WTF is "The Jewish Problem"????

[Taverner]

I keep seeing this on freeper sites...and the only thing I can see as the Jewish problem is that others have a problem with Jewish people being Jewish....

[JohnKleeb]

1. the "Jewish Problem"

That sounds freaky as hell. I dont know why people have such problems with Jewish people, never got that honestly. Ive always thought there could be Jewish blood in my family, never looked that hard in to it though.

[Taverner]

6. There is Jewish blood in my family

And obviously it was so much of a problem, someone covered it up and had to hide our Jewishness.

If there is a problem its with racist a$$holes and their myopia...

[JohnKleeb]

9. Thats sad, god I hate anti semtism.

[expatriot]

2. it is a reference to classic anti-semitic literature....

Such as Henry Ford's "The International Jew -- The World's Foremost Problem."

[expatriot]

8. a little known fact -- Ford had a copy of the International Jew put...

in every glove box of every Model T sold in North America for at least a couple years in the twenties.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Google "Hitler" and "Nazi"

[leesa]

4. There is a problem with the government of Israel right now, just as there

is a problem with the US government right now, but all the rest is bigoted nonsense. There is no "Jewish Problem"

[Bombtrack]

21. Just as there is a "problem" with every middle eastern country

and Israel is about 2nd to last in terms of being "problematic" on any scale of logic.

[Maple]

5. I don't know the context

but could it be about Jews voting Democratic ? New York?

Guessing here.

[Guy Fawkes]

10. apparently, 98% of Jews voted dem. in 2000....

and yet, republicans still think we're anti-semites...

[Guy Fawkes]

7. Well, the Mensans seem to think...

that Jews own absolutely everything and control the world. This goes hand in hand with Spongbob making children gay and with blue jeans being the devil's work.

[expatriot]

13. I KNEW the Jews were behind Spongebob... thanks for backing me up!

[murielm99]

17. I am a Mensan and I do not think that.

Mensa does not take political postions.

This is your second thread with Mensa bashing tonight. Why?

[Guy Fawkes]

22. Let me go off on a little rant....

A few years ago, a large group of people I know went out and joined Mensa. I thought it was pointless (and didn't want to drive for 4 hours to get to the test site) so I did't go. Well, they all made it in. After a little while, I got interested and looked at some of the Mensa Newsletters. What I found out is that these people are no better then the freepers. Maybe its just wisconsin- I hope it is- but I'm still not joining Mensa: ever.

And in case you were wondering, several of the people who had taken the test that day (and joined) are now having wonderful lives. One of them dropped out of college and is having a wonderful time sleeping with married men.

[asthmaticeog]

33. I'm a Mensan and I'm Jewish.

Your mileage may vary, but I've never encountered any of that banking conspiracy horseshit in the company of smart people. Don't let a handful of assholes ruin something for you - there are dozens of legitimate reasons to think Mensa's idiotic. :)

[rasputin1952]

31. Hello fellow Mensan!!!!!! I never heard any of that tripe from Mensa

either.

There are enough rREAL bigotted groups in this world without adding more....:)

[murielm99]

40. No, of course not.

But have you seen this thread?

Look at it this way:

Every once in awhile, DU is misrepresented on another website. We are taken out of context, or ridiculed for being who we are, for being DUers. Even newspapers like the New York Times might mention us with less than flattery.

When that happens, many DUers discuss it among themselves with great anger. A few of the more ambitious ones may even confront those people, or write a letter to the editor. "DU has standards and rules," assert. "We have a right to be who we are, and to our pride."

But if you look at this thread, only DUers have a right to pride. It is perfectly all right to ridicule Mensans, to assign negative stereotypes and unrealistic expectations to them.

"Well, I took the test, and I qualified, but I decided not to join. That means I am superior to all those smart people. Doesn't it?"

No, it just means that you decided not to join a social organization with a test requirement.

And what would happen if someone posted an anti-semitic thought here? I guess it would mean that we would all have to quit DU. We would have to tell our friends and neighbors, and everyone else we could find that DU is anti-semitic, because one person posted that, and maybe someone else agreed with them. Never mind that DU has rules and standards. Never mind that that person would be warned or banned. DU would be anti-semitic. Just like Mensa!

I am sure that the stuff Guy Fawkes posted about did not appear in any official Mensa publication or SIG (special interest group). You know that if it did, Mensa would come down hard on them.

But then, I am not allowed to have any pride in being a Mensan, or to enjoy the group in any way. Only DUers are allowed that. And that makes it hard for me, because I am both.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x2477330

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Actually It's The Title Of An Essay By Karl Marx

which was full of anti-semitic stereotypes...

[Taverner]

14. Um...Karl Marx was Jewish

may have him mixed up with Lenin or Stalin perhaps?

[JohnKleeb]

18. likely Stalin, I'd think, since Lenin was born Jewish too

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. I Don't Think Lenin Was Born Jewish...

Trotsky yes....



on edit- Lenin's maternal grandfather was Jewish...


Judaism is a matrilineal religion.....

[JohnKleeb]

24. lemme see if I can link you on that

I can't sorry.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. Marx 's Family Converted To Protestantism

http://www.marxists.org/archive/ruhle/1928/marx/ch10.htm

To this was superadded a social factor, his Jewish descent. In the early part of the present book I showed how great were the social, legal, and political disadvantages from which the Jews suffered in Germany before the time of the March revolution, and how the Jews of Rhineland in especial were despised and persecuted. Marx felt that as a Jew he had been given a bad start in life, one which would seriously handicap his prospects of advancement. No doubt the conversion of the family to Protestantism had done something to make up for this, but his racial origin could not be washed away by the waters of baptism. No one could ever forget that Marx had been born a Jew, for not only was his facial type markedly Hebraic, but his whole aspect shouted a Semitic origin. Baptized or unbaptized, Marx remained a Jew, recognizable as such at the first glance, and burdened therefore with all the odium attaching to his race. One may presume that from early childhood he had been on the defensive, earnestly endeavouring, by means of intelligence and industry, to compensate for the disadvantages of birth. Even if his Jewish origin proved no drawback to Marx, or only entailed obstacles which it was easy for him to overcome, he may none the less have felt his descent to entail upon him a social stigma, which must have aroused in him a sense of inferiority. For actual inferiority is not needed to arouse the sense of it; mere suspicions, assumptions, imaginations, and exaggerations suffice to induce this mental state. Very striking is the unusual acerbity with which, when he is discussing the Jewish problem, Marx attacks “the empirical essence of Judaism.” He writes: “What is the mundane basis of Judaism? Practical needs; self-interest. What is the mundane cult 0f the Jews? Huckstering. What is the Jews’ mundane god? Money.” Marx denounces the Jews as prototypes of the commercial spirit and of a monetary economy; he makes Judaism the symbol of bloodsucking capitalism. The reader cannot escape the feeling that he is ostentatiously showing his opposition to Judaism, is demonstratively severing himself from his own race, and by emphasizing his anti-capitalist tendencies is declaring himself before all the world not to be a Jew. But one who takes so much trouble to declare that he is not a Jew must have reason for being afraid of being regarded as a Jew. I think there can be no doubt that this social factor of Marx’s Jewish origin intensified his sense of inferiority, and must have increased his urge towards compensatory achievements.

[Dirk39]

34. Don't YOU ignore history somehow?

Hello from Germany,
I don't know anything about you or your religion, but if someone would add up all the things I did say about catholics or protestants...
Marx did write these things BEFORE Ausschwitz did happen.
And in a way, the entire work of Marx, especially his later work, the capital, much more than his early writings, is in a way the most intelligent book ever written AGAINST a populistic criticism of capitalism, that will always result in Antisemitism.

In a way, we could turn the whole story the other way 'round: Marx did foresee that the resentment against capitalism will not result in a real Revolution, but there's the danger that it will be aborted using a populistic, perverse and vulgar anti-capitalism that doesn't change anything at all. One of the main targets of Marx Work is the resentment against "mediators", "agents" and "brokers", just the area, where till today most vulgar anticapitalism stops. And Marx did just say again and again and again: this isn't capitalism. You didn't understand anything at all. It's just a part of the ideology.
"Antisemitism is the poor and stupid mans' anticapitalism" as August Bebel, one of Marx comrades did say, long before Hitler.

And I still believe, Marx was right: as long as there is capitalism, there will be antisemitsm, 'cause capitalism is far to abstract to understand and the jews will always be the wrong concretion for capitalism, a desperate attempt to understand, what cannot be understand using "common sense".


Dirk

[Xipe Totec]

12. Maybe The Jewish Problem is Freepers?

[knitter4democracy]

15. I've never understood that one either.

What is wrong with people just trying to live normal lives and keep their culture alive? Sheesh. :shrug:

[David__77]

16. From the late 1800s until WW2, all "mainstream" parties...

...in Europe and in some other places (with the exception of the communists) referred to the "Jewish question," which was, essentially, the "problem" of how Jews and Christians were to co-exist. Some called for "tolerance" of these, who it was assumed by many, were heathens. Others, like Hitler, wanted genocide. Today, only out-and-out anti-Semites would use the term, I suspect.

[Salviati]

23. I just assumed it was the fact that:

Bacon cheeseburgers taste soo good but are sooo not kosher...

No, but seriously, I don't know what the hell is wrong with some people.

[Taverner]

25. LOL

Even better are Pepperoni Pizzas, breaking two count em two dietary laws....

[Orsino]

26. They tend to think in stereotypes...

...and so are understandably bugged when they see an easily-identifiable group that consistently votes against them. Rather than admitting to the GOP's lack of appeal, they call it a "Jewish problem."

Theories about the Final Solutions they dream of are left as an exercise for the reader.

[matt819]

27. Code Words

The context of "The Jewish Problem" among the freepers is irrelevant. They could be talking about Jewish voters or Israel's actions in the Middle East or Jews in this administration. It doesn't matter.

The Jewish Problem, as just about anyone over the age of 40 knows, and others should if they paid attention in school or are Jewish or lived among Jews, formed the basis of the Holocaust, Hitler's very organized plan to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. He damn near succeeded, of course, having murdered more than 6 million Jews along with another 5 million Gypsies, Catholics, gays, etc.

So when RW fundies talk about Jews and the Jewish Problem, this is what they are seeking. Don't kid yourselves otherwise.

The support for Hitler's efforts garnered tremendous support here in the US. As one poster pointed out, Henry Ford was a keen supporter of Hitler, and one book about Ford argues that it was his publications that provided moral support for Hitler's own efforts in Europe. Notwithstanding the surprising number of Jews in the Bush administration and the neocon movement, I would argue that the bulk of RW fundies throughout America would have no problem whatsoever with the annihilation of Jews in Israel, Europe, and their own back yards.

I don't spend any time among the crazies in freeperville, so I don't know if you're talking about an increase in the frequency of such terminology. I suspect, though, that you can probably pinpoint any such increase to the election in November.

[American Tragedy]

37. More like over the age of sixty if you're referring to memory.

[China_cat]

28. Same as it was in 1937, 1938, 1940, etc.

[AlienGirl]

29. Are these *actual* freeper sites, like

sites made by FR members, or are you using "freeper" more generally to refer to all right-wing lunatics (like neo-nazis)? Inquiring minds want to know!

Tucker

[Taverner]

32. I mean Freeper sites linked off FreeRepublic

Blogs and what not.

When I want to get pissed off, I browse Freeper Blogs. But lately I've noticed a lot of talk about the "Jewish Problem" and it rasied red flags. At the time I didn't really know why, but now I do...

[AlienGirl]

35. Holy shit!

So they're bringing the hate out into the open these days...:scared:

Tucker

[Jackie97]

30. I think that's about it.

Jews would be okay if they'd give up their culture and stuff. Of course, a converted Jew to Christianity often is still having a problem with people being bigoted against him/her.

Plus, ANYTIME, and I do mean ANYTIME a minority has successful business or something else successful, the majority claims that they're cheating, was favored, is dominating society, etc. It makes me sick how white people, men, and Christians want domination in this sociey.

[CanuckAmok]

36. Finding fresh bitter herbs at 3:00am? That might be a problem.

n/t

[Seabiscuit]

38. I'm not sure what I think of any "Jewish Problem", but WTF is with

Paul Wolfowitz and jews like him????

In my time, jews were liberal - many of the civil rights workers I traveled with while registering voters in Missisippi and Alabama in the early 60's were jews and many of the "liberals" I knew at Oberlin College and Bezerkeley never abandoned their "liberal" roots.

So where the fuck did the Wolfowitz neo-cons come from???

[RandomKoolzip]

39. Google "Leo Strauss" and "Jewish Problem."

[kskiska]

41. "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion"

http://skepdic.com/protocols.html

"The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old, and they have fitted the world situation up to this time. They fit it now." --Henry Ford, 2-17-21, whose newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, cited the Protocols as evidence of an alleged Jewish threat until at least 1927

"To what extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion...." --Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery made in Russia for the Okhrana (secret police), which blames the Jews for the country's ills. It was first privately printed in 1897 and was made public in 1905. It is copied from a nineteenth century novel by Hermann Goedsche (Biarritz, 1868) and claims that a secret Jewish cabal is plotting to take over the world.