I keep seeing ppl attributing the Pittsburgh attack to "ignorance." That's a cop-out, folks. We're not talking abt medieval peasants who are riled up because Jews wear funny hats and won't eat pig. The shooter targeted that synagogue in particular because of their work with HIAS.
Which is to say, he knew what he was doing. He didn't shoot up a synagogue full of refugee-supporting Jews because he was ignorant. He did it because he was a white nationalist. I know, as progressives, we want to empathize and understand our way into ending violence, but.
You see this same thing with the whole "it was economic anxiety that got people to vote for Trump," when those same people are telling you that no, it was racism that got them to vote Trump. The young white male base that white nationalists target for radicalization is educated.
They're not targeting Jews because they're ignorant. They don't hate congregations that work with HIAS because they *don't* know what those congregations are about. They hate them because they DO know (in some cases, better than your average American progressive).
This is a movement (and an administration) in which cruelty is the point. They get what congregations like Tree of Life stand for--and it's everything white nationalists hate. So stop letting antisemites off the hook by dismissing them as "ignorant."
They hate the idea of people providing refuge for the vulnerable, because for them, cruelty to the vulnerable is a sign of strength. They hate the idea of people accepting the Other, because for them, reduction of the Other to something subhuman is a sign of superiority.
The cruelty is the point. And that's not something that facts are going to stop.
