Isn’t it so crazy how these people talking casually among their friends is never “who they are” but them walking it back via a publicist because it hurt them is who they actually are?

Just sooo crazy! And the one and only time they’re talking like “someone they’re not” someone happens to be recording it and it’s bad for their career! The world sure is a crazy place

I fucked nialv7’s mom, does that help? I was just trying to be helpful

You think “basic interpersonal skills” or manipulation is “4d chess?” That’s kinda sad.

Antisemitism has been around since long before Sartre wrote a book about them in the 40s. He wasn’t talking about the invention of antisemitism, he was talking about the tactics of undermining logic that are still very present even in the dipshit rightwing now. For fucks sake there was a post on 4chan back in like 2017 talking about it openly—they called it how to piss of libs or some shit, but it’s still the same even if the words have adapted. We think of the right wing as mostly incompetent. But that’s not always the way they were seen. Shit even in my lifetime I remember the era of the neocons, they were scary motherfuckers inside and out. Fox News and the right wing has gone on a 40 year long anti education rout, and we do see that in their followers. But the sort of “joker” persona of the fascist movement isn’t new.

Well I think he was actually spot-on. But this was decades ago. Those people and these tactics have led to a lot of idiots. Those idiots make up the majority of the antisemites these days. You’re right that they’re not consciously running these tactics, but they are just parroting the grifters and conmen the Sartre was speaking of.

They’re despicable, but those kinds of people are smart. However, the mental offspring they shed like dandruff are the idiots you’re thinking of. They don’t do these things with any kind of cognizance. They just live in it. They’re the feeder-stock plugged into The 24hr Fear, and those talking heads employ these tactics. The idiots just emulate.

“ Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.”

Jean-Paul Sartre

But that’s what the author is saying. The “post war liberal order” of the last 77 years had mostly been a success of coming together to say that there are lines that can’t be crossed.

Now, at this point in the order’s timeline, those lines are being left so far in the rear view that they’re not visible anymore, while the empires that came to take down the holocaust are now cracking down on the people pointing this out. And critically, as pointed out later in the article, are taking notes for future wars.

Factor in the right wing fascists rising to power all over the world who are flagrantly walking all over decency and inflicting violence/turning the systems on enemies without much of a peep…well, things for the future look to be heading down a seriously dangerous path.

This isn’t business as usual. That is what they’re saying. They point out that this “established order” and international law have always been vulnerable to powerful actors moving the goalposts to serve and protect their interests. But this much drastic change in just a few years, specifically centered around Gaza is a horrific force—coupled with every other factor throughout the world— that seems to be upending any hopes for a decent future.