Hate, hate, hate

The funny thing is that I argue all the time that eliminationist anti-Semitism has become extremely rare in this country, not least because the First Amendment makes it so difficult to suppress religions. I'm not a Zionist at all; in fact I also publish stuff that's extremely critical of the so-called Holocaust industry.I write about anti-Semitism as much as I do for two reasons: 1) Because it does exist elsewhere, and it's salutary to remember how close to the mainstream it once was here (and could be again--something that I blame Israel for as much as I do Israel's enemies); and 2) Because I want people to understand how it is that the US is such fertile ground for the Islamophobia that DOES exist--and whose promoters are no less on the wrong side of history than Henry Ford and David Duke. When I write about paleo-conservatives and people like Ann Coulter I'm not trying to say that the "the boxcars are coming," as one of the Salon commenters put it--at least not for me. For Hispanics and Islamic people, the story is a little different. For young black men, God knows, it's very different. They don't ship 'em off in box cars, but they do have big prison camps that are run for profit.But you know what? When you publish stuff about anti-Semitism, you have it brought very forcefully to your attention now and then that it does still exist. Like this e-mail I just got. Pretty chilling: "Jew: You're a real scumbag and the curse is on you f--kstick..  within a year you will be in a car crash and they will have to cut off your left leg and right arm...  that way your poison can flow quicker out of your infested body... A--hole."Nice.