#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. 

[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

[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)

[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

[leophnyx]

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.

[ms-hells-bells]

i bet both sides of the political aisle will totally be normal about the megachurch shooting and not warp the facts to fit their agenda and use it as fodder against others while ignoring the actual victims

[thingstrumperssay]

Okay, what is with conservatives and taking the shit Eric Cartman says seriously lately?!

Every time somebody points out that they were making fun of the conspiracy theory, they’d quote the Christian bible. They weren’t aware at all that they were making fun of people like them.

For context: In this episode a new girl joins the school, and she’s black. Cartman is a racist Nazi who spent the entire episode getting the two black kids together by willing a cupid version of himself into existence or something.

Cartman is written to be a little shit. He saw Passion Of Christ once and that motivated him to dress up as Hitler and quote his infamous speech.

He talked about the “dangers” of red heads at school once so the others made him think that he was a red head with pale skin and freckles and he turned around and got every red head in town to gather all of the non-red head and “day walker” (”red heads who can walk in the sun”) kids in town and was planning on throwing them in a pit of lava.

He got tricked by a teenager into buying his pubic hair so he fed that teenager his parents. (By the way, in the two banned episodes, titled Episode 200 and Episode 201, there was a detail about that kid’s dad relating to Cartman. Which also relates to the red head thing.)

This guy is taking a racist, red head hating Nazi seriously.

There are multiple people who are starting to take the racist, red-head hating Nazi seriously.

As for why there was only one black kid in school: The black boy’s name was “Token Black” (like the “token black character”) up until the latest season where they reveal that actually his name is Tolkien.

[scarletfasinera]

People will just wholeheartedly and in total seriousness be like "Yeah, the political ideology first built upon to an extensive level by a Jewish man, which is largely adopted by Jewish people the world over, and which was responsible for defeating Nazi Germany in WWII, is actually antisemitic 😌" like what the hell are you TALKING about, do you......KNOW what words mean????

[tomorrowusa]

Robert Reich has excellent liberal credentials going back decades. He even worked for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (b. 1925 - d. 1968) in the 1960s.

Dr. Reich urges us not to be misled by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (b. 1954) who is using his family name to mislead voters. RFK Jr. is no chip off the old block.

Some people think that RFK Jr is like RFK Sr or like JFK. Apart from the DNA, RFK Jr is no more like his father or uncle than Donald Trump is like Abraham Lincoln.

Let me paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen’s remark to Dan Quayle during the vice-presidential debate in 1988: I knew Robert F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is no Robert F. Kennedy. I worked in Robert F. Kennedy’s Senate office in 1967. It was not a glamorous job. I ran the signature machine, making sure that letters to constituents were lined up properly so that the pen at the end of a long automated arm would write out the senator’s name appropriately. But I did have a chance to get to see Bobby Kennedy close up. I watched him stand up for economic and social justice. I witnessed him bringing together people of every race and ethnicity — to demand equal rights and an end to the Vietnam War.

Robert Kennedy was a noble and courageous individual. On the evening that Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated he spoke extemporaneously to a crowd of black supporters in Indiana.

His son Robert Kennedy Jr has become an anti-vaxxing conspiracy nut and a bigot.

As someone on the autism spectrum I have long been familiar with his totally unsupported contention about vaccines causing autism. But in recent years he has expanded his conspiracy theories into MAGA territory.

Robert F. Kennedy would never have suggested or even thought that a deadly virus was targeted at certain races. He wouldn’t have repeated the trope, dating at least to the Middle Ages, that Jews unleashed a plague on non-Jews. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stands for the opposite of what his father did. In addition to his gonzo bioweapons ethnic conspiracy theory, RFK Jr. has promoted the baseless claim linking vaccines to autism. He’s been a leading proponent of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, suggesting the vaccine has killed more people than it has saved. He doesn’t support a ban on assault weapons and blames the rise of mass shootings in America on pharmaceutical drugs. [ ... ] Were it not for his illustrious name, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be just another crackpot in the growing number of bottom-feeding right-wing fringe politicians seeking high office. But the Robert F. Kennedy brand is political gold.

RFK Jr's relatives have condemned his recent foray into anti-Semitism.

Kennedy family joins White House in condemning RFK Jr’s ‘antisemitic’ Covid conspiracy claim

RFK Jr's vanity presidential campaign, such as it is, has been rather bizarre.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. press dinner explodes in war of words and farting

Nobody should think that RFK Jr signals some sort of return to Camelot. Nostalgia as politics is a bad idea. It's even worse when a bad actor is exploiting that nostalgia for personal gain.

[schraubd]

Things Jews Are Blamed For Volume LXVI: The Wagner Coup

Seemingly as soon as it began, the "Wagner Coup" in Russia has come to an end. Shortly after taking control of the city of Rostov-on-Don and turning towards Moscow, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin announced he was backing down in a deal brokered by Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. (Prigozhin's safe transfer to Belarus has reportedly been "guaranteed" by Putin. Good luck with that).

But as brief as it was, things move quickly in the fast-paced ecosystem of the antisemitic conspiracy theory world (maybe why we had a two-fer today!). So in the short window when Wagner was on the march, we got some oh-so-typical content from sources close to the Kremlin:

The head of Russia's state-run television network RT said Saturday there was "no doubt" that the ongoing uprising by the Wagner mercenary group against the Kremlin was orchestrated by the secret services of the US, Britain and "perhaps one Mideastern country," a clear reference to Israel. 

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan is notorious for trafficking in baseless conspiracies and spreading false information at the behest of the Kremlin.

The "irony" is that Israel, of course, has been among the more tepid supporters of Ukraine compared to most of the western world, and thus seems quite unlikely to wade into the fray by supporting regime change in Russia. But plausibility was never the antisemite's strong suit. 

via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/c9umW3L

[radio-charlie]

These terrible people are correct to destroy some faux leftist fed on her own post and quite a bit of what they said has something to it. the eagerness of online progressives to avoid anything concerning “conspiracy theories”’as labelled by… the feds is a big part of why a lot of ppl who are emerging from their political apathy go with the right. to a person who has never interacted much with us we seem absolutely retarded and out of touch with reality in comparison.