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Sam Brody

@samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social

5.9K followers 2.6K following 4.9K posts

religious studies professor in Kansas. modern Jewish thought. book: https://tinyurl.com/4tncyj76 new yorker by birth, father of two kansan children by the grace of god. אֱהֹב אֶת הַמְּלָאכָה, וּשְׂנָא אֶת הָרַבָּנוּת, וְאַל תִּתְוַדַּע לָרָשׁוּת

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · Nov 11

Hi, new followers! I wrote a book back in 2018 about Jewish anarcho-theocracy. You might like it if you are interested in the idea of God’s direct rule without a human intermediary, as devised in Weimar Germany and with application to colonial Palestine. Also if you only know Buber from “I and Thou”

The cover of “Martin Buber’s Theopolitics” by Samuel Hayim Brody. An image of a field of crosses, at the base of which are a mass of raised fists.

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 55m

yeah but it’s not even a clueless article writer, it’s a fake page that’s part of a fake meme series made by a nazi

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 1h

I agree, what matters is the text itself. In this case though we have some insight into the creation process (see here as an incredibly corny but innocent piece about jews and pizza is used as the basis for this “Zionist” colonization meme)

99% Johnny Graz on X: "I made these as jokes, but the Zionist cuisine colonizers are rendering them obsolete. https://t.co/wHOOw5rbQ5" / X

I made these as jokes, but the Zionist cuisine colonizers are rendering them obsolete. https://t.co/wHOOw5rbQ5

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 1h

yeah the page calling Za’atar an “Israeli spice” was gross and ripe for parody, but the other one (the pizza one, corny and innocent) provides context that this is just Nazi shit

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 1h

do you have a link to that, would come in useful right about now

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

correct. there are some who will say it is already antisemitic because of the baked-in tropes. like if a Nazi made an anti-Hillary meme in 2016 that was like “god what a nag,” and leftists shared it. not a perfect analogy because the misogyny tropes are more well-known than the antisemitism ones

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

“In country” is short for “Indian country,” isn’t it?

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

another one was probably to draw in leftists who would see it as solely a reference to the erasure of Palestinian culture and falafel-hummus controversies and think it was funny on that basis. that is where I am more generous than some of my colleagues on here

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

the point is that the page is fake. it is a joke, although many people thought it was a real thing and that myjewishlearning was really claiming that gumbo was Israeli, which they did not do. but making people think they did was one of the goals of the creator

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

right, but that’s why it’s clever and why the “crossover” works. it’s not about everyone who comes at it from the left and laughing being a terrible person, but about why the creator thought this would serve their purposes

Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

also, it isn’t “mostly” not the case since more than half of Israelis are from the Middle East or North Africa originally. which doesn’t make Zionism “not colonialism” but does complicate the food question if it isn’t represented as “Israeli” in origin but is just about who’s cooking it

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

yes, erasure of Palestinian culture in the food arena is a real and serious thing. the most generous possible interpretation of this meme, if we DIDN’T know its origins, is that it is about that, and that is the appeal to people on this site who see it as punching down. but we do know its origins

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

the meme was literally created by a literal nazi, no one is doing fancy interpretation here

Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 2h

I would say that it’s the tendency to dismiss antisemitism as only ever about shielding Israeli policy that actually harms left wing positions. It is in fact similar to what someone else here posted, that the criticism of “white women” serves as a cover for misogyny on the left to express itself

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

this response indicates that you think you are arguing with people who are interested in defending the state and its actions. for the most part, you aren’t, but that is the reaction the original meme-maker was going for

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

^this is it.

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

no, it’s not about that. you were right before when you said it was about “culture” and even food specifically

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

and what is an instance in which you would say that is clearly true on a “cultural” level, as opposed to a political/economic level (e.g. land)

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

what aspect of their culture do you understand it to be making fun of

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

Yes

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

in that it basically shows that when it comes to antisemitism people don’t consider themselves under a real obligation to learn the material. they may know a fact or two about colonialism or appropriation that makes this funny to them and see the calling out as sour grapes about that

Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

I think this is right, but in the case of “I oppose the war in Gaza” the only fault is not knowing that the specific person is a Nazi. This is one tick over because it involves (I assume) not knowing that the claim about Israelis draws on an older antisemitic claim. Not knowing that is a problem

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

They also want to sow division by making people get defensive when they’re called out, which pushes them “right” on the issue

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 3h

The reason Nazis make memes like this is to get leftist crossover and inspire others to make their own copies. People fall for it

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 4h

goes all the way back to Reconstruction when the Klan attacked white Republicans as well as Black people

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Sam Brody @samuelhayimbrody.bsky.social · 4h

My online dating era was OKCupid. I hated it even then, I am so happy not to be 22 years old right now, I will totally understand in 5 years when everyone wants to go back to arranged marriages

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 13h

WELL THEN IT'S NOT MEANINGFUL IS IT, NICK www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...