil Rights movement and other liberal causes? Not surprising.
An extreme left-winger justifying her hatred of Je- er, “Zionists” because so many of them were involved in the Civil Rights movement and other liberal causes? That’s…honestly not surprising, either.
And neither is her use of an old antisemitic trope to make whatever point she was trying to make:
A transcript I made with the (surprisingly effective) speech to text app on my phone:
The Jewish Lobby and the Zionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups, they walk up and their part of the campaign. They offer support for things like the campaign against the ATMC, racial verification laws, they offer solidarity, they walk up to every community event and meeting to offer that connection because their tentacles reach in to the areas that try and influence power. And I think that we need to call that out and expose it.
Whelp, she gets points for being honest and using the J word instead of hiding behind the Z word, at least.
I’ve long believed that one shouldn’t assume malice when one can assume stupidity, and it is possible that this exceptionally stupid person really didn’t know that portraying “International Jewry” as an octopus with its controlling tentacles has been a staple of antisemitic propaganda for decades.
That’s the best-case scenario.
The worst-case, and honestly more likely explanation, is that Leong knew damn well what she was implying and just doesn’t care.
And it illustrates, yet again, that antisemitism has been a persistent plague precisely because it’s so adaptable.
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