What survey data reveal about antisemitism in America
“Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” a man wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on November 15th in response to a call for people who think “Hitler was right” to speak up. Elon Musk, X’s boss, replied; “You have said the actual truth”.
When Mr Musk acquired X, or “freed the bird” as he put it, he sacked the team that monitored hate speech. The Brookings Institution, a think-tank, found that antisemitic posts then went viral. After Mr Musk’s tweet, Media Matters, a watchdog group, reported that X was placing big brands’ ads alongside neo-Nazi posts. Comcast and Disney, among others, briskly pulled ads from the platform. The tech mogul fired back with a defamation lawsuit, accusing Media Matters of sparking the exodus to “destroy X Corp”.
Since Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel antisemitism has surged in America. The number of incidents in just 40 days amounts to one-third of last year’s total, according to the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group. A college student was arrested for threatening to slit Jews’ throats on campus; your Jewish correspondent was berated by a woman who suggested calling in bomb threats to stop Jews from voting. The FBI’s boss says the number of anti-Jewish hate crimes is reaching historic highs.
2023-11-23 10:08:13
Post from www.economist.com