He seems to think that Europe would be “Mr Roger’s Neighborhood” for Jews if they just would get along.
Basically Nye is a salesman for the wonders of science.
Why do people persist in asking questions about a subject to those who clearly haven’t thought a moment about it? Filling air time, I suppose, and then these emblematic figures in one area get their nonsense spewed out on subjects that they know so very much less about.
He sounds a lot like anti-semites who don’t think Jews ever lived in Israel and that European Jews carry no legitimate ties to their ancestors.
If we must listen to the political ideas of a former sketch comedy show cast member, I’d prefer it to be Dennis Miller.
I admit I don’t know a lot about this antisemitism thing, why does it exist, and why is it apparently so popular amongst some and unpopular amongst others? Please don’t say it’s all due to the holocaust.
Where’s the antiRastafarianism, antiShinto, antiJainism, antiSikhism, antiBuddhism, and antiHinduism with the attendant hullabaloo?
You apparently unfamiliar with most of history. It’s not a new thing.
but it just dismisses the six explanations offered, so, on to the article linked to at the bottom. . .
Good grief, am I reading that right?? Jews are hated because they’re really, really special and everyone else is jealous of their specialness.
I don’t think Nye was directing his comment to Jews at all. I think Nye was saying that new immigrants to Europe (which includes many Muslims) and the long-term residents of Europe (which incidentally includes a small Jewish minority ) have to get to know each other, and that process might take a century.
You might criticize his comment for being all sweetness and light, or for just generally being a clueless comment about the situation in Europe, but he wasn’t suggesting that Jews in particular need to be more neighborly.
He was suggesting that everyone (including Christian xenophobes and radical islamists) needs to be more neighborly, which at least has the virtue of not being anti-semitic in any way.
Whoops, wrong place to reply. My comment was supposed to be a general reply to Rand’s post. Andrew, I think you are asking an interesting question, but my comment was not supposed to be a reply to it.
“You might criticize his comment for being all sweetness and light”
Uhh what?
If a Republican said that, they would be labeled an anti-semetic Nazi. It is the type of crap you see anti-semites say all the time.
You’ll probably label this as simply victim blaming, me, I’ll think about it, my problem is I don’t know too much about this “Jewish behavior” that’s referred to, is it just a reference to the claim that’s later made that Jews effectively want to have their cake and eat it too, that they want to be both an equal part of society, and stand out as distinct as well? Louis Brandeis, a US Supreme Court justice and a leading American Zionist, said: “Let us all recognize that we Jews are a distinctive nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his station or shade of belief, is necessarily a member.”
Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress and of the World Jewish Congress, told a rally in New York in June 1938: “I am not an American citizen of the Jewish faith. I am a Jew … Hitler was right in one thing. He calls the Jewish people a race, and we are a race.”
While affirming — usually only among themselves – that Jews are members of a separate nationality to which they should feel and express a prime loyalty, Zionists simultaneously insist that Jews must be welcomed as full and equal citizens in whatever country they may wish to live. While Zionist Jews in the US such as Abraham Foxman speak of the “Jewish people” as a distinct nationality, they also claim that Jews are Americans like everyone else, and insist that Jews, including Zionist Jews, must be granted all the rights of US citizens, with no social, legal or institutional obstacles to Jewish power and influence in American life. In short, Jewish-Zionist leaders and organizations (such as the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee) demand full citizen rights for Zionist Jews not only in “their country,” Israel, but everywhere.
And further down: Vice President Joe Biden said that the “immense” and “outsized” Jewish role in the US mass media and cultural life has been the single most important factor in shaping American attitudes over the past century, and in driving major cultural- political changes. “I bet you 85 percent of those [social- political] changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media, are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense,” he said. “Jewish heritage has shaped who we are – all of us, us, me – as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” he added.
You won’t like this bit: Anti-Semitism is not a mysterious “disease.” As Herzl and Weizmann suggested, and as history shows, what is often called anti-Semitism is the natural and understandable attitude of people toward a minority with particularist loyalties that wields greatly disproportionate power for its own interests, rather than for the common good.
Like I said, I don’t know enough to judge the strength of these theories, I don’t live in a society in which Jewish people stand out in the way that’s described, (Jews make up about 0.2% of NZ’s population, and as far as I’m aware they’re just other Kiwi’s). http://ihr.org/other/anti-semitism-why-does-it-exist-dec-2013
Andrew, I don’t know how to answer your questions, but please be skeptical of whatever proposed answers you find. Those websites you found made me roll my eyes. You probably already know this, but remember that Judaism is like Protestantism in that there is no centralized authority to speak authoritatively for Jews, even though you’ll find various religious and political leaders who pretend to have that authority.
Oh, and making it worse of course, is the confusion between Judaism-as-a-religion and Jewishness-as-an-ethnicity. Jews, anti-Semites, and interested non-Jewish observers are all are prone to that confusion while constructing their theories.
The truth is that the world hates the Jews because the world hates God.
Someone was just telling me the other day that Democrats don’t have a problem with anti-semites in their midst but here is one of the most popular Democrats, made famous for his love of gullible warming, blaming Jewish victims and claiming they have no ties to Israel.
Maybe he feels comfortable saying these things in public because he is never challenged in the activist and academic circles he runs in. And maybe Democrats are less likely to call him out because they view Israel as an enemy of Obama.
Gullible warming! I like it! Did you create this new meme? If so, congratulations, and don’t forget to copyright 🙂
It is not from me. Saw it in the comments someplace else.
Wodun,
Say you have a Jew. He lives in France. His ancestors were living in Italy in 150 BC. His ancestors settled in the Rhine valley in the 11th century. By the 17th century, his ancestors were living in a swath across Eastern Europe, from Lithuania to the Crimea. In the end of 19th century, his ancestors moved to France, and were lucky to survive World War II. The Jew himself? He was born in 1961, in Calais. He is French. If I told you more about him, about his wife and about his mistress, about the wine he drinks, and the food he eats, about his opinions of France, the rest of Europe, and America, you would nod your head and say, “Yup, he’s French.”
If I tell you that France is his home, and his only home, that he can’t go home to Israel, that he doesn’t even have any ties to Israel, how am I wrong?
If I tell you that France is his home, and his only home, that he can’t go home to Israel, that he doesn’t even have any ties to Israel, how am I wrong?
You are wrong in the obvious way. People can make homes anywhere. There’s no law of physics that says someone has to make a home only in France. And Israel in particular has expedited the process for Jews to make Israel their new home.
Yes, and given that he is a citizen of an EU country, it would be even easier to “go home to Germany” (and after all, his ancestors lived once lived there). Do you remember what was said on this blog when White House reporter Helen Thomas said that Jews should “go home to Germany”?
Basically, we are disagreeing over the meaning of what the colloquial expression “go home to”. I think that you’ve never lived somewhere, you can’t go home to it, even if the place would lay down a welcome mat for you, as Israel does for Jews, and as EU countries do for each other.
He seems to think that Europe would be “Mr Roger’s Neighborhood” for Jews if they just would get along.
Basically Nye is a salesman for the wonders of science.
Why do people persist in asking questions about a subject to those who clearly haven’t thought a moment about it? Filling air time, I suppose, and then these emblematic figures in one area get their nonsense spewed out on subjects that they know so very much less about.
He sounds a lot like anti-semites who don’t think Jews ever lived in Israel and that European Jews carry no legitimate ties to their ancestors.
For me there is one and has ever been only one real and true Mr. Science Guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Herbert
Don Herbert inspired a generation of engineers that got us to the moon and gave us the modern computer.
Bill Nye? Well maybe he’s inspired a generation of musician averse horticulturists.
Personally I’m willing to contribute to the Blair Tindall
herbicidesalt-of-the-earth fund:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Tindall
Dave
Professor Proton was pretty good, too.
If we must listen to the political ideas of a former sketch comedy show cast member, I’d prefer it to be Dennis Miller.
I admit I don’t know a lot about this antisemitism thing, why does it exist, and why is it apparently so popular amongst some and unpopular amongst others? Please don’t say it’s all due to the holocaust.
Where’s the antiRastafarianism, antiShinto, antiJainism, antiSikhism, antiBuddhism, and antiHinduism with the attendant hullabaloo?
You apparently unfamiliar with most of history. It’s not a new thing.
I know that, you didn’t address the question of why, I thought maybe this might explain it:
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Why_Do_People_Hate_The_Jews.htm
but it just dismisses the six explanations offered, so, on to the article linked to at the bottom. . .
Good grief, am I reading that right?? Jews are hated because they’re really, really special and everyone else is jealous of their specialness.
I don’t think Nye was directing his comment to Jews at all. I think Nye was saying that new immigrants to Europe (which includes many Muslims) and the long-term residents of Europe (which incidentally includes a small Jewish minority ) have to get to know each other, and that process might take a century.
You might criticize his comment for being all sweetness and light, or for just generally being a clueless comment about the situation in Europe, but he wasn’t suggesting that Jews in particular need to be more neighborly.
He was suggesting that everyone (including Christian xenophobes and radical islamists) needs to be more neighborly, which at least has the virtue of not being anti-semitic in any way.
Whoops, wrong place to reply. My comment was supposed to be a general reply to Rand’s post. Andrew, I think you are asking an interesting question, but my comment was not supposed to be a reply to it.
“You might criticize his comment for being all sweetness and light”
Uhh what?
If a Republican said that, they would be labeled an anti-semetic Nazi. It is the type of crap you see anti-semites say all the time.
You’ll probably label this as simply victim blaming, me, I’ll think about it, my problem is I don’t know too much about this “Jewish behavior” that’s referred to, is it just a reference to the claim that’s later made that Jews effectively want to have their cake and eat it too, that they want to be both an equal part of society, and stand out as distinct as well?
Louis Brandeis, a US Supreme Court justice and a leading American Zionist, said: “Let us all recognize that we Jews are a distinctive nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his station or shade of belief, is necessarily a member.”
Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress and of the World Jewish Congress, told a rally in New York in June 1938: “I am not an American citizen of the Jewish faith. I am a Jew … Hitler was right in one thing. He calls the Jewish people a race, and we are a race.”
While affirming — usually only among themselves – that Jews are members of a separate nationality to which they should feel and express a prime loyalty, Zionists simultaneously insist that Jews must be welcomed as full and equal citizens in whatever country they may wish to live. While Zionist Jews in the US such as Abraham Foxman speak of the “Jewish people” as a distinct nationality, they also claim that Jews are Americans like everyone else, and insist that Jews, including Zionist Jews, must be granted all the rights of US citizens, with no social, legal or institutional obstacles to Jewish power and influence in American life. In short, Jewish-Zionist leaders and organizations (such as the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee) demand full citizen rights for Zionist Jews not only in “their country,” Israel, but everywhere.
And further down:
Vice President Joe Biden said that the “immense” and “outsized” Jewish role in the US mass media and cultural life has been the single most important factor in shaping American attitudes over the past century, and in driving major cultural- political changes. “I bet you 85 percent of those [social- political] changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media, are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense,” he said. “Jewish heritage has shaped who we are – all of us, us, me – as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” he added.
You won’t like this bit: Anti-Semitism is not a mysterious “disease.” As Herzl and Weizmann suggested, and as history shows, what is often called anti-Semitism is the natural and understandable attitude of people toward a minority with particularist loyalties that wields greatly disproportionate power for its own interests, rather than for the common good.
Like I said, I don’t know enough to judge the strength of these theories, I don’t live in a society in which Jewish people stand out in the way that’s described, (Jews make up about 0.2% of NZ’s population, and as far as I’m aware they’re just other Kiwi’s).
http://ihr.org/other/anti-semitism-why-does-it-exist-dec-2013
Andrew, I don’t know how to answer your questions, but please be skeptical of whatever proposed answers you find. Those websites you found made me roll my eyes. You probably already know this, but remember that Judaism is like Protestantism in that there is no centralized authority to speak authoritatively for Jews, even though you’ll find various religious and political leaders who pretend to have that authority.
Oh, and making it worse of course, is the confusion between Judaism-as-a-religion and Jewishness-as-an-ethnicity. Jews, anti-Semites, and interested non-Jewish observers are all are prone to that confusion while constructing their theories.
The truth is that the world hates the Jews because the world hates God.
http://www.gotquestions.org/anti-Semitism.html
Well there you go! Of course!
/sarc
Someone was just telling me the other day that Democrats don’t have a problem with anti-semites in their midst but here is one of the most popular Democrats, made famous for his love of gullible warming, blaming Jewish victims and claiming they have no ties to Israel.
Maybe he feels comfortable saying these things in public because he is never challenged in the activist and academic circles he runs in. And maybe Democrats are less likely to call him out because they view Israel as an enemy of Obama.
Gullible warming! I like it! Did you create this new meme? If so, congratulations, and don’t forget to copyright 🙂
It is not from me. Saw it in the comments someplace else.
Wodun,
Say you have a Jew. He lives in France. His ancestors were living in Italy in 150 BC. His ancestors settled in the Rhine valley in the 11th century. By the 17th century, his ancestors were living in a swath across Eastern Europe, from Lithuania to the Crimea. In the end of 19th century, his ancestors moved to France, and were lucky to survive World War II. The Jew himself? He was born in 1961, in Calais. He is French. If I told you more about him, about his wife and about his mistress, about the wine he drinks, and the food he eats, about his opinions of France, the rest of Europe, and America, you would nod your head and say, “Yup, he’s French.”
If I tell you that France is his home, and his only home, that he can’t go home to Israel, that he doesn’t even have any ties to Israel, how am I wrong?
If I tell you that France is his home, and his only home, that he can’t go home to Israel, that he doesn’t even have any ties to Israel, how am I wrong?
You are wrong in the obvious way. People can make homes anywhere. There’s no law of physics that says someone has to make a home only in France. And Israel in particular has expedited the process for Jews to make Israel their new home.
Yes, and given that he is a citizen of an EU country, it would be even easier to “go home to Germany” (and after all, his ancestors lived once lived there). Do you remember what was said on this blog when White House reporter Helen Thomas said that Jews should “go home to Germany”?
Basically, we are disagreeing over the meaning of what the colloquial expression “go home to”. I think that you’ve never lived somewhere, you can’t go home to it, even if the place would lay down a welcome mat for you, as Israel does for Jews, and as EU countries do for each other.