Borderline antisemitism [follow-up] (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

Where does Limbaugh make clear that he himself is not one of the
prejudiced people? I may be unable to understand Limbaugh fully, for
the usual reasons, but it seems to me that he is clearly saying the
following:


For some people, _banker_ = "Jew"

Obama is assaulting "bankers."

Therefore, Obama is assaulting Jews.

As a consequence, Jews may now be wishing that they had not voted for Obama.


-Wilson


On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 11:32 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Borderline antisemitism [follow-up] (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
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>
> The ADL press release didn't include the full Limbaugh quote, which is
> as follows:
>
> "Look, folks, there are a lot of people who when you say "banker,"
> people think "Jewish."  People who have prejudice is the best way to put
> it. They have a little prejudice about them. So for some people,
> "banker" is code word for "Jewish," and guess who Obama's assaulting?
> He's assaulting bankers.  He's assaulting money people, and a lot of
> those people on Wall Street are Jewish.  So I wonder if there's starting
> to be some buyer's remorse there."
>
> Limbaugh is making it clear that the association between Jews and
> bankers is a sign of prejudice, and he is talking about prejudiced
> people.
>
> While the rest of the quote may be dumb, for the ADL to extract it from
> context was a mistake.
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of Victor Steinbok
>> Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 9:04 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Borderline antisemitism [follow-up]
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> ---------------
>> --------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Borderline antisemitism [follow-up]
>>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --------
>>
>> Politico posted a story reflecting an underlying ADL report slamming
>> Rush Limbaugh for "borderline antisemitism", but the link provided
>> appears to lead to a different page, so the official ADL statement
> will
>> likely appear later. Still, this is worth bringing into the discussion
>> of the Harry Reid "Negro dialect" comment (not racism) and TZ
>> (ignorance).
>>
>> Here's the original Rush Limbaugh quote that was highlighted.
>>
>> http://bit.ly/8aPKQV
>> > To some people, banker is a code word for Jewish; and guess who
> Obama
>> > is assaulting? He's assaulting bankers. He's assaulting money
> people.
>> > And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if
>> > there's - if there's starting to be some buyer's remorse there.
>>
>> Abe Foxman's response:
>> > Limbaugh's references to Jews and money in a discussion of
>> > Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate. While the
>> > age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid
>> history,
>> > it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is
>> widely
>> > accepted by many Americans. His notion that Jews vote based on their
>> > religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into
> the
>> > hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
>>
>> Personally, I don't think there is anything borderline about this--the
>> statement is not based on ignorance or some kind of verbal confusion.
>> The intent is quite clear even if the language does not contain any
>> specifically offensive words or phrases. In contrast, some patently
>> offensive language could be inadvertently used in a benign
>> context--largely out of ignorance. Then there are blends--Harry Reid
>> used somewhat archaic phrasing that caused an interesting
> overreaction,
>> while TZ risked offense for the sake of expressing his ignorance,
>> contempt and sarcasm all at once.
>>
>> There is no deeper point here--just an observation that there has to
> be
>> one.
>>
>> VS-)
>>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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