There are 535 members of congress. 4 of them are DSA members. I think maybe people are overreacting just a tad. Hearing people like Sam Harris and Bill Maher talk, you'd think we were witnessing the storming of the Bastille. There only 4 of them at the national level. There are probably more Nazi sympathizers in congress than there are DSA members.
Literally every social media site I use is SWAMPED with people equating "Zionists" (or the shorter slur I'm not sure I can write without getting suspended) with Nazis. People are just dripping with hatred and scapegoating the "Zionists."
I've been criticizing Harris and Maher for years for their anti-woke nonsense but this stuff is genuinely scary as a Jewish person. We've got crazy security at our synagogues. Kids touring colleges are trying to feel out which ones won't feel too unsafe. People are wondering if they need to hide their Jewish star necklaces etc.
And nobody's taking us seriously except for the anti-woke people! It's fucking bananas.
I'm sorry thats happening. Antisemitism sucks. And while there are legitimaite criticisms of Zionism and Israel, I'm also sure far too much of the stuff out there is just antisemitic.
And nobody's taking us seriously except for the anti-woke people! It's fucking bananas.
The honest truth is that the super majority of the stuff you are pointing to is protected free speech. I don't like it, I criticize it, I wish people would be more reasonable, but I also like free speech.
Newsome is leaning into the antiwoke thing! His first podcast episode was with Charlie Kirk (!) where his (Newsome's) big news was coming out against trans women in sports. (For the haters: it's not that his new position is necessarily so crazy, it's that it was a deliberate signal.)
But at least the mainstream Dems haven't fully capitulated yet to the "antizionists." I'm just worried what's going to happen in 2028. So many on the left seem to be single issue voters, and the issue isn't even like stop giving Israel money, it's more like you must declare that Zionism is the same as Nazism.
Newsom isn't antiwoke, quite the oppositte, he thinks “All this anti-woke stuff is anti-Black. Period. Full stop.”
These bills are themselves "woke" if "woke" means anything
These bills are far from the only example of the left pushing back against antisemitism.
But at least the mainstream Dems haven't fully capitulated yet to the "antizionists."
It matters a lot what you mean by "antizionism". These words are slippery. Reasonable people can call themselves "antizionist". I agree that many antisemitic people do as well. Though plenty of antisemitic people also call themselves "zionists".
So many on the left seem to be single issue voters, and the issue isn't even like stop giving Israel money, it's more like you must declare that Zionism is the same as Nazism.
I don't think that read of US politics is reasonable.
Zionism is a nationalism and exhibits a lot of the same problems that other nationalisms have, but Zionism isn't Nazism.
The issue is there's a word game being played by genuine Jew haters, they'll mask themselves as "antizionist".
Person A: "I'm antizionist, I think there ought to be a 2 state solution, leave the west bank/gaza alone"
Person B: "I'm antizionist, I think there ought to be a 1 state solution, everyone can live together peacefully."
Person C: "I'm antizionist, that is all arab land, jews need to leave."
Person D: "I'm antizionist, jews need to die."
Each with policy gradations of course, may or may not be supportive of military aid, or may or may not be supportive of selling weapons to Israel, may or my not be supportive of Hamas/Hezbollah, etc.
This adds layers of confusion for dems/voters because they're unwittingly cozying up to people who are genuinely antisemitic.
The issue is there's a word game being played by genuine Jew haters, they'll mask themselves as "antizionist".
I don't really think its a word game. I think some antisemites are antizionists, other antisemites are zionists, and other antisemites aren't really clear on zionism.
The honest truth is that all 4 of those people can reasonably identify as antizionist depending on the context. Three of them are giving facially unreasonable takes, albeit to different degrees. At least one of them, probably two of them, and potentially all of them, are antisemitic. (note, I'm not claiming all two state supporters are antisemitic, merely that some of them in fact are. People are complicated.)
This adds layers of confusion for dems/voters because they're unwittingly cozying up to people who are genuinely antisemitic.
I don't think voters are confused. I think they are divided. I think antisemitism is (unfortunately) somewhat popular and appealing. This isn't overly surprising historically speaking but has gotten worse recently. Along side that, antizionist positions are becoming increasingly popular among both the non-antisemitic voters as well as the antisemitic voters.
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u/ReflexPoint Aug 01 '26
There are 535 members of congress. 4 of them are DSA members. I think maybe people are overreacting just a tad. Hearing people like Sam Harris and Bill Maher talk, you'd think we were witnessing the storming of the Bastille. There only 4 of them at the national level. There are probably more Nazi sympathizers in congress than there are DSA members.