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James Lindsay is an American best-selling author and vocal advocate against totalitarianism in all its forms. He is the founder of New Discourses, an informational platform, and posts on social media as @ConceptualJames.
CAM recently spoke with Lindsay about the factors driving the proliferation of antisemitism across the American political spectrum today.
Why are we seeing a rise in antisemitism now?
“There’s no easy answer here, but the shortest, simplest answer is a giant propaganda campaign spreading its seeds, watering those seeds, and encouraging its growth while smearing anyone who tries to stand in its way. This campaign is likely mostly of hostile foreign origin from multiple sources, but it has homegrown components as well.”
“The purposes are also multiple: it’s always useful to blame on Jews things you want to do when you’re a bad actor; Israel is a direct problem for a desired geopolitical reorganization of the world under ‘multipolar’ thinking by being a mostly Western democracy in a region that isn’t supposed to have that; the U.S.-Israel relationship is a major problem for that geopolitical reorganization; and the ‘MAGA’ or Trump-doctrine realignment of the Republican Party poses a significant threat to those projects and therefore must be undermined from within since it has proved impossible to defeat from without.”
“Sowing antisemitism, including in its modern politically correct forms — anti-Zionism, questioning Israeli policy and alliances, etc. — is very effective to achieve these ends by a single means that, in its newer politically correct forms, turns out also to be highly defensible against and confusing for people who haven’t encountered it before.”
“Of note, sowing antisemitic propaganda isn’t enough of an explanation. For those ‘seeds’ to sprout and grow, they have to land in fertile ‘soil.’ The complete undermining of institutional trust and replacement by conspiratorial thinking and a total ‘rethink’ of all arrangements, claims, truths, and alliances made by our institutions, including our government, has provided that soil. That is, the mental and psychological dislocation caused by the abuses of Covid-19 policy and Woke policy over the last decade, including media, government, and other institutions, has eroded the psycho-societal foundation that would have been inhospitable to this propaganda almost completely.”
“In short, when people don’t trust any of the prevailing wisdom or institutions, they’ll rethink almost anything. This societal deracination, thanks to these precise forces and the censorship and bullying that accompanied them, also includes millions upon millions of people, mostly young people, who believe they must say and maybe believe anything anyone tells them is wrong to say or believe, including Jew hate. That is the environment into which that propaganda landed, stuck, grew, flowered, and is now fruiting.”
“There is one other explanation that cannot be ignored as well — directly importing large numbers of ideologically and religiously antisemitic peoples, both physically into our country and virtually into our ‘digital public squares.’ Much of the direct physical threat that comes with rising antisemitism comes from recently imported and radicalized Muslims, period. There are many causes for that, which would go too far afield to develop here. A book could be written on it.”
“On the other hand, Americans are interacting with online audiences sympathetic to and hungry for that kind of content, with much of those audiences actively pretending to be American or Western whether they are or not, even if they are not located here. Chasing the rewards of those audiences has grown a lot of this problem: reach, ‘clicks,’ monetization, etc., all through social media platforms that, in addition to anything else happening in the world, have imported hundreds of millions of users from the Third World, including large numbers of antisemitic Muslims. Too many people simply do not care enough about the damage they’re doing by pursuing monetization through those audiences.”Â
Will it get worse, rising to European levels of antisemitism?
“This is a question that depends on us. It certainly seems possible, and it certainly seems like the goal. At the same time, there is a much more robust pushback against it here than I think Europe was able to mount, and that goes on almost all relevant societal fronts. If we do not find effective ways to confront it as it is occurring in our society today — using the right tools that deal with its dissemination and the right angles for its ‘politically correct’ presentation — it very well may rise to those levels, yes.”
“For example, the language of ‘antisemitism’ itself implies to the average American an ethnic hatred they usually do not harbor, even though the effects of their ‘policy’ attitudes are the same, so they resent the accusation, which they see as false, and lean into the wrong behavior more strongly. Pointing out that antisemitism is more about ‘impact’ than ‘intent’ not only ‘sounds Woke’ but is exactly the logic Woke already used against them, so it also does not reach. We must find a way to speak the language needed to untangle this problem not just logically but morally, and without it, we are at grave risk.“
You’ve fought antisemitism on the Left and the Right. Which is more dangerous?
“This is like asking which kind of snake is more dangerous — a constrictor that can crush you or a venomous snake that might bite you. They are both dangerous, and they’re even more dangerous in combination, but they’re also different. Left-wing antisemitism today generally stems from a support for perceived oppressed victim groups, particularly ‘Palestinians,’ although it also generally regards Jews as a type of ‘white’ and Jewish culture as ‘white supremacist.’ Its primary danger to Jews, unless it can succeed in sanctioning Israel or something, lies not in any direct threat but in its profoundly permissive attitude toward radical Muslims who are directly antisemitic.”
“On the Right, it is different. There, it is sometimes direct — old-fashioned Jew hate — and it is at other times a complete refusal of any U.S. support for Israel or its agendas, with which it deems Jews complicit. The Right is more likely to disenfranchise and attack Jews directly, and it is generally blunter and crueler, but the Left probably poses the more significant and deeper institutional and societal threat, much of which is indirect through its enthusiastic support and vigorous protection of people who believe it is a religious duty and ticket to Paradise to kill Jews.”
Do the majority of normal Americans still support Israel?
“Honestly, I do not know. I think so. I hope so. I do not think the majority of normal Americans are engaged in these radical politics, generally, but it looks bad when we look at younger generations. I would say that outright ‘Jew-hating’ antisemitism as a form of ethnic hatred is likely relatively rare, even on the Right, where it is likely worse, but that attitudes that fit the broader and correct definition of antisemitism are likely more common than anyone should be comfortable with. That means, practically, that lots of people harbor attitudes that are rightly described, in some technical sense, as antisemitic but that they would not recognize those views as antisemitic and would reject and resent any such accusation.”
“That is, I think most normal Americans know antisemitism is wrong and believe they oppose it, though they don’t know what it actually entails and refuse to recognize it as anything other than a specific type of racism they probably don’t hold. Still, the shift is dramatic enough to be concerning. Subtle and skillful polling data are necessary to truly answer this question, though.”
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