#or anti semitic conspiracies

[girlhorse]

been seeing. a lot of posts lately that r more than toeing the line between being anti-Israel gov & downright antisemitic 😷 but not sure what to do. like almost every one of these posts ive seen straight up has comments of support from very unsavory and disgusting white supremacists. like the amount of antisemitic memes ive seen shared on these posts and very alarming comments is making me feel a bit ill lol

[grimm-the-tiger]

I made this post a little while ago listing some facts about shipwrecks that probably only I find interesting, so now I’m back to talk about some of them. Specifically, the Olympic. The Olympic was the namesake of the Olympic-class liners, whose most notable member was the Titanic. Out of the three Olympic-class ships - Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic - only one of them was actually unsinkable, and that was the Olympic. 

Over the more than 20 years of its existence, the Olympic was never once in real danger. The Olympic was the danger. On its fifth voyage in September 1911, Olympic was running parallel to the HMS Hawke, a British warship designed specifically for ramming things. Olympic suddenly turned to starboard (right side of the ship if you were facing towards its front), catching Hawke’s commanding officer off-guard; he wasn’t able to avoid the collision and ended up ramming the other ship. Olympic was left with a substantial hole beneath the water line (although flooding was for the most part averted due to its bulkheads actually working properly, *cough* Titanic *cough*) and a slightly less substantial hole above it. Hawke, meanwhile, had its entire bow caved in. Olympic made it back to port just fine under her own power, while Hawke almost capsized. Somehow, no one was seriously hurt or killed. 

Three fun facts about this situation: Violet Jessop, a woman famous for surviving the sinkings of both of the Olympic’s sister ships, was onboard the Olympic when this happened. This incident also reinforced the idea that the Olympic-class was unsinkable. The famous postponement of the Titanic’s maiden voyage also occurred because of this incident; a propeller shaft was damaged in the collision, they needed a new one ASAP, and, well, the Titanic was right there... 

Four years later, WWI broke out. The Olympic was requisitioned as a troop ship, given 6-inch naval guns, and sent on its way. In 1918, while travelling to France with a literal boatload of American soldiers, Olympic spotted U-103, a German U-boat chilling on the surface of the ocean. Olympic opened fire on U-103, which immediately crash dived to keep from dying, then turned to ram the U-boat. Olympic hit U-103′s conning tower and tore open the hull with its propellers. U-103′s crew decided “fuck this” and abandoned ship; Olympic didn’t bother to stop to pick them up, so a nearby American warship did instead. It was later found that U-103 was preparing to torpedo Olympic when they’d been spotted, but they couldn’t flood the torpedo tubes in time. Olympic remains the only merchant vessel in WWI recorded to have sunk an enemy vessel (which would become a more common occurrence during WWII, to the extent that the Nazis apparently tried and hanged at least one captured British merchant captain for ramming one of their U-boats. The Nazis were ones to talk, considering they rehired the man who sank the Carpathia and was notorious for war crimes that included things like “drowning surrendered enemy crews by forcing them to strip and stand on the roof of his submarine, then diving the submarine” and “attacking designated hospital ships that made it very obvious they were hospital ships”). 

Following WWI, while Olympic was being refit for civilian service, a sizeable dent was discovered below the waterline. It was later concluded to have been caused by a faulty torpedo, most likely fired by U-53 while the Olympic was travelling through the English Channel. 

Olympic collided with another, smaller ship, Fort St. George, in New York Harbor on March 22, 1924. There’s not much information on how badly Olympic fucked Fort St. George up, just that Olympic apparently fucked around a little too much and found out, because the collision broke its sternpost (support post in the back of the ship; think of it like a central pillar in a structure), forcing the entire stern frame to be replaced. 

On November 18, 1929, Olympic was cruising not far from the Titanic’s wreck site when the whole thing began shaking for two minutes. This was later found to have been caused by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Newfoundland. 

The Olympic’s last hurrah (and casualty) was on May 15, 1934, when it collided with the lightship LV-117. Olympic had known the lightship was in the area, but didn’t know where exactly it was until they were right on top of it. Olympic’s captain immediately ordered a hard turn and the engines slowed, so Olympic wasn’t moving particularly fast when it did hit LV-117 (about 3 and a half miles per hour), but Olympic was fucking huge, and the people onboard barely noticed when they practically crushed the lightship under them. Only four of the eleven crew aboard LV-117 survived; four went down with the ship and three died in Olympic’s hospital (yes, these things had hospitals; I told you there were fucking huge). 

Olympic was fully scrapped in 1937, forever going down in history as both the only Olympic-class ship that was actually unsinkable and the one with the longest reign of terror. Good God, man. I understand sinking the U-boat, but you didn’t need to bring like four other ships down with you. 

[quotesfrommyreading]

“Anti-Semitism isn’t just bigotry toward the Jewish community,” Ward explains. “It is actually utilizing bigotry toward the Jewish community in order to deconstruct democratic practices, and it does so by framing democracy as a conspiracy rather than a tool of empowerment or a functional tool of governance.” In other words, the more people buy into anti-Semitism and its understanding of the world, the more they lose faith in democracy.

  —  Colleyville Crisis: We're All Hostages to Anti-Semitism

[racefortheironthrone]

Maybe this is too broad, but wondering if there's a better term than "conspiracy theorist" to describe some large figures in the ongoing national discourse? Not that "fluoride in the drinking crowd" were serious thinkers or total harmless, but am I alone is finding "conspiracy theory" too quaint and mild to describe how mainstream rather fringe these things are and also how totally evidence-free and something just plain dumb they can also be?

I don’t think conspiracy theories have ever been quaint and mild.

Think about the history of antisemitism from medieval blood libels to 19th century theories of Jewish financial cabals to the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” dreamed up by Tsarist agents-provocateur that took the theory global and spawned untold numbers of imitators, to Hitler’s invention of “Judeo-Bolshevism” that married traditional antisemitism to anti-Communism and nationalist populism. Conspiracy theories one and all, but fully capable of spawning pogroms and fascist dictatorships.

Likewise, we think of Anti-Masonic or Illuminati conspiracy theories as self-evidently ridiculous and harmless, but we forget that they were used by cultural conservatives in church and state to wage culture wars on the Enlightenment, liberalism, secularism, democracy, every revolution from America to France to 1848 and beyond, feminism and almost every social movement of the 18th and 19th century. People died or were surveilled or were sent to prison, political parties were formed or banned, and conservatism itself was founded in the name of “poisoning the minds of the lower orders” to inoculate them from the influence of secret societies.

As Dan Olsen has shown, even seemingly benign conspiracy theories like the JFK assassination cover-up or the Moon landing was faked or the earth is flat can hide much more malign motivations, just waiting for the opportunity to radicalize and proselytize:

[tomorrowusa]

If you don't want conspiracy nut RFK Jr. in charge of healthcare policy in the US, then defeat Donald Trump.

Donald Trump should not be rewarded for his disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic with another chance to ruin the lives of millions of Americans.

RFK Jr. can’t wait to make America sicker

The prospect of a second Trump presidency is a fearful one for many reasons, like mass deportations and additional abortion restrictions. Now a potential role for RFK Jr. is rising higher and higher on the list. On Saturday, the former presidential candidate announced on X that a Trump administration would “advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.” Kennedy went on to falsely claim that fluoridation causes bone fractures and neurodevelopmental disorders, among other conditions. Fluoride has been a fixture of American public health since 1945, when the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, first added it to drinking water. The Washington Post reports that around 200 million Americans now live on fluoridated water systems, and scientific consensus links the practice to massive improvements in dental health. Though there’s bipartisan support for water fluoridation on the Hill, it has always had its critics — and Kennedy’s rise and close ties to Trump suggest that certain fringe views may be gaining traction on the Right. Trump has promised to cut funding for public schools that mandate vaccinations, and a 2023 poll from Politico/Morning Consult showed that “a narrow majority” of Republicans cared more about the risks of vaccination than the benefits, according to KFF Health News. [ ... ] Trump has also said Kennedy would have some kind of public health role in a future administration, though he’s often muddled on the details. Most recently he’s pledged to put Kennedy in charge of “women’s health.” This weekend the campaign had little to say about Kennedy’s anti-fluoridation push, stating only that the ex-president is focused on Tuesday’s election. While it’s unclear how much authority Trump would actually give Kennedy, the former candidate’s apparent influence suggests there’s danger ahead if Trump returns to the White House.

So RFK Jr. wants to remove fluoride from drinking water and ban vaccines. Apparently Trump thinks this makes him perfect also to run women's health.

Vaccines have been around since the late 1700s. President John Adams (1735–1826) was vaccinated and lived to be 90. They are one of the reasons smallpox has finally been wiped out. Only stupid anti-vaxxers get measles, mumps, or rubella these days. Trump and RFK Jr. want to reverse all this medical progress.

And apart from RFK Jr's pseudoscience on health issues. he has an anti-Semitism problem which links him to Trump.

Close RFK Jr. friend whose account promoted “Jew World Order” conspiracy theory says she’s “working with” Trump’s transition team

RFK Jr's fringe pal Charlene Bollinger is apparently working with Trump's transition team. Defeat Trump and the transition team becomes moot. Problem solved!

Kamala Harris wants to expand healthcare. Donald Trump and his sidekick RFK Jr. want to take us back to the 1600s.

[schraubd]

Things People Blame the Jews For Volume LXX: Democracy Protests in Venezuela

To my knowledge, Venezuela has not yet featured in my "Things People Blame the Jews For" series. This, alas, is not for lack of antisemitism. But if this series was going to be comprehensive, I wouldn't be able to hold down a day job. Anyway, Venezuela recently had an election, and there are two competing slates of results. The independently-reviewed data suggests that incumbent Nicolas Maduro lost in a landslide. The "official" results, by contrast, have Maduro winning by a 52% to 43% margin. The discrepancy is in large part due to the "official" results conspicuously refusing to release the actual precinct-tallies, with a variety of dog-ate-my-homework style excuses. Unsurprisingly, Maduro's apparent attempt to steal the election is resulting in widespread protest and unrest. Equally unsurprising is where Maduro lays the blame for the protests:  At a press conference on Saturday, Maduro blamed what he termed the “extremist right” for the unrest that has swept the country. He accused these groups of being “supported by international Zionism.” He alleged that Jews were manipulating social networks, media outlets and even satellite technology in an attempt to “steal the presidential election” from his socialist government.... Classic. I do want to compliment Maduro on one thing, however. I've occasionally written on the aesthetics of election-rigging -- if you're just going to make up election results, how do you decide what your margin of victory should be? Too close and you emphasize your tenuous grip on power. Too wide and things just look ridiculous. To my eyes, 52 to 43 is a pretty good choice -- it is a comfortable margin of victory, while still looking to the uninformed eye like the sort of result one might expect to see in a genuinely contested race. My congratulations to the Maduro regime for showing their authoritarian peers how it is done! via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/smKdDZc

[spookyradluka]

[daenystheedreamer]

Some in universe conspiracy theories you think would exist?

targaryens are lizard people for sure and grand maester conspiracy (barbrey not trusting them like hello)

[will-pilled]

So saying you don't agree with Israel killing people and destroying hospitals is antisemitic but saluting hitler after ages of using nazi talking points and being basically confirmed as a 4chan user isn't anti semitic??? 😭 Dawg what does antisemitism even mean anymore, I thought it meant hating jews but apparently not.

[unpickled-olive]

i think my biggest issue with UFO conspiracy theorists is that they're living in a vivid world full of thrill and wonder. a dramatic political chess game playing out before them while they count down the days until the big secret finally spills out.

so my issue is that i'm bitterly jealous that they feel excited about something.

[teachanarchy]

The Replacement Theory Explained

[gwydionmisha]

Have something you want to tell your Senators? If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/

ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

[originalleftist]

It's a bit morbidly amusing how desperately some people want Israel to be behind the Iranian helicopter crash.

Sorry, I know you want to blame the Israel/the Jews and have it trigger a regional war, but this one's on God/the weather/Iran's piss poor flight plan.

[kratomqueen]

being anti-zionist is NOT anti-semitic. however, believing israel is uniquely evil (compared to other countries who do equally horrible things), and/or controls the world, IS anti-semitic

[siphonyx]

I think one of the best ways to combat the rise in (harmful) conspiracy theories and anti-semitism is to teach people how to recognize and combat fear-based propaganda. Not just "how to recognize when you're being misled or having propaganda thrown at you" but "how to deal with people predicting you or your family might be hurt in some way if you don't believe" and how to analyze and take apart these statements.

It seems significantly harder to be taken in by someone espousing these claims if you have the ability to put your fear to the side, analyze the claim, and figure out how plausible it is + identify who stands to gain from you believing a fear-based theory.