tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post4668871065325743133..comments2024-03-18T22:21:33.261-07:00Comments on The Debate Link: The Cultural Currency of the Blood LibelDavid Schraubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-34881520041589932032011-01-18T02:01:18.431-08:002011-01-18T02:01:18.431-08:00chingona,
I think such a search would miss the in...chingona,<br /><br />I think such a search would miss the instances of people saying "X is <i>like</i> the blood libel against Jews," which is something that has been said with regard to slanders of many minority groups (black men, gays, illegal immigrants) who are have actually been victims of mob violence. Palin's phrasing was uncommon in that she failed to say what was happening with her was <i>like</i> the blood libel against Jews, which is why so many people have thought that Palin is just flat-out ignorant of the origin of the phrase and thinks "blood libel" merely means "extra bad kind of defamation."PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-55895020848563478552011-01-16T01:22:22.718-08:002011-01-16T01:22:22.718-08:00As for David Irving, I suspect he was being delibe...<i>As for David Irving, I suspect he was being deliberately provocative.</i><br /><br /><br />That is like the best understatement ever. No criticism, I mean it was very funny.joenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-15709504499771868012011-01-15T15:21:47.911-08:002011-01-15T15:21:47.911-08:00This guy did searches for blood libel and then sea...<a href="http://kylopod.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">This guy</a> did searches for blood libel and then searched excluding Jews/Jewish/Israel, and came up with these results:<br /><br /><i>I checked Google News, with its mammoth historical archive of news articles. The phrase "blood libel" gets 1,280 hits for articles between 1950 and 2009. But when I search for articles in this range that don't contain the words "Jew," "Jewish," or "Israel," the hits shrink to 76. In other words, as I suspected, it's uncommon for the phrase "blood libel" to be used outside a Jewish (or Israeli) context.</i><br /><br />As for David Irving, I suspect he was being deliberately provocative. I'd guess Sarah Palin was simply ignorant, though perhaps it's the sort of ignorance that has little excuse.chingonanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-4186431141686843602011-01-15T03:07:24.497-08:002011-01-15T03:07:24.497-08:00"Pound of flesh" has a literary backgrou..."Pound of flesh" has a literary background that makes its use, detached from anything to do with Jews or any other minority group, a fairly reasonable one. When I say that the customs official demands his "pound of flesh" in exchange for letting me through, I'm both exaggerating and making a Shakespearean reference rather than a specifically historical one. In contrast, I'm not aware of a non-historical basis for "blood libel." <br /><br />Indeed, if you search Google News for the phrase and have it go back as far as possible (like to the 1700s), there is practically no use of it except with regard to Jews until the late 1990s. (David Irving said in 1991, "The biggest lie of the lot, the blood libel on the German people, is the lie that the Germans had factories of death in which they liquidated millions of their opponents." But I don't think we can expect a Holocaust denier to be sensitive about using the phrase.) The biggest use of it for one specific Jew was Ariel Sharon's claim in the mid-1980s that Time magazine had made a "blood libel" against him -- and at least he was actually suing Time for libel.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-18210160345497026822011-01-13T14:48:19.408-08:002011-01-13T14:48:19.408-08:00Just in the last year or two, I've seen the te...Just in the last year or two, I've seen the term blood libel used in non-Jewish contexts several times, and it jumped out at me each time. Phrases like "pound of flesh" and "poison the well" have been in general, metaphorical use for a while now, but blood libel, until very recently, seemed reserved for use in Jewish/Israeli contexts. <br /><br />I feel like it's important for people to know about the concept of blood libel and how it's been used against Jews, but I'm not sure that the term migrating into general usage (which it seems to be on the cusp of doing) would be entirely a bad thing. Has it harmed us or made much difference that well-poisoning is used without any knowledge of the old slander? Honest question, not snark. I have mixed feelings about this.chingonanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-47132388967443703612011-01-12T20:21:19.083-08:002011-01-12T20:21:19.083-08:00I have heard the term used in contexts other than ...I have heard the term used in contexts other than events that have affected Jews. I am thus not sure an apology is really necessary. Be that as it may, the ignorance shown by large chunks of the public is astounding, as is the interest in some in playing politics over the matter.N. Friedmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-19243905279691557772011-01-12T18:27:26.256-08:002011-01-12T18:27:26.256-08:00I just had a conversation about this with a knowle...I just had a conversation about this with a knowledgeable non-Jewish friend, and she had never heard the term. (When I explained what it referred to, she certainly knew that - but not the term).Rebeccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-91478393455846479202011-01-12T16:54:27.703-08:002011-01-12T16:54:27.703-08:00Empiricism fail.
There is an even larger confound...Empiricism fail.<br /><br />There is an even larger confounding factor than "fucking with the questioner" when you design a true/false "poll" like that. The mere question implants the idea that it could be true and some people who have no idea will just guess. For example, I bet I could at least crack the double digits with something like "True or false: Harry Truman suffered from polio." Hell, make it AIDS just to remove the FDR confusion and add some medical impossibility.<br /><br />The relevant question is whether anyone has heard the blood libel before.joenoreply@blogger.com