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Why would you accept this premise? Specifically, a) why would you accept these people's self-serving explanation for their own behavior (and behavior, btw, which most people find abhorrent nowadays), especially given that 1) anti-Semitism long predates the ADL; 2) anti-Semitism in the US has almost certainly declined since the advent of the ADL; 3) anti-Semitism is probably higher in other countries, where the ADL does not exist; 4) anti-Semitism is probably higher among people with less education, and who hence probably have never heard of the ADL; and b) why do you assume that the ADL knows what the people you spoke with believe?
#4 hadn't occurred to me. I'm conflating the extremely online dissident right with anti-Semitism in general. As for b, I was making that assumption because they ostensibly share my goal of wanting to understand anti-Semitism, but they are richer, likely more well-educated, and do this as a job instead of a hobby.
That you see modern anti-Semitism and historical anti-Semitism as the same phenomenon rather than at least two distinct ones indicates that we're looking at the issue very differently. Racism, and tribalism in general, is a part of human nature, but they can be strengthened or weakened by one's environment.
(Just realized that I'm answering these points out of order, but I am multitasking.) I take people at face value in general until I've observed them enough to conclude that they're being deceptive. Maybe I'm being more charitable to the people I'm describing than I should because I relate to them. I share their grievances, but the difference is that I don't hold these grievances against Jews as a group, despite the explicit insistence that I should by the far right and the implicit insistence that i should by the progressive left.
I think you are ignoring the very real possibility of self-deception. After all, even most perpetrators of violence, even mass violence, tend to convince themselves that their actions are justified, and often even morally mandatory.
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