My latest piece tackles an old question: Why are social media platforms so bad at moderating antisemitic content? Today in Deep Shtetl, I offer three reasons you probably haven't heard, but explain a lot: newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61…
1) Social media companies lack the cultural competency to even identify most antisemitism. Because they don't know what the prejudice looks like, they are terrible at fighting it. newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61…
3) Social media companies tend to police content that embarrasses their executives in their own social and cultural spheres. Global antisemitism, like many other abuses around the world, doesn't come up at dinner parties, so it doesn't get attention. newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/61…
An update on this story: Twitter has now taken down all the antisemitic tweets flagged in my post, thus proving my thesis that social media companies will remove such content when it becomes sufficiently embarrassing. The problem is that this is not a very good moderation system!
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Israel's far right wants to conquer and settle Gaza, expelling any Palestinians in the way. Benjamin Netanyahu wants to stay in power. I wrote about the corrupt political bargain that is prolonging Gaza's war and driving its hunger crisis. Gift link below.
There were once multiple sources of pressure, both in Israel and outside it, restraining Netanyahu on humanitarian aid and forced displacement of Gazans. They are all gone—and Trump is on the other side. theatlantic.com/international/…
I wrote about the Trump supporters who are experiencing buyer's remorse, and how the reality of Trump's presidency cannot sustain the fantasies that were projected onto his campaign:
"With every policy he implements and offhand remark he makes, Trump is falsifying the imaginary versions of himself that inspired many of his supporters… As president, he is no longer the vessel into which people can pour their discontent with the status quo."
People who fell for the mirages of a pro-worker or anti-war Trump should have known better: "Attempts to fit Trump into a traditional ideological box will always fail, because he has never met a box he couldn’t sell for parts to the highest bidder. Attempts to cast him as a staunch proponent of American restraint or opponent of corporate greed do not reflect his pre-political career, never fit his first-term policies, and don’t describe his current ones. Rather, these bids to pigeonhole and appropriate Trump are best seen as efforts by intellectuals to impose order on what they don’t understand, or opportunistic attempts by ideologues to bootstrap their program to Trump’s ascendant brand."
This tracks with everything I've covered for years. It's not in people's heads: America is getting more antisemitic, and that starts with the young. When people focus on antisemitic politicians, they need to grasp that in a democracy, those politicians are downstream from voters.
The rise of antisemitism in our society isn't partisan, contrary to what ideologues will tell you. It's generational. And this is why American politics and culture have gotten more antisemitic. Social change is driven by the young, not the old.
Note: They simply asked "do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Jews?" Many people won't open admit to antisemitic attitudes bc it's socially undesirable. This shows the erosion of that taboo among the young. The number of antisemites is higher.
My latest: I wrote about how Trump made the Gaza ceasefire happen, why it's not for the reasons you might have heard, and why this deal is much more precarious than you might have been led to believe.
The Gaza ceasefire deal is largely the one Biden negotiated in May.
Trump got it over the finish line.
What changed? Hamas knew it wouldn't get a better deal under Trump, and Israel's far-right saw it might get bigger prizes, like West Bank annexation, from him, and wanted to stay on his good side. In other words, it’s not that Trump had a stick with which to beat Israel that Biden didn’t have; it’s that his presidency holds out the prospect of carrots that Biden would never offer.
Important context for Harris telling off the protesters is that it was the second time they'd interrupted her and she had personally met with family members of those killed in Gaza before the rally. Politicians get less receptive when it seems like nothing they do is credited.
In general, if you want to influence a politician, you have to bargain and give them a little space, not just make constant demands, or they will determine that you can't be appeased and aren't worth it.
*Voted to condemn UN resolution against Israeli settlements that Obama allowed to pass
*Participated in AIPAC conference, called Israel "our truest and closest ally in the region, with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties, surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood"
*Met with Netanyahu personally, released photo to media
*Said of campus protests, "I think when Jewish students are telling us they feel unsafe in that, we need to believe them, and I do believe them... Creating a space where political dissent or political rallying can happen is one thing. Intimidation is another."
*Said in June: "the ability of Jewish people to self-determine themselves is foundational...The failure to recognize the state of Israel is taking away that self-determination. So it is antisemitic."
When I wrote my article about the super selective campaign against Josh Shapiro over Israel, I focused on Mark Kelly's Israel positions because he was co-leading prediction markets at the time, and didn't discuss Walz's much. There's plenty.