The Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies

Roll up, roll up, because it’s time once again for The Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies! That’s right, folks, it’s everyone’s favorite unintentionally slapstick theatrical revue, featuring an all-star line-up of uproarious propagandists, side-splitting corporate media clowns, babbling British Labour MPs, the all-singing, all-dancing Berlin Police Department, and other zany anti-anti-Semites! Grab your popcorn and sit back and watch as they hunt down dastardly “Holocaust relativizers,” insidious critics of the State of Israel, and anyone who has ever used the word “globalism.” Hilarious high jinks are sure to ensue!

But, seriously, folks, this is no joke. We are in a bona fide State of Anti-Semitism Emergency! Throughout Western Europe, Israel, the UK, and coastal areas of the USA, the Anti-Semitism Alert Level has been bumped up to ORANGE! According to “anonymous Intelligence sources,” crackerjack Anti-Anti-Semitism commandos are en route to Torquay in the South of England, where rumor has it Roger Waters, John Cleese, Mel Brooks, and other notorious anti-Semites have gathered in a shabby seaside hotel and are staging some sort of hatred-inciting “Nazism Glorification Contest.”

Roger holds the lead, currently. Following his recent performances in Berlin, the police have opened an official criminal investigation into his … well, his clothing.

“We are investigating suspected incitement to hatred,” a Berlin police spokesperson told the AFP. I’m not joking. The official ground for this investigation is the “dictator” costume Roger Waters has been wearing in his shows for over 40 years. You’ll recall this costume from the album The Wall …

… and the 1982 film of the same name.

You probably still think I’m joking. I’m not. The actual Berlin police department has launched an official investigation. “An investigation has been opened over the costume displayed at the concerts on 17 and 18 May,” Berlin police spokesperson Martin Halweg told the Guardian. “The context of the clothing worn is capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace,” according to Polizeisprecher Halweg (who delivered this line with the stereotypical over-the-top “evil German” accent).

The Nazism Glorification Contest is just getting underway, however, so a Roger Waters victory is by no means assured. John Cleese has reportedly broken out the classic “Basil Fawlty goose-step” and is giving old Rog a run for his money!

And, despite the fact that he’s currently running third, only a fool would count out Mel Brooks when it comes to glorifying the Nazis and violating the dignity of the victims of the Holocaust!

But the most entertaining part of the Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies has been the histrionics of the shameless propagandists, politicians, media clowns, and random perpetually outraged persons who have been making total jackasses of themselves in their efforts to demonize Roger Waters. Here are a few examples, presented without comment.

Deborah E. Lipstadt, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.

Christian Wakeford, Labour MP.

StopAntisemitism, “an American non-profit watchdog organization” …

… and the “community note” Twitter readers appended.

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO International Legal Forum.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations.

And then there’s the corporate media propaganda.

And, finally, here’s a statement from Roger Waters.

OK, the part of all this that isn’t so uproariously funny, and that has forced me to spend a few hours on a Sunday banging out this column, when I should have been working on my science-denying conspiracy-theorist novel, or helping my wife install a set of blinds, is the part I have been going on and on about for the better part of the last seven years.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, the people demonizing Roger Waters are not idiots. They are liars. They know precisely what they are doing. They know Roger Waters is not an anti-Semite. They are aware of The Wall and his other work. They are not ignorant. They are propagandists. Smear artists. They are components of a decentralized, supranational network of global corporations, governments, banks, Intelligence agencies, military contractors, media, non-governmental governing entities, and so on, that I have been calling “GloboCap.” And the longer we continue to pretend they’re just idiots, the tighter their grip around our throats is going to get.

And, no, “GloboCap” is not code for “the Jews.” Global capitalism is global capitalism. If you seriously believe the multitudinous elements of global capitalism, and the banking industry, and the media, and the US military, and the Intelligence agencies of most Western countries, are controlled by “the Jews,” you are an actual anti-Semite, not to mention an actual moron.

And that’s the other part of this that isn’t so funny.

Yes, there are actual anti-Semites out there, and by throwing around false accusations of anti-Semitism, the global-capitalist ruling classes and their propagandists have rendered the term virtually meaningless, and, even worse than meaningless, they have made it a joke. Given the horrors of the Holocaust and the history of Nazi Germany, this was quite an accomplishment. Actual anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, and other slimy, bottom-feeding bigots could not be happier about this development. Watching as their opponents expose themselves as total hypocrites who will smear anyone as an “anti-Semite” at the drop of a hat and invoke “the dignity of the victims of the Holocaust” as a pretext to harass, and demonize, and censor, not just political activists and commentators, but musicians, authors, and other artists, and just regular non-public people on the Internet, is like Hitler’s birthday, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, and Nazi-Christmas all rolled into one.

Or, I don’t know, maybe that was the whole point. After all, the neo-Nazis are the good guys, right? I mean, as long as they are fighting the Russians for us, and not supporting those nasty Palestinians, or criticizing the State of Israel, or The Federal Republic of Germany, or global capitalism, or denying Covid, or “violating the dignity of its victims in a manner that disrupts public peace,” or … never mind. I think I’m getting confused and “relativizing the Holocaust” again, or “delegitimizing the state in a way that endangers security,” or something that might get the Germans after me.

Anyway, back to the Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies! I don’t know about you, but my money’s on Mel!

###

CJ Hopkins
May 28, 2023

DISCLAIMER: The preceding essay is entirely the work of our in-house satirist and self-appointed political pundit, CJ Hopkins, and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Consent Factory, Inc., or its staff, or any of its agents, subsidiaries, or assigns. If, for whatever inexplicable reason, you appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to support it, please go to his Substack page, or his Patreon page, or send a contribution to his PayPal account, so that maybe he’ll stop coming around our offices trying to hit our employees up for money. Alternatively, you could purchase his satirical dystopian sci-fi novel, Zone 23, or Volumes I, II, and III of his Consent Factory Essays, or any of his subversive stage plays, which won some awards in Great Britain and Australia. If you do not appreciate Mr. Hopkins’ work and would like to write him an abusive email, feel free to contact him directly.

25 thoughts on “The Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies”

  1. You are lucky to be able to use “wife” as the slant of hanging blinds is perhaps “feminine.” I am a single man, therefore I must indulge in my own “interior decorating” (choosing blinds all by myself) and find it edging towards a genetic tendency of male interior decorators being gay. So adding “ID” to the gender word salad would be suitable, I think. I have a “flowery” duvet cover that I chose all by myself, and I like colors, so I sometimes doubt my “masculinity,” I have bought actual living flowers (that haven’t died yet) because “I like them,” and that suggests some feminine traits, doesn’t it? Who shall I ask to define my gender for me? I am so worried about being a “gender pariah” of a toxic nature.

    Like

  2. Please explain the star of David on the pig balloon Waters flies at his concerts. Also explain his support for the BDS movement.

    Like

    1. (1) The Star of David is the symbol of the State of Israel, chosen by the State of Israel, whose treatment of the Palestinians Waters opposes, like he opposes the actions of the other entities whose symbols appear on the pig balloon. (2) Waters supports BDS. Do your own research from now on.

      Like

      1. So your position is that putting a Star of David on a pig balloon and expressing support for the BDS movement are NOT evidence of Jew-hatred? (Just trying to understand.)

        Like

        1. It is possible to be Anti-Israel without being anti-semitic.

          Israel has done a better job of ethnically cleansing its own Christian population over 75 years than most of its neighbouring countries have done over centuries. Do Christian and Palestinian lives matter any less than Jewish lives?

          Like

    2. BDS is engaged in opposing the STATE of Israel, NOT the religion of Judaism. It should be obvious to ALL observers that there is a difference between the “faith” of following a religion and the political reality of a Nation. You can have “theocracies” like Islamic countries with “religious leaders,” but Israel is NOT a theocracy and the political state of Israel makes “laws” that are not religious principles. Criticism of the “laws of the state of Israel” is not anti-semitism. It is referring to politicians (and their law-making, political actions) who happen to be Jews. And of course I am being baited into making a statement, so it’s not entirely MY fault that I am saying a few words about a massive universal problem. Who is the enemy, of humans who make so many mistakes in judgment?

      Like

      1. Thank you for this explanation.
        I am aware there are people who believe they can simultaneously loathe Israel while bearing no ill will against Jews in general, but I didn’t know that C.J. Hopkins (whose work I have read and enjoyed for several years), believed this, or believed himself to be such a person.

        Like

        1. Loathing is incorrect. Philosophy uses “arguments” that are NOT angry diatribes, they are thought out, rational collections of ideas, in response to other thought out, rational ideas. Discussing the “political reality” of any “sovereign state” being discussed is NOT a “military action” tending towards destruction of persons. It’s a conversation, similar to “scientific discussions” with ZERO “personal bias.”

          Like

        2. Just as one is supposed to loathe the Nazi state witho9ut necessarily hating or despising all Germans. Hate the sin, not the sinner.

          Like

  3. The jokes write themselves in Peak Clown.
    It is a joy to play Mel Brooks-To Be Or Not to Be (The Hitler Rap) in das Auto and it gets the crowd moving, no matter what the demographic.
    I have the album version, instrumental, extended dub on a disc!
    The song Empty Spaces by Pink Floyd has the hidden message shout out to the Crazy Diamond Syd Barrett.
    That’s Bob Geldof as the dictator in the film version of The Wall.

    Like

  5. Drawing a distinction between The State and The State’s official Religion is to draw a false dichotomy.

    The Religion provides the sustaining myths and the righteous self-justifications for The State to launch attacks on “others”, based on their exclusive determination that they are right and “the other” is not and so deserves to be disposed of. Then follows exoneration of self, abetted by The Religious Class.
    _________
    Applying critical analyses of the Israeli’s Government’s foreign and domestic policies will easily be dealt with by attacking the source and not the substance.
    Straight from The Play Book.
    _________
    If they decide to get you, C.J., they will get you.

    Like

    1. I believe there is much truth to this, which is a dichotomy not made by supporters of the apartheid state in question and accounts for their antipathy toward BDS.

      Of course, the faith in question is no monolith and as it relates to a quasi-ethno-religious state is probably the stuff of tomes.

      Interestingly, the hexagonal star does seem to be a more modern expression related to the pariah state, as the candelabra is a more longstanding symbol of the religion. It’s doubtful important to those who’ve made up their minds.

      Like

  6. Of the UN Resolution on “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”, voted on 2014-12-18, it is notable that . . .

    – Germany abstained.

    – Most Western Governments abstained.
    – Israel voted in favour.
    – The Governments representing a majority of the world’s population voted in favour.
    – The United States and The Ukraine voted against the motion.
    _________

    As Marshall Zhukov remarked of The Europeans on the Russian defeat of Nazi Germany – “They will not thank us for this”.

    Like

  7. The BDS movement is so utterly moderate that is does not take either a pro-one-state position or pro-two-state position. Given that is neutral as to zionism *per se*, the notion that it could somehow be ‘anti-semitic’ is a bit challenging to the imagination.

    (See their FAQ at https://bdsmovement.net/faqs#collapse16233 , wherein:

    ‘The BDS movement does not advocate for a particular solution to the conflict and does not call for either a “one state solution” or a “two state solution”. Instead, BDS focuses on the realization of basic rights and the implementation of international law.’ )

    Like

  8. “The context of the clothing worn is capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace…”

    From the viewpoint of language analysis, that is an interesting sentence. It is jammed up against the “abstract” end of the scale; nearly 40 words, only one of which (“clothing”) has any objective referent. Even “clothing” is a very vague word that could describe anything from a chador to a bikini or a snowsuit.

    If you are looking for actual concrete meaning, the sentence has virtually none; but it is loaded to the brim with vague emotional connotations.

    Typical of effective propaganda.

    Like

    2. One should consider the famous writers of satire, like Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain and Canada’s Stephen Leacock. These writers are REAL writers, practicing a craft that moves beyond “commentary” that might be biased and opinionated, to satire as an “art form” that tackles big questions with a light heart, and is meant as an antidote to all those who “take themselves too seriously.” Life, after all, is a bit of a joke that suggests we should laugh in the face of adversity that is relentless and and being, finally, mortal. To those who flare up here with various indignant responses, please take some children out for some ice cream, and have a great day!

      Like

      1. “AL” is a troll who has pursued me from platform to platform spewing the most disgusting insults imaginable, but thanks for your ignorant unsolicited advice! Congratulations, you’re blocked too. All best, CJ

        Like

  10. I’m constantly in awe of the relentless attacks on the artists and philosophers of our time by egocentric, self-righteous wannabes who want to piggy-back on other people’s creations. Anyway, lots of wonderful support here too… Keep up the great work, CJ.

    Like

Leave a comment