Thread by @soychicka

Okay, so I have some philosophical issues with what's going on with the handling of the controversy surrounding @Ilhan Omar.

My argument, however, is not the same as @paulwaldman1 makes below, though he raises salient points.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

I don't know if her tweets are offensive. I don't count as Jewish.

I don't recall seeing the tropes she's accused of referencing deployed within my lifetime, though I do recall encountering discussion in a historical context.

What I do know that I use those same 'tropes' to reference contemporary organizations & nation-states that engage in human rights violations and sundry acts of criminal and moral turpitude.

Saudi Arabia? ✅
Russia? ✅
Bratva? ✅
GOP? ✅

And, while I understand how use of those tropes to reference the Jewish people may be offensive, I don't agree that it MUST be considered anti-semitic to discuss a nation-state in the same terms as other nation-states...

In fact, intellectually, I think that treating a nation-state differently - solely because the majority of the population belongs to a specific ethnicity - that undermines the agency of the nation on the global stage.

When you talk about *Israel*, it's the Israeli govt/state.

If you conflate *Israel* with *the Jewish people who live in Israel,* you ignore the agency of the non-Jewish population, which it appears Bibi and his boys intend to do anyway...

vox.com/world/2018/7/3…

But I refuse to accept institutionally sanctioned discrimination, no matter where it is found.

And I refuse to conflate the nation-state with the Jewish people, which I tend to think is mandatory for viewing statements made against the Israeli government as anti-semitic.

Convince me I'm wrong, and I'll admit it...

But the Israeli, Russian, and American governments are currently being run by mobsters, and I don't care what ethnicity any of them are.

I'm gonna call 'em what they are - a bunch of predatory criminals.

And demanding that I treat Israel or its right-wing government + enablers any differently is inherently discriminatory against both the Jewish people who don't deserve to be lumped in with those criminals and violators of human rights AND the other ethnicities who reside therein.

P.S. This isn't about anti-semitism. If anyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, preys on the suffering of others, runs a transnational criminal organization, or does other things that might be most clearly described using a 'trope' -

I may apply that 'trope' to that individual or criminal organization, regardless of their ethnic background.

To do any less would be to demean the agency and morality of those who may share the same ethnicity but actually HAVE a moral compass.

Because it's not about their ethnicity.

It's about the personal choices of some individuals to profit from others' suffering.

So - let's get out ahead of this. If there are other ways to work around describing any leaders of child sex trafficking rings or transnational criminal organizations who may happen to be Jewish or Israeli citizens, let's get 'em ready, because predators come from all nations.

Still, that being said, @Ilhan has zero excuses going forward for sending out any hot takes on social media without having someone else review them. She has those resources available to her, I'm sure.

I don't, so ... how should we roll?