Anti-Semite and Jew

With a new preface by Michael Walzer Jean-Paul Sartre's book is a brilliant portrait of both anti-Semite and Jew, written by a non-Jew and from a non-Jewish point of view. Nothing of the anti-Semite either in his subtle form as a snob, or in his crude form as a gangster, escapes Sartre's sharp eye, and the whole problem of the Jew's relationship to the Gentile is examined in a concrete and living way, rather than in terms of sociological abstractions.

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scoofyApr 2026

If you read Anti-Semite and Jew, one of Sartre’s main points about the rise of anti-semitism is the intentional adoption of a “nothing matters, lol” attitude of its adopters.

The entire point is to invite/allow otherwise “good” people to be able to think it’s not entirely serious, and that caring is pearl-clutching and is lame.

That way they can vote for their tax cuts, wear their “team” colors, and keep voting for “their” party.

It happens with successful sports teams all the time. Tiger Woods just got in his fourth (likely under the influence) car wreck, and sports media is already making excuses or talking about how hard he must have it. It’s the same process.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semite_and_Jew

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jacobolusDec 2021

Your claim is that those who are “pushing the belief” that «baseless, sweeping antisemitic conspiracy theories are bad» never adequately defend that position?

You haven’t looked very hard then... Buckets of ink have been spent debunking specific ones, tracing their spread, analyzing their rhetorical structure and political uses, etc. etc.

You might start with Sartre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semite_and_Jew https://archive.org/details/antisemitejew00sart/page/n5/mode...

> Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

Or inre this particular variant, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_th...

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failwhalesharkJun 2021

I hate the 1. "let's stick our heads in the sand and not talk about something important because of what could happen" and the 2. "I'm going to flag this, dv, and silence you because I'm in a different group who's going to punish you collectively for you being you."

Is there unintentional antisemitism in the sense of conflating all Jews with the subset of Israel/Likud/Israeli military/extreme settlers vs. the intentional antisemitism of "all Jews are X"?

How should we distinguish, treat, and respond to this to make such instances teachable moments and interrupt the lack of nuance and/or the othering conspiracy theories/hate?

(I think hate is taught or memetically-acquired in the absence of sane reasonableness and the Golden Rule; and ignorance is the lack of experience, knowledge, or wisdom. The Nature of Prejudice by Allport and Anti-Semite and Jew by Sarte are good reads.)

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anigbrowlSep 2017

But this isn't a new problem, is it? We have a plethora of books, essays, documentaries, and museums examining that very subject. For that matter, many modern nazis are not shy about articulating their reasons - desire for collective identity, desire for power, difficulty with women.

If you'd like some reading material:

The Rise and Faull of the Third Reich by William L Shirer - the single best historical overview

Anti-Semite and Jew - by Jean-Paul Sartre - an examination of the fundamental dynamic of nazi ideology

The Nazi Conscience by Claudia Koonz - examines the nazi worldview in detail

Kill All Normies by Angela Nagel - examining the intersection of chan culture and far-right ideology

* What we have with Daily Stormer is a quite literal database of interactions of people who self identify as Nazis... I'd say deleting it is not the most productive thing we could do with such information.*

True, but it's not some petri dish that you can keep isolated in a lab, is it? You have to balance the benefit of what you might learn against the costs that their organizing activity imposes on other people.

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danharajDec 2016

It's easy to succumb to the nihilism in the face of fascism because it is an ideology that is unencumbered by truth or meaning. People like to think that if they could just have a conversation with a fascist and reason with them that they could convince them otherwise. When all the reason in the world does not stem the tide of fascism, one becomes disillusioned with the ideals of the enlightenment. Fascism is the antithesis of the enlightenment: fascism is the full embrace of the stupidity of violence and domination. It is rooted in that fundamental basis of social order which few examine critically. We all would like to believe that our civilization has gone far beyond the point where it is brute violence that decides social truth, and when fascism rises it lifts with it the veil that allows us to entertain such fantasies. When all of the things we were taught are the basis of society seem to be completely worthless in the face of fascism's brutality, how could we but not feel helpless and passive?

Here's an excerpt from Sartre's Anti-semite and Jew [1]. I think it's illuminating:

  The anti‐Semite has chosen hate because hate is a faith; at 
  the outset he has chosen to devaluate words and reasons.  
  How  entirely  at  ease  he  feels  as  a  result.   How  futile  and 
  frivolous discussions about the rights of the Jew appear to 
  him.   He  has  placed  himself  on  other  ground  from  the 
  beginning.   If out of courtesy he consents  for a moment to 
  defend his point of view, he lends himself but does not give 
  himself.   He  tries  simply  to  project  his  intuitive  certainty 
  onto the plane of discourse.  I mentioned awhile back some 
  remarks  by  anti‐Semites,  all  of  them  absurd:  "I  hate  Jews 
  because  they  make  servants  insubordinate,  because  a 
  Jewish  furrier  robbed  me,  etc."   Never  believe  that  anti‐
  Semites  are  completely  unaware  of  the  absurdity  of  their 
  replies.  They know  that  their remarks are  frivolous, open 
  to  challenge.   But  they  are  amusing  themselves,  for  it  is 
  their  adversary  who  is  obliged  to  use  words  responsibly, 
  since he believes in words.  The anti‐Semites have the right 
  to play.  They even like to play with discourse for, by giving 
  ridiculous  reasons,  they  discredit  the  seriousness  of  their 
  interlocutors.  They delight in acting in bad faith, since they 
  seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate 
  and  disconcert.   If  you  press  them  too  closely,  they  will 
  abruptly  fall  silent,  loftily  indicating  by  some  phrase  that 
  the time for argument is past.  It is not that they are afraid 
  of being convinced.  They fear only to appear ridiculous or 
  to prejudice by their embarrassment their hope of winning 
  over some third person to their side.

In order to resist fascism one has to have the conviction to fight for something that fascism seeks to destroy.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Semite-Jew-Exploration-Etiology-...

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MathMonkeyManMar 2026

Anyone know where I can buy/borrow an ebook version of "Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate"? Can't find it anywhere.

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