Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA14173 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 2 Mar 2002 03:06:02 GMT Message-ID: <003e01c1c196$9a1e0b80$75c0b3d1@teddace> From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Why Memeoids? Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 19:01:50 -0800 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_003B_01C1C153.8B082E20" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
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From: Scott Chase
> >Hi All
> >In browsing the back E-mails I came across this nasty little meme. It is
> >the contagious idea that only Jews are Semites, (I have had the
> >'anti-Semitic' tag thrown at me by all kinds of fundies for supporting the
> >rights of Palestinians to be unmolested in their own lands).
> >The word 'Semite' refers to all those races derived from Shem, (I quote
> >The Oxford) "including Hebrews.Arabs & Assyrians."
> >See Genesis 9 18-27 for the genesis of the problem and then the rest of
> >the 'Old Testament' for the history of the Levantine problem.
> >Yours
> >Jeremy
> >
> I don't have an OED handy to look up the origin of the word "anti-
> Semitism", but my MWCD10 says: "hostility toward or discrimination
> against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group". It gives the coinage
> date as 1882. I can look it up in the OED tomorrow for more details, but
> though Semite is a more general reference, it would tentatively seem that
> anti-Semitism specifically refers to hatred of Jews.
That's the problem right there. We know that "Semitic" includes people
other than Jews, yet we feel it's somehow logical that "anti-Semitic" apply only to Jewish victims of violence. Arabs, of course, couldn't possibly be victims because they're all thugs. Clear-cut example of a rogue meme exploiting our racism to propagate itself. By the patho-logic of the meme, pointing out Jewish persecution of Semites is anti-Semitic.
Ted
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