Until recently it's been at a lower level

You know, the tired old tropes about being money-grabbing and so on. The driver in the last couple of years has been the actions of Israel in Gaza. People see awful things being done to innocent people and think all Jewish people are responsible, rather than just the State of Israel.

In the same way as the Muslim bloke you sat next to on the Tube this morning is nothing whatsoever to do with ISIS - in fact would be just as much of a target for them as you would - so the bloke you see walking down the street in a kippa is nothing whatever to do with what Israel has done in Gaza. Nor am I anything to do with the Ku Klux Klan, the Westboro Baptist Church, Anders Breivik, Timothy McVeigh or any of the other white people of Christian heritage who do terrible things.

I remember the "Trigger trigger trigger, shoot that" chants too. At the time Society's Escape Goats were very much "the blacks". In my lifetime it's been the Jews, the blacks, the Irish, the Asians (usually referred to as "Pakis" though in fact most were from other parts of the subcontinent) and, now, Muslims. I'm sorry to say that in ten years or so, though we'll probably have calmed down about Muslims, there'll be some other group being blamed for all of society's woes.

It's quite depressing, actually, but I don't know what the answer to it really is, other than to keep pointing out both the absurdity of such views and the horrendous logical conclusion of them (cf the Shoah).

Posted By: Old Man on February 10th 2015 at 11:54:51

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