#antisemitic coding

[spottheantisemitism]

I can see where you're coming from now!

I suppose it's the whole "Jews and Muslims are basically lapsed christians who need to be saved" becomes "Lapsed Christians are basically Jews"

thank you for your essay

As we enter the Christian holiday season, just your friendly reminder that "non-Christian character discovers the magic of Christmas" is not a trope you should be writing for a holiday themed fic. Cut that shit out.

[unsolicited-opinions]

On the fires in the Los Angeles area:

American right-wing fundamentalist "Christians" Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell pissed off extraordinary numbers of Americans when they shared their views of what brought about the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001.

Said Falwell:

"Throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad." "...[T]he pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" "Well, I totally concur," responded Robertson.

They asserted that their own (supposedly omnibenevolent) God visited these Islamist terrorist attacks on the United States...because God didn't like the direction politics had taken (away from Christian Nationalism, towards religious freedom, and towards the bodily autonomy and legal equality of women). God, in their view, hated what/who they hated, and that's why God brought these attacks upon the United States.

People were outraged by this for many excellent reasons. Among them was how these men abused a terrible tragedy in order to attack the things they always attacked. Islamist terrorists attacked the US, they claimed, because the US did not sufficiently persecute American women, LGBTQ+ Americans, or the enemies of Christian Nationalism. It was a monstrous, disgusting thing to assert and they were rightly excoriated.

That excoriation was so intense that Falwell (a man who had no conscience whatsoever) actually had to apologize. The apology, however, wouldn't stick because Falwell pretended at being a victim of a smear campaign.

...two weeks after Falwell apologized to God and Geraldo, the Jerry Falwell Ministries sent out a fundraising letter written by Falwell's son, the Rev. Jonathan Falwell. The letter charged that "Satan has launched a hail of fiery darts at dad" and that "liberals, and especially gay activists, have launched a vicious smear campaign to discredit him." The younger Falwell suggested that supporters could assuage the elder Falwell's "personal hurt" by sending "a special Vote of Confidence gift for Jerry Falwell of at least $50 or even $100."

Falwell was a garbage human being. When he died, Christopher Hitchens found a polite way to say on national television how incredibly full of shit Falwell was:

“If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox.”

My thoughts keep returning to Falwell and Robertson when I read about Code Pink and JVP (Jewish Cosplayers for Peace) blaming the fires in the Los Angeles area on Israel.

Code Pink reportedly posted on Instagram:

“When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home.”

The post about it on their web site never really makes a connection, except to also accuse Israel of environmental crimes, so just as Falwell asserted that God was punishing the US for politics Falwell didn't like, Code Pink believes the universe is punishing the US for for politics Code Pink doesn't like.

JVP also blames Israel for the Los Angeles fires.

Firefighting is not funded by the federal government and if the Los Angeles area firefighters had twice the budget, this still would have been a massive, horrible, tragic disaster...which JVP, just like Falwell and Roberts, crassly and disgustingly tries to leverage for their own political purposes.

But JVP isn't done. They also blame Israel for failings in Hurricane Helene relief for Appalachia

And now Israel is also, says JVP, responsible for global climate change.

In Our Lifetime is also getting in on the action.

Fatima Mohammed, a leader of the hardline anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime, posts an image of the fires and says, “The flames of Gaza will not stop there.” “Dropping hundreds of thousands of bombs on Gaza, turning it into a blazing inferno, has consequences,” she says. “There are climate consequences that will find us all.”

God (Code Pink, JVP, and In Our Lifetime seem to say) hates who they hate: Israel.

This is a new antisemitic low, even for these Jew-hating groups.

New York Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres said it well:

"The nature of Antisemitism is to scapegoat the Jewish People and the Jewish State for everything wrong in the world-no matter how tenuous the causal connection. Toward that end, the antisemites of Code Pink are blaming the Jewish State for the wildfires in California.

The modus operandi of Antisemitism is slanderous scapegoating: when in doubt, blame the Jews."

This is naked, obvious antisemitism.

It seems, though, that only a tiny fraction of non-Jewish liberals (like Torres) see these as analogous to Falwell and Robertson and see the obvious, historically consistent Jew hatred staring them in the face.

But this is worse: When they are called out for their antisemitism? They, like Falwell, will claim to be slandered victims and decry that their critics are slandering them to discredit their righteous crusade against Israel, and they'll raise money on it.

And it'll work. It's been working beautifully for them for about fifteen months.

[mbat]

jews: this thing in fiction feels jew coded to me, this character/group has several parallels to jewish people and i see myself here :)

non-jews: nah, that aint right, its clearly coded to be this other thing/youre stretching so hard to find a connection that isnt there

jews: this thing in fiction falls into antisemitic tropes, this character/group has several common antisemitic tropes that have a long history of being used against my people, and i think we should really consider not using these tropes anymore/consider if theres a better way to go about making the same point without doing it in this specific way

non-jews: nah, that aint right, its clearly coded to be this other thing/youre stretching so hard to find a connection that isnt there

just something ive noticed

[tzipporahs-well]

Why I see the Dark Kingdom, Quirin, and Varian as Jewish:

So I promised a post or so again to expand on my Jewish Varian headcanons, and I wanted to explain my rationale for my headcanon.

Names:

Adira’s name is Hebrew: אַדִּירָה. It means “strong” or “mighty.” Notably no one else in the series has a Hebrew name except Ruth, which is a common name used more widely. Adira however is a much rarer name and i have not seen it used beyond Star Trek and Hebrew. Given this is a world in the renaissance to the late 1700s (personally, I interpret it in the late 1700s), it also means that the modern state of Israel does not exist yet. Which leads me to my next point.

The Dark Kingdom: Exile and Return

Within Tanakh, there is this major theme of exile (galut) and return as well as the “promised land.” The Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) expanded on this significantly. The Jewish people experienced two major exiles from the destruction of both of their Temples, something commemorated on Tisha B’av. These exiles were also preceded by environmental disasters because Hashem withdrew His protection. The land itself is described as a “land of milk and honey” and incredibly fruitful. However, in times of trouble, the land fails to yield to the Israelites and sees drought, famine, and fire.

The Dark Kingdom sees something similar. The land itself has become infested with near indestructible black rocks. Any attempt to destroy these black rocks has led to severe illness and death. Ultimately, all the kingdom’s inhabitants are forced away from their home to survive even as the black rocks spread from other people’s unwise actions (*cough* Fred *cough*). This leads to my next point.

The Parallel to Court Jews: Quirin

So Quirin’s role is very interesting. Reading between the lines, it seems that King Frederic swore Quirin to secrecy. Quirin has to communicate to the king in code when talking in front of other people about the black rocks. Even when it appears that he lied in front of his son. Quirin warns Varian to stop talking about what occurred (“That’s enough, Varian.”) which contrasts with his usual patient but exasperated behavior. This matter suggests a life or death matter and something that he could not even talk to his own family about.

There are parallels in Jewish history with this too: court Jews were a fixture in the Central Europe from the 16th century onwards (about the time period when Tangled the Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure takes place). They were in a precarious position often wearing multiple hats as banker and protector of the Jewish community. Court Jews got certain privileges in exchange for their services and wealth. Court Jews had personal relationships to the people in power usually a prince. this relationship proved very risky to many court Jews (see Joseph Suess Oppenheimer). One wrong move and the entire Jewish community could be forced to leave or less charitably, killed.

Now whether Rapunzel takes place in Central Europe is debatable. The location of the finale shot is somewhere in modern day France. However, certain parts of modern France (Alsace) were part of the Holy Roman Empire depending on the time period. A lot of names used are German/Central European or used frequently in the region: Rapunzel, Frederic, Quirin (which is only used as a Roman name otherwise according to behind the name), Mother Gothel, Edmund etc.

We see some evidence of wealth or at least past wealth in Varian’s household. First, the family lives in a castle rather than a shack or a cottage. Second, the amount of red clothing in Quirin’s household. Quirin wears a dark red shirt, Varian owns a red scarf, and his mother is seen wearing a lot of red. Red was one of the more expensive dyes with madder being the cheapest version. There is also use of furs in Varian’s coat and Quirin’s vest, which was not cheap either. However, Quirin and Varian also straddle the line with being commoners. We see Quirin farming pumpkins and they are clearly inferior to the king. In addition, Old Corona appears to be impoverished, which only worsened from the black rocks.

Jewish Values: Education and Promises

Education is a major Jewish value. We believe in questioning and wrestling with Hashem. Literacy was of major importance to us and Jewish communities often had high literacy rates often higher than the rest of the population. Part of the reason is because we’re people of the book. The other reason is because literacy and knowledge are mobile skills that can be taken with us when we got kicked out again. Varian owns many books, and we see him read and write on the regular. Books weren’t. Education expanded in Western and central Europe during the enlightenment but schooling as a system was still in its early stages. Books were expensive, yet it is likely that those who place a higher value on education would invest in such.

The idea of a promised land forms a major ideological core for Judaism because it provided hope. Hope allowed the long-suffering Jewish people as a whole to keep going even during Egyptian enslavement, massacres, and pogroms. There’s a reason Israel’s national anthem is named Hatikvah (“the hope”). Some of our biggest quarrels come from when covenants and promises are broken. Vows in the biblical era were taken extremely seriously.

Within the show, Varian emphasizes the promises that Rapunzel made but ultimately broke. It may not just “bad behavior” or massive hurt but a major breach in values. Rapunzel broke the agreement between subject and ruler: a ruler was to protect their subjects.

Appearances

Varian, Quirin, Hector, and Edmund all have dark hair. Both Quirin and Edmund have aquiline noses, which are common Mediterranean features. Corona is nowhere near the Mediterranean 🤨.

Varian’s mother also has red hair. Red hair is a polygenic trait that often occurs in a recessive fashion. That means two parents with other hair colors can carry red hair traits and pass them to their children. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Jews were often believed to red hair. Judas and Shylock from the Merchant of Venice were often depicted with red hair. This stereotype has some grains of truth as certain Tanakh figures like Esau and David have red hair or are described as ruddy and red. Because most Jews especially in the premodern age married within the tribe, a lot of traits that are rarer among the general population have been seen more frequently in Jewish populations including red hair and genetic conditions.

The Ham Sandwich Paradox: Obscure Jewish Food History

But wait! What about Varian’s ham sandwiches? Ham is made of pig and pigs aren’t kosher. Therefore, they can’t be Jewish.

Ah, this is where I talk about Jewish ham. Ham made of pork is indeed not kosher at all. However, Sephardic Jews and the Jews of Italy have made “Jewish ham” and “Jewish prosciutto” since about the Renaissance era. It came from curing goose or duck, which were kosher birds. I have tasted cured duck at a restaurant, and it takes remarkably like pork. One could interpret Varian talking about pork ham but Varian doesn’t say what kind of ham and he could just as easily be referring to “Jewish ham.”

Why Jewish representation matters

Tangled the Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure is a piece of media that I wrestle with a lot. The series did a lot of great things but it and the original movie did a piss poor job at handling Jews (in the movie and series) and Romani (definitively in the series). Here I will discuss the Jewish aspect since I am Jewish, not Romani.

Mother Gothel’s character resembles the very definition of old blood libels common in Europe that “Jews kidnap gentile children (especially blondes) and use them for ritualistic purposes.” Her design was changed from gothic romantic to something more “Jewish-coded” and thus more villainous. This is very much a problem especially as we consider the rise of antisemitism. It became worse in the series when we found out that Cass was Gothel’s daughter and that Cass was abandoned in favor of kidnapping Rapunzel. Cass then became a villain because of this. Media depictions like Gothel actively harm our community by reinforcing old dangerous stereotypes. Given these strong negative representations of Jews, I wanted to dilute the pool through making positive Jewish representation. I wanted to make space for myself and other Jews within this piece of media that has harmed our community.

These hints may simply be coincidental if taken in isolation. In stringing them together, we can construct a space where Jews can be represented positively and accurately in the tangled universe.

[pipiezexal]

us specific post incoming, but: in the wake of the inauguration I've seen a couple of versions floating around tumblr at this point, and they're all well-meaning so I don't want to put this on the posts themselves, but:

if you find yourself compelled to make or spread versions/interpretations of the "first they came for" poem, just take a second to double check whether or not Jews are included.

The original version is very culturally specific to Germany and to German guilt/reconciliation post-WWII, and while the sentiments (of standing up for others before atrocities occur) are important and universal, the original intention and message are still important, especially as antisemitism rises in spaces across the political spectrum.

If we do not include Jewish people in our advocacy, we will be repeating the exact same conditions the original poem criticizes. It would be ironic in a very serious and unfunny way to be silent on the suffering of Jews while quoting a poem reckoning with the suffering Jewish people endured because of bystanders' silence.

[spottheantisemitism]

Lizards and Goblins are not neccesarily antisemitic

Jewitches overview

Jewitches already provides examples of goblins and in Tolkien as being these villanious creatures with no Jewish coding and in Shakespeare Goblins are seen more like fairies and are shown positively so off to a good start for team “Goblins aren’t always antisemitic”

Goblins in Final Fantasy

Goblins are hit or miss in Final Fantasy at least according to this summary by a mutual

they have their own culture and focus on invention and hard work which aren’t negative (if arguably positive Jew coding) but they have a faction called the Illuminati (hello new world order conspiracy) which want to take over the world and worships a machine messiah named Alexander that when awakened tries to destroy the goblins that helped wake him to create a better world. Horrified the other goblins then helps the players fight this Alexander

“The Illuminati could be seen as Christians, with Quickthinx being Jesus. Shanoa could be seen as being akin to an angel, as could possibly Alexander Prime. You could be seen as having wrestled God/a God. Or I could be completely full of shit overthinking things.

I do think there's something to be said on how data gained from Alexander and later Omega, would be combined to send G'raha to the First from the Doomed Timeline, saving you and the future”

@arandomshotinthedark remarks in last paragraphs of the above link

while that’s a fascinating analysis, I find the focus on the development of Goblin Christianity out of Goblin Judaism a bit uncomfortable and supersessionist but fascinating plot point nonetheless

Goblins in Harry Potter

Harry Potter’s goblins are greedy bankers who care only for their in-group and their goods. No matter how charitably you slice it that Griphook is just reclaiming a sacred artifact and helps the heroes he still betrays them for the artifact and his hatred of wizards and muggles is treated as his problem and not trauma or paranoia. Rowling truly believes you should shrug off oppression as her essays on house elves show

The video game Hogwarts: Legacy that was written by a literal neo nazi goes further elaborates on this by having the plot center on quelling a goblin revolt. Regardless of your actions and the revelations that the goblins were merely pawns of an evil wizard, you cannot change the way people view goblins even in the more compassionate ending and it implies the only good goblins are two who don’t fight for their rights as those movements with inevitably be corrupted by bad actors. More subtly, goblins artifacts look like judaica, notably you can recover a ceremonial ram’s horn that’s oddly like a shofar. Why a race of beings that live underground and have never kept livestock use a ram’s horn and not the silver or gold they are famed for is never explained. The only explanation is the writer wanted to mock jews

I will disagree with a common criticism of the game being blood libel as there is no child kidnapping. The ‘child’ being kidnapped is the teenage player character and you very much foil the goblins attempt to kidnap you. The fact that the goblins are willing to kidnap a child to keep you from unraveling their plot is bad enough but it’s not blood libel

Goblincore

Goblincore is not antisemitic at all. It’s basically combining being a collector of shiny trinkets and not caring about appearance. Behind the fantasy name is a straight forward aesthetic that opens up “the hoodie and jeans, messy hair don’t care, I collect pop vinyls and old nintendos” aesthetic to people who aren’t cishet men.

I judge movements by their actions and not by what they claim to be hence gamergate is a hate movement, cottagecore is tradwifery for leftist women and goblincore is a -core for queer nerds who want to a less bigoted version of nerd culture or cottagecore without the misogyny. They’re linking goblins to jews they’re enbodying and empathizing with the goblins. If you movement is using the fantasy creature to promote empathy instead of xenophobia then more power to you

Lizards for David Icke

David Icke decided to use science fiction to stoke his antisemitism. Icke believes all major institutions are run by shapeshifting Lizards (aka reptilians) from the moon here to colonize humanity and enslave us. Icke also believed the all popes , all presidents and prime minister and every Zionist was actually a reptilian shapeshifter. Since the overlap between Zionist and jew is significant, Icke all but admitted he sees most jews as subhuman shapeshiftering lizards. Even the staunchest antizionists laugh this nonsense off (Alice Walker not included) and his theories are more popular with Nazis. Considering original Nazis stole from Blavatsky’s mysticism of the aryan descendants of the hypeborean race from antarctica that’s just tradition at this point

Lizards in Dracula

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Count Dracula is compared to lizard when he crawls up a wall that a human like the narrator Jonathan Harker cannot (until Jonathan manages to do just that rendering the point moot). This a non issue since it was written before the reptilian was a concept. It is however used to dehumanize the count as other not code him as specifically Jewish. It’s xenophobia, not antisemitism. So maybe the people in making lizard jokes and the people smugly accusing them of antisemitism should both cut that shit out

Lizards in she-ra

I was told Double Trouble was an antisemitic stereotype because they only care about money and being good at infiltration and lack morals (same could be said of Marc Spector and yet no one calls him an antisemitic stereotype). Oh and they’re a Lizard creature like the Reptilians in Icke’s screed.

this is so patently ludicrous to the point where I believe this was a psyop to push Jews out of the She-Ra fandom, because oh my G-D this could not be made in good faith.

TL;DR

Goblins often antisemitic but not necessarily, Lizards almost never antisemitic unless Reptilian is used

[kick-a-long]

Another fun antisemitic conspiracy theory most people don’t understand as an antisemitic conspiracy theory is the irrational fear of bar codes!

Barcodes were widely adopted as industry standard by a Jewish guy named Alen Haberman in 1974. (To speed up groceries scanning)

By the 80s fundamentalist Christians began to believe they were a way to track citizens and were being used by the government for mind control. Sound familiar? There were similar scares about credit cards but they were never as hated or part of conspiracy thinking as the ‘Jewish coded’ bar codes.

If you were wondering why trump went on a random tangent hating on bar codes.

[waxworkdaughter]

i just love having "wrong" opinions on the x files lol.

Yes I hate Small Potatoes, yes i hate Bad Blood and PMP, yes I can barely stand Triangle, yes i loath Dreamland and How The Ghosts Stole Christmas.

Yes I almost always skip Folie a Deux and Drive as miserable experiences, and yes Paper Hearts is barely tolerable. Yes my feelings on Memento Mori are incredibly mixed.

Yes I think Vince Gilligan does actually Hate Mulder and frequently doesn't care if Scully is in character/has a character or has any motivation for her actions in whatever situation or not. Yes I think CC's sense of humour is warped and his spite for the fans after a certain point makes his 'lighthearted' and his 'emotional' writing feel mean spirited and unpleasant on some level.

There are light, wry, funny TXF episodes that I love or work fine for me but it's basically never the ones VG or CC wrote.

And tbf VG and CC made did so much 'edgelord funnee poster' antisemitism and rape jokes in the 2nd half of the series that i ran out of patience with their 'light' episodes and their philosophizing later on. I can take those themes when the episodes themselves are serious/dark, though especially with Carter I start to get fatigued by his handling of certain things. But when it's the silly episodes I just have no patience, because especially those writers in particular have earned my distrust instead of my trust.

[spindrifters]

I personally am thrilled and think it’s super neat that I’m seeing more and more depictions of remus as a brown boy

BUT

it’s important not to lose sight of conversation within that about what that means for a character who is at various moments coded by his narrative as a) othered and distrusted by his society, b) “animal,” and c) hiding his true nature most of the time

I’m not saying don’t do it! I’m saying KEEP doing it! but with awareness of dehumanizing tropes and an aim to deconstruct them

[theotherpacman]

elphaba is jewish i don't care if judaism doesn't exist in oz she's jewish

[lizallanosborn]

checked out of current spider man rn so I've been making predictions for asm 54 since the preview came out and it's like. It's great how we've ignored decades of characterisation for shitty movie synergy, bad retcons and nonsensical out of character writing for everyone involved. Kinda appatheic to it at this point.

[prudencepaccard]

I was legitimately so fucking cute

kept being compared to Eugene Levy as if that's a bad thing. The antisemitism was hugely disturbing though

[mbat]

[rahabs]

Watching the presidents of Penn State and Harvard hang themselves publicly has been eye-opening.

[theflirtmeister]

sorry for the constant jaws posting but when quint first holds hooper’s hands, matt has a look of awe in his eyes like he’s experiencing a religious encounter

[avephelis]

genuinely cannot comprehend the mental math required to see a "jews for palestine" sticker and decide to stick a "remember antisemitism doesn't help palestinians" sticker over it. do you know what irony is. anyway go donate to fundsforgaza.