Man, “woke Jews exacerbate anti-semitism” is the perfect wedge issue to split woke and anti-woke.

I can see both sides on an emotional level and they will not see eye to eye on this.

On the one hand, it really is a prominent claim made by anti-semites and their defenders throughout history, it sounds functionally equivalent to blame and could easily be a dog-whistle or could fan the flames and excuse anti-semitism.

It’s also a weird asymmetry of charity, since woke people are responding to their environment as well. Why not say anti-semites drive wokeness?

I can totally get the woke anger against this statement.

But on the other hand, anti-woke people really don’t like being interpreted according to narratives they don’t intend or see themselves in.

After years and years of saying things with a fine intent, and having people tell you “you can’t say that” because other bad people said the same thing or something similar with an awful motive, you get callous and resentful to that line of argument.

Of course in this case I dont believe the claim is true. I don’t think anti-semitism is meaningfully driven by woke Jews. And I certainly wouldn’t hold a cultural/ethnic/religious group of people responsible for toning down their free speech to avoid backlash.

But issues like this have understandable emotions to me on both sides and I just really wish people could see that and deescalate. Argue in a way that the other side can hear.

Ugh. Oh well, carry on.