Arabs are a Semitic people too

[KingFlorez]

You know, right-wingers love to throw the term anti-semitic around. However, what they fail to realize or just choose to ignore is that Arabs are a Semitic people too and constantly generalizing them as terrorists and profiling them is a form of Anti-Semitism.

[H2O Man]

1. Yep. n/t

[Boojatta]

2. Are you generalizing right-wingers as people who love to throw around

the term "anti-semitic"?

[KingFlorez]

4. That's not what I was saying

I was talking about the ones who constantly throw the word around.

[rockymountaindem]

3. That's a misinterpretation

"Anti-semitism" as a term was specifically created to mean hatred of Jews. From Wikipedia:

German political agitator Wilhelm Marr coined the related German word Antisemitismus in his book "The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism" in 1879. Marr used the phrase to mean Jew-hatred or Judenhass, and he used the new word antisemitism to make hatred of the Jews seem rational and sanctioned by scientific knowledge. Marr's book became very popular, and in the same year he founded the "League of Anti-Semites" ("Antisemiten-Liga"), the first German organization committed specifically to combatting the alleged threat to Germany posed by the Jews, and advocating their forced removal from the country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-semitism#Etymology_and_usage

[Cocoa]

5. I'm anti-semantic

It's true and interesting that Arabs are a Semitic people, but the definition of the word antisemitic is hatred of Jews.

[hlthe2b]

7. Strictly no...

In practice, yes.

[hlthe2b]

6. That only underscores how much some...

can promote only talking points as they have never learned the history or the basis of the wider issues...However, this is not simply a point of confusion for RWers....

I've been seeing DUers similarly throwing the term around at those who were questioning the proportionality of Israel's response in Lebanon. :shrug:

Conflating terms has become a useful tool to attack those who disagree with a given point of view. Just as "anti-Bush" became "anti-American" or "anti-patriotic," after 911, there is a tendency to lump criticism of Israeli governmental policies with being "anti-Jew" or "antisemitic." While I understand the emotion that lies behind this, it surely doesn't allow for reasonable, rational, political discourse.

[The Magistrate]

8. Unfortunately, Sir

The word is a relatively recent coinage meaning specifically hatred of Jews, which the creator of the word thought was a good thing, necesary to the health of a nation. He was looking for a euphemism that would be acceptable in polite society, where the word "Jew" was frowned upon as a blunt naming of a bad thing, in the same way as "Ethiope" or "Son of Ham" was often employed to euphemize more blunt terms for Black....