About a year ago, when anti-Israel protests were picking up steam in a few, albeit prestigious US universities, some of my Jewish friends started to raise alarms of antisemitism. Their panicking attitudes were bold and quick. Parallels were drawn with Hitler's rise to power. According to these observers, we were on the verge of a downward spiral like the one Germany underwent in the 1930s. Any anecdotal petty crime was immediately blown up to support this hypothesis. When asked about evidence none could be provided. The exceptions were young hoodlums chanting "from the river to the sea" and some rare occurrences of vandalism targeting Jewish owners in surrounding areas where protests took place.

U.S. Department of State provides the following definition

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

As accurate as it is, along with other interpretations and examples on that page, it is a qualitative description. Yet, alarms went off for what was perceived to be a pandemic situation. Rational arguments against such views, based on the discrepancy between qualitative and quantitative evidence fell on deaf ears.

Why educated and highly paid adults, who spent most of their lives in the US, were so eager to imagine things into existence? Why did they extrapolate isolated cases into a systemic problem? I don't have a good answer. Perhaps it was the fear of the outcome turning off their rationality and allowing emotions to run unchecked into dark places. Maybe it was a deeply rooted generational trauma. A generous intake of Fox News, or all of the above.
 
Whatever it was, these fears, as expected, turned out to be misguided. People moved on with their lives and the whole ordeal was quickly forgotten.

My dear Jewish friends, please remember that systemic antisemitism that we all fear cannot just happen in a vacuum. The following conditions are necessary:
- A zero-sum dynamics of a severe and prolonged drop in standards of living with political class directing blame to a certain minority group.
- Wholesale change in attitudes towards the said group by the majority of the population.
- The rise of populist politicians eager to exploit these attitudes and as a result,
- Changes in legislation and executive practices to limit the rights of the minority.

If you think that such seismic changes are possible in the U.S. I suggest you start packing. Good luck finding a greener pasture though. But before you do, try to find evidence supporting the magnitude and the scale of what you're trying to escape, for solving a nonexistent problem is generally not a rational use of one's time.

#twotypesofpeople  #AmericanDynamism
October 2024