The Crazy World of Anti-Israel ‘Influencers’

The Crazy World of Anti-Israel ‘Influencers’

I don’t even know who listens to these people. Are there really that many crazy people in America? This article notes that Al Sharpton is a leading figure in this category.

From City Journal:

The new anti-Semitism has taken a different turn. The leaders of this movement are not political activists but social media “influencers” who have constructed a narrative based not on a left-wing, oppressor/oppressed framework, but on a diffused, right-coded conspiracy theory. Jews, in these influencers’ telling, have taken control of American media, flooded society with pornography, and organized sex-related blackmail rings to secure support for Israel.

The tenor of this campaign is also new. While Sharpton sought to convey a sense of earnest outrage, the right-wing influencers have adopted a detached, ironic, schizoid tone—hallmarks of postmodern discourse. When Kanye West advertises a swastika t-shirt, it is not because he is signaling support for an organized neo-Nazi movement but because it symbolizes transgression and is bait for digital censorship, which would let him play the martyr. (West’s troubled mental state should not be discounted as a factor here, either.) Online, the narrative gets circulated through left-wing networks, which consider it useful for undermining support for Israel, and through right-wing networks, which find it helpful for building an audience.

The ironic tone, of course, does not exculpate West and his followers. Nor does it mean that their narratives will be contained to the digital realm. American Jews rightly fear that this postmodern anti-Semitism will spill into the real world and result in violence, as it has done in Europe and with the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. The dynamics of such violence also reflect the complexities of the new digital culture. Unlike the Crown Heights riot, where Sharpton’s rhetoric was directly mobilizing the mob, the relationship between online discourse and acts of decentralized, memetic violence is often ambiguous.

There is also the question of cui bono. The simple answer is that Jews provide a convenient scapegoat: Kanye West can pin the blame on a “Jewish doctor” for fallout related to his bipolar disorder; Andrew Tate can shift responsibility to “the Matrix” for his various criminal proceedings. But there is another answer, too, one that reprises the Sharpton model: business. The Internet rewards scandal, shock, and virality, and conspiracy theories enjoy burgeoning market demand. Candace Owens has never been more popular, turning each outrage and accusation into new views, followers, subscribers, and revenues.

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