Mastodawn

danorrmite✡️Nov 20, 2022

I mean, wow. There's so much going on here. But the take-home is that people who create hate propaganda can manipulate anyone to try horrible things.

If this guy succeeded, it would have been an antisemitic attack, and his having had a 93 year old Holocaust surviving grandfather would not change that.

New York Post : Man who allegedly threatened NYC synagogue is Jewish, kin of a Holocaust survivor: Lawyer.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/20/matthew-mahrer-who-made-threats-against-nyc-synagogue-is-jewish-kin-of-a-holocaust-survivor-lawyer/

Man who allegedly threatened NYC synagogue is Jewish, kin of a Holocaust survivor: Lawyer

Cops searched one of the suspect’s apartments and found a loaded handgun with an extended magazine and a bulletproof vest.

New York Post

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DeeGee Nov 20, 2022

@danorrmite this is going to create so much confusion. "It wasn't antisemitism, he was Jewish!" "He was mentally ill!" etc.

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danorrmite✡️Nov 22, 2022

@deegee Here's my conjecture about bigotry:

An assertion of bigotry against a group of which the person expressing bigotry is themselves a member is irrational if and only if a similar expression of bigotry made by a person who is not a member of the group is irrational.

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danorrmite✡️Nov 22, 2022

@deegee

People who deny this imply that there is a special kind of irrationality indicated when, for example, a Jew expresses antisemitism that isn't also indicated when a non-Jew expresses antisemitism.

I think those who deny the conjecture are either wrong about the nature of bigotry. I mean, imagine finding some expressions of bigotry more rational (or indicating less irrationality) than other expressions depending upon who expresses them!

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danorrmite✡️

@deegee

the notion that the following can't all coeherently describe one person is false:

(i) he is motivated by antisemitism
(ii) he is jewish
(iii) he is mentally ill

I don't think the any of the three descriptions, on their face, make logical contact unless the operational definition of a mental ilness happens to include being motivated by bigotry.