I don’t know where the Washington Post gets off baldly asserting that things are true or false.
“Blood libel” is a phrase that refers to a centuries-old anti-Semitic slander – the false charge that Jews use the blood of Christian children for rituals – that has been used as an excuse for persecution.
Wouldn’t it be more accurate, more journalistic to say “there are those who say that Jews use the blood of Christian children for rituals, while others say this is not true”? You can’t prove a negative, so there is no way we can say for sure that no Jews have ever used the blood of Christian children for rituals. There is Christian blood in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
Seriously, blood libel, what the fuck? Is there some strain of anti-Semitism in Palinistas that I’m not familiar with?
maye
Her marketing team failed to google the term before dropping it into her speech.
Villago Delenda Est
Um, DougJ, that Faux Nooze he-said/she-said stylebook? It’s for amusement purposes only, you know…
Earl Butz
You’re really not up on your wingnut catechism, are you? Anti-semitism has always been a backbone of the movement, they just toned it down for the Rapturetards who need Israel to hang around for a while until Jeebus comes back and casts every Jew into Hell. Which is fine with the wingnut contingent, so they can all get along with that arrangement in mind.
BGinCHI
Every second we’re talking about the meaning and significance of blood libel and not how stupid that woman is allows her to escape the judgment that is so rightly hers.
Allan
Of course, what everyone knows REALLY happened on Saturday was that the Democrat Jew woman and the activist judge were preparing to slaughter little Christina Green on a pagan altar/card table to drink her blood when brave patriot Jared Lee Loughner rushed to save her by exterminating America’s enemies, but tragically little Christina got in the way of a bullet.
lacp
Dunno about anti-Semitism in Palin’s Posse, but the ignorance is Olympic-caliber. Not the vaguest clue of the derivation of the phrase, which in turn leads to the somewhat inappropriate use of it in relation to a situation in which several of the victims are Jewish. You betcha!
Jeff
Paging Jennifer Rubin…
Smedley
When I read the blood libel statement, i just assumed she had no idea of it’s meaning or the seriousness of it in some societies; so I simply dismissed as another piece of her hyperbole. Was I wrong?
Villago Delenda Est
No, in the great tradition of Jonah Goldberg, she’s saying that right now, Nazi-liberals are planning to ship her and her entire family to Treblinka to work in the underground sugar caves prior to being…oh, wait, this can’t be right. Pat Buchanan says it’s a myth!
Comrade Javamanphil
@maye: I don’t think so. She’s “won the morning” with this and will get to play the aggrieved victim when everyone with a functional brain points out how beyond the pale this is. This was a feature, not a bug.
JPL
Doug the last few days Sarah has been persecuted as much as European Jews. You obviously didn’t get the memo.
WarMunchkin
You know, I feel like I’m really naive for getting shocked every time a wingnut does/says something that stupid. But it seems like every day they manage to top themselves exponentially against my linearly scaling expectations.
Fergus Wooster
As I recall, whe won the mayoral election in Wasilla by pitching herself as Wasilla’s “first Christian mayor”. Her opponent, active in the local Lutheran church, was confused as to what she meant.
Eventually it sunk in: his name was Stein.
BGinCHI
I’m also surprised that she didn’t just quote from The Blues Brothers, that touchstone of Palin lore:
“The Jew is using the black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, whitey? Just sit there? Of course not. You, are going to join with us. The members of the American, Socialist, White peoples party. An organisation of decent, law abiding white folk. Just like you.”
Hunter Gathers
It’s the same strain of anti-semitism that has existed on the right since at least the 1960’s. See Nixon, Richard; Buchanan, Patrick; Malek, Fred.
I myself believe that the wingers are too stupid to know what ‘blood libel’ actually means. But it sounds good, especially in a fund raising letter.
4tehlulz
@Smedley: She didn’t write the speech; it was too carefully crafted to not be the work of speechwriter.
I can’t help but think that this is dogwhistle for something really, really bad.
Like “we’re in the Warsaw Ghetto and we have nothing to lose now” bad.
Jay C
Probably somewhere; but it’s unlikely that Caribou Barbie’s handlers, assuming she even listens to them, would let any overt Jew-baiting get out in any public statement. One would hope.
No, In this case it’s ascribing to malice what can WAY more easily be chalked up to stupidity (yeah, from Sarah Palin, canyabeleiveit?) – one of Ms. Palin’s scribblers (or maybe the lady herself) probably inserted the phrase in her “address” because they felt it sounded good; of course, probably having little or no knowledge of the term’s evil history. Like virtually everything else spouted by this hack…
BGinCHI
I’m also surprised that she didn’t just quote from The Blues Brothers, that touchstone of Palin lore:
“The Jew is using the black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, whitey? Just sit there? Of course not. You, are going to join with us. The members of the American, S******ist, White peoples party. An organisation of decent, law abiding white folk. Just like you.”
(apologies if this is a double comment)
Amir_Khalid
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
“baldly asserting”, not “badly asserting”.
Thank you for letting me indulge my inner copy-editor.
Violet
Oh yeah there is. Many rightwing Palin-fan, Limbaugh-listener types are all about “Jews controlling the media” and “Jews running the banks” etc.
Israel and “the Jewish people” are separate issues from “the Jews.” It’s acceptable/required to support Israel because of needing a bulwark against Muslims in the Middle East. It’s also necessary to support Israel because of the whole End Times prophecies and other Biblical stuff. But “the Jews” are entirely different. They’re scary, different, other and “good Christian people” are afraid they may take over “their country”.
So yeah, there’s definitely some anti-Semitism among that crowd.
Lolis
Isn’t today about the victims and their families? We shouldn’t let Palin steal the spotlight from that huge tragedy and make this about her.
Chyron HR
What’s the big deal with Palin crying blood libel? Both sides Jew it.
Suffern ACE
@Smedley: Nope. Not wrong.
MrBenchley
“Seriously, blood libel, what the fuck? Is there some strain of anti-Semitism in Palinistas that I’m not familiar with?”
Mooselini’s using her “charm offensive” to remind her tea baggy loonies that “the media” is Jews. Having succeeded with Jared, now she’s hoping to whistle up another flying monkey to take a shot at Katie Couric….which she will totally not be responsible for so stop saying that!
RSA
@Smedley:
__
I hate to admit to Palin-level ignorance, but I didn’t actually remember what “blood libel” was about until I looked it up, though it seemed familiar when I did read about it. On the other hand, I’ve never used the phrase.
WarMunchkin
You know, I think I figured it out. I think she meant to say “libel”, as in journalists/liberals should be charged for libel for saying bad things about her. And then they thought something like, hey, people were shot, so let’s add the word “blood” in front. I mean they can’t possibly have understood what that meant…. and now I feel silly, contrasting this with what I wrote previously in this thread.
maye
@Comrade Javamanphil: Agreed. It’s all about free media.
Dan
Israeli flag in her office, so … who tf knows?
Omnes Omnibus
OT: Is it just me or has BJ slowed to a crawl?
joe from Lowell
It’s not anti-Semitism, it’s fake philo-Semitism. It’s an effort to identify oneself as suffering like the Jews suffered from the blood libel.
Sarah Palin has always painted herself as a victim, and modern conservatives have followed suit. (Sonia Sotomayor hates white people! Barack Obama is a racist! They’re going to put white Christians in camps!) This is just another angle.
Superluminar
@Chyron HR
to where would you like your interwebs delivered?
Bret
Hahahaahahahahahaha
You think any of these idiots actually knew what the phrase “blood libel” meant before spewing it out? I’m going to have to refudiate that notion.
Poopyman
Kudos, Doug! That’s some mighty powerful bait you tossed out.
@Hunter Gathers:
Actually, I don’t think they even care what itused to mean. It’s meaning is now changing to whatever the talking heads that are delegated to decyphering Palin’s message finally decide she meant it to mean.
TR
This isn’t about anti-Semitism. It’s about Palin and her supporters always, always thinking that they are the Greatest Victims in History. And therefore, they can invoke the suffering of any of their fellow victims because they are legitimately just as much of a victim as they are.
It’s why conservatives constantly compare their “plight” to that of people who suffered under slavery, genocide, the Holocaust, you name it.
While liberals tend to empathy, conservatives tend to “oh, you think *you* had it bad?” story topping.
Allan
I assume the phrase “blood libel” was tested by Frank Luntz in his labs, where they found that fRightwingers’ pupils dilated and their penises hardened involuntarily when they heard the words.
Also too, Sarah defended the Israelis for building settlements because when she becomes president and forcibly repatriates all Jews there, they’re going to need the housing.
New Yorker
Well, there was that African minister in her Wasilla church who claimed to cast out devils. He apparently said something along the lines that Christians need to re-claim American business from “the Israelites” or something like that.
It’s a very weak connection, if a connection at all. More likely an explanation is that a) Palin is dumb as a box of rocks and has no idea what the term “blood libel” means, and b) she’s always, always the persecuted victim.
scav
@maye: Entirely, but sometimes the harsh spotlight doesn’t do what your handlers or your ego tells you it does.
Gin & Tonic
@joe from Lowell: It’s also tactical. Everybody talks about Sarah for the next 12 hours while the President is on a plane out to Tucson. By the time he gets there, *anything* he says will be anticlimactic by comparison.
She may be ignorant, but she’s not dumb.
different church-lady
She’s just an idiot who has heard the phrase used and thought she knew what it meant. People who think there’s some dog whistle here overestimate her.
She reminds me of myself when I was 19 and I thought I knew a lot more than I did. The difference is that in the 27 years since then I figured some stuff out.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus:
Slowed to a crawl for me too.
Omnes Omnibus
@joe from Lowell: Liberals are gun-hating girlie-men who are coming to kill us. Coherence isn’t a strong suit from that camp either.
Dave S.
Glenn Reynolds used the phrase in a WSJ op-ed two days ago, so I suspect it’s a RW talking point. That makes it more dumbfounding to me, since you’d think there would be someone out there that would have suggested not appropriating that particular loaded phrase.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Sooo slow. Hence my (I think) double post above. Must be the WV snow.
lllphd
not only is palin shamelessly milking the meme for all it’s worth, she’s using it to promote herself as victim, when the real victim here, gabby, is herself actually jewish.
and in answer to your final question, um, yes, loads of anti-semitism, just goes with the racist territory. all that pseudo-respect for israel is strictly about opening the way for the rapture; you kinda need jewish cooperation to set up the second coming so their unbelieving asses can be flamed when the chosen get teleported to that mall in the sky.
it’s all about “you’re not like us.” co-opting “blood libel” gives them the right to persecute while being persecuted.
sheez, trying to follow the labyrinth that is their logic gives me such a headache.
MattF
I don’t believe that Palin knows what the phrase means. More likely, someone in Palin’s posse does know what ‘blood libel’ means and put the phrase into Palin’s statement just to get a certain select group pissed off.
Poopyman
@Omnes Omnibus: I was going to say it’s just you, but it took forever to get a reply out.
RP
Anyone who thinks that her speechwriter and handlers didn’t know the meaning of the phrase “blood libel” is delusional. I doubt Palin knows what it means, but those around her surely do. I think 4tehlulz is right — the point is to portray Palin and her followers as the victims of extreme persecution. IOW, any criticism of the right and Palin over the shootings is beyond the pale.
Alan
No, it refers to a centuries-old anti-Semitic libel. The Washington Post is edited by morons.
jinxtigr
@4tehlulz:
Like, it’s a variety of dogwhistle saying as explicitly as possible, “This is it, take your guns and go kill all liberals now”?
Of course it’s not possible to say that directly, in mainstream media. You have to invoke ‘blood’ as if your whole class (family) is insulted by another whole class (family). You have to invoke the era of duelling, you have to invoke people taking the law into their own hands. You can raise these things positively or negatively, for instance by bringing up the ‘bad old days’ that your followers desperately want to revert to. You raise it and say ‘we don’t have that anymore’. Liberals assume you’re saying ‘yay civilization’, not ‘go and take back that past’.
Of course it’s fucking dogwhistle for an escalation of exactly the same message it’s been all along. How obvious does it have to be?
different church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: Big storm on the east coast = nobody procrastinating at their desks.
harokin
Well, I’m sure the charges of Jewish cannibalism are almost certainly false, but questions have been raised, and the Jews need to get front and center to put this controversy to bed for once and all.
Loneoak
We should make a decision tree for these scenarios where Palin says something deeply offensive to every thinking being on the planet and we can’t determine whether it was said with knowing malice or utter ignorance. It’s a variation on the stupid/evil axes, but Palin’s statements are so stupid and evil we need some better hermeneutics to hack through to their meaning.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Smedley:
@WarMunchkin:
She wasn’t the first person to use it in this context, see JCs post earlier. I bet she is ignorant, but I doubt the original source is. Now, she’ll just be a victim of intelligent people who can read.
Brachiator
@Earl Butz:
As I noted in another thread here, some Jewish pundits are actually defending Palin on this.
Here is Jeffrey Goldberg (Why Sarah Palin’s Use of ‘Blood Libel’ Is a Great Thing).
Superluminar
Omnes Omnibus: it would appear that this site is indeed slower than Slowy McSlow Slow’s Postal Service delivering Sarah Palin’s grey matter to the Great Vault of Understanding, but rest assured that Red State probably loads slowly too, so both sides are, as usual, to blame.
Mike in NC
The Religious Right is OK with the State of Israel and the Jews who live within it. Over here, not so much.
Omnes Omnibus
@Poopyman: Ha!
eemom
@Chyron HR:
tee hee. Woody Allen would be proud of Jew.
Rihilism
Blood Libel?
Just you wait. Tomorrow, on the House floor (and therefore in the Congressional Record) Rep. Steve King (Idiot – Iowa), will defend her mendacity…
Josie
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s not just you. The page took forever to load just now for me. And I was going to ding DougJ for the “badly” instead of “boldly,” but Amir Khalid beat me to it while I was waiting. Darn.
PS
This whole video is a classic grifter move. Palin has figured out that she will never be elected nationally, or even respected by a full majority, but it’s not the majority that sends her money, directly and indirectly. If she had wimped out and apologized, the majority would still not have been convinced, and the minority that worship her would have been disappointed. So she chose to double-down on her base, gambling that they will continue to send her money. In that sense, the “victimhood” kind of works for her.
As to the language, yeah, she screwed up, but it won’t matter much. The base won’t be fazed and she lost the mainstream already (see Will & Krauthammer last week). I’m guessing that her choice of the term “blood libel” came from somewhere in her subconscious. It’s good to see general education on the subject, but I wouldn’t read too much into Palin’s use of it.
theconstituent
It’s definitely not a Jewish thing. I’m 100% positive that Palin thought “libel” means saying something about her that that she doesn’t like, and “blood libel” means saying something about her that she really doesn’t like. Nothing that comes out from here on out will convince me otherwise.
slag
@TR:
Exactly. It’s really hard to keep yourself perpetually strapped to the cross without a few Jews getting the blame for it every now and again. Tale as old as time.
Villago Delenda Est
BJ is slow because that bastard, Atrios, has linked to it.
Michael
Sucking up for a column in the Washington Post, I see. Maybe even as a sub for David Gregory on MTP.
The Dangerman
I’m torn between 2 extremes:
1) She’s pigshit stupid (hard to argue this point)
2) She wants to stir shit up and have more violence, especially against Jews
When the Nazi Right starts attacking Synagogues and/or Jews, will she take some responsibility at that time?
Hungry Joe
I doubt Palin or her staff had any clue what “blood libel” means. They were going to go with “libel,” when deep in the fevered brain of one of her toadies a couple of neurons fired and the phrase “blood libel,” heard somewhere, sometime, context long since forgotten, appeared on his or her mindscreen, and into the text it went.
She’s getting wilder, weirder, farther and farther Out There. A rock opera seems inevitable — I just hope Green Day is around long enough to put it together.
Southern Beale
I think what you’re seeing here is actually a calculated ploy by the person who ghost-writes Palin’s Tweets and Facebook posts — Rebecca Mansour? I forgot her name, Salon.com did a thing on her a while ago — ensuring that Palin stays in the forefront of the National Conversation.
It’s Sarah Palin’s world, we just live in it.
kd bart
“Blood Libel”
I doubt Palin or anyone surrounding her has ever read Barnard Malamud’s “The Fixer”. If so, they would know what “blood libel” is all about.
chopper
@TR:
ex-fucking-actly. these people know exactly what the blood libel is. they’re just trying to coopt a thousand years of jewish suffering and oppression for themselves, to make themselves out to be the real oppressed victims of the world.
Ross Hershberger
I don’t need to flowchart this and stage a walkthrough to know dumb when I see it. There are a number of possible explanations for the blood libel statement but the only one that makes sense to me is that she and the people around her are just too stupid for what they’re trying to do.
Now I feel like a fool for wishing that she would stick around for the 2012 POTUS race to amuse me. She’s unworthy of any attention at all.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: Why do you need to choose between those options? I can easily see a both… and… situation here.
someguy
Um, yeah, it’s hidden behind the lynching tree.
Josie
That’s pretty funny. I was picking on DougJ’s word use and then typed the wrong one myself. It should be “baldly,” although I suppose “boldly” would work also. It won’t matter. By the time this comment loads, he will have corrected it and written a whole new post.
Poopyman
@The Dangerman: Wait! It’s both!
Allan
@Loneoak: Or we can simply assume that everything Sarah says will be stupid AND evil, and then make the case for why an individual statement might be an exception to the rule.
JPL
What shall we call Sarah’s incendiary remarks?
scav
Blood libel. Is that calling someone Rh–? “You B&ndash! ! !” “Well, your mother wears AB socks.”
4jkb4ia
I saw what DougJ did. DougJ is admitting that there are some things that are so irresponsible and bigoted that they cannot come in as “Some people say”.
The journalistic solution to this problem is to say, “There is no proof this ever happened” instead of “False”.
If you use “blood libel” and you know its Jewish meaning that’s not admitting that Jews put Christian blood into matzah or did any of the murders that you will see under “blood libel” on Wikipedia. It is the kind of irresponsible language where Jews are the ultimate victims that we see all the time. Adam Serwer did well again today to point out that a blood libel is a group libel–so Palin is saying, whether she knows it or not, that she is suffering for her group–teabaggers?
Citizen_X
I just forced myself to watch the Fuhrerin’s speech. In a seven minute speech, only the first 1:20 or so focuses on the victims and expresses sadness over the shooting. The next 5 and a half minutes focuses only on how the awful libruls and lamestream media have somehow connected this (and the other twenty or so violent political crimes) to the patriots peacefully waving their Glocks and threatening signs. Never mind the bloody bodies over there, how about the true victims, us real Americans?
It’s a jaw-dropping display of a lack of self-awareness.
daveNYC
They haven’t been called on any of the crap they’ve beshitted prior to this, I’d say it’s at best 50:50 if this knocks her down a peg.
maya
@joe from Lowell: This is how I read it to. Next thing you know she’ll claim that the liberal facsists want to make her wear a yellow cross-hairs armband.
Citizen_X
I just forced myself to watch the Fuhrerin’s speech. In a seven minute speech, only the first 1:20 or so focuses on the victims and expresses sadness over the shooting. The next 5 and a half minutes focuses only on how the awful libruls and lamestream media have somehow connected this (and the other twenty or so violent political crimes, but let’s not talk about that) to the patriots peacefully waving their Glocks and threatening signs. Never mind the bloody bodies over there, how about the true victims, us real Americans?
It’s a jaw-dropping display of her lack of self-awareness.
Hillary Rettig
@MrBenchley: Mooselini
if this were Gawker, I’d heart you :-)
JPL
How long before Sarah appears on Fox News? I figure she’ll magically appear after the Presidents message tonight.
Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods
@Allan: It’s like Maimonedes wrote, “every so often, the tree of wingnuttery needs to be refreshed with the blood of innocents.”
Bill Arnold
Conservapedia on blood libel
Totally the same.
mr. whipple
@harokin:
FTW!
Villago Delenda Est
Sarah Palin is persecuted for nothing, just as the Jews were with the false charge of using the blood of Christian babies to make matzoh.
That’s what this is all about. Sarah’s victimhood. It is infinitely more important to discuss than the death of a 9 year old girl.
Citizen_X
Sorry ’bout the double post.
ET
The right uses a lot of code words and phrases that make no sense or have no resonance to anyone outside of their reality. Seems more like a cult than a political party.
Snarki, child of Loki
It’s all explained in the Protocols of the Elders of Wasilla, you betcha. Also.
scav
@Bill Arnold: Most accusations of heretical practices are rewarmed boilerplate — it’s a part of the reason it’s so hard to find out what condemned heretics actually believed.
Bnut
@someguy: My backyard already has a rape shed. A lynching tree would be the perfect accessory.
MikeJ
@harokin: Normally I wouldn’t even talk about such things, but the story is out there now, and that itself is a story.
If they have nothing to hide, why not just produce the documents to silence the critics? It really makes it look like they;re hiding something.
/villager (tag included for the satire impaired)
chris
Guys I wonder…at what point do our allies begin calling the state department wondering if we have things under control here? I suppose it wouldnt be the first time in modern history that they have done so. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall in Sec’y Clinton’s office during THAT phone call?
GregB
Upon hearing the news of Sarah Palin’s blood libel smear former CNN Rick Sanchez kicked out a window.
By the way, Rebecca Mansour? Have we seen her birth certificate?
Tsulagi
Nah, it’s just 11D word salad trying to convey their constant victimization in all dimensions. Don’t go making false claims. Good Christians like the Winky Queen and Commander EE loves them the Jews. They’re to play an important role in God’s end times play before they’re all vaporized.
Though way too charitable, Clyburn seems to have approached the mark…
Ya think?
You know, you would think they just might wait until after services held by families for those killed in the Saturday tragedy and were buried before teajackasses started thumping their chests bleating how they’re victims and everyone should recognize that. But then you would be wrong.
gogol's wife
@chopper:
I agree with this. Someone on another thread said he sympathized with us Jews who are offended by her use of the term “blood libel.” I am not a Jew, and I am deeply offended by her use of the term, and if she does not get called out on this by the “legitimate” media, then we are in deep trouble. I’m hoping against hope that this is finally the last straw. SHE DOES NOT GET TO DEFINE WHAT “BLOOD LIBEL” MEANS.
Caladan
Wow, is that really off base. Blood Libel or Corruption of Blood, is simply that children or descendants are held responsible for the actions or crimes of the parent or ancestor. Antisemitism is only one form of this.
bkny
i bet you could count on one hand the number of palinistas who knew the origins and meaning of ‘blood libel’; it’s just got such a provocative sound that it’s use is irresistable to them.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Go with the parsimonious explanation; she simply doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
Since invoking the Nazis is to “godwin” a discussion, we need a word for what Palin just did. Once you’ve invoked “blood libel” there isn’t anywhere for a discussion to go, is there?
Brachiator
@Hungry Joe:
Just Not Possible. Palin’s ghostwriters, staffers and advisors include people who clearly know about “blood libel” and its significance. In addition, I do not believe for a second that her speech was not rehearsed, previewed and vetted before it was posted.
What I find moderately interesting is that no journalist has yet identified the ghostwriter who drafted the speech.
And of course, all this brouhaha about the speech is over-shadowing the reporting about the memorial services for the victims.
I give one point to the Conservative noise machine.
harokin
@MikeJ: Why can’t Jewish leaders just get out there and say, “We’re not drinking the blood of Christian babies?” That’s all it would take. Instead, here we are talking about it.
Cris
“Golem”
Mister Papercut
You stay classy, Andrew Breitbart:
Villago Delenda Est
@chris:
If I were the Brits or the French, I’d be drawing up plans to station SSBNs off the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, to be able to remind President Palin that she’s not the only one with a button to push.
Dave C
I just realized something: Sarah Palin is a troll. But instead of trolling a particular blog or message board, she’s trolling the entire country. Maybe Obama could appoint her to the position of Secretary of Trollery. That way, the media might be convinced to Stop.Feeding.Her.
Citizen_X
Anyone else find something a bit anti-semitic about fervent support for Israel among people who loudly assert, “This is a Christian nation!”? It seems the implied message is, “Israel is a safe place for the Jews. You should go there.”
I would counter that, never mind whatever Israel does, America is a safe place for the Jews. It’s a safe place because we put a wall between church and state.
And yes, that implies that America’s a safe place for the Jews only if it’s also a safe place for the Moslems.
gogol's wife
@Brachiator:
Okay, but isn’t this BAD publicity for her? Have we really gone that far over the edge that this is going to HELP her?
Jeanne ringland
@Brachiator:
It’s hard for me to read Goldberg’s comment without seeing it as extremely clever snark. He may not mean it that way but I can’t wrap my head around his statement any other way.
JPL
@chris: I often wonder if we have things under control. The DSM dropped narcissistic personality disorder to quickly. Maybe after analyzing Sarah’s speech the authors will reconsider.
replicnt6
Let me throw in my theory on this: Professor Instadouchebag used the phrase thinking that it referred to the claim that the Jews killed Jeezus. See, the Jews were accused of persuading/forcing the Romans to execute Jeezus, just like (in the fevered imaginations of Repuglicans) they’re being accused of having persuaded/forced Jared Loughner to kill six people and wound 14 others.
Surely, he was quickly corrected about the actual meaning of the phrase, but by that point the phrase was out there, and it was just so beautifully incendiary. More inflammatory than they could have ever hoped for. And who the hell knows what the phrase really means? Not much of their base. So it was adopted by the Right-Wing Noise Machine, including Sarah Palin.
DS
What do you think she means with the terms “liberal Hollywood”, “liberal media” and “real Americans”? Because the first two are controlled by scheming Jews and in places like New York there are not only Jews, but Muslims, and atheists, and brown people. Wallace, Thurmond, Helms – the whole ideology of the modern right is opposing a harmonious, white, Christian racially segregated “real America” against a cosmopolitan, Jewish, multicultural, immoral “fake America”. This is what Palin has been indoctrinated into so I highly doubt she even recognizes it in the language she uses.
harokin
This to me is just another example of conservatives absolutely refusing to get context. They think, if Rep. John Lewis can call use lynching as a metaphor for an attack on him, then they can use it similarly, even though their ancestors were the lynch-ors, not the lynch-ees. They don’t get why that’s offensive. They don’t get why it doesn’t work. And that bothers them mightily.
eemom
as noted on the earlier thread, I am genuinely curious as to whether whatever idiot lackey wrote this POS screed for her knows the origin of this phrase. I certainly would not put anti-Semitism bigot-whistling past her and her handlers any more than I would put any other manner of vile exploitation past them — but the possibility can’t be discounted that they really are that stupid/ignorant that they seized on the phrase unwittingly.
It just sounds so very juicy — blooooood libel — so perfectly fits her Drama Queenliness.
In any event, this should get interesting, as I believe both J Goldbergs have already weighed in……plus, that mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the foulest of them all, Krauthammer — who would be even more spittle -spatteringly livid with rage than he usually is if a Democrat had used this phrase — has his very own filthy screed out using the word “libel” without the blood…..
PGE
I’m sure we’re dealing with ignorance here: neither Palin nor Reynolds know what the phrase means.
So why use it? Because “blood libel” sounds worse than “libel”, and they are both such awful people that they think now is the time to ratchet the hate speech up rather than down.
cleek
@daveNYC:
i doubt it will have any effect.
there can’t be many people out there for whom this would be the last straw. this isn’t really out of character for her, so if you liked her last week, you’ll probably still like her this week.
jinxtigr
@gogol’s wife: It is not bad publicity for her because she’s no longer trying to win over middle-of-the-roaders, if ever she did. It’s all dog-whistle, all the time, and it looks like she just implied a feud was in order between Tea Party and everybody else. She knows exactly who she’s talking to, and why. She has exactly the same agenda as before, and is moving in exactly the same direction that she has been, even now. Things speed up: she speeds up. It’s not for YOU to understand if you’re not a Tea Partier or lone nut gunman.
And we do NOT have things under control :(
Martin
Palin is doing what she needs to in order to keep the tea partiers ramped up and to get their vote for the GOP primary. This is the world as they want it to be and everything she does happens in the context of winning that primary (assuming she runs).
Comrade Dread
Hey, you know who else called for peace, calm, and non-violence rhetoric?
Hitler.
I think, I didn’t really pay much attention in history class, but I’m sure it was Hitler. He was the guy with the sheet and glasses who was played by Ben Kingsley in the movie, right?
Yeah, pure evil.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
It’s a good thing us durrty Jooz really do control the country so we can make damn sure Mooselini never has a taxpayer-funded job again. And it only looks like our control of the media is imperfect – this whole episode is actually a diabolically clever part of our 11-dimensional game plan to, uh, something. Still working on it.
@Dave C:
If BJ weren’t loading so slowly, you would have already received your personal Internets.
eemom
dunno where those underlines came from but I dintdoit.
Rugosa
I’m sorry. There’s such a thing as sarcasm that’s too subtle. After the steam stopped coming out of my ears, I deleted my original comment.
Well done. A truly inspired example of false equivalency.
ed drone
@Caladan:
I don’t think that’s the usual meaning of the phrase. But if it is, is Simple Sarah saying that all liberals are “Mud-bloods?” — or is she saying only that Jews are the “Mud-bloods,” and liberals are “blood traitors?”
Ed
BTW, that part about the children being held responsible comes under the rubric “Sins of the Fathers,” and there is a term for that kind of thinking, and I even think the word “blood” is in the term or phrase, but I can’t remember it just now. I am sure it isn’t “blood libel,” though.
JPL
The MSM should point out to Mrs. Palin that she is not the victim and there are natural consequences to her actions.
If she had not used cross-hairs, this would not have happened.
Edit..hahahaha that won’t happen
sukabi
pure “dog whistle” for her base, keeps them “energized” and ready to roll.
xian
I SMELL BILL KRISTOL
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Bruce’s Law: As a political discussion grows longer the probability that someone will claim to be a victim of Blood Libel approaches 1.
Bruce’s Corollary: Unless the discussion directly pertains to Jews or Judaism the individual who has invoked Blood Libel has ended the discussion and lost by default.
Bubblegum Tate
@Violet:
Yes, largely because “the Jews” tend to vote Democrat.
On the other hand, let’s not forget that in wingnut circles, “conservatives are the Jews of liberal fascism.” But “the Jews of liberal fascism” are like “the Jewish people,” which is to say an abstraction, an archetype, a slate upon which conservatives can project their own feelings (and from which they can claim victim status). “The Jews,” meanwhile, are actual people.
I’m sure Palin’s speechwriter used the phrase on purpose–it is an official wingnut talking point now, and it is meant to ensure that everybody knows that conservatives, as always, are the real victims.
But at the same time, I’m betting Palin had no idea what it actually means and just assumed it means “really, really, really bad libel…the worst kind of libel possible: the kind about me!”
Cris
And Obama is the Half-Blood Prince
Yutsano
Ugh. Just…ugh.
I’m with wifey: stop the planet, I wanna get off now.
@Bnut: Ya must be out in Flushing or some place like that.
jwb
@daveNYC: No, this will definitely help her in the short term. She’s a conservative and conservatives are never held accountable for their actions so long as they are deemed useful to the powers that be. At this point the only thing that would drop her a peg is a collective shrug to her actions. We might take hope in the fact that her handlers evidently felt they had to play this sort of card now in order to ensure that she would get the attention needed to turn the direction of the conversation. There are, however, a limited number of these sorts of trump card in the deck, so I take it as a sign of desperation and that we have reached the beginning of the end. But I fear this will prove to be one of those intolerably long denouements.
Bun
I guess that definition sort of jibes with the fact that every event that happens in America is an excuse for Sarah Palin to feel persecuted.
GregB
Yahoo’s latest headline:
Palin remark stirs controversy.
Davis X. Machina
@Dave C:
Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
Davis X. Machina
@Dave C: Sarah Palin is a troll. But instead of trolling a particular blog or message board, she’s trolling the entire country. Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
Comrade Dread
@JPL: The shooter was a ticking time bomb that would have likely exploded regardless of Ms. Palin’s graphic choices.
But she could have simply stated that it was an unfortunate choice, that she does not intend for people to take it literally, that her political opponents are not un-American, anti-American, or evil, just people with whom she has disagreements with, even passionate disagreements, over the size, scope, and proper role of government, and we should all keep that in mind even as we try to drive our political agenda forward.
That would have been a nice (almost presidential) response.
Bulworth
It was a slip. Won’t happen again. Sorry.
The Raven
The Alaska Independence Party, of which which Todd Palin was a member and which Sarah Palin may have been a member, has strong ties with the broader radical right movement which, yes, is racist and anti-semitic. So there are anti-semitic connections.
Dave Neiwert on Palin’s AIP connections.
jwb
@chris: Hey, we’re crazy and we’ve got nooks. No one’s gonna make that call and put themselves in Princess Sarah’s purely metaphorical crosshairs.
eemom
Yeah, that’s telling her. Craven, cowardly asshole.
Punchy
No chance the Tundra Trollop apologizes for this, even though the ADL is demanding it. I’m guessing the ADL is about to be tarred as a librul American-hating communist Nazi organization.
GregB
Howard Kurtz on Palin:
“Had Palin scoured a thesaurus, she could not have come up with a more inflammatory phrase.”
Methinks this may be the Wasilla Waterloo.
Link to Crooks and Liars.
Davis X. Machina
@Davis X. Machina: Double post. My apologies. Hinky server…
4jkb4ia
@Mister Papercut:
Well, Andrew Breitbart said it, so automatically it makes it all right for Sarah Palin to say it. Very deep /s
scav
I’m still thinking it’s more likely that the elderly part of the population are more likely to have stronger ideas about decorum and basic manners, especially in these circs. It’s all very well to play to the squeaky loud bits of your base, but you may be scraping off the milder elements all the same. Time will no doubt tell.
r€nato
criticizing Sarah Palin is exactly like shoving six million Jews into the gas chambers and ovens.
Suffern ACE
@Mister Papercut: That’s not real…? If it is, I think Rush needs to sue. Boiling all politics down to rape is his thing. Breitburt needs to get his own.
Mnemosyne
@replicnt6:
That sounds extremely plausible. And let’s face it, it’s not like it would be the first time that the right wing was called on a mistake and decided to double down on it instead of correcting it.
eemom
@GregB:
bwaaahaaaaahaaaaahaaaaaahaaaaa
I got my entire net worth sez Palin thinks a thesaurus is extinct.
Alex S.
Sarah Palin is a one-woman-WBC.
jwb
@Brachiator: I would bet real money that Bill Kristol had a hand in it, as sick as that is and at least in part because it is that sick. I also suspect Kristol was put up to it by other GOP strategists who thought they could use it to damage Palin but have just learned again that discourse enters another dimension when it passes through her.
freelancer
@GregB:
There is no Wingnut Waterloo, it’s like a radioactive halflife.
But please, in the name of everyone else who is capable of feeling shame or dignity, shut up Sarah! How hard is it to be a freaking person for 5 minutes?!
Jay
“Seriously, blood libel, what the fuck?”
That one line response is the smartest I’ve yet seen.
Rather than doing a long piece on this latest outburst from Palin, somebody like Shep Smith (who has dropped the eff bomb on the air before) ought to just bust out with what DougJ said and leave it at that.
PS: DougJ, if the Pats win the Super Bowl, you MUST keep that screen name for the rest of the year. Srsly.
hueyplong
We shouldn’t ignore the fact that Palin merely trotted out a term du jour (“blood libel”) that had just been used by Glenn Reynolds in a WSJ piece. I’m hesitant to believe that she suddenly decided to misuse a term at the nearly the exact same time it was being misused by another GOP operative.
I’d really like to read a story in which someone tracks down the originators of the “talking terms” and goes on to explain the logistics for getting them out there. It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that “job killer” was used by dozens of Republicans all at the same time, and then “blood libel” suddenly got misused by multiple people in the same way.
replicnt6
@eemom:
Nice.
Though, lest we forget, thesauruses did co-exist with humans.
Svensker
@replicnt6:
Brilliant. (IOW, I agree with you.)
jwb
@Dave C: Obama could go into total mind fuck mode and start saying all sorts of complimentary things about Palin. I think that is about the only thing that would damage her among the 28%.
Common Sense
Okay which one of you got a hold of that wiki page?
SFAW
If Breitboy had included the phrase “anal poisoning”, I could agree with you, since Rush has copyrighted it.
Damn that Clyburn! Another Lefty [sic] seeking a violent response against
a Pore Wingnut Grizzly MamaMooselini. Now the Reich Wing has regained the moral high ground! The only thing worse would have been if I (or asiangrrlMN or Davis X. or harokin or calling all toasters or take-your-pick) had said that, because our words can move legions of liberal death squads to do our bidding.Fly, my little monkeys! Ahahahahahahaha …..
Also, too.
Amir_Khalid
To extend the Harry Potter metaphor yet further, whom does Sarah Palin fancy herself as? Since it’s Voldemort’s crew who despise Mudbloods, I’d put money on Bellatrix Lestrange.
hueyplong
“I got my entire net worth sez Palin thinks a thesaurus is extinct. ”
And that men and women coexisted with them nearly 6000 years ago.
Shalimar
@Mister Papercut: I admit I’m mostly happy to hear that Breitbart thinks the men who cheered the rapists in The Accused were bad people and thus liberals. Maybe there is some tiny shred of humanity within him after all. I was afraid he would see them as good Christians happy to see a woman punished for straying from God’s path by having a good time.
SFAW
“I got my entire net worth sez Palin thinks a thesaurus is extinct. ”
Don’t know about that, but one of her most-prized possessions is a black-velvet “painting” of a caveman riding one.
SFAW
replicnt6 beat me to it.
I blame the blood-libeling left-wing media for that.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: That’s not a caveman; it’s a badly drawn Elvis.
elf
@TR:
good point..just watched crazy uncle Pat on msnbc defending her use of it and claiming she was the victim
Svensker
@Common Sense:
Ha ha ha. Already deleted.
hueyplong
@jwb:
Obama: And yet another example of America’s spirit of perseverance and renewal in the wake of tragedy is the way members of the Republican party have reached across the aisle in these troubled times. It makes me even more proud to be an American. I particularly want to thank former Governor Palin, who has graciously agreed to assist our investigation by turning over to my secret DOJ investigators all the personal information of the many people who have contributed money to her. Preparations for their relocation to FEMA camps for their own protection are already under way. Thank you Governor Palin, for your tireless efforts in support of One World, err, American government. You’re a true patriot.
bemused
If they were trying to avoid using weapon, militant, target metaphors for the moment but still want to speak to and thrill their base, then any phrase with the word blood in it is just the ticket.
Brachiator
@gogol’s wife:
As I’ve suggested a number of times, Obama’s election and nomination have driven many conservatives out of their minds with racial anxiety. As a result, all kinds of crazy is pouring out. But strangely, the Republicans, mainstream and wingnut, are choosing to double down. They cannot step back from the crazy.
And so, Palin’s supporters, and those who have thrown in with the Republicans in general, must absolve Palin of any gaffe, wrongdoing or deliberate mischief. She’s got double Teflon protection.
So, Jewish Republicans are having to step up and support Palin’s insanity, or at least not actively oppose it (Jewish Republicans muted on Palin’s ‘blood libel’ comment).
It’s sad that people who would probably be leveling blistering charges of bigotry had this nonsense come from almost anyone else are tripping over themselves to find a way to excuse or rationalize Palin’s remarks.
I look for the obligatory blaming of Obama or Clinton any minute now.
@jwb:
You almost have it. Kristol is one of Palin’s shadow advisors, and is often assigned the task of defending her. To the contrary, I suspect that Kristol and others will insist that Palin is good for the Jews.
Dom Phenom
For the win. Thank you for that, brightened my whole morning.
SFAW
And he was quoted why?
Davis X. Machina
@GregB:
Zeppelin on Germany-US flight arrives late at Lakehurst.
SFAW
Either Kristol or
Starburst TwinkleRich Lowry.debbie
We should look on this moment as an opportunity to look into the future and see what to avoid. If people were worried about Bush’s fast-and-loose kind of language, this sample of what a President Palin could utter ought to be really, really instructive.
jwb
@Brachiator: I agree that Kristol would say that Palin was good for the Jews. But I think the “blood libel” line was planted by a GOP strategist who wanted to use it to damage Palin and tried to do it through Kristol, who I believe is actually stupider than Palin, though he does have the ability to string sentences together. That is, the strategist had it in mind to get Palin, convinced Kristol that the blood libel line was a good move, and so Kristol put it in the speech thinking it would be helpful to Palin. The theory lacks in parsimony, but the wurlitzer has been playing rather badly out of tune on this number, and so it seems to me that the most likely explanation is that there are multiple hands at the manual.
Brachiator
This just in. Conservative pundits double down on defending La Palin on anything she might ever say about anything at anytime.
Apparently, coming to Palin’s defense is more important than those who were killed or injured in the appalling Arizona tragedy. Republican family values.
Kryptik
Christ, I give up.
Outside of safe havens like this and other more liberal blogs, it seems like the conventional wisdom has become either 1) both sides do it, don’t point fingers, or 2) the guy was really a liberal, and liberals hate free speech, they’re the real violent ones to blame.
How this fucking happened, I will never know, but fuck all, the fix has come in, and once again, public opinion says LIBS HATE AMERICA, STOP THEM OR DIE!!!
Fuck, I give up.
SFAW
Jumbo shrimp
Open secret
and so forth …
licensed to kill time
I thought Palin had exhausted her ability to make my jaw drop and hit the desk with a thud by now, but this morning it happened again.
She’s like a perpetual outrage machine. She pulls the crazy rabbit out of the hat and BOOM! there goes the jaw again.
hilts
Sharron Angle doubles down on stupid, but refrains from using blood libel to defend herself
h/t http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/12/sharron-angle-defends-con_n_807911.html
Mnemosyne
@elf:
Gee, long-time anti-Semite Pat Buchanan defending Palin’s use of “blood libel”? I sure didn’t see that one coming.
Kryptik
@Mnemosyne:
God fucking god fucking god fucking hell, how the fucking hell are these assholes actually successfully playing the victim card?!
hilts
@elf:
How did Pat Buchanan’s father break his leg during WWII? He fell out of a guard tower in a concentration camp.
Mnemosyne
@Kryptik:
Because the fix is in and they have the media on their side. Not just Fox, but CNN and MSNBC and the network news, plus the Washington Post and the NY Times.
Anyone who works in the media and finds Palin’s words disgusting is going to have to swallow their bile and spout the party line, or else find a new job.
SFAW
Now you libs are blood libeling Buchanan? For shame!
Besides, Pat doesn’t hate all Jews, he likes the “good” ones, like Pantload.
He also doesn’t hate the “good” Jews who once stayed at Auschwitz/Bergen-Belsen/Buchenwald. Well, he doesn’t hate them any more, that is.
TOP123
href=”#comment-2359532″>MikeJ: This might be a good time to quote the great Lenny Bruce:
All right. I’ll clear the air once and for all, and confess. Yes, we did it–my family. I found a note in my basement that said: ‘We killed him. (signed) Morty.’
HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
You’re missing the point. It’s about painting her critics as Nazis, and the tea party as victims.
Brachiator
@jwb:
Nope.
The wingnuts used to be a branch of the GOP, but now they are the whole tree, and this is the fruit that they bear. Not only are they turning into a whites only party, they are seeking to absorb any symbols that previously were associated with any minority group in America, and in reversing and denying any negative aspect of American history. So, the NAACP is an anti-American, anti-white racist organization, and any criticism of Palin is an act of bigotry. Also, too, Palin is not only ultra-Christian but she loves Jews so much that an “attack” on her is obviously blood libel, just as it would be if it were an attack on an actual Jewish person, especially if we ignore reality.
Not surprisingly, idiot firebrand Andrew Breitbart has been one of the first to jump onto the “blood libel” bandwagon in defending Palin, and in continuing the theme of Tea Party People as armed patriots on the lookout for traitors and enemies of the people.
The most parsimonious theory is not the speculation that some anonymous strategist is trying to sandbag Palin, but the more obvious one that the GOP simply cannot back off from their nasty rhetoric. It not only defines them, it won them some seats in the Congress and will be the foundation of their 2012 campaign against Obama.
The GOP is also attempting to hijack the blogotariat. Over the next days, what are the chances that there will be more blog comments on various sites supporting Palin than there will be remarks expressing sympathy for the victims of this terrible attack?
SFAW
There was a theory I saw a little while back, maybe here, maybe at digby’s, maybe at GOS (don’t recall exactly where): specifically, that a lot of the “you’d think they’d know better” members of the media have reached the conclusion that they may be required to work for Murdoch some day, and they don’t want to be out of work because they offended Rupert or Ailes.
Every time stuff like this happens, I become more convinced that it’s true.
Kryptik
@Brachiator:
What do you mean? It’s already happened. Just a cursory glance around outside of places like here (which are fairly inoculated from the crazy) have already jumped that shark.
bvac
What’s next, is Palin going to tell us about the trail of tears she leaves behind whenever someone criticizes her?
Xecky Gilchrist
@different church-lady: She’s just an idiot who has heard the phrase used and thought she knew what it meant. People who think there’s some dog whistle here overestimate her.
Agreed.
Somehow it reminds me of when Dumbya referred to the Iraq invasion as a “crusade” and had to pretend he never said that.
Hob
@SFAW: If what you mean is “Goldberg’s not actually Jewish”… as a philo-Semite I wish that were so, but he is, unless you want to get all Orthodox about it.
SFAW
I’m still trying to figure out how this word has fit in the numerous instances I’ve seen it on BJ today and yesterday.
Is it being used to mean “quick-and-dirty”? “Charitable”? “Occam’s-razorish”? “Cause maybe I’m turning into a wingnut, but I can’t figure it out.
Brachiator –
Not trying to single you out, yours was just the latest instance, and I’ve been getting confuseder and confuseder.
Dave S.
@mr. whipple: The only thing missing is “We’ll have to leave it at that” at the end.
jwb
@Brachiator: I agree that your theory is more parsimonious and would accept it if the wurlitzer had been playing in tune from the start. But there was a lot of indecision when this story first broke, which your theory doesn’t explain. The anonymous strategist is my attempt to explain that indecision.
Nellcote
LaPalin has blown up the Overton Window. It will now be acceptable for the whole Obama=Hitler/Liberals=Nazis meme. See also Glen Beck.
I want my language back!
SFAW
Hob –
I guess I ain’t quite as smart as I used to be or need to be. I knew Lucianne was Episcopalian, assumed that Pantload was also. In fact, early in my “career” I had assumed he was Jewish – until someone “corrected” me.
So now that you’ve shown me the thing he wrote, I gotta change back over again. What a pain.
I suppose you’ll next be telling me that Buchanan’s a Unitarian, and I’ll have to make yet another mental change.
But the Pope’s still Catholic, right?
Hob
@SFAW: No, Buchanan is a Wiccan in the Dianic tradition. The Unitarian you’re probably thinking of is Pam Geller. The Pope of course is Lutheran.
Davis X. Machina
@SFAW:
. We own that son-of-a-bitch, unfortunately. Gonzaga Prep, Georgetown undergrad.
JCT
@elf: Why yes, that would be crazy uncle Pat the Holocaust denier. See, it all fits. Sigh.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hob: No, the bear is Catholic; the Pope shits in the woods. Try to keep it straight.
Nick
@Kryptik:
Clearly if Obama had used the bully pulpit…
Nick
@Kryptik:
the media is either scared of them, paid off by them, or both.
Brachiator
@Kryptik: RE: Over the next days, what are the chances that there will be more blog comments on various sites supporting Palin than there will be remarks expressing sympathy for the victims of this terrible attack?
That’s just sad then. I had been avoiding looking at a lot of the stuff about this story, and the few sites I had visited were more sympathetic than stupid.
@jwb:
Ah. I think that the indecision came from this: originally, the GOP thought that they could get away with words of sympathy and their pro forma defense of gun rights. But when some of the people directly affected by the tragedy, including some Arizona law enforcement officials and Republican legislators, began talking about cooling the intemperate rhetoric, the GOP was briefly rattled. And when some criticism was directed to La Palin, they went into overdrive, wanting to make sure that Palin was provided with the maximum amount of cover and protection. The GOP still needs her to keep the Tea Party faithful in line.
Some speechwriter knew exactly what the blood libel line meant, and probably thought it would be cool or edgy to use this as part of Palin’s defense. They also figured that any liberal Jewish person who objected could be dismissed as just another liberal, while conservative Jews seem to have been told to just STFU no matter what words are put into Palin’s mouth.
replicnt6
@SFAW:
You hit it with “Occam’s Razorish”. Parsimonious in this context means simplest, sparest, least-complex, with the fewest assumptions, and therefore most likely, explanation.
Gus
I honestly don’t think this is anti-Semitism. There is, however, a strain of stupid in Palinistas with which we are all familiar.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Thanks to whoever fixt the out-of-control strikethrough font. Looking at all those stripey posts was worse than the Holocaust.
TOP123
Does anyone think it could just be an honest (though nasty) result of the extreme remove most conservatives and Republicans have from Jewish culture and the Jewish experience? I realize that they talk a big, big game about loving Israel, as has been discussed above. I realize that there are plenty of Jews in the conservative, and particularly neocon, commentariat and intelligenstia. The fact is, though, Jews make up a very small part of the American population, and Republicans make up a very small part of Jews (and Jews of Republicans!). Not only that, but outspokenly Republican Jews are not a smooth fit with American Jewish culture. I can only speak from hearsay on the analogy to the African-American experience, but my friends who did grow up in African American culture tend to have a very bemused (and politely cynical) response when confronted with the idea of an African American Republican.
When you consider how few African Americans and Jews are represented in Republican circles, I think it’s not surprising how tone-deaf GOP politicians, pundits, and votes are to the deep meaning of ‘blood libel’, ‘lynching’, and other terms. I hope I’m not understood as trying to minimize this. As someone said upthread, my jaw dropped when I read that Palin had used that term. It’s still ugly, and we who do understand should be holding their feet to the fire on this. I just wonder if things like this might be a natural result of belonging to a party of exclusion.
Ash Can
@Omnes Omnibus: I lol’d.
JR
@Caladan:
Dude, you are just wrong. Totally. Absolutely. Extremely, completely wrong.
Pig ignorant.
Shut up now, so the rest of us won’t have to see the ignorant.
That is all.
MoonBatista
@licensed to kill time: Today has been set aside to honor the victims of the Tucson massacre. And Sarah Palin has apparently decided she’s one of them.
(Josh Marshall at TPM)
Suffern ACE
@hilts: Seriously, who cares about Sharon Angle. She LOST and is a politician in Nevada. She isn’t in Arizona, she shouldn’t have been a national public figure to begin with. Who cares if she is doubling down or drinking doubles?
FlipYrWhig
It means “they blame us conservatives the way they used to blame the Jews,” i.e., holding an innocent group collectively responsible for atrocious violence.
Like @joe from Lowell said, “fake philo-Semitism.”
MoonBatista
Another nice quote:
from Ross Baker
I especially like his use of “Gothic” here. He takes Clyburn’s view (“But I think intellectually, she seems not to be able to understand what’s going on here”) and amplifies it.
The Raven
@Kryptik: “how the […] hell are these assholes actually successfully playing the victim card?!”
@Mnemosyne: “Because the fix is in and they have the media on their side.”
And also because all of the people who have enough media access to make a difference conciliated Palin and the radical right. Because the Democrats thought they could let bygones be bygones and that the Republicans and the radical right would play nice now.
When they could have spoken out, they did not, and now they face a powerful and well-armed movement.
Croak!
TOP123
@The Raven: I think The Raven makes a good reference: “When they could have spoken out, they did not” as a reminder, though I certainly hope it is not at that point yet.
The portion of our nation’s population who would actually throw in with an antisemitic, racialist, homophobic program right now is probably very small, but we are all wise to keep a damn sharp eye on any bones thrown in that direction, nonetheless.
Look, Jews, gays, atheists, African-Americans… hell, left-handers are a minority in this country. It’s worth building our coalition always to push against the constant efforts of the Palin types who are, like it or not, opposed to our kind… and our kind includes a whole lot more than the several groups I mentioned above.
maus
I find it so intensely aggravating that the same people who talk about George Soros’ “elitist domination of the world” in Elders of Zion terminology are using “blood libel” with willful disregard to context.
SFAW
What I figured. It’s still a non-standard use of the word, even if you define it thusly.
Not trying to bust chops, honest, I’m just a grammar/usage-nerd, sometimes. Other times I ain’t.
SFAW
Great, another apologist for the GHS. Don’t you realize he may be the greatest threat to democracy since Xerxes? Fortunately, our conservative brethren and cistern do, and are there to protect you.
Also.
Pongo
Since Sarah likes to pretend she is Israel’s best friend, one has to assume that her strategy here was to find common cause with Jewish people and lump her current circumstances in with the unfair branding of Jews throughout history (‘see what a victim I am–just like you guys’). She and her handlers thought they were being clever, when actually they were just being insensitive, particularly given Rep. Giffords heritage. On the other hand, she probably just increased her favorables among anti-semite’s, so there’s that.
It’s a classic illustration of what can go wrong when you pretend to support something (Israel and Jewish culture) that you truly know nothing about.
JWL
Lenny Bruce once said he had found a written confession about Christ’s crucifixion while rummaging around his family’s attic. It read, “Yeah, I did it. Signed, Morty”.
Nothing about blood rituals, though.
TOP123
@JWL: Well, I mean, if we’re going to double up on the Lenny Bruce quote, we might as well finish:
” ‘Why did you kill Christ?’
‘I dunno… it was one of those parties, it got out of hand, you know.’
We killed him because he didn’t want to become a doctor, that’s why. ”
And, re: the blood libel, in the great book “Every Goy’s Guide to Common Jewish Expressions”, by Arthur Naiman, whence I was able to quickly find the quotations above, there is this:
“Jews had enough trouble surviving stories about how they murdered Christian children and used their blood to make matza for Passover (which is ridiculous! only special matzas–marked XXX on the box–are made in this way)”
SFAW
JWL –
See 189.
JWL
SFAW: Thanks. It’s an unsung service you provide giving a heads-up to those too lazy (or pressed for time) to peruse entire threads of comments.
SFAW
JWL –
Which was a very polite way to call me an asshole. Which is OK, ’cause I guess I was, and should have let your reply stand without being Comments Cop, since I understand the pressed-for-time thing (and so I shouldn’t be so f’ing sanctimonious).
The above is not snark, by the way.
TOP123
@JWL: and I hope you’ll understand likewise I just was itching for an excuse to finish the quote…
Scamp Dog
@WarMunchkin: A correct use of “exponential” in a non-math discussion! Sir or Madam, you have warmed the cockles of my heart.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@Hunter Gathers:
I guess it’s no shock that Fred Malek is Palin’s closest ally among old school Republicans.