Huffington Post Monitor is a great site which regularly informs us about the very retrogressive Progressives who dwell at the lousy Huffington Post. They have a new post up which everyone should read but I thought I'd post here just some of the awful stuff in case anyone might miss it for any reason. Thanks HP Monitor for reading that crap so we don't have to. These are just a few of the responses to an article about Israel suggesting it WILL prevent terrorists from seizing chemical weapons.
Matt and Zach do an excellent job covering the HuffPost and, I have to say, the HuffPost is actually far worse than dkos when it comes to hating on Israel.
ReplyDeleteThere is considerable, straight-up anti-Semitism on that site. In fact, I would say that the HuffPost is the foremost anti-Semitic website in the United States today.
Arianna ("the Hostess with the Mostess") must be very proud.
I know. I never read the HuffPo because of that and only read Matt and Zach's stuff. They are an invaluable duo with strong stomachs. Thanks guys!
ReplyDeleteYou're telling me.
DeleteI have on more than one occasion dropped in over there to say, "How do you guys stomach all that hatred on a daily basis?!"
I honestly do not think that it's healthy.
Those poor bastards are doing a public service yet they get virtually nothing for it, not even a "thank you" for the most part.
We can thank 'em, I guess.
{Maybe.}
:O)
But, Doodad, I've heard tell that there is no bigotry on the left!
ReplyDelete;)
My 'favorite' trick at the Huffington Post, which the guys at that blog often cover, and which is of course where I first recognized it (I don't read the Huffington Post, as Daily Kos was more than enough hatred for me for one lifetime), is how they always humanize all other victims in the best possible light, while illustrating stories about Israeli victims with photos of tanks or menacing-looking soldiers, or Generic Crime Scene Police Tape and whatnot.
JayinPhiladelphia,
Delete"...is how they always humanize all other victims in the best possible light, while illustrating stories about Israeli victims with photos of tanks or menacing-looking soldiers, or Generic Crime Scene Police Tape and whatnot."
This isn't a HuffPo or Prog blog feature only, this is a habitual MSM trick, seen in those "news items" brought by the Associated With Terrorists Press or Goiters about Israel that invariably have an Arab name at the end. This is media malpractice, and the Jewish State has long shirked its duty of forcefully cracking down on it.
Mike, I've often played the morbid game of giving "awards" to various anti-Zionist websites, pondering which one wins 1st place in the "Jew-hatred in the guise of anti-Zionism" sweepstakes, and which takes the cake by not caring to mask their Jew-hatred at all. There are various categories:
The no-holds-barred, undisguised Jew-hatred award goes to supremacist sites: Islamic (naturally), White (such as Stormfront), Black and Latino. Those offer the full rich, putrid cream of 1930s-style Jew-hatred.
Runners up, where Jew-hatred is marketed as anti-Zionism but Nazi-like sentiments in the comments are tolerated: Prog outlets like Common Screams and Huffinglue, as well as the Grauniad's CiF.
Champions of "concern" for Jews and Judaism being "hijacked by Zionism": CounterPunch and Countercurrents in their articles, not to mention Mondoweiss (which I refer to by the more descriptive name Mound o’ Scheiss), where comparisons of Zionism to Nazism are not just allowed, they're obligatory.
As for Daily Kos, where an uneasy balancing act between keeping a "respectful" appearance and catering to Progressive ideas is attempted, it has its ups and downs: A steady stream of anti-Israel propaganda on a calm day, and a slide to the unhinged spirit of Huffinglue when Israel finally does something about Arab imperialist aggression, as in the most recent example of November 2012.
The problem with the latter site is how they try to maintain that tiny, barest shred of 'respectability,' at least for those who don't follow its darker corners too closely.
DeleteThere's clearly a certain feeling amongst the moderators there, which I'm sure reflects contemporary 'progressive' thinking in general. This feeling would be that the two 'extremes' are 1) the out-and-out antisemites who only sometimes bother to mask their hatred as 'anti-Zionism' and 2) those of us who loudly called them out on their antisemitism (and by extension, embarrassed the site for harboring and tolerating so many of these Stormfront-types for so long in the first place), and even dared(!) to publicly defend Israel.
Both 'sides' tend to get banned wholesale from time to time. The former usually only after a long process (almost always initiated by whoever happens to be in the small handful of pro-I people on the site at any given time) and after being given many, many, many chances and warnings; the latter of us usually at the first opportunity, and apparently for the reason that we are / were somehow 'right wing' types who their site is better off without in any case, regardless of facts or history. This is the alleged 'reality-based' mindset for you.
Anyway. What this leaves alone to splash about at will are those considered to be 'in the middle,' despite the fact that they're anything but, who are ultimately far out of the mainstream anti-Israel fanatics, but who do have at least a slight bit of internet savvy and know just which dog whistles and hateful canards can be freely used without arousing too much attention, while also knowing which should be avoided; and who know to every once in a while mention that they have a Jewish friend (or in the case of people like David Harris-Gershon, to shamelessly play As-A-Jew in carrying out their delegitimization agenda), or to even express their deep 'concern' (wink, wink) as you note above. After all, some of them once upon a time even used to 'support' Israel, ya know!
The most disturbing thing to me about discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict on Daily Kos, however, is the ugliness that comes out of totally random people who otherwise never discuss the issue, yet feel free to drop their mask during the flare-ups which occur, as you mention, in events like Israel's most recent attempt to stop the rockets from Gaza.
It gets to the point where you're suspicious of what hideousness anyone, no matter how normal-seeming, has bubbling just below the surface. How many 'progressives' have the tendency to believe, or already do fully believe, the very worst things about Jews and Israel? One of the more intelligent members of a group there which I used to be affiliated with makes a very good point about too many Americans mindlessly buying their politics wholesale. To me, it seems to logically follow from that point, that anti-Israel-ism is a part of the Basic Progressive Package today. That is unfortunately where most of the 'mainstream' hatred is coming from these days, and that's where we have to fight it.
My year participating in that 'discussion' on that site, before I got kicked out for I-still-have-no-clue-what-my-particular-'offense'-was, happened to be a relatively quiet one, and it was still far uglier than I ever could have imagined prior to jumping in. I can't imagine what it must have been like, say, during Cast Lead, or the 'flotilla,' or any other number of events / incidents, though I've certainly heard stories.
"anti-Israel-ism is a part of the Basic Progressive Package today."
ReplyDeleteYep. And then there are those who try and disguise it as only being against the right wing part of Israel. They ain't foolin' anyone. But they are going to just LOVE Israel when the evil OCCUPATION is over, ya know?