• freagle
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    7 months ago

    Since when is “rabid dog” an antisemitic dogwhistle?

    Since anti-semites called Jews dogs in their anti-semitic propaganda dating back over a century.

    is any criticism of Israel written with the use of literary devices to be labelled as an antisemitic dogwhistle?

    No, use of literary devices to criticize Israel is not an anti-semitic dogwhistle. Specifically referring to them as dogs is.

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind
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      7 months ago

      Everyone calls everyone else dogs, it’s literally the most common insult in the world.

      • freagle
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        7 months ago

        With a very well documented history in anti-Semitic propaganda. We can criticize Israel without using phrases that attract white supremacists to our spaces

        • ComradeSalad
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          7 months ago

          What? Dog in reference to “Jewish” people has always been towards the gentiles, it even shows up in the Bible.

          Dog is a basic insult and not a slur or antisemitic. History and linguistics does not agree with you.

          Here’s Cambridge even saying the same.

          • freagle
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            7 months ago

            Hey thanks for this. You are correct that I was confused. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

            The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

        • PolandIsAStateOfMind
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          7 months ago

          Could you provide sources for it being specifically used as antisemitic dogwistle, especially that you claim it’s very well documented? Calling any ethnoreligious group “dogs” is of course not very nice (good that nobody here did it), but i relly never heard of thar particlar insult being specifically antisemitic unlike let’s say “k_kes” or “l_ce” or many others which do have specific context.

          • freagle
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            7 months ago

            I dug for sources and discovered I was wrong. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs, as you said.

            The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

            • boboblaw [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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              7 months ago

              Yeah, the antisemitic comparisons I’ve seen have typically been in the “vermin” category. Implying that Jews need to exterminated. I guess dogs wouldn’t fit the rhetoric well because people are generally sympathetic to dogs…

              I know the dog comparison is used pejoratively in a couple of other languages, but the connection there seems to be to dogs barking - basically calling someone a nuisance.

            • PolandIsAStateOfMind
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              7 months ago

              Yeah, and respect for you for admitting it. For comparison, nazis also called Poles “pigs” with high consistence, but no one ever thought “pig” is antipolish slur since it’s also one of those often used by everyone, including Poles for Germans.

              Now when i think of it Polish slurs for Germans are pretty weak considering the circumstances, we have “szkop” (castrated ram, but also from the specific nazi helmet shape looking like pot or from Czech word for “highlander”, literally “coming from up there”), “Helmut” (from the popular name), “Szwab” (from land of Swabia), even the worst case when we officially called the cockroach “Prusak” is also borrowed contextually from Czech language.

    • Valbrandur
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      7 months ago

      Jews aren’t being called “dogs”. The state of Israel is being called a rabid dog, and rightfully.

      Equating Israel with jewish people is one of the main tools that the PR teams of Israel and the IDF use to protect themselves from criticism of their genocidal expansion project, and you have fallen right into the trap.

      • freagle
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        7 months ago

        I’m not falling into a trap, I am asking a member of my community to not use a dogwhistle that attracts white supremacists

    • DamarcusArt
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      7 months ago

      Calling someone a “dog” isn’t a dogwhistle, I think you may be confused.

      Anti-semitic animal based dogwhistles are usually some form of vermin; rats, cockroaches etc. Things that are usually seen as in need of extermination.

      • freagle
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        7 months ago

        Hey thanks for this. You are correct that I was confused. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

        The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

    • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      They said the country of Isreal, not Jewish people. This only makes sense if you automatically equate the two. I understand the discomfort of proximity there, but you’re mischaracterizing what the other person said.

      • freagle
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        7 months ago

        I am not saying the person is anti-Semitic, I’m saying it’s a dog whistle and I am criticizing their use of it. There is no mischaracterization going on here.

          • freagle
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            7 months ago

            It turns out I was expressing a false belief.

            I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

            The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.

      • freagle
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        7 months ago

        Hey thanks for this. I had falsely believed that calling Jews “dogs” was a long anti-Semitic tradition. I did more research and discovered that actually historically they were called rats and lice and very few examples exist of anti-semitics tropes comparing Jews and dogs.

        The most salient example of that was an American trend to hang a sign on your shop that said “No Jews or dogs allowed”, but that doesn’t meet the standard of what I had believed.