Roll up, roll up, because it’s time once again for The Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies! That’s right, folks, it’s everyone’s favorite unintentionally slapstick theatrical revue, featuring an all-star line-up of uproarious propagandists, side-splitting corporate media clowns, babbling British Labour MPs, the all-singing, all-dancing Berlin Police Department, and other zany anti-anti-Semites! Grab your popcorn and sit back and watch as they hunt down dastardly “Holocaust relativizers,” insidious critics of the State of Israel, and anyone who has ever used the word “globalism.” Hilarious high jinks are sure to ensue!
But, seriously, folks, this is no joke. We are in a bona fide State of Anti-Semitism Emergency! Throughout Western Europe, Israel, the UK, and coastal areas of the USA, the Anti-Semitism Alert Level has been bumped up to ORANGE! According to “anonymous Intelligence sources,” crackerjack Anti-Anti-Semitism commandos are en route to Torquay in the South of England, where rumor has it Roger Waters, John Cleese, Mel Brooks, and other notorious anti-Semites have gathered in a shabby seaside hotel and are staging some sort of hatred-inciting “Nazism Glorification Contest.”
Roger holds the lead, currently. Following his recent performances in Berlin, the police have opened an official criminal investigation into his … well, his clothing.
“We are investigating suspected incitement to hatred,” a Berlin police spokesperson told the AFP. I’m not joking. The official ground for this investigation is the “dictator” costume Roger Waters has been wearing in his shows for over 40 years. You’ll recall this costume from the album The Wall …
… and the 1982 film of the same name.
You probably still think I’m joking. I’m not. The actual Berlin police department has launched an official investigation. “An investigation has been opened over the costume displayed at the concerts on 17 and 18 May,” Berlin police spokesperson Martin Halweg told the Guardian. “The context of the clothing worn is capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace,” according to Polizeisprecher Halweg (who delivered this line with the stereotypical over-the-top “evil German” accent).
The Nazism Glorification Contest is just getting underway, however, so a Roger Waters victory is by no means assured. John Cleese has reportedly broken out the classic “Basil Fawlty goose-step” and is giving old Rog a run for his money!
And, despite the fact that he’s currently running third, only a fool would count out Mel Brooks when it comes to glorifying the Nazis and violating the dignity of the victims of the Holocaust!
But the most entertaining part of the Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies has been the histrionics of the shameless propagandists, politicians, media clowns, and random perpetually outraged persons who have been making total jackasses of themselves in their efforts to demonize Roger Waters. Here are a few examples, presented without comment.
Deborah E. Lipstadt, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.
Christian Wakeford, Labour MP.
StopAntisemitism, “an American non-profit watchdog organization” …
… and the “community note” Twitter readers appended.
Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO International Legal Forum.
Sergiy Kyslytsya, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations.
And then there’s the corporate media propaganda.
And, finally, here’s a statement from Roger Waters.
OK, the part of all this that isn’t so uproariously funny, and that has forced me to spend a few hours on a Sunday banging out this column, when I should have been working on my science-denying conspiracy-theorist novel, or helping my wife install a set of blinds, is the part I have been going on and on about for the better part of the last seven years.
Despite all appearances to the contrary, the people demonizing Roger Waters are not idiots. They are liars. They know precisely what they are doing. They know Roger Waters is not an anti-Semite. They are aware of The Wall and his other work. They are not ignorant. They are propagandists. Smear artists. They are components of a decentralized, supranational network of global corporations, governments, banks, Intelligence agencies, military contractors, media, non-governmental governing entities, and so on, that I have been calling “GloboCap.” And the longer we continue to pretend they’re just idiots, the tighter their grip around our throats is going to get.
And, no, “GloboCap” is not code for “the Jews.” Global capitalism is global capitalism. If you seriously believe the multitudinous elements of global capitalism, and the banking industry, and the media, and the US military, and the Intelligence agencies of most Western countries, are controlled by “the Jews,” you are an actual anti-Semite, not to mention an actual moron.
And that’s the other part of this that isn’t so funny.
Yes, there are actual anti-Semites out there, and by throwing around false accusations of anti-Semitism, the global-capitalist ruling classes and their propagandists have rendered the term virtually meaningless, and, even worse than meaningless, they have made it a joke. Given the horrors of the Holocaust and the history of Nazi Germany, this was quite an accomplishment. Actual anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, and other slimy, bottom-feeding bigots could not be happier about this development. Watching as their opponents expose themselves as total hypocrites who will smear anyone as an “anti-Semite” at the drop of a hat and invoke “the dignity of the victims of the Holocaust” as a pretext to harass, and demonize, and censor, not just political activists and commentators, but musicians, authors, and other artists, and just regular non-public people on the Internet, is like Hitler’s birthday, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, and Nazi-Christmas all rolled into one.
Or, I don’t know, maybe that was the whole point. After all, the neo-Nazis are the good guys, right? I mean, as long as they are fighting the Russians for us, and not supporting those nasty Palestinians, or criticizing the State of Israel, or The Federal Republic of Germany, or global capitalism, or denying Covid, or “violating the dignity of its victims in a manner that disrupts public peace,” or … never mind. I think I’m getting confused and “relativizing the Holocaust” again, or “delegitimizing the state in a way that endangers security,” or something that might get the Germans after me.
Anyway, back to the Anti-Anti-Semitism Follies! I don’t know about you, but my money’s on Mel!
CJ Hopkins