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Biden-Harris Administration Releases First-Ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism
Last week the Biden administration published the anticipated national strategy to counter antisemitism.
The Full Report starts with a legal disclaimer that it does not supersede any existing regulation or law- it should be viewed as a blueprint and aspirational. However, the 100+ "calls to action" touch every corner of government, even the USDA and and Department of Forest Services. One of the main architects of the initiative is Kamala Harris's Jewish husband, Dough Emhoff.
The first question you may have is "what's antisemitism?" I have discussed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in the past, and it is acknowledged in the report as the most prominent definition which has been adopted by the US:
The IHRA working definition of antisemitism includes:
The Biden administration's strategy to counter antisemitism includes censoring criticism of "the power of Jews as a collective", even while there exists a whole-of-society effort to engage in mendacious criticism of the power of white men as a collective.
There are indeed well over 100 calls to action, which includes things like:
The most tangible impacts of this strategy in the short term are the mandated propaganda initiatives described here and in many more "calls to action" in the document. By my view, the most alarming dimension of the strategy is in combatting online antisemitism (emphasis in original):
In today's day in age, where something like Twitter is unambiguously the public square, this call to action is clearly intended to abridge the freedom of speech even though it wouldn't run afoul of constitutional checks in the court system. In particular, the call for permanent bans from the public square in the face of a "zero-tolerance" policy is chilling. If you rob a Walmart, or assault someone, even if you are a repeat offender, you will go to jail but then eventually be released. A permanent ban from the public square is tantamount to a worse punishment than faced by many criminal offenders.
The Call to Congress is even more alarming:
The Right Wing has naively supported changes to Section 230 that would prohibit politically-motivated content censorship, on the logic that if they aren't publishers they shouldn't be censoring political speech. The more likely changes to Section 230 would be that social media companies will be required to have strict content policies and moderation against antisemitism and other forms of hate speech in order for social media companies to have legal protection.
This call to action doesn't seem unrealistic, I noted last month that Ron DeSantis travelled to Jerusalem to sign a hate-speech law which was described as "the strongest antisemitism bill in the United States". Likewise, this all-encompassing initiative by the Biden Administration has sparked absolutely no opposition of any note, indicating it's one of the rare areas of bipartisan consensus among "our" representatives.
Generative AI is only mentioned in one part of the fact sheet:
No doubt AI will be more prominent in the Second-Ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
One of the most tired memes is "replace 'Jew' with 'white' in this article and look how 1488 it looks loool", but I have to say if this document were a whole-of-society effort to combat anti-white hatred online, among our society, and institutions, it would be unambiguously identified as fascist, white supremacy.
If you want to know why Dems will never get the working white class vote this is it
A lot of antisemitism as defined is very close to just telling facts. Jews really do have a disproportionate amount of power in key institutions. Things like criticizing George Soros gets lumped in with a world wide Jewish conspiracy. And his play on DA’s was outside of prior political norms. Of course Koch plays too. I back Israel as part of the religious right but many of their actions are against enemies are more Old Testament vengeance than what grew out of the neoliberalchristianglobalhomo norm of exerting power.
There is explicit mention of athletes in the documents. I guess in the identity politics games we see it confirmed blacks aren’t at the top of the totem pole. Sorry Kyrie.
I wish a prominent Jew would trash the ADL or atleast this document. Like a formerly libertarian type who donates a ton like Zuck. I think this document only inflames racial tension.
Agree this is an end-run around the constitution. They can’t themselves censor people. But they can strongly encourage those who are allowed to censor because they are technically “private”. It’s as I’ve pointed out in a prior comment in another convo I’ve radicalized on the use of power. I never would have supported Desantis versus Disney 5 years ago. It violates my understanding of US civic norms. Power should be used by the right when they can.
Ah, Critical race theory!
I'm glad to find another adherent on this sub, most people are super against it here.
Less snarkily, your points are all valid only through the racialized, critical framing that produced the document you are arguing against.
If you are a white nationalist or black hebrew isrialite or some other flavor of such you are acting 100% consistent, otherwise I think you should do some intellectual hygiene regarding prevailing theories accepted without critical analysis.
I believe in hbd. I don’t think Jews win more because of societal advantages. I think genetically they have a much higher average IQ than other groups. Which I don’t believe is critical theory.
In that case, carry on and thank you very much.
If it's not too personal, may I ask which you are? White nationalist or Black Israelite or some other flavour of such?
No, I'm jewish.
I'm just taking the compliment.
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